Where to Begin? Well at the Beginning of Course! What is the Ina Maka Project? In translation, Ina Maka means Mother Earth in Lakota. This is the place where we all begin, it seemed a very good place to start in the process for making change. Started by women in a virtual setting to draw attention to real life issues in a virtual world and hoping to increase support across a global community and draw awareness, teach and uplift our planet, the Ina Maka Project steps a foot out of the Virtual Grid and into a community near you! |
What's in this Edition?
From Containers to Dhomes....unique designs....
Feature story Part 1
by: Lynnea Luebben
It has been an amazing year of designs from the Container 3D build for Pangea Designs focused on the DIY network, to building in a Monolithic Dome.....So many unique design challenges. Read here for more info
This has been a year of design challenges to say the least....A year ago we were building some design changes for our garden and tiny home in Germany, and now today, we have been involved in several great projects, from The Container House 3D design build and drafts for Pangea Designs, utilized in the DIY NETWORK's Building Off Grid to building workshop needs for One Community, and next to the DHOME project by Homes of the Hills, we have traveled far...literally in where our focus was in December of 2016.
We have contemplated solar, round designs for community buildings on the reservations, and the biggest project so far, the Monolithic Dome for Roger Riley's vision, to see more, click here.
It has been a year to focus our teamwork, our partnership and marriage into something that supports our family, but also supports our community. We would love to take you on a small visual tour....
This has been a year of design challenges to say the least....A year ago we were building some design changes for our garden and tiny home in Germany, and now today, we have been involved in several great projects, from The Container House 3D design build and drafts for Pangea Designs, utilized in the DIY NETWORK's Building Off Grid to building workshop needs for One Community, and next to the DHOME project by Homes of the Hills, we have traveled far...literally in where our focus was in December of 2016.
We have contemplated solar, round designs for community buildings on the reservations, and the biggest project so far, the Monolithic Dome for Roger Riley's vision, to see more, click here.
It has been a year to focus our teamwork, our partnership and marriage into something that supports our family, but also supports our community. We would love to take you on a small visual tour....
For More on the Container Home Project, please join us next newsletter for part 2. You can get a full tour of the finished project. For design work please contact Jared Capp "Cappie" if you are looking for a great builder and forward thinker in the way of design and building ideas. https://www.pangeadesigngroup.com/
In need of 3D design work? Contact Gables Green Homes of the Ina Maka Project for more great design elements.
In need of 3D design work? Contact Gables Green Homes of the Ina Maka Project for more great design elements.
Dhomes to Homes
A look at the current Dhome build and how life does not always have to be in a box.....
For more information and to explore the world of Dhome living please contact, Roger Riley
http://www.rileydomes.com/about-contact.html
For more information and to explore the world of Dhome living please contact, Roger Riley
http://www.rileydomes.com/about-contact.html
Creating in our Communities
What I find often, is there are so MANY great people doing really GREAT THINGS in a community but often they are not connected. Networking is tantamount as well as getting out of each others way! We are stronger together and must work together to create the safety net needed to create a better world. I love the garden community set up in the Black Hills how they work together to not compete and to create simpler healthier world through interdependence and relation.
Builders too must make this next step, educators, renewable energy providers and by and large I DO SEE this, so reach out, work together and let's get this world in shape!
Builders too must make this next step, educators, renewable energy providers and by and large I DO SEE this, so reach out, work together and let's get this world in shape!
We would like to recognize Bear Butte Gardens this month, from experience, and what I see with my eyes, this couple creates community! This is what it is all about, after having visited them on a recent tour out to their Gardens, farm and ranch, I see a couple that is here to create a positive impact on their world and the people around them.
Want to know more check out their link at www.bearbuttegardens.com/ Also, Michelle is often teaching classes over at the Arts center in Sturgis or even out at her farm.
Michelle and Rick have done an amazing job with the organic production, community involvements and just love of nature. It was indeed a treat to visit! Check out our pictures from the day. Michelle later spoke at our Earth Day Presentation, and we hope to see more people there this year, watch for our signup and if you would like to present or hold a small class on the next event, please contact us.
