Documenting the Dacha Project: Sunday, June 15, 2014

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This past sunday, Danila and his good friend John started to put up this handsome structure that will be used to house some plants that need extra protection. The holes that the posts are going into are about a foot and a half into the ground. They decided to use cement to secure the posts in place.

The cement is a bought in powder form and then water is slowly added to get the right consistency. It takes several days to weeks to completely cure as the water slowly evaporates.

 

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The garden is finished! All the plants have been put in the ground for the summer. The seedlings were sprouted in the greenhouse and then transplanted.

 

The Dacha Project residents are very excited about their new outdoor shower. The hot water is provided through the veggie oil generator’s cooling process. The generator needs water to cool down its’ engine and then the water that is heated keeps their hot water tank full. The drainage from the shower will help to water Marina’s herb garden which is located next to it. All their water comes from a natural spring on site.

 

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Documenting Dacha: My first day on the homestead

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Hello! My name is Julia Nelson. I’m one of the new Media and Communication Interns for the Dacha Project. A recent graduate from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University, I studied sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, video and sound. I found my way to Ithaca due to my enrollment in the Community Herbal Intensive at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine.  While it is exciting to be learning about the vast world of plants and how they interact with the body, helping the Dacha Project gives me an opportunity to utilize and continue to develop my artistic skills.

I feel very lucky to be seeing first hand how a community like Dacha works. I am fascinated with process of what it  means to build sustainable living practices starting from the ground up. Even if an individual wasn’t necessarily interested living the path the members of the Dacha Project have taken, there are so many aspects to the projects they do here that can be incorporated into many lifestyles. It is the DIY aspect that intrigues me, and I am happy to help share their savvy with the world.

My weekly updates to the Dacha Project’s website will offer online followers an opportunity to learn more about building practices, gardening, and various ideas about how life unfolds here. Keep on reading for photos from Sunday, June 8th!

My first mission is to finish this fence made with saplings and branches from felled trees around the property. The saplings and branches are still “green” meaning that they haven’t completely lost their living moisture. By weaving these flexible branches and trees we can create a sturdy, tall fence to keep out those pesky deer. Another trick to keep deer out of the garden is to plant aromatic herbs like garlic around the perimeter. There are few herbivores that like the taste of these plants.

The fence will also act as an armature for some pea plants that are growing along the edge. These climbers can get to be around six feet tall! They will look beautiful intertwined with the natural wood of the woven fence.

Here is a photo of some thriving gardens next to the homestead. There are salad greens and herbs growing here. I had the pleasure of picking some for my lunch.

Marina, a resident of the homestead, is starting an herb garden on the side of the house. She is also attending the Community Herbal Intensive and my first visit to the Dacha project was at a potluck she organized for the members of the herbal class and the Dacha residents. That gravel is meant to prevent any vegetation from growing next to the house’s foundation, which can compromise its stability and keep moisture where it shouldn’t be. It will also help to catch rainwater falling from the gutter and send it to the plants. Marina built a raised bed because the soil is too clay heavy for the herbs. With some wood she found lying around, and a rich horse manure mixture to fill the cavity these herbs are set up to thrive.

It was a full Sunday familiarizing myself with the homestead, working on the fence and talking to the Dacha Project community members. I can’t wait to get back to work next week. I hope to investigate beekeeping and gather footage for a series of video shorts. Tune in next Friday for the results!

 

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Dacha Internships: Meet Emma!

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Hello, everyone! My name is Emma, and I am proudly the new edition to the Dacha Project as the Sustainability and Media Intern. My objective is to document and articulate the lived reality of a do-it-yourself egalitarian community works and functions. I have a background in political science and philosophy with a degree in Politics Philosophy and Law from Binghamton University. I have come to work with the Dacha Project with the intent to explore how intellectual theory becomes a lived reality, specifically how living collectively with a sustainable orientation can be a successful alternative living lifestyle. I will be posting interviews, photographs, DIY explanations and philosophical musings about the Dacha Project and the people involved. IN the spirit of an interview post, I decided to interview myself about my interest in the project what I intend to do.

Question: Why are you interested in the Dacha Project?

Emma: I’m interested in the concept of taking an ideal and turning it into a lived reality. Right now our society is talking a lot about climate change and how, if at all, that should cause change to our public policy. There is a lot of controversy, a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of resistance to changing the mainstream way of life. People are upset because they do not know what this means for themselves and their families, but they are also confused because they do not know what they personally could to  contribute to the remedying of this problem.

I see the Dacha Project as a conglomerate of ideals, but one aspect of it is challenging what it is to “live” and exploring the idea of “living”, as going beyond what is commonly done. Most people wake up, go to work, living in a house, don’t talk to their neighbors, go to a grocery store. It can be like sleeping through life to an extent and not thinking about why it is significant how a person lives. I don’t believe our society has thought of “living” as a concept yet, but it will come up due to climate change. As our society is now, we’re very isolated, we don’t share, we don’t make group efforts as communities to go beyond our personal desires, and this has culminated in a lot of materialism and consumerism that has negatively impacted the environment. Instead of letting desire and materialism run rampant within a person, the people in the Dacha Project have consciously made the effort to sacrifice some luxuries and work to make an ideal of benefiting the environment real. The Dacha Project has already been exploring this concept for several years, and that makes it interesting to me.

Question: What concepts within the Dacha Project are you looking to understand?

Emma: There are two components I am looking to understand; the philosophy and the practicality. The philosophical aspect being the ideals, goals, and desired outcomes of the Dacha Project, and the practicality aspect being how those ideals, goals, and desired outcomes are formed into actions and implemented into reality. I’d like to explore the progression and evolution of the philosophy, as well as how and why those ideals may have changed.

