Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Photos of Meals






We sent photos to our food supporters to show them the resulting meals from what they contributed. These taste way better than the appearance... however, they looked quite good!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Teaching the Next Generation of Weatherizers



To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Stimulus Money, What if...?

Al Ramirez of the Community Action Opportunities discusses the possibilities of funding from President Obama's weatherization effort.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Friday, March 20, 2009

House 5! More than we imagined

Andy Towne is pretty much a staple contractor for the weatherization program of CAO. We got to hang around him and see him work throughout the week. Here is a run through by Andy at House 5 on Thursday.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.



Here is a video of the students replacing the ceiling in House 5 on Thursday.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

House 5! We did 5 in FOUR DAYS!

We did it! We completed our 5th house in four days! Tomorrow will be our final home and that, of course, will make 6 HOUSES IN 5 DAYS!! I cannot take any credit. I simply filmed the work of other people... 8 sensational Warren Wilson College students, over 10 representatives of the Asheville Home Builders Association.... well, i will leave the recap for after the 6th house.

Here are short videos of the work performed on the 5th House!





To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

A Little Fun at Round Mountain Creamery

Round Mountain Creamery has been a VERY generous contributor to this year's INSULATE! Spring Break trip. The students have LOVED the milk and cheese from them. So when I told them that the home we were working on on Wednesday was a few miles from the Creamery, they all wanted to go to see the operation.

Harold, the dairy manager, show the crew around, gave them some additional samples and even showed them the goats.

Following is a video (taken sideways - sorry I could not flip it upright) of one student, Skye, dancing with a few of the goats. When they came back to Windy Gap, where we are lodging, they added some music. We all thought it funny enough to share with you. Smile, and dance along!




To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

The Weatherizers!


The Mountain Xpress newspaper of western North Carolina published an article about the INSULATE! program and particularly about the Spring Break crew. They likened the crew to the masked crew of "The Watchmen." Click here for the article.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Food on Our Trip

Asheville Home Builders Association







To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

House 4 - Financially sponsored by Pisgah Valley Retirement







To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

House 3 - Pisgah Valley Retirement Sponsor

Our first home was in Oakley area of Asheville. The second one on the same day was out in Candler, NC. Our third home for Tuesday - GREEN St. Patrick's Day - is in Leiceister, NC. We were joined by 10 administrative staff of Pisgah Valley Retirement Community - located in Candler, NC. You should have SEEN how fast these two crews worked! It was as though they had been a contractor team for many years. We heard this would be a long arduous day - but the two crews skillfully weatherized this home in six hours!

As you can see, the folks from Pisgah, along with our WWC "Bens" insulated the entire basement area of this home. They first sealed all the duct gaps with matic and metal tape. They also used firefoam in all the joints and crevices that would allow air to transfer from the unheated basement to the heated home above. They then filled every space on the floor of the basement with insulation and then covered it with Tyvex wrap to prevent contact with the fiberglass insulation. See below in the photos and video! Thank you Pisgah Valley! You have reduced this home's contribution of carbon emissions to the atmosphere by 2 tons of CO2 per year!!! AND you have lowered this families utility bills and improved their quality of life!


UPDATE: The pre-work blower door test reading was 6177 cfm. The goal was 3600 cfm. We were able to accomplish 4053 cfm!





































Joel Adams Financially Sponsored Houses 1 & 2



Yes, we completed two houses on our first day! We were scheduled to only work on one. However, our team worked so quickly that we divided the team and two (Ian and Ben - our two birthday boys for the week) went with Shawn to finish a second home.

Stuart Ray, a contractor and member of the Asheville Home Builders Association, presented our WWC crew with some venison! He heard about Noah and Ben, seen in the photo with Stuart, talking how they wish they had some venison and Stuart drove home to Weaverville to get his own venison! Stuart has said that he will come to Windy Gap, where we are staying for the week, to join us for dinner!