Want to know more check out their link at www.bearbuttegardens.com/ Also, Michelle is often teaching classes over at the Arts center in Sturgis or even out at her farm.
Michelle and Rick have done an amazing job with the organic production, community involvements and just love of nature. It was indeed a treat to visit! Check out our pictures from the day. Michelle later spoke at our Earth Day Presentation, and we hope to see more people there this year, watch for our signup and if you would like to present or hold a small class on the next event, please contact us.
From the Ground Up!
an article on the importance of Soil....
by: Lynnea Anne Lübben for the Ina Maka News
Highlight Bear Butte Gardens, Master Gardner, Michelle Grosek
Soil, it is under our feet, under all of us, every structure, every plant...EVERYTHING! Yet how much do we focus on it? If you are to garden, soil, must be your first consideration.
If anyone says the term "dirt cheap" well, they may not fully understand the value of soil. Soil has its own bio-system, Eco-system, it is living....it has health.
So before whipping out your tender new seeds or shoots, take a moment to consider the soil, your plants will thank you as will the longevity of your garden.
From minerals and nutrients, to the living bacterium and biology that help to break down the raw elements that will make up your soil, it must be considered, there are no two soils exactly alike.
Each soil selection around the world is different, each soil sample even within a mile radius will be different dependent on the conditions it has been subjected too, no where else do I feel is soil a more viable and changeable system then here in the Black Hills of South Dakota, with our diverse geological history of sediments, underwater periods and active and continuing use of mining, our soil is constantly changing and sometimes under great threat.
To speak a little bit on that point I have asked Michelle of Bear Butte Gardens, to describe four factors that she considers a danger to our soils and yours as well as items that are most beneficial to the soil, especially in the Black Hills Region:
Q1. What are the four most dangerous things to good soil health?
- "Over-tillage and compaction. Often times a gardener’s first action to prep a garden bed is to roll out the rototiller and till the soil in the garden spot. At Bear Butte Gardens we DO till our gardens, but as little as possible. Tilling the soil initially seems to provide this great aeration of the soil which must be good, right? It looks so fluffy and lofty and soft. But what happens once you get a good rain on that recently tilled soil? Usually it packs down tight, pushing the tiny air pockets out of the soil and compacting it. You have also killed off the worms and bugs and beneficial bacteria that were all living in the soil prior to tilling. When the dry summer weeks set in, you now have a densely packed garden soil that is hard to weed and manage. We like to leave some kind of “crop” on a garden through the winter, whether it is a cover crop that we specifically planted in the late summer or the remnants of the vegetables that were growing there last fall. We leave corn stalks, squash vines, tomato plants, bean vines and plants, etc., in and on the gardens through the winter, to keep that soil covered and hold moisture. Once we are close to being ready to transplant or seed out into a specific garden spot we lightly till just the top couple inches of the garden soil to loosen any weeds or residual cover crop that is growing. We let that garden spot set for several days or a couple weeks, to allow that organic matter to break down. Then we finally lay out our drip line and plant into that lightly tilled soil and organic matter. We might add a little homemade compost to the transplant holes or as a side dressing. Next we mulch over our drip line and around our transplants/seedlings and make a point never to walk on that “growth” area around the plants. We have specific walkways every few rows that we seed to clover that can be mowed as needed.
- Assuming that your soil needs inputs, e.g. fertilizers, minerals, etc., can be detrimental to your soil health. If you are set on adding something to your soil, please learn how to do good soil tests, send them off to a lab, and analyze the results before you start adding things to your soil. And remember, there are a lot more things than N, P, and K in good soil. Fertilizers can often times do more harm than good. I would rather under-treat soil than over-treat it, any day.
