As an old farm boy from Wisconsin, Jake Kawatski is matter of fact about the four hens in his urban backyard in the West Victory area of Savannah.
“I grew up having chickens,” he said.
He spouts tips as he shows off his two “Easter egg” Araucanas and two white leghorns scratching around their enclosure:
Put chicken manure back into your garden for fertilizer.
Stick to one breed so they don’t fight.
Pick up crushed shells from Tybee for a cheap way to aid digestion and egg production.
Such advice and more will be coming at visitors Sunday on the third annual Tour de Coop, a guided tour of local chicken coops sponsored by the nonprofit Savannah Urban Garden Alliance.
The tour is the brainchild of Kelly Lockamy, SUGA’s founder. It meshes well with her vision of providing “local, healthy food one garden at a time.”
“It promotes the idea of being more self-sufficient in feeding yourself,” she said. “It’s along the lines of a backyard garden but also having protein.”
Plus, the tour is a chance for chicken enthusiasts to get together.
There are plenty of such fowl friends in Savannah. A Facebook page devoted to Savannah Backyard Chickens boasts 161 members. The chickens’ popularity is part of the reason a county task force is working to re-write and clarify ordinances about keeping livestock.
Shannon Willhite, whose apple-green coop is also on the tour, is exhibit A of the group’s enthusiasm.
The Ardsley Park resident got her chickens in July. When her favorite hen, Cora, began crowing on Monday, he was renamed Carl and quickly relocated. Now she’s down to four hens who eat their oyster shells from a tea cup, dine in their own screened porch and feather their nests in what she calls the “Chick Inn.”
“I should get an egg any minute now,” she said. “I’m beyond excited.”
2011年11月17日星期四
2011年10月23日星期日
Humanitarian Design Project Aims to Build a Sense of Community
On her first day as a teacher at the Bertie Early College High School in Windsor, North Carolina, Emily Pilloton asked the students to name the last thing they had made themselves. “It could have been something as simple as cookies for their moms, but some of the students couldn’t remember ever making anything,” she recalled. “They’d never held a hammer or taken an art class. Half of them didn’t even know how to read a ruler.”
There were 13 students in the class, all 11th graders. Some came from middle-class families, and others lived in poverty, including a 17-year-old who was struggling to raise a 4-year-old child. They had all signed up to spend three hours a day on Studio H, an experimental design course run from a converted car body shop near the school. The course started in August last year and ended this month with the opening of the Windsor Super Market, a farmers’ market housed in a wooden pavilion that the students had designed and built themselves. As a thank you for their efforts, the Mayor of Windsor presented a key to the city to the entire Studio H team.
“We saw the students change from a complete lack of understanding and, in some cases, a complete lack of interest on the first day into amazingly well-rounded creative thinkers and communicators,” said Ms. Pilloton, a humanitarian designer, who conceived and now runs Studio H with the architect Matthew Miller. “They’d each come such a long way and felt much more invested in their local community, having built something permanent that they could be really proud of.”
Despite its successful outcome, Studio H always threatened to be a risky endeavor for Ms. Pilloton, 29, and Mr. Miller, 33, who moved from San Francisco to Windsor to run the course. They had chosen to work in a depressed rural area, scarred by racial tension with severely limited employment opportunities in the belief that a project like Studio H would be of greatest value there. Windsor is in Bertie County, one of the poorest parts of North Carolina. It is also vulnerable to extreme weather. Since moving there, Ms. Pilloton and Mr. Miller have helped with the local relief effort after two hurricanes and a tornado.
They discovered the area through their work at Project H, a humanitarian design group founded by Ms. Pilloton with $1,000 in savings in 2008. Project H (the “H” stands for “Humanity, Habitats, Health and Happiness”) has become a dynamic force in the rapidly expanding humanitarian design movement by assembling a global network of volunteers to work on community projects, including a children’s play program in Bertie County. Having gotten to know the area and its problems, Ms. Pilloton and Mr. Miller decided to immerse themselves in a long-term project there.
