I've been slacking on entries

I wasn't sure if people were actually reading this...so I purposely stopped posting for 2 weeks to see if anyone would even notice and say something to me. Well, it worked! Lori - you are the reason that I'm posting tonight instead of waiting any longer. Erica told me at soccer tonight that I need to quit slacking. For those of you who don't know Lori, she bossed me around for a year and a half at OIT (Office of Information Technologies) when I was a hardware technician AKA breaking numerous UMass students computers.

Alright, a quick summary of the past two weeks:

• I started playing intramural soccer, as I do each fall / spring.
• We planned a party but the weather didn't agree so only 6 people showed up. Oh well, the weather got MUCH nicer as the weeks went on.
• My roommates and I started planning our garden. We dug up shrubs and a HUGE stump that was formerly a 12 foot tall Christmas Tree-like monster. See pictures below (before and after I'll post later)
• I secured my summer plans: I will have a job teaching 20 students (much older students than myself) about green building. They are all originally from other countries and have a solid background in construction - now they are trying to learn the green trade in order to be more marketable in this emerging "green economy". Also, I will be doing some work as an energy auditor, going to California for a week, taking the LEED AP exam, and taking a 3 week course on Permaculture / Edible Forest Gardening.
  
• I went hiking with former roommate Brian Schmitt - Mount Ascutne in Windsor, Vermont.
• I finished my first real article, which will soon be my first publication.
• I was asked to be a track convener for the Sustainable Energy Summit, which takes place at UMass this Friday/Saturday. My track will be "Teaching Sustainability" - which focuses on educating our younger generations about the importance of renewable energies, conservation, having less of a footprint on the world.
• Also, I've been heading back to my class in Holyoke and listening in on Module 2 (Jonathan Bates from CET, an energy auditor/analyst is teaching where I left off). Now I get to go in there and be a student / sit alongside the kids who I just taught for 4 weeks. I like not having to do the hard work for a change!

Alright that's a briefing of what happened since my last post 2 weeks ago. I'm going to post a few pictures now.


Here's where I live - 3 Willow Lane. The front of our house gets the most light (southern exposure) therefore it is perfect for many vegetables and plants. Eventually the whole front yard will be a garden...that's right, no grass. What the hell is the point of grass when you just have to cut it over and over again? Might as well have an incredible garden that can produce food - am I wrong? That's what I'll be learning about this summer; Permaculture (permanent agriculture).

This is the front of our house. This was a few weeks ago when the weather was cold and the grass / trees were not yet green. I'll take pictures this weekend of what the garden / front yard now looks like.

This entire "garden" was ripped to shreads over the past 2 weeks. My roommates are unbelievable with the amount of work they put in. Do you see the mammoth "bush" to the right? It was about 9 feet in diameter and close to 15 feet tall at one point. 2 years ago my dad and I chopped this sucker way down (this is what a Christmas tree would look like if someone used a chainsaw to remove the top half) . Imagine: it was once than the window...reaching well above the roof!

We chopped that sucker down and this morning I used a device to haul this ridiculous root out of the ground. It was hard work and took a lot of patience. But ohh man - the feeling after getting this beast out of the ground was wonderful.

This is the whole it came from. We dug about 2 feet down, all the way around, ripped off the branches, hacked away at it with an ax, and finally today I got the motivation to go outside and beat it once and for all.


For comparison purposes, this is my roommate Sean (or S.P. Sullivan is his journalistic name - look him up because this scrawny man will be famous someday).

I'll post the Vermont pictures and some nice pictures of the yard/garden this weekend. Please leave comments so I am encouraged to keep posting / know who is reading this!