- “Treating” your soil before understanding or analyzing it. Often times when I do a presentation to a group of gardeners or have individuals or a group touring Bear Butte Gardens I am asked what inputs I add to my garden soil. Again, I am a minimalist gardener. I like to actually throw some plants into a garden spot and observe their growth for a year before I add anything to the soil. Often times, soil is not as bad as people seem to think it is. Or it may just need a little organic material added in the fall and/or spring to break it up a bit (e.g. the leftover vines/crops from last year, the mulch that overwintered, or some old manure). I really believe that often times when someone tells me their soil won’t grow anything, their problem is more likely how they are mulching and watering. Using a sprinkler is a very inefficient method of watering. Laying a simple drip irrigation line (not a soaker hose) will allow you to monitor the exact amount of water that goes on every plant and the water goes directly to the roots, where plants need it. Putting even just a thin layer of grass clippings, dried leaves, straw, or hay over your drip line and around your plants will minimize all evaporation of your water and keep the plant roots cool and damp during the hot days. Drip irrigation is reusable, so you have the investment of purchasing the line and emitters the first year, then it is free use after that.
- Leaving soil “brown” meaning no mulch, no cover crop, just brown soil open to the elements. This repeats the prior points, but so many of us grew up looking at Mom’s or Dad’s perfect garden with nice little rows of vegetables and perfectly weeded brown dirt in between. Please try a little mulch and some cover crop. Heck, even weeds can be a perfectly good cover crop, given they are not choking out your vegetable crop. Remember, weeds are just a sign of what your garden is lacking.
Looking to our area Michelle, what items do you find most beneficial to the soil in the Black Hills?
Q2. What items are most beneficial to soil in the Black Hills regions. And/or soil in general.
- Soil in the Black Hills can really vary. Doing some soil testing in your particular corner of the world is never a bad idea. Sometimes just from one garden spot to another, within a yard, soil can be different. Figure out what kind of soil you have and then address it as needed. Remember, fertilizer companies are selling a product. Most likely you do not need that product. We get by at our gardens using simple compost, manure, and mulch. We get a little of the manure off-farm, but everything else grows on-farm and is just recycled as mulch and compost. One thing that is certain in the Black Hills area is that our soil tends toward alkaline on the pH scale. We can grow most things, but very specific acid-loving crops (like blueberries) will not thrive here. A light layer of compost as a side dressing or top dressing on your garden and rows will go a long way.
After hearing Michelle speak at numerous occasions I was amazed at how much she knew about soil composition, I teased her lightly at the Earth presentation about being a soil whisperer, but as a fully certified organic farmer, she must take adequate care, and even more then adequate care to make sure her soil meets the highest standards, safety and nutritional well being.
What items might be important in the soil?
Carbon! Carbon is very important as it is the basic building block of all organic life. There are three types that you may find, green, black and brown and each has it's own precise creation gift to offer up.
Black, is mostly already digested and not really usable except to create stability in the soil, for example, matter, brown carbon, also, is closely akin to black carbon, but is made up of woody matter, things that take higher organisms to break them down, such as fungi, etc. now what really FEEDS your soil is the third type of carbon, GREEN, as its name suggests it is a green building block for soil composition and health for your garden.
Things that make a good Green Carbon foundation are, you guessed it manure, chicken droppings, liquid dairy manure, and potentially even human waste manure, but if you are going ORGANIC, by organic certified standards may you not use human waste in your composting. We talk about this a lot and overseas, manure and composting sometimes are looked at with much greater, wide open eyes, here we are battling our advertising dollars hard at work and coming up against large corporate, pesticide, agricultural companies, that try to subdue nature versus working with it and we have created a fear of natural...while it is Mother Earth's most basic precept, "all things come from me, all things return to me. SO BE CAREFUL what you fill me up with."
Bottom line, feed your soil, compost, good compost, is essential to a well fed soil base and then an abundant crop base. Many do not understand the basic precept that plants even indoor plants need nutritional supplementation as minerals and nutrients can be taken out of the cycle, especially if crop stalks etc, are not allowed to go back into the earth, or as the example of indoor, leaves, dead foliage etc.
It is a cycle, a very, very important one this cycle of decay and life....
Green carbon is highly usable by bacterium and soil workers to create a beautiful and rich soil.
