Transition Training

By Jacqui Riordan

Next weekend I will do Transition training in Sautee, GA.  In order to be an official Transition Initiative, we must have two people who have attended the training.  Robb completed his training a couple of years ago in Totnes, England (the first Transition Town and home of the Transition Movement).  Anyone can take the training, details of which can be found at transitionus.org.  We were so pleased to find a course that is relatively local (we don’t have to fly to get there!) and they also found us host housing (even our dog Annie can come!).  The weekend will cover the following:

•              Explore how the Transition process increases community resilience

•              Receive tools for community outreach, education and engagement

•              Learn how to summarize the Triple Challenge of Peak Oil, Climate, and Economic Instability in ways that move people to positive action

•              Understand and know how to work with obstacles that have prevented our communities from recognizing and positively responding to the challenge of energy transition

•              Experience ways that local social and economic community can be created and strengthened

•              Learn ways of creating a positive, shared vision for your community’s future

•              Receive support for becoming a Transition catalyst in your community

•              Connect with others who are helping your region transition to greater stability and security

•              Become a part of a rapidly growing positive, inspirational, global movement!

Upon hearing of Robb’s experiences setting up Transition Bermuda and having attended Transition training in Totnes, they invited him to participate on the course as an advisor.

There are several issues we are hoping to receive guidance on at this training. One is how to build a multi-pronged initiative. We are still seeing a level of interest and a fertile community spirit for an initiative in Newton. So should we form Transition Catawba and foster several local groups from that? If so, how is that different from just doing a single initiative? Another, how and when should we consider fundraising?

How I became a farm girl

By Melissa Napier

A couple of years ago my friend Amy moved to Hickory with her husband and children and set out to find or create a group of friends to get together to make things, share their crafty skills and learn from one another about our adventures in living simply. She and a friend, Cindy, decided to found a chapter of Mary Jane’s Farm Girls. Here’s the main website: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/farmgirl-connection/ 

We meet once a month with a new topic led by different people from within the group. Topics range from canning jam and making butter from milk fresh from the cow, to home grown herbal remedies and sewing a repurposed feed sack purse.  

I was a bit overwhelmed at my first meeting, when the conversation over coffee turned to, “How to choose the best horse at your next purchase,” and, “What to do to encourage your chickens to lay through the winter.” Wow! These are ‘real’ farm girls! By the end of the meeting, though, they were all begging me to lead the next meeting because they all wanted to learn to crochet. Well, I couldn’t believe I had something to offer these ladies after all! Each time I come home enriched by the time spent with such diverse people, some who actually live on functioning farms or some who are just hoping to plant tomatoes on the patio next summer. 

I think the best thing about this group is that it doesn’t require anyone to own a cow or chickens, wear an apron or cowboy hat, or grow all your own food, but instead you just have to have a desire to learn more about how others are living, learning and growing, and be willing to offer your own knowledge and experience to the group in exchange. They say “being a farm girl is a condition of the heart,” and I must admit, that motto has helped me to embrace more changes to my suburban life.