Our work on House 1 did more than expected. The test to measure if we sealed up the home properly is a blower door test. You can see how this is conducted in the video below. The test is to measure the flow of air through the home. The lower the flow, measured in cubic feet per minute, the tighter the envelope of the home and the less air flow. Our goal was to reduce it to 2000 cfm. We reduced it to 1756!







To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Sunday Dinner





I am writing about Sunday and Monday on Tuesday afternoon because we do not have adequate internet at our lodging. This is not a problem. Not having wireless nor adequate cell phone coverage has spawned longer terms of engagement.

Sunday was our training day. We gathered at Community Action Opportunities along with all the other volunteers for the first three days and learned of what we were going to help with.

Pisgah Valley Retirement Community is now adopting TWO homes as they are working on one home (on Tuesday) with the WWC student crew and financially supporting a home (scheduled for Wednesday).

Asheville Green Opportunities was also present during the training. We will be working with them on two homes on Wednesday.

We then gathered at my (Phillip & Julia Gibson) home for dinner. We acquired trout from Sunburst Trout in Haywood County and it was best grilled - the grill was at my home. We had that along with pesto made by the students from WWC Garden basil, Pasta Mama pasta and chard and beet greens sauteed with some garlic and Theros Olive Oil.






To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Franklin Tate - WWC Service Learning Office

Franklin Tate directs the Service learning Office of Warren Wilson College. Franklin and his staff and student crew make it possible for service trips such as INSULATE! to exist. They are managing several trips over this week. Here is Franklin to tell you about what is happening this week:



To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Stephanie Coleman - coleader for the Spring Break Trip

Stephanie shares why she decided to pay and spend her Spring Break working on the INSULATE! program.



To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Nina Otter Perspectives on INSULATE!

Here are well wishes and words from INSULATE! crew member Nina Otter. Nina is unable to participate the full week with the Spring Break crew as she has been accepted to a summer program in Germany. We will miss her over the Summer but anticipating her return in the fall.



To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Theros Olive Oil

Niko Theros of Theros Olive Oil in Asheville, NC was VERY generous to our service trip crew. He donated six bottles of Theros Olive Oil to our meal plan. We plan to utilize it for preparing eggs each morning, salads, pasta dishes and sauteing the chard, spinach and other veggies!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Kale, Chard, Beets, Spinach, Mixed Salad

Asheville Home Builders Association

Caroline Sutton, Lisa Childs and Kevin of the Asheville Home Builders Association were engaged in the foundation of constructing the INSULATE! program. The support from this technically and skill-minded group of experienced contractors has really allowed INSULATE! to provide assistance in a multitude of areas. Students of Warren Wilson College thoroughly enjoy meeting people outside of the college and engage in meaningful work. Here is the perspective of the Asheville Home Builders Association:



Visit www.warren-wilson.edu for more information about Warren Wilson College.

Eggs, Sausage and Beef

We were fortunate that the Warren Wilson College Farm had ground beef, sausage and eggs available. These are highly sought after food products. We purchased 6 pounds of beef for $30, 8 dozen eggs for $24 and 4.5 pounds of sausage for $27.



Visit www.warren-wilson.edu for more information about Warren Wilson College.

Potatoes

Teresa Wall met me at Blue Ridge Food ventures to deliver the white potatoes that I order. Finding potatoes after a winter is difficult. Fortunately Cathy at West End Bakery told me about Teresa. The potatoes are grown in Henderson County, NC and some are sold at Teresa's outlet at the WNC Farmer's Market. The cost was $14 per 30 pound bag. I purchased two bags so that we could use them in our tortillas, for breakfast and in making chips for snacks. The chips are just thinly sliced potatoes and fried in Theros olive oil. Here is Teresa:



Visit www.warren-wilson.edu for more information about Warren Wilson College.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pancake, Grits and Corn Meal


Logan Turnpike Mill in Blairsville, GA (which is right close to North Carolina) has been very generous in donating a five pound sack of pancake mix, grits (which could be polenta for you northerners) and corn meal.