What goes into Green Carbon? Plants, especially crops, liquid dairy manure, chicken or poultry manure, Did I say Manure? This is a waste that is not truly waste, as it is the digested form of organic sources....so therefore it is soil, just a few steps above...well, SOIL.
Not sure where your manure comes from? This too, is an important point, especially if you are to plant ORGANIC, especially CERTIFIED ORGANIC. So it's easy, what goes in, must come from certified organic sources too.
Do not just take anyone's waste, you have no idea what they put in there, unless you ASK! This leads us to the importance of composting in your own yard, fields or garden houses.
To Compost or Not to Compost?
The answer is easy, if you want green carbon in your soil to give the needed nutrients and help the bacterium levels, the GOOD BACTERIUM, reach that magic number that means healthy plants, and great harvest you must add in good "waste".
A look at composting from one of our local organic producers,
Q3. What tips could you give to the first time composter or gardener to create the best garden beds for vegetables?
- Start a simple composting system, whether it is a barrel, a ring or two of fencing/chicken wire, or just a simple pile. Add to it and turn it frequently. Remember to water your compost pile. Learn the basics of composting so you can identify carbon and nitrogen sources and be able to identify what your pile may be lacking. We have the best research available at our fingertips through Google. Use it often.
- Use drip irrigation instead of sprinklers. It will save you money and your garden will grow better.
- Identify a mulch source — bags of dry leaves, grass clippings, old hay, straw, etc. Again, use Google to find the pros and cons of each item and how to best utilize it in your garden.
- Plant a cover crop on a garden bed while it is not in use, e.g. later in the summer or early in the spring. A small garden only needs a couple handfuls of seed to cover crop it when it is not in use.
- Never throw your garden waste away. Either compost it or leave it lying on the garden in the winter months. The only exception to this is if you get disease in your garden at which time you will want to consult Google again or another gardener for advice on how best to dispose of diseased plants. Usually just simple rotation of your garden crops will diminish disease problems within a garden.
If I cannot compost, or I am just starting but the season is here, where can I get great soil in my nearby region? Online?
Q4. Best local sources for additional soil. You can really generate your own soil throw a good composting system. If you need soil NOW and do not have time to compost first, check with other gardeners in your area. Many landfills are now composting, but beware that they generally compost sprayed grass clippings, etc., right along with clean stuff, so you are taking your chances on what you get. Local landscapers might be a good source for buying clean topsoil. Make sure you ask a lot of questions about where the soil came from and what may have been applied to it. I would much rather have weak soil and gradually amend it over years with compost, mulch, and manure than get a truckload of chemical-contaminated soil.
Closing personal thoughts: When I talk to people about soil, conversation always goes to weeds. I have weeds in my gardens, it’s a fact. But last year I grew over 3 tons of really delicious, nutritious, certified organic vegetables in gardens that had weeds in them. Do I get stressed about weeds? Yes, sometimes. When the weeds are encroaching on the vegetables and taking their water or wrapping themselves around the garden crop, then it is definitely time to take some action and get those weeds out of there and do some garden management. But remember, weeds show up where there is opportunity. You can now do some research online to find out what your soil is lacking or even what is too rich in your soil according to the weeds that show up in your garden. And one thing is for certain, if you have creeping jenny (field bindweed) all over your garden, you simply have “brown soil syndrome” which means you left your soil bare and Mother Nature is trying to cover it up. You can be as obsessed with soil or as nonchalant with soil as you like, but please remember to take the time to accurately diagnose what you have going on with your soil before you throw in some N or some P or some K. Often times, doing less is better than doing more.
In summation:
We have learned that soils have various different ecosystems underneath that top layer, that are important to the well being of the plants that grow there. Also, there are things that we must be aware of, such as salts, ammonia, and the PH of the soil. Using Pesticides, Herbicides, chemical manipulation of the soil, changes the soil for up to 7 years, and not in the positive, this is why certifying Organically is very difficult and a very honored place to be in as it takes time to undo the work of others. Feeding your soil often is the key to feeding your plants and gaining a better harvest and more nutritionally packed produce.