Countless academic studies have argued that studying design at school can be hugely beneficial, even for students who have no intention of becoming professional designers, because it builds their confidence by teaching them communication, planning and visualization skills, which will be useful in any field. Yet relatively few students in America’s cash-strapped public school system are given the chance to study design, or art, especially in deprived areas like Bertie County.
There were 13 students in the class, all 11th graders. Some came from middle-class families, and others lived in poverty, including a 17-year-old who was struggling to raise a 4-year-old child. They had all signed up to spend three hours a day on Studio H, an experimental design course run from a converted car body shop near the school. The course started in August last year and ended this month with the opening of the Windsor Super Market, a farmers’ market housed in a wooden pavilion that the students had designed and built themselves. As a thank you for their efforts, the Mayor of Windsor presented a key to the city to the entire Studio H team.
“We saw the students change from a complete lack of understanding and, in some cases, a complete lack of interest on the first day into amazingly well-rounded creative thinkers and communicators,” said Ms. Pilloton, a humanitarian designer, who conceived and now runs Studio H with the architect Matthew Miller. “They’d each come such a long way and felt much more invested in their local community, having built something permanent that they could be really proud of.”
Despite its successful outcome, Studio H always threatened to be a risky endeavor for Ms. Pilloton, 29, and Mr. Miller, 33, who moved from San Francisco to Windsor to run the course. They had chosen to work in a depressed rural area, scarred by racial tension with severely limited employment opportunities in the belief that a project like Studio H would be of greatest value there. Windsor is in Bertie County, one of the poorest parts of North Carolina. It is also vulnerable to extreme weather. Since moving there, Ms. Pilloton and Mr. Miller have helped with the local relief effort after two hurricanes and a tornado.
They discovered the area through their work at Project H, a humanitarian design group founded by Ms. Pilloton with $1,000 in savings in 2008. Project H (the “H” stands for “Humanity, Habitats, Health and Happiness”) has become a dynamic force in the rapidly expanding humanitarian design movement by assembling a global network of volunteers to work on community projects, including a children’s play program in Bertie County. Having gotten to know the area and its problems, Ms. Pilloton and Mr. Miller decided to immerse themselves in a long-term project there.
Countless academic studies have argued that studying design at school can be hugely beneficial, even for students who have no intention of becoming professional designers, because it builds their confidence by teaching them communication, planning and visualization skills, which will be useful in any field. Yet relatively few students in America’s cash-strapped public school system are given the chance to study design, or art, especially in deprived areas like Bertie County.
2011年9月19日星期一
News Releases By Date
Cleanup of household appliances, contaminated soil, drums filled with toxic waste and other hazardous materials was completed recently by the US Environmental Protection Agency at an abandoned one-acre residential parcel in Hillsborough, N.H. The cleanup of the Davison Property site at 471 Second NH Turnpike (Route 31) began in January and cost about $763,000.
Hazardous substances, including arsenic, lead, chromium, mercury, zinc and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds were found in soil samples taken earlier this year. These substances were being released into the environment through leaching, erosion and runoff, posing a potential public health threat.
The cleanup involved the removal of contaminated soil, construction and demolition debris, electronic equipment and other recyclable materials. It also involved taking numerous soil samples, demolishing unsafe structures such as sheds and chicken coops and restoring the disturbed areas.
In all, EPA removed 145 tons of construction and demolition debris, 437 tons of soils and debris, 40,620 pounds of scrap steel, 80 pounds of household chemicals, a 325-pounds box of lab-packed waste, a drum of pesticide and flammable aerosols, a drum of waste corrosive, 44,136 pounds of CRT monitors and electronic waste as well as mercury-containing light bulbs, two refrigerators, four air conditioners, eight propane tanks, a washing machine and a mercury thermometer and a 55-gallon drum of hazardous blue colored solid that contained high levels of leachable lead.
Shortly after the completion of soil removal, the town funded an asbestos abatement and demolished the residence.
