Natural Plaster Workshop

On Saturday, July 31st, 2010 the Kinark Outdoor Centre will be holding a Natural Plaster Workshop led by Sebastian Renel at the Sustainable Living Centre. Natural plaster walls have been used by humans for generations and have been improved even more in the 21st century. This method involves using sand, clay, water and cattail fluff in a mixture that can be smeared onto a surface to create a stunning earthen wall. We will also add plaster colouring and mica to make a beautiful glittering effect. The day will start at 10 am with an introduction and background of natural plaster technique. There will be lunch provided by KOC and opportunity to explore the Sustainable Living Centre. The workshop fee is $60 (no HST) and the funds will go toward the workshop and future ones being held at the Sustainable Living Centre. Get plastered!

What: Natural Plaster Wall Workshop
Where: Sustainable Living Centre, Kinark Outdoor Centre, Minden, ON
When: Saturday, July 31st, 2010 from 10 am to 5pm
How: Email Jesse.Christensen@kinark.on.ca to sign up
Why: To forever be able to create your own personalized earthen wall

Also on July 31st is the pick up day of our Rain barrel fundraiser which is available at www.rainbarrel.ca/minden. The barrels come with everything needed and are made of reused or recycled materials (they are recyclable as well). The cost is $50 and all barrels must be pre ordered online at www.rainbarrel.ca/minden. Listen in to Moose FM (95.3) at 10 am and Canoe FM (100.9) at 10:30 am on Tuesday, July13th, 2010 to hear your friendly neighborhood Intern sing a jingle about our rain barrels.

Happy Summer All!

"Messy" Jesse the Intern

Grand happenings

Grand things have been happening at Kinark during the last little while. There are some new additions to the Sustainable Living Centre(SLC) building including a beautiful bathroom ceiling built by Bob and Donelda. We had our plumber Chris Harrison fix and improve our rainwater plumbing system.

I've planted a voluptuous vegetable garden with the gracious help of the previous SLC intern Stephanie Hall. We planted tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, celery, Swiss chard, sweet onion, spicy basil, thyme and celeriac. Our garden will be used for educational purposes and makes an excellent edible demonstration of sustainable living. Rain water that overflows from the main collection tank goes into an outdoor rain barrel that feeds water by gravity to a soaker hose that waters our veggies.

We learned that the Annualized Geo-Solar heating system (which pumps hot air from the ceiling under the SLC into a two metre deep insulated trench) is an experiment that did not meet scientific standards. The technology has been disproven and does not significantly change the temperature of the building in the winter months. It does however cool the building slightly in the summer by removing heat from the hottest part of the building. This is one example of how the Sustainable Living Centre is participating in the study of experimental technologies and their practicality for a sustainable future.

The Kinark staff (Kristy, Jamie & Jesse) and Out to Learn educators (Irene & Rick) are now in full swing of the Climate Change education program with five grade five classes already successfully completing a full day of fun activities and lessons. There will be another six classes before the school year ends and then we will be changing gears to make the program fun for families that participate during the summer.

Here's hoping for happy happenings!

Messy Jesse the Intern

Fly like a Wild Turkey!

Time flies like a Wild Turkey at the Kinark Outdoor Centre where spring has sprung and Messy Jesse the intern is hard at work making his nest in the Sustainable Living Centre.

Since my last post I’ve had the chance to see some top local and national talent at the Haliburton County Earth Day Family Festival. Rick and Terri is a Juno award nominated folk duo who rocked my nation with the song “Calling Canada” and Trina West played great Earth themed folk tunes to a very entertained crowd of families and earth lovers.

We are constantly getting closer to our goal of not wasting anything at the Kinark outdoor Centre. We are making some improvements on the Sustainable Living Centre and the Re-store yard next to it. The goal is to store construction materials and scrap materials for reuse or recycling in a very organized fashion so the site can also be used for education. The worms are also working hard at wiggling through our compost in their new home. Red wigglerific!

Funds for some of the Sustainable Living Centre’s events and materials are being raised through a rain barrel sales event this summer. Rain barrels are being sold at $50 online at http://rainbarrel.ca/minden/. They are made of reused or recycled materials and come with a hose attachment at the bottom and a screen on top. The pick up day is on Saturday, July 31^st from 12 – 4pm at the Sustainable Living Centre.

Hope all is well in the lives of those reading this!

Naturally yours,

Messy Jesse the Intern

Messy Jesse the Intern is still at the Kinark Outdoor Centre, blogging about my first three weeks living here. I’ve been giving some Tender Loving Care to our wonderful Sustainable Living Centre building. Spring cleaning seems to cheer me up when I find all kinds of fun program materials like Solar Race Cars and model windmills.

Our caring staff team does everything in their power to make Kinark an earth friendly place. Most of the lunches brought by our staff in the office are in washable containers and free of throw away packaging. The Outdoor Educators were busy making Maple Syrup for our delicious pancake dinner, and getting nice stinky breath from wild leeks that we’ve put in tasty salads and stir fry. We even had a human stampede in our office to see a moose that was walking right past our office windows. Only at Kinark!

There was a little trouble with our worm composters last week. The Red Wiggler worms have been trying to escape! The poor little wigglers were overfed and didn’t have enough air in the paper shred bedding. But never fear! They have a new home with fresh food at the Sustainable Living Centre after a few hours of digging through compost to find them. If you are interested in worm composting visit www.cathyscomposters.com/

Naturally yours,

Messy Jesse the Intern

PS. I’ve been given some awesome links to environmental web sites, so I've put some of the best links at below... Enjoy!

How to Recycle Anything
http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/organizing/tips-techniques/recycle-anything-00000000006117/

Large online community of people who want to “Make a Difference”
http://www.care2.com/

The Art of living lightly on this earth
http://www.weconserve.ca/