New Year, New Hobbies

Reflecting back on the experiences of this year, I can say with confidence that this has indeed been a year of learning. I seem to have gotten myself into many new hobbies and interests since my arrival back to the United States in July, and I'd like to just spell out a few of them for you here:

1. Backyard Ornithology: Jamie and I have a quaint garden that is full of perennial flowers and oak trees, which makes a nice stage upon which our avian friends can flutter and strut--especially in the early spring mating season. I saw the swooning dances of humble House Sparrows, the nest-building skills of a minute House Wren, the rearing toughness of a mother Blue Jay, and the be speckled breast of fledgling Robins, Sparrows and a few bright Orioles. Each day I am attracted to the chatter and effusive life that permeates through the hedge bushes, our bean garden and the tallest oak. It's a shame that in years previous I myself was quite oblivious to the perpetuation of life that was growing around me, which takes its more endearing form in that of a fledgling. As they leave their nest I have come to appreciate their absolute helplessness in fending for themselves, as they wait for their mother to bring them morsels of seeds or worms to deposit into their gullet. They are horrible flyers and often times end up running head-first into the shed or our wooden fence that surrounds the yard. They are clumsy, physically manifesting the fact that even the creature MADE to fly, still has to learn the art through falling.

2. This year marks the third upon which I have been without a car. I rely almost solely on my commuter bike--and if the weather turns nasty, public transportation. I became accustomed to riding a bike in the Czech Republic; however, at the time, I wasn't aware of the nuances that enable one to truly depend on this wonderfully simple form of locomotion: I was clueless as to how a chain was suppose to be properly oiled and cleaned, I didn't know the difference between a cassette or a chain ring--all of them to me were just "sprockets", I had no true experience in changing out tires, and I was completely clueless about what to look for when a grind or a crunch began to radiate through the steel frame. Deciding that it was time for me to become "more one" with the bike, I called upon the help of a local bike-mechanic friend to give me a crash course in basic maintenance, in which he showed me tools, proper techniques and the names of parts--often times interspersing lessons with a great conversation and beer. The lessons have been a success; I've slowly begun to hear and feel my bike as I ride. I'm more attuned to the way the peddles feel on my feet and the overall working health of the derailleurs, the forks and the all-important bottom bracket. If a problem does arise, which is quite often, due to the fact that my bike is more than 20 years old and has easily over 25,000 miles on it, I am apt to pinpoint the cause and have my hand at an attempt to correct it.

3. Through work I've become what you might call an 'amateur expert' in the ancient science of "Aquaponics"--a hybrid form of agriculture that seeks to fuse both hydro culture--the act of raising plants only through mineral-enriched water--and fishery science. The basic practical application looks like this: A large tank of water is filled with fish. The fish proceed to eat, swim, grow and poop. The 'poop water' is then run through troughs. The troughs are covered by floating rafts that have plants placed on them--the rafts have a series of circular holes cut so that the plants' roots can reach down into the 'poop water' in the trough. The plants in turn suck up the nutrients from the 'poop water', using the nitrogen in the fecal matter to grow. The root systems of the plants filter the water, so that once the water has run the gauntlet of the suspended roots, it is clean enough to be pumped back up into the fish tank as pure, lovely H2o. The fish subsequently eat, grow, swim and poop, repeating the cycle. Aquaponics is a system that was designed in ancient China and is also believed to have been used by the Mayans of Central America (I think). At work we’ve been working tirelessly for the past two years to start up an aquaponics cooperative—which we have named "Hothouse Harvest"—that seeks to unite a worker-owner cooperative business model with that of an aquaponics greenhouse. We have ambitions of selling to local grocers in the Erie region by harvesting vegetables and mixed greens. Once Hothouse Harvest has a fairly robust harvesting cycle and we are pleased with the progress and functionality of our own aquaponics system, we'll begin to expand the cooperative by hiring on employees-- most of whom will come from the refugee/immigrant/low-income population on the East Side of Erie. We're viewing the project as a synthesized land-reclamation-economic-development-food-sustainability model, which we anticipate might be copied and applied in many other post-industrial settings around the United States. Needless to say, I've been reading about, talking about and visiting many aquaponics systems as of late. Dare I say, I think I have enough basic knowledge to set up my own!