Get off the Grid Fest Charrette: Celebrating an Earth Day Birthday!

To kick off my participation in the Earth Day Celebration here on Hive and in the Natural Medicine community, I created a post for CWEET (Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee) that you can read, and then please take a few minutes more to send an email in for public commenting to help us in the fight to get a better wastewater management permit for Evergreen Packaging's Blue Ridge Paper Mill in Canton, NC. You can read about that here:
@cweet4water/fighting-for-our-lives-wastewater-permit-renewal-at-evergreens-blue-ridge-paper-in-canton-nc

If you are interested in participating in the Natural Medicine Community's Earth Day Celebration Challenge (which I highly recommend), you can read about it and get started here:
@naturalmedicine/earth-day-celebration-challenge-show-us-the-ways-you-care-or-25-hive-prize-and-100hp-delegation-for-a-month

Now, lets get to the fun part ~ my birthday celebration this past Sunday is a perfect choice for me to write about for this challenge!

Here in the United States, Earth Day (April 22) gets celebrated in many different ways, over about a week span. Americans love to plan for things to be on the weekend closest to a holiday when possible, and Earth Day is no exception.

Here in southern Appalachia, there's a group of like-minded folks who are working diligently to collaborate and co-create more sustainability options in our entire region. These folks have created the Get Off the Grid Fest and since I heard about it a couple years ago I have been very interested in participating ~ and NOW is the time!

Get Off the Grid Fest will be happening on August 20-22, 2021 at Camp Jordan in Chattanooga, TN. This is the 3rd Biennial Get Off the Grid Fest Solar Expo & Sustainability Fair. Their main website is here:
https://www.getoffthegridfest.net/
You can also find them on instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/getoffthegridfest/

The description of the festival on their website is this:

"Every two years, a rare mix of homesteaders, artists, solar technicians and the solar curious come together for a live exposition of energy independence."

Sunday was the GotG Charrette: it was a one day free micro-launch to get folks in the Chattanooga, TN area excited about the upcoming festival and to encourage folks to come and participate and be part of the main event in August. We were outside at Crabtree Farms, an absolutely gorgeous little urban farm nestled in the city like an oasis in the desert. For our family, this was a very special day because in addition to being my 44th birthday, we were able to have all 6 kiddos present (ranging from 7-22 years old) and as you can imagine I was in heaven!

Here's a link to a little video one of the co-founders, Bill Fleming, made Sunday morning before the day kicked off. It really gives you the full feel of why I am so in love with this festival:
https://www.facebook.com/getoffthegridfest/videos/3766826850052664

The entire day was off-grid, solar powered. There was a worm puppet show by Ladybug Productions (Atlanta, GA) & Playful Evolving Monsters (Chattanooga, TN) that taught us all about earthworms and what essential workers they are. There was a seed swap for gardeners to share seeds. There was an ed camp where ideas were generated on what people would like to talk about and learn about and/or teach in the journey towards sustainable independence. There was African drumming demonstrated by Kofi Mawuko (Chattanooga, TN). There was lots of amazing music, including the end of day being wrapped up to my extreme delight by the Natti Love Joys, a reggae band based here in TN that has been making music for this region well over two decades. Their festival Camp Reggae is coming up May 28-30 (https://campreggae.onuniverse.com/ for more info).

We came and we participated to the fullest extent possible. My entire family was present and helpful for the puppet show. One of my best friends and the director of CWEET came and we had a vending booth to spread information about water quality and ask for help on the paper mill's wastewater permit renewal. There was a vendor with sustainable bee products, a meditation area, a mindful living booth, and so much more. Every single person was kind, and smiling, and helpful, and believes in a better way for humankind, and most importantly is willing to put the time, resources, and efforts in to make sustainability a reality. I participated in absolutely everything I had time for, and I am gearing up to be a fully integrated participant in the main festival as an individual, as a member of CWEET, and however else I can plug in.

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Deborah Bahr, CWEET Director, manning our booth at the Charrette. The breath-taking painting was just created for us by a talented local artist, 15 year old Allaura Harvel, earlier this month for our Drive By Art Gallery (co-sponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission)

Earth Day is every day in my world, but it is pretty spectacular to also have a birthday that often falls in line with Earth Day celebrations. It was just perfect.

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my partner Rabbit, enjoying some play with these cool wooden/magnetic toys another participant had brought to use and share. Rabbit always brings an assortment of fun toys (juggling balls, fire balls, rings, pins, etc) so it was great he got to play with something new!

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My sons having a great time with each other!The size range is closing over time, my oldest is around 6'4" but the younger two are working to catch most of his height.

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Two of my beautiful daughters enjoying each other's company

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my youngest daughter, youngest son, and my birthday co-conspirator, Garrett. Garrett turned 28 on Sunday, he and his mom are two of my extended family and came to GotG so we could celebrate together!

To wrap all this up and answer one of the questions from the Earth Day Celebration challenge ~ What am I doing for the environment to help Mother Earth? One thing I am doing is I am living every day like it's Earth Day, and I am taking every opportunity to join with others who feel the same. This year I am singing and dancing and sharing and co-creating and collaborating to encourage everyone I know and talk to, to live what they love. So many folks love the idea of Earth Day, so this year let's show them how they can get to the next step ~ the reality of Earth Day everyday!


"...give, give, all that you have, love, love, that's all you've got..

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