The locally milled pancake mix will go very well with the Maple Creek Farm maple syrup. We may also top it with some cream cheese from Round Mountain Creamery or have a glass of milk straight from the USDA Grade A farm!

Learn more about Warren Wilson College at www.warren-wilson.edu.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Goat Cheese and Milk

The only Grade A Goat Dairy in North Carolina is the Round Mountain Creamery. Our milk came from this farm. Even though it was roughly 15 miles from Warren Wilson College, I made the journey out to pick up milk yesterday. While there, Harold, the dairy manager, gave me a great tour of the creamery. We also paid a visit to some of the goats. In this video you will meet two of them - one is named Victoria. Linda Seligman, President of the Round Mountain Creamery, also gave me a brief tour and spoke with me about a number of recipes using their soft cheeses. This she shared while loading me up with multiple varieties of fully prepared Chevres. I felt like Santa's wife had just visited me given the generosity and hospitality of Linda. We certainly have enough cheese for the week. And, I look forward to topping off my morning coffee with a bit of fresh goat milk. I guess this could be a "goatachino". Just Kidding.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Coffee - one of a few exceptions

Yes, I know that coffee is not grown in western North Carolina, nor is the wheat in the bread that West End Bakery is donating to us. However, we have used the next tier of criteria in defining "sustainable" products. I am not suggesting that there is some national or prescribed tier system. But, our thought is that if you cannot get the products local, then get those products that have the least amount of impact possible. So, we got organic free-trade coffee from a local roaster. Here is Jonathan to tell you about Bean Werks coffee. By the way, their blend called "Black Widow" is my favorite! The blend is a secret. But I do know that it is three types of beans and two of the types are from South Africa and Central America - and all three are organic fair-trade.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Bread, Quiche Crust, Pizza Dough

West End Bakery in west Asheville, NC donated all the bread for this week long trip. They are also making the pizza crust and pie crust that we will utilize for quiches. Here is Cathy of West End Bakery telling their story of sustainability.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Ellen's French Pumpkin Puree

Ellen, who is my colleague at the Environmental Leadership Center, donated pumpkin puree that she prepared from heirloom pumpkins that she raised in 2008. She also provided a great recipe for pumpkin pancakes that we will be having with Maple Creek syrup!

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Maple Syrup

WNC now has local REAL maple syrup! I traveled out to Mollie and Richard's farm, Maple Creek Farm, in Madison County, NC. Richard was once the forest manager of Warren Wilson College's forests. Mollie is an alum of Warren Wilson College and is also employed with Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. We purchased two of their largest bottles of syrup for the pancakes we will be having during Spring Break. While I was out there buying syrup, I caught some video of their production facility and the Maple tree grove that produces the sweet nectar:

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Apples and Sweet Potatoes

Over the course of the Spring Break, each of the crew will be adding their input on the day and meals consumed each day. To give you a glimpse of what is to come, I will be highlighting different ingredients that will be a part of one or more dishes. Today's items are the apples and sweet potatoes that we purchased at the WNC Farmer's Market in Asheville. Here is the video interview of the fellow who we purchased these from:


To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Creating the meal plan

Ok, I, Phillip, have had this insatiable drive to make this spring break trip the most sustainable or green - or whatever word reflects the least amount of negative impact on our environment - that it can possibly be. It is not easy.

When beginning this journey I was fully aware of all the organizations in the region and beyond that dealt with things such as local food. But, have you tried pulling all the shopping ingredients together for 6 lunches, 6 dinners and 6 breakfasts and make them ENTIRELY local? Some of you die hard people who live off your own land may have been doing it for decades. But I am a wannabe urban homesteader who grew up in Louisville, KY. And I am not finding ingredients for just my wife and I. This is for ten people from different parts of the United States who have specific memories and passions for food. So, adding the factors of variety, comfort, no dairy, commonality, and others I cannot think of right now... not to forget that we are going to be working hard for five days so what ever it is needs to give us energy... and it begins getting more difficult.

