MIAD BRIDGE by Radostina Joy

eco urban l iv ing

Service Is A Way To Maintain Human Connection And Wellbeing

The Urban Ecology Center

Grow Your Own Even In The City

MBm iad bri dge

eco urban l iv ing

MBm iad bri dge

2 MIAD Bridge | 2011

from the editor

It’s the city where I work, study, have fun and walk the streets. It’s where I live, it’s home. I care about my home and that is why I serve my city and community every day by maintaining a lifestyle of using less and giving more. By using reusable mugs and shopping bags, riding my bike or the public bus, and by reusing instead of wasting I help myself and the environment. Seeing the instant benefits of my service such as healthier lifestyle, more savings and cleaner community is rewarding and inspiring.

THE BEST WAY TO SERVE YOUR COMMUNITY IS TO BE WELL.

- Joy :)

concretejungle

The tips and ideas in this issue are meant to inspire you to maintain more efficient lifestyle that will benefit you and your community instantly. Growing your own food, making your own cleaning products and saving energy and materials is possible even in the “concrete jungle” — rather it’s Milwaukee, Chicago or New York. Save you health, money, community, city and your home, by trying some of the ideas this issue offers. The best way to serve your community is to be well.

by the editor: Joy Maramska

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photo by: Temi Maramska

BIG THANK YOU TO THE CONTRIBUTORS!writers: Shannon Wunderlich, Ryan Strzok, Joy Maramska illustrators: Dana Jacobsen, Joy Maramska photographers: Temi Maramska (cover), Joy Maramska editor: Joy Maramska producer: Shawn Simmons art director: Joy MaramskaTHANK YOU CDIV CREW FOR YOUR TIME AND FEEDBACK!

by the editor: Joy Maramska

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SERVICE IS A WAY TO MAINTAIN HUMAN CONNECTION AND WELLBEING

THE URBAN ECOLOGY CENTER

GROW YOUR OWN EVEN IN THE CITY

features

6

CUPS PAPER 18

SAVE ENERGY.GENERATE POWER.LIVE OFF THE GRID. 12

SCRUBBER 10

every day >

living >

1. 2. 3. >

from the editor >

departments

CONCRETE JUNGLE 2

free > CLEANERS 20

re-use > MIAD BRIDGE 28

writter: Shannon Wunderlicheditor: Joy Maramska

Service is a way to

maintain

h u man co nnection and wellbein g

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MIAD Bridge | 20118

feature > service is a way to maintain human connection and wellbeing

In a general sense, service has always been apart of my life. However, with the passing of time, it’s meaning has shifted for me. When I was younger I might have defined service as a chore, tasks that were decreed, usually by my parents, for my brothers and I to either keep us out of their hair or “build character.” It was never a voluntary thing on my part, absolutely always riddled with negativity, always some kind of a burden. Wash the car. Clear the table. Take out the trash. Pull the weeds. Clean the pool. Bring in the groceries. With every request there were groans, grips, and grumbles. Service was suffering in my melodramatic mind. A lot has changed since then. Through being coerced on to countless church mission trips, required community service hours for one school or another, unavoidable hurricane

disaster relief and the basic morals and ethics of a solid Christian home, I’ve been jostled and nudged into a perspective that allows me an appreciation of the value of service in the world. In hindsight, I can now recognize how hugely I’ve benefited from the generosity of others in my own life as well.

When I was a little five-year-old girl, I had a softball coach named Bill Broome. Bill and my dad co-coached my softball teams for three or four years together until I ditched the diamond for the basketball courts. Years later, my parents relocated our family to a new church in search of a more active youth program and Bill Broome re-entered my life as my Sunday school teacher. One of his favorite subjects was that of unconditional love, which he would often put us on the spot to define.

“Doing something for the good of someone else without expectations of anything in return.” Word for word, that was the response that would get you the candy bar or bag of M&M’s that would more often than not be hiding in his shirt pocket. Sometimes, if you were lucky, that piece of candy was actually a five-dollar bill.

I guess that’s where my current idea of service is rooted, in the unconditional and in love. I think it’s highly important that human beings be able to demonstrate goodness toward each other, especially in a world and in a culture that often

DOING SOMETHING FOR THE GOOD OF SOMEONE ELSE WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS OF ANYTHING IN RETURN

you must give of yourself willingly and compassionately

you must give of yourself willingly and compassionately

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B – “I think it has a lot to do with mental wellbeing. I know I have a lot of peace of mind, a lot of self-esteem that comes from this work. I can say that serving others is a tremendous positive light in my life. The benefits are endless.”

F – “It keeps us active too – healthy - socially, physically and spiritually”.

chat with aunt FRANCE and uncle BILL

Definition of service?

F – “Service is like the physical act of love, the one that’s not sex (laughs). It’s respect for others and the world around you, neighborly love. And it’s a lot about attitude. Whether there’s anything in it for you or not, it’s important to put it out there that everybody is… is… is, you know, on the same team.”

promotes competition, pitting us against one another, driving us apart. We need each other, to trust each other. Service is a way to maintain human connection. In comparison with other definitions or sentiments about service that I’ve heard, I think there’s always that common thread of authenticity. Regardless of age or societal status, it seems as though the matured outlook on service work is that it’s all about attitude. You must give of yourself willingly and compassionately in order to truly be performing a service. With a negative, begrudging attitude, your act of kindness becomes resentful, labored, weighed down and drowned in selfishness.