As you can see soil holds the vital key to our plants well being, and in turn to ours. Soil and water are the tantamount gifts that mother nature gives us to create, sustain and to balance our life. So let's take care of them both.
For more information about soil please see the following sources and link.
Bear Butte Gardens, Sturgis, South Dakota, Interview Summer 2017,
Michelle and Rick Grosek
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/
Acres USA, The Voice of Eco Agriculture, July 2014
https://www.acresusa.com/magazine/download-back-issues
Working as a Family brings a sense of Tribal ownership that is sometimes missing in our world....
Working as a family, might seem a little bit out of the box or a foreign concept in this division filled world, with kids going one way and parents often another, seeing other families work together, is sometimes a miracle, but truly I feel, what every parent wants. So, how about creating it? Finding out what is your passion and your families is key. Sometimes, living a different way might seem foreign to some kids, but showing them how it can work is very important in creating the paradigm shift that is needed, and that is exactly what this family did!
"The six of us moved out in July 2005 into a 24’ travel trailer while we fixed up the guesthouse. We rented out our home in the city with the thought we could move back if we didn’t like the country. After a few short months living on the property, we knew we would not even consider moving back to the city. We immediately acquired a steer and 2 piglets to raise for meat. We were on our way to producing some of our own foods. However, we were not farmers and our parents were only children when they lived on farms. We needed to gather more information from those who were experienced. The internet became our number one resource." from My Little Homestead by:Shelly Curtis
Original: 2007
Rewrite: November 28, 2012
"The six of us moved out in July 2005 into a 24’ travel trailer while we fixed up the guesthouse. We rented out our home in the city with the thought we could move back if we didn’t like the country. After a few short months living on the property, we knew we would not even consider moving back to the city. We immediately acquired a steer and 2 piglets to raise for meat. We were on our way to producing some of our own foods. However, we were not farmers and our parents were only children when they lived on farms. We needed to gather more information from those who were experienced. The internet became our number one resource." from My Little Homestead by:Shelly Curtis
Original: 2007
Rewrite: November 28, 2012
Published on Oct 11, 2014More Info: http://mylittlehomestead.com/earthbag...
http://www.mylittlehomestead.com
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMyLit...
"Moving from the City to the Country"
Superadobe bedroom made with continuous sandbags and a paper bag exterior. What crazy, inexpensive ways to do things! Not something that would work well in the city but it makes a fun little cottage. We use it as a bedroom and will be used as a guest bedroom in the future.
Music Credits:
Banana Moonshine by Dan O'Conner
http://www.danosongs.com Music by DanoSongs.com
http://www.mylittlehomestead.com
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMyLit...
"Moving from the City to the Country"
Superadobe bedroom made with continuous sandbags and a paper bag exterior. What crazy, inexpensive ways to do things! Not something that would work well in the city but it makes a fun little cottage. We use it as a bedroom and will be used as a guest bedroom in the future.
Music Credits:
Banana Moonshine by Dan O'Conner
http://www.danosongs.com Music by DanoSongs.com
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- Standard YouTube License
Educational Highlights....
It has been a great year so far, for reaching out to community and being part of the teaching world that the writer loves so much. From Canyon Calm environmental and cultural classes, The Earth Day Presentation, Woksape Tipi Library Talk on Pipeline safety, to Head Start and the Math and Science Department of Oglala Lakota College, the year has been full.
Take a look at some highlights
For More information on training and Folkschool or Volkhochschule, school for the people, see our website, it is constantly growing and changing.
Full Circle Schools of the Ina Maka Project
Take a look at some highlights
For More information on training and Folkschool or Volkhochschule, school for the people, see our website, it is constantly growing and changing.
Full Circle Schools of the Ina Maka Project
Who are we?
Who are the people behind the Website? Patrick and I have been married almost 4 years now, and find a great deal of joy working and creating together. We love nature and love protecting nature. We get involved with things that spark our passion, one of them being the preservation of this planet.