Soft Cheese making with Sue Romas - #5
Ages 10 and up.
May 17th, 2008
1:00 -> 4:00pm

Cheese making is an ancient and simple way to preserve fresh milk. We'll make two kinds of fresh, soft and delicious Farmer Cheese from scratch, taste a variety of homemade cheeses, and in the end you'll get some cultures to make your own. Why buy expensive imported chevre when you can make it yourself from local milk?

Taught by Sue Romas, farm resident and homemaking expert. Sue's only been making cheese for a little while but she's really, really excited to share the joy of homemade cheese with everyone. Crackers for tasting and tea provided.

Registration for the cheese classes is limited to 6 folks.
Preregistration is required.
Sliding Scale donation for this class: $20.00-30.00

Family friendly: there will be childcare available during the workshop for a small fee, although no small children will be allowed in the kitchen due to space and safety concerns. please let us know in advance if you are needing childcare during classtime.

PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED:
please email: workshops@tryonfarm.org

Note: prettier Word .doc appended.

Notes by Levin Nock (thanks Levin!).

Who's here tonight
Notes: spelling is unknown on some of these names, and some people who arrived after introductions are not included.
Russ, resident at TLC 3 years. Teacher, natural builder, wants to build a sustainable house.
Pat, wants to own garage/house someday, shared housing.
Will Newman, 20 acre organic farm near Canby, built first house age 14, 'fighting with building inspectors ever since', many building codes dont make sense.
Brush, TLC, Portland is in incredible position, learn how live densely packed, and part of ecosystem. Human and nonhuman habitat can look like a forest. Grassroots link together, find a voice, be part of change.
Bob, PSU LECL program (Portland State Univ) Leadership, Ecology, Culture & Learning. Excited about change.
Brenna Bell, TLC, wants to irrigate garden with bathwater. Use specific changes to address a bigger picture question how to live sust'ly. Wants systemic policy change grounded in specific examples.
Jeremy Leary, TLC, active in Portland Peak Oil group.
Ellie Hacala, teacher and wannabe urban farmer, wants to take her house off-grid
Judy Blommer, educator and herbalist with portland public schools. Here neighborhood has already had granny flats for 10 years, need composting toilets next. PSU LECL.
Julee, LECL student by night, pessimistic lawyer by day. retrofitting home, wants to try offgrid, humanure. Was naïve, can't do legally many of the projects she envisioned. Wants a (legal) demonstration project for others, to show how to remodel an old Portland home for sustainability. Also cohousing, want to share large home.
Sarah, landlord and property owner here and New Mexico. Cohousing. Difficulties with building inspectors-New Mexico codes much better for greywater.
Jeff Holoman, here to contribute to process, get codes that make sense, support biodiverse life.
Matt Needham, just moved to Portland, grew up Katmandu. Portland is incubator, and Pac NW in general. Wants to network.
Audria Matthews, architect, interested in how cities work, how support env'ly friendly ways of being. Saw article in Tribune.
Teresa (Tracey?) Talbot, has a quirky planning situation, and also works for the city, with PDOT right-of-ways.
Chris, from Montreal and LA, came here because Portland positioned well for sustainability.
Russ Stanton, Has been building gardens and squats. Starting streetcar press.
Joshua Klyber, contractor in Portland 6 years, pragmatist, interested in details exactly what needs to change.
Malora Golden, wants be permaculture designer. Wants rules of society to be efficient, and help us. Esp small farms, food.
Hope Medford, excited be here, volunteer TLC 5 years, educ with kids, permaculture, natural bldg. Lots of greywater in New Mexico, well accepted.
Levin Nock, greenbuilding consultant.
Chiffalee, with Willamette Week, followup visit after 'Rogue's Gallery infamy'.

Note: if anyone present was opposed to the ReCode mission, they kept their position secret.
Agenda
Overview for new folks
Update and describe the project.
Set up working groups. Break out, take first steps, plan next meeting, report back.
Overview and Description
Why we need change: we are running out of time in which to use the rich resources that we have now, to develop cities that will thrive when we're farther down the peak oil curve. The more infrastructure that we can build or remodel now, that is water, energy, and resource independent, the better off our entire region will be, in the future.

The idea to revise codes has been germinating in many pockets, not just TLC Farm (Tryon Life Community Farm, tryonfarm.org). What TLC farm wants to do, with greywater etc., many other people also want to do, but it is against code.
The Tribune article publicized the idea well. We are very early in the campaign. Lots of energy already-natural builders, developers, architects, homeowners.

Role of ReCode campaign: Network among different organizations, esp homeowner and Do It Yourselfers. Portland Government is listening to commercial greenbuilders, working at large scale with LEED etc., with professional time and money. Homeowners doing small projects need a better voice.
This week, talked with USGBC (US GreenBuilding Council). Also with Central City Concern, that wants to build 16-story downtown affordable housing, but is hitting code issues.
Forming Greywater Coalition.

We will advocate for code change, not just research it. Much of the research is already done, but not public. For instance, Brenna will post on the website tomorrow, a report by David Evans Assoc 3 years old, what code changes would be needed to allow a water-independent building in Portland. The city already has a 20 page list of recommended changes for city code.

ReCode can be a clearinghouse for information, and translate issues about code so that homeonwers can understand it.