Yesterday I completed the entire menu - of course with help from Mary Lou Surgi at Blue Ridge Food Ventures, Michael Gentry and Craig Shultz of Warren Wilson College. I am so relieved that this part of the preparations have been completed! A week menu - I never thought creating such a thing would spark excitement.

The task now is to go to each of the locations to pick up the food items.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Spring Break 2009

About Us: Nine students and two staff of Warren Wilson College and Local Partners
Our Goal: Weatherize 5 Homes In 5 Days!
Destination: Buncombe County, NC
Dates: WWC Spring Break - March 14 - 21, 2009

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.

We are the INSULATE! Spring Break Crew of 2009. We plan to weatherize five homes in five days. These homeowners have requested weatherization assistance through Community Action Opportunities in Asheville, NC.

There are over 44,000 homes in Buncombe County, NC that need similar assistance. The case load for our local service agencies is more than they can manage with limited resources. Many of these homes are below the national poverty level and are spending one-third of their income on utility costs.

In our week, we will be joined by sponsors of the INSULATE! program. Joel Adams of JB Adams and Associates Inc. has financially sponsored two homes. Pisgah Valley Retirement Community has financially sponsored one home and is sending 12 staff to assist with weatherizing the home they adopted. Appalachian Offsets has financially sponsored one home and is financially supporting job trainees from Asheville Green Opportunities to weatherize their adopted home.

The Asheville Home Builders Association is sending physical support as they have for every home since the inception of INSULATE!.

The City of Asheville will be filming the work conducted to create an instructional “how to weatherize your home” film series for public television.

TS Designs donated organic cotton t-shirts made in North Carolina for our work crew!

During our seven days of Spring Break in Buncombe County, we will be working to make our entire trip sustainable. We will be lodging at the Asheville Green Cottage, a certified sustainable bed and breakfast. Our food will be from local producers. Some of our food has been donated by Mary Lou Surgi of Blue Ridge Food Ventures. Thanks also to Michael Gentry and Craig Shultz of WWC who assisted with our menu. Our entire menu will be on our website www.insulatenc.com.

Building from success

INSULATE! as a program has been an exciting ride. Over a semester and a half, we have accomplished much.
  • Partnerships with local agencies have moved us along quickly in preparing and implementing the weatherization program.
  • Five homes have been weatherized.
  • The Mayor of Asheville proclaimed October 19 as "INSULATE!" day.
  • World Vision Radio recorded a show for national broadcast.
  • Four Warren Wilson College Students met with staff of Congressman Heath Shuler.
  • Congressman Heath Shuler is sharing information about INSULATE! on the floor of the House.
  • INSULATE! program of WWC raised $4,500 to pay for the weatherization of five homes over Spring Break 2009.
  • Congressman Heath Shuler is planning to join WWC and its partners in weatherizing a home during Spring Break 2009.
  • INSULATE! receives calls from Ithica, NY; UNC Chapel Hill; UNC Asheville; Univ of Maryland; Appalachian State University; and Oakland, CA re: interest in creating an INSULATE! program in their communities.
  • INSULATE! is invited by organizers of PowerShift 2009 to present about its program.
  • INSULATE! students host the visitation of rock band members "The Steps" and gave them a tour of WWC.
  • INSULATE! program begins developing an online national repository website for weatherization data collected by INSULATE! programs across the United States.
  • The National Climatic Data Center and Community Action Opportunity's Department of Energy Weatherization Program assists WWC in developing online repository.
As the nation is led by President Obama to move on creating "green" jobs and target the weatherization needs across the United States, WWC is working to guide leaders in the formulation of service corps that may assist with some of this need.

The need is tremendous. In Buncombe County, NC alone there are over 44,000 homes that need weatherization assistance owned by families that economically fall 100 to 150 % below the national poverty level. For example, one homeowner who we have assisted had an annual income of $10,000 and paid $3,000 of this income on utility bills - the majority of which was heating the home.

One school, one group cannot address this need. We must act as a community in meeting this need. That is the essence of INSULATE! - Community.

To learn more about Warren Wilson College, visit www.warren-wilson.edu.