Fall Quarterly Meeting

Thursday, November 13th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Light and Life Church
1901 7th Ave SE

  • Introduction / Open Mic
  • Terra Commons Presentation
  • A small neighborhood solution to tough financial times.

Introduction

We will discuss board membership and February board elections, the new vandalism-prevention program, and provide a sidewalk update. ENA membership forms are available.

Open Mic

At the beginning of the meeting, we throw the floor open to you. Share your concerns, dreams, and kudos.

Terra Commons Presentation

Terra Commons is looking for sites within the neighborhood to host a hands on Edible Forest Garden Workshop. The workshop is free to community members and includes all the how to’s of designing the Edible Forest Garden – planting edible trees and shrubs, sheet mulching, mushroom inoculation, and installing drip irrigation. Edible Forest Gardens consist of three main layers – fruit and nut trees as the upper canopy, berries and other edible bushes as the middle layer and perennial vegetables and fruits as the ground cover.

A small neighborhood solution to tough financial times.

Despite recent uncertainty regarding our economic system, there’s a new trend picking up momentum in neighborhoods across the U.S. Citizens are banding together to create their own green communities. One example that can apply here in Olympia is the sharing of knowledge, tools, and resources about small garden food growing. At the meeting we will give an introductory talk about “Biointensive Gardening” and other sustainable practices that utilize materials in our own backyards! Imagine an annual ‘local garden tour’ to strengthen our collective plant knowledge, or even swapping surplus crops with someone one block away! Let’s work together both beginner and advanced Green Thumbs and have fun in the process!

Meet Your Neighbor

For this Meet Your Neighbor article I decided to follow my own advice and meet my own neighbor, Kellie. I met Kellie at her cute little house on Central Street where she lives with her two cats, Rudy Jr. and Hannah.  She’s lived here for 17 years.  We talked about hobbies, plans to paint the house, what we like about the  neighborhood, and where we’d like to see improvements.


What do you like to do for fun?
I’m really active.  I like biking, going to the gym, photography, knitting, kayaking, and SCUBA diving.

Where do you work?
I work for Thurston County

What do you like about living here?
I like that people are really friendly and there isn’t a lot of pressure to keep up with the Jone’s – the people are just friendly, accepting, and kind of eclectic, and everyone just does their own thing.

What would you like to see improved in the neighborhood?
It would be nice if the roads were cleaner – the City street sweepers don’t make it down here.  It would also be great to have a street light out front and more curbs and sidewalks.  It would be nice to have a freeway wall or some kind of noise abatement too.

What would you like the ENA to do?
It would be nice to have more meet and greet events – even more informal than the annual picnic.  I’d like to see more informal neighborhood get-togethers or parties.

Want to be ENA Newsletter Editor?

As current newsletter editor my board term is ending in February and due to other obligations I am not able to continue editing the newsletter. As such the ENA is looking for a new newsletter editor. Ideally we would like to have someone on board before the February board elections in order to allow some transition time between the two terms.


The newsletter is layout is currently in Adobe InDesign. It does not, however, need to remain in this format (for example, the previous editor used Microsoft Publisher for the layout).

The newsletter editor duties include receiving articles and advertisements from other board members, minor editing or articles and the layout of the newsletter. Other newsletter-related tasks such as securing advertisements, writing articles, printing and distribution are taken care of by other board members.

Are you interested in becoming the ENA Treasurer? Contact the ENA President at [email protected].

Looking for Participants for the Pesticide-Free Neighborhood Project

The ENA is applying for a grant from the Department of Ecology to participate in a Pesticide-Free Neighborhood Project developed by Thurston County.


The project will require a  commitment by 10 households to stop using toxic pesticides and high nitrate fertilizers.  The grant will pay for specialists and supplies to assist in the transition to less toxic solutions.  A professional landscaper will provide a specialized site assessment and long term plan for the property to meet the households 2, 5, and 10 year landscaping goals. The participating households will  commit to stop using and dispose of  toxic pesticides and high nitrate fertilizers at a door-to-door household hazardous waste collection. Participants will take home free less-toxic bug and weed killers and slow-release fertilizer and will participate in monthly meetings for eight months covering a variety of topics relevant to their particular landscape issues.

Participants will also sign a pesticide-free pledge and post a pesticide-free sign in the yard.  Through this project we hope to achieve a reduction in toxic pesticides and high-nitrate fertilizers in our neighborhood.  If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact Jessica Archer at [email protected]