The Davison property included a condemned 200-year-old house, two sheds, remnants of a third shed and a cinderblock building, a former chicken coop, a trailer and many piles of electronic equipment, metal and wood debris as well as numerous containers.
This site was referred to EPA in late May 2010 by the NH Department of Environmental Services following a state inspection earlier that month.
Hazardous substances, including arsenic, lead, chromium, mercury, zinc and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds were found in soil samples taken earlier this year. These substances were being released into the environment through leaching, erosion and runoff, posing a potential public health threat.
The cleanup involved the removal of contaminated soil, construction and demolition debris, electronic equipment and other recyclable materials. It also involved taking numerous soil samples, demolishing unsafe structures such as sheds and chicken coops and restoring the disturbed areas.
In all, EPA removed 145 tons of construction and demolition debris, 437 tons of soils and debris, 40,620 pounds of scrap steel, 80 pounds of household chemicals, a 325-pounds box of lab-packed waste, a drum of pesticide and flammable aerosols, a drum of waste corrosive, 44,136 pounds of CRT monitors and electronic waste as well as mercury-containing light bulbs, two refrigerators, four air conditioners, eight propane tanks, a washing machine and a mercury thermometer and a 55-gallon drum of hazardous blue colored solid that contained high levels of leachable lead.
Shortly after the completion of soil removal, the town funded an asbestos abatement and demolished the residence.
The Davison property included a condemned 200-year-old house, two sheds, remnants of a third shed and a cinderblock building, a former chicken coop, a trailer and many piles of electronic equipment, metal and wood debris as well as numerous containers.
This site was referred to EPA in late May 2010 by the NH Department of Environmental Services following a state inspection earlier that month.
2011年4月5日星期二
No Injuries From Wild Ride
A Mountain Ranch man was not injured when his truck hit a shed and chicken coop.
The CHP says 78-year-old John Horner was driving a 1982 Amgen truck and pulling trailer along Fricot City Road last night. The truck slipped into neutral while going down a hill near Sheep Ranch Road and Horner lost control of the vehicle.
The truck went across an open field and first struck a tree. Horner then re-entered Sheep Ranch Road, went off the road again, and traveled through a wire fence on private property. The truck slammed into a shed and then a chicken coop, causing the trailer to overturn. The shed started on fire, and many of the contents inside the building were damaged.
Horner reported no injuries. The accident occurred at 5:40pm on Monday.
The CHP says 78-year-old John Horner was driving a 1982 Amgen truck and pulling trailer along Fricot City Road last night. The truck slipped into neutral while going down a hill near Sheep Ranch Road and Horner lost control of the vehicle.
The truck went across an open field and first struck a tree. Horner then re-entered Sheep Ranch Road, went off the road again, and traveled through a wire fence on private property. The truck slammed into a shed and then a chicken coop, causing the trailer to overturn. The shed started on fire, and many of the contents inside the building were damaged.
Horner reported no injuries. The accident occurred at 5:40pm on Monday.
2011年3月30日星期三
Batavia officials to talk chickens tonight
An ordinance allowing backyard chicken coops in Batavia is on the agenda for tonight's City Services Committee meeting.
Backyard chickens have become a topic of controversy in Batavia as supporters argue for sustainable, safe and organic living while those opposed expressed sanitary concerns and not wanting to see the city revert to a rural lifestyle.
If approved by the committee, the ordinance still has to be considered by the full city council. The next city council meeting is Monday, but it's unclear if it will be considered then because officials have said the ordinance would not come before the full council until the end of April or early May.
Tonight's meeting begins at 7:30 in the city council chambers, 100 N. Island Ave.
Backyard chickens have become a topic of controversy in Batavia as supporters argue for sustainable, safe and organic living while those opposed expressed sanitary concerns and not wanting to see the city revert to a rural lifestyle.
If approved by the committee, the ordinance still has to be considered by the full city council. The next city council meeting is Monday, but it's unclear if it will be considered then because officials have said the ordinance would not come before the full council until the end of April or early May.
Tonight's meeting begins at 7:30 in the city council chambers, 100 N. Island Ave.
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