Question: Why do you think the Dacha Project is important?

Emma: I think its important because there need to be alternative ways of living to our industrialized system. We’ve made everything into a commodity and caused dire environmental ruckus as a result, we’ve made a lot of problems and don’t have very many solutions. The Dacha Project is looking to go beyond the assertions the mainstream society has put out about how individuals should live by exploring the idea of what makes a community and way of life. I believe the Dacha Project is important because it has been successful due to a group of dedicated people, and the ideas/ideals behind it are especially relevant to the greater issues of the modern day.

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Dacha Work Weekend

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We’re doing some Spring cleaning and projects here at the Dacha. Join us at our place as we work on some landscaping, permaculture planning, organizing, gardening and working on our earth berm to keep the house dry and warm.
We will be working from 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday! We’ll cook up a pot of something hot and we can give you a tour if you’re new to this type of building and living! Get in touch or just show up.

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Dacha Looking for Intern(s)!

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Picture of Intern (a previous intern). He is very happy to do this sludgy concrete pouring work, although these days most work is a lot less concrete- y and more earthy. But still, just look at that smile! It should be noted that Intern demanded that we call him Intern, and would only answer to that, it's not that we thought of that idea.

Communications and Media Intern

We are looking for a person with exemplary writing and communication skills and a passion for, and at least a basic knowledge of, the sustainability movement and growing community.

Responsibilities Will Include:
– Regularly documenting through writing, photography and video various new projects and finished projects, as well as events at the organization
– Managing our blog, Facebook, and Twitter
– Working with us to develop new ways of engaging interested people and sharing our work
– Reaching out to other local organizations with overlapping interests in order to build a stronger network and purpose partnerships

Preferred Qualifications:
– Strong writing and communication skills
– A working knowledge of how to post and edit in WordPress or other blogging platform
– Experience with social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter
– Basic photo and video documenting and editing skills
– Overall strong web and digital skills
– A strong interest in all things sustainability: growing food, land stewardship, community building, building/water systems/heat systems design, and more.

This position is unpaid. We are a 501c3 umbrella organization, so if you had the interest in finding a grant to fund your position here you could use our sponsorship. What we have to offer is helping you develop stronger PR/communications/video/social media skills. You would work with a handful of us, all who work professionally in that relevant fields. You will also be exposed to and involved in a lot of hands-in-the-dirt type work, which is usually soul expanding. Also, we are mostly very nice, which makes for a wonderful work environment.

We are looking for someone to start as soon as possible, since the season for exciting things is getting fast underway. We require a 5-10 hour per week, with at least a three month commitment. In many ways, we are flexible and are willing to work with the right person to tailor this program to individual strong points.

Please send a resume and cover letter.

If you read this and think of someone who might be interested in this, help spread the word.

We are also looking for a gardening/building intern and will post a description for that soon. Thanks!

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Dacha ArtCamp 2013 in photos

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Dacha ArtCamp 2013, a set on Flickr.

We celebrated our 5th birthday with a weekend of friends, meals, games and making things. Things: Apple cider. A shimmery fabric tent. A sapling fence for our new garden. And a collaborative timeline of the history of the universe. Thank yous to the folks that made it out here!

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A Perfect Cabbage

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So, the Dacha is working on its new garden, which is still not fully fenced in (I hope no deer are reading this). Meanwhile, the veggies are still growing and feeding us. The other day I harvested my first cabbage and couldn’t help but notice how perfectly perfect it was. Fresh cabbage is a delight, confirmed our friend Dounan who loves to cook more than most people I know.

We made a stir fry with some freshly picked zucchini and off we went to a potluck. It’s nice having these south facing windows with garden beds right outside. We notice that the plants right out there do very well, possibly because the house is bouncing back extra heat and sun. We did learn recently that it is best, for moisture issues, to keep 20 feet from the house dry and seeded with short grass or clover. we have been having some issues with all the humidity and rain, but aren’t ready to give up these primo growing areas up just yet. Choices, choices…more on that later. For now, here is Dounan being himself with zucchini.

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Dacha Made: Spatulas, Onesies, Puppets and Syrup

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These are photos of just some of the things made recently here on the homestead.

1. Spatulas, made from cherry wood blanks on the band saw, finished with linseed oil.

2. Onesies, dyed with turmeric and annatto seed. Find the how-to guide on our website.

3. 100% recycled puppets from LilySilly toys.  Available for purchase on her website or on her Etsy!

4.  Maple Syrup, Grade B .vs. Grade A, a collecting and boiling labor of diligence and love. Yum!

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Baby Garden Party

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Have you ever been to a baby shower and thought hey aside from these cute cupcakes this has very little to do with new life? I have thought this exact thing while munching on a delicious cupcake. I won’t do it, said I to myself! Then as I was sitting around wondering how I can possibly get done all those things I want to this spring a train of thought hit me, and it went like this.   I like my friends, I do want to celebrate with them, I/we can use some serious help in the garden, and my friends want to come get sweaty outside after a long winter.

After a bit of planning here at the homestead we invited framily from near and far for a Saturday of epic gardening. That day we crossed off of our list these things: prepping old garden beds, digging many a hole through tough soil, pounding black locust posts in for a new garden, clearing out trees for a baby fruit tree orchard, planting fruit trees, building trellises for peas, and planting early plants directly into the garden. We ended up getting that done and more. Other things that got done: bonding, new friend making, fixing tools, maple syruping, bon-firing and a ton of cooking.

Thank you to all who participated. It made all of us here at the DP feel so warm and fuzzy to celebrate a new life coming to the homestead with all of you. Like, Monica Fanya, one enthusiastic participant said, “It’s like planting baby food, just in the early stages.” So true!

Please enjoy some photos and videos of the event.

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