As people get older and grow past this selfishness so characteristic of childhood, I think that the sentiment of compassion becomes standard for matters of service. The differences in perception seem to lie in the actual tasks or duties that are carried out and whether or not they qualify as service. Some people seem to think that, no matter how small, any act of kindness can qualify as a service to your fellow man. While I guess I can agree with giving credit to little things, I think that I personally appreciate the more grand gestures, maybe just because I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. Sure, buying someone a cup of coffee is nice, but you can’t tell me you wouldn’t melt at the thought of being able to provide a family with a safer house for their children to be raised in. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a go big or go home kind of girl.

How does service correlate with health and wellbeing?

SERVICE IS A WAY TO MAINTAIN HUMAN CONNECTION


1, 2, 3

SAVE THE NETS FROM POTATOES, ONIONS, LOOFAS AND OTHER.

CHOOSE THE LARGEST NET AND PUT THE SMALLER ONES IN IT.

TIE THE ENDS OF THE NET TOGETHER.

1 2 3

writter: Joy Maramskaphotographer: Joy Maramska

three easy steps to ascrubber

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! SAVE MONEY AND THE ENVIRONMENT BY MAKING YOUR OWN AND RE-USING TO ELIMINATE WASTE.

living

Save energy.generate power.live off the grid.

MIAD Bridge | 201112

writer: Ryan Strzokillustrator: Joy Maramska

is something I will strive for in my journey of living off the grid. With all of the talks about clean energy it makes me wonder why we don’t implement more solar powered and wind powered energy sources. I would certainly like to implement solar energy in my home. Photovoltaic panels have the ability to convert the light coming from the sun into electricity. They come in all sorts of shapes from small to multiple panels that can run a whole house. There are off grid and grid

tied options when it comes to using solar energy. Off grid means you are completely independent from electrical companies and a power outage would have no effect on your home. The only down fall to this is during the evening hours or a lengthy storm you will have to rely on back up batteries and cut down immensely on power consumption. The more common practice is that of grid tied. This is when you are still in contract with your electrical company but run your house off of solar power during

the day. The more energy your solar panel makes and the less you use the less you will spend and can lead to the electrical company paying you. During the evening hours you rely on the company to deliver electricity. There are many options when it comes to buying solar panels and are becoming more integrated in society and less expensive due to low cost manufacturing of PV panels in China (Coyne 297). I hope one day I will be able to be completely off the grid when it comes to solar power.

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writer: Ryan Strzokphotographer: Joy Maramska

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“It is the workers at the organizations I volunteer for who confirm for me that environmentalism is not about trying to use less but about trying to be more” (Beavan 203). This quote by Colin Beavan, the author of No Impact Man, touches close to home with me because taking the service learning class forced me to get out of my shell and volunteer. It’s allowing for me to volunteer for a cause that I see to be important, which is an environmental cause. With one of the most influential environmentalists saying that the best way to change the way the earth is being treated is to volunteer your time, passion, and self to an organization it definitely puts a giant smile on my face when volunteering. I chose to volunteer my time and energy to the Milwaukee Urban Ecology Centers at both the Riverside location and the Washington Park location. Living in Milwaukee and being on my own I live more so around my ideals and want to began my journey as this sort of eco urbanite. Creating an urban homestead catered towards my ideals

on environmentalism. My ideas are a bit more extreme than that of the pretty term of being green. I want my journey of being environmentally active to stretch into the ideas of minimalist living, living off the grid, and acting outside of conformity. For this paper I am sticking to researching and discussing only the living off the grid portion of that equation. Service learning has connected me to my community in a way I never thought I would. Volunteering at the Urban Ecology Center’s opened me up to the idea of living a more self-sustained life. What I am going to be discussing is the Urban Ecology Centers and

IT IS THE WORKERS AT THE ORGANIZATIONS I VOLUNTEER FOR WHO CONFIRM FOR ME THAT ENVIRONMENTALISM IS NOT ABOUT TRYING TO USE LESS BUT ABOUT TRYING TO BE MORE

THEY ALSO FOCUS ON PROVIDING AN EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE SERVICE FOR MILWAUKEE YOUTH, ENHANCING THE FLOURISHING MILWAUKEE NATURAL AREAS, BUILDING A COMMUNITY AROUND VOLUNTEERING, AND FINALLY THE TEACHINGS OF ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR.