After our meeting in December, ReCode was listed on the "Rogue of the Week" list by Willamette Week. Brenna talked with Hank Stearn afterwards and asked why. Hank said that he believed that we only want to benefit TLC Farm, not anybody else. She told him about the citywide and statewide benefits that we envision. Changes are needed at the state level, for water and building codes. This will benefit all Oregonians, to make the economy and environment better for all of us. TLC could pay $20k for a conditional use permit, or set up ecovillage zoning, and sidestep the issues. But we want a sustainable region, and want to empower everybody to succeed in remodeling their own residence easily.

Many former or would-be innovators have a deep fear and mistrust of building inspectors. After the 5th or 6th time of trying something new, and getting fined and forced to undo it, most contractors and do-it-yourselfers feel punchdrunk. Either they stop innovating, or they live in fear and distrust.

Many building inspectors are open to new ways of building. When code requires a specific functionality, and a UL test or other well-documented test proves this functionality, then many inspectors are happy to pass innovations. However, when code prescribes a specific METHOD to accomplish a function, then an inspector is not free to consider innovation.

Unlike many laws, building codes are relatively easy to change. Building codes do not keep powerful people in power, and they have a history of constant change. We have an excellent chance of success. Many engineers and inspectors want the codes to change. We need to get building inspectors involved. They can help us find the easy victories, what will make their lives easier?

City officials, various bureaus, designers, builders, all want to make this change. But there is a sense of inertia. There are many jurisdictions, each with many, many regulations. Most advocates for change have chosen to specialize on one issue, e.g. greywater, shared housing, co-op housing. We can weave these projects together, so that each change has strategic longterm impact. Changes could take 10 or 20 years, without focus. We would like to see these changes much faster. 10 years from now, we want to see significant new infrastructure already in place, grounded in new code.
4 working groups for this meeting
1)what we really want to see. Actual Desired Practices. (Levin Nock
2)What are regulatory obstacles, and what details do we want instead? Particular entities and statutes to change. (Julee)
3)Public Education. Media, outreach, schools, brochures. (Brenna Bell) The Lobbying Group from the last meeting will fold into this group, separate out later.
4)Networking. Collaboration, bring different perspectives together, built relationships and consensus. Statewide Portland and rural. (J. Brush)

Another group, of people who are not sure where they'll fit. To brainstorm ideas and ask questions.

Ollie program on KABU. He paid for a conditional use permit, and UV treatment for rainwater, to be legal.

Desired outcomes.
1)introduce the groups, who we are, how we will work.
2)Brainstorm list of potential action items
3)decide on next meeting time, within next month. Tentative times, first and second preferences. some people want to be in multiple groups. Networking group will help with logistics.
4)Identify particular roles, e.g. Point person, prtclr action items.

Each month, we will have a small group meeting, and a large group meeting.

Scope: State or more local. Many Portland issues are at the state level, such as greywater. We will envision what we want, then find which level of regulations need to change, to support that. We probably won't tackle any national issues, at least not this year.

Protocol for email:
In the message, the author should say, if it's ok to forward or post this message publicly. Unless the author says it's public, please don't forward it around.
Group Reports at end of the Meeting
Regulatory Group.
Point person is Julee,
julee1974@hotmail.com
Will meet Wed, every 2 weeks, inner SE, at 7pm. Probably at Red and Black.

Desired Practices group
Brainstormed a large list of topics. Next step is to organize it, then select a small subset of topics for initial work.
Russ Stanton is new point person, pubgeek@yahoo.com (was Levin for first meeting)
Russ welcomes emails about any alternative technologies new or old. Folks in other groups may have information about desired practices that they want to share.
Will meet first Monday of month, evening 7pm, probably at Laughing Horse.

Networking Group
Jeremy is new point person (was Brush for first meeting).
Focus on bridging potential divides, and benefits regardless of ideology. Discussed how to manage flow of info, for online vs offline people. General purpose announcements list, 1 or 2 emails per week. Also 2nd list with many posts, for hardcore online people.
Proposed and accepted: nobody speaks for ReCode unless it's a group decision. For now, Brush@tryonfarm.org is point person.
It's ok to say "I'm volunteering with ReCode, and I think" whatever. But not "I'm speaking 'for' ReCode in saying" whatever.
Next Meeting Wed Jan 30th at noon, at Red and Black.

Public education and outreach group.
Brenna, brenna@tryonfarm.org
Will produce fact sheets about greywater, then other topics.
Will work with the desired outcomes group, to make other fact sheets. Maybe slideshows or videos.
Gather facts, make materials, brainstorm distribution. e.g. Kids' environmental groups at schools.
If we have some facts, if really relevant, send a little to Brenna. She does not want much email.
Meeting, first thursday in evening, Feb 7. at Red and black.

Recode.ws is website, for now.

next large meeting: third Thursday in Feb, Feb 21, 7 to 9 pm.
Announcements
Portland Peak Oil: Jan 23 7pm, Charlie Stephens will give an update (St. Francis Dining Hall
1182 SE Pine). Jan 30 PPO policy meeting, candidates Amanda Fritz, maybe others.

Lecture series on Living building challenge. 6 petals, flowers.
7-part lecture. Start next week, thru greenbuilding council of Portland, good primer. Details on Portland GBC website.