a detailed description on what it is they do and who they are. Then I will be researching living off the grid and how the Urban Ecology Center sparked my interest in it. Finally I will look into what the agency has taught me and what were the experiences I gained from volunteering. During the early years of living in Milwaukee and biking down the bike path I would cruise by a towering rock climbing wall with a sleek solar powered building next to it. Never really knowing what it was I visited it with my service learning class and Realized at that moment a need to get involved with the organization. The congregation of people there who

shared similar viewpoints to mine truly sparked my interest. It’s a sort of vessel to meet people and to get better aquatinted with the environment and living off the grid. The UEC (Urban Ecology Center) mission statement revolves around the idea of creating ecological empathy and using it as a tool for change. They also focus on providing an educational science service for Milwaukee youth, protecting and enhancing the flourishing Milwaukee natural

areas, building a community around volunteering, stewardship, recreation, and camaraderie, and finally the teachings of environmentally responsible behavior. The types of services they offer are: Neighborhood environmental education project which supply existing K-12 science courses with more hands on experiences, urban adventures that get people active, field research, summer day camps, lectures, workshops, discussions, stewardships, internships, and so forth. Riverside Park has been around for quite sometime and was once a flourishing attraction to the residents of Milwaukee County and travelers. Activities such as swimming,

VOLUNTEERING AT THE URBAN ECOLOGY CENTER OPENED ME UP TO THE IDEA OF LIVING A MORE SELF-SUSTAINED LIFE

feature > the urban ecology center

boating, skiing, and ice-skating were very common in the early 1900’s. As the river became more and more polluted due to the growing industrial powers of Milwaukee the river became less active. It wasn’t until 1991 when Dr. Else Ankel started the revolution to revitalize the Riverside Park system. Twenty years later it has morphed into a keystone of Milwaukee culture and community building. There are now two locations Riverside on the East side of Milwaukee off of Oakland and the other, Washington Park, is on 40th and Lisbon. Both UEC’s have a wonderful staff on hand, at both locations, who are there to teach and get you involved.


every day

I am a coffee drinker and can’t start my day without a cup of freshly brued french roast or espresso. I would normally get my coffee on the go, since I am always in a hurry, from the schools cafe or a local coffee shop.Usually I have coffee only in the mornings, but some days I go up to 3-4 cups of coffee. Well one of those days as I was sitting on my desk looking at 4 paper coffee cups on my table I decided that this was wrong. I have wasted paper. I have used more than I need to. I could have went back to the coffee shop with the cup I already had instead of havaing a new one and paying for it again. I could have had 4 coffees in one cup. The image in my head of the 4 cups sitting there inspired me and I started using one of the many coffee mugs

I had sitting around at home and also realized that coffee is cheaper if you bring your own mug! Soon enough I started making coffee at home and saved even more money! Of course I had to allow some minor changes to my morning schedule like waking up earlier but it was worth it because I am now helping save the environment by redusing waste and use of paper and saving at least $1.79 per day, around $10 per week and $40 monthly which leads to the remarkable $480 per year! Amazing how something like using a reusable container can save you money and your community. Now on my desk at work I have a coffee mug and in my wallet I have extra change.

coffee PAPER CU PSSUCK

...SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT AND $1.79 PER DAY, AROUND $10 PER WEEK AND $40 MONTHLY WHICH LEADS TO THE REMARKABLE $480 PER YEAR!

writer: Joy Maramskaillustrator: Joy Maramska

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= $

! SAVE MONEY AND THE ENVIRONMENT BY RE-USING TO ELIMINATE WASTE.

REUSABLE COFFEE MUG = MORE TREES, MORE SAVINGS AND A HAPPIER COMMUNITY


RE-USE THE OLD GLASS CLEANER SPRAY BOTTLE. FILL IT UP WITH COLD WA-TER AND ADD TWO TABLE SPOONS OF VINEGAR.

FOR BEST RESULTS USE OLD NEWSPAPER INSTEAD OF PAPER TOWEL.

CLEANERGLASS

free

vinegar

water

free

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BATHROOM CLEAER


free

baking soda

lemon juice

sea saltdish soa

p vinegar

MIX TOGETHER 1/4 CUP BAKING SODA1/8 CUP LEMON JUICE1/8 CUP FINE SEA SALT2 TBSP. LIQUID DISH SOAPADD ENOUGH WHITE VINEGAR TO MAKE PASTE.

CLEANER


writer: Ryan Strzokeditor: Joy Maramska

illustrator: Dana Jacobsen

Growing your own food source is a huge project and can be overwhelming and a daunting task. It is an important move for anyone looking to becoming more self-sufficient. Step number one for urban homesteaders is to create a compost pile. You can basically compost in any sort of bin you rightly choose but garbage cans or

tires are ones fit nicely for the job. To kick off the compost pile all you need to do is begin throwing food scraps and lawn trimmings into the pile. Keeping a nice equilibrium between nitrogen rich material and carbonaceous material is a way to well-kept compost. Nitrogen material is classified as the green materials such as fresh leaves, kitchen scraps,

NITROGEN MATERIAL IS CLASSIFIED AS THE GREEN MATERIALS SUCH AS FRESH LEAVES, KITCHEN SCRAPS, WEEDS, MANURE, AND COFFEE GROUNDS

grow your own even in the city

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feature > grow your own even in the city

weeds, manure, and coffee grounds. Carbonaceous material is classified as brown because it is mainly dead things such as dried leaves, wood chips, sawdust, and shredded newspaper. Turning over your compost once a week is also a task that will prove to result in great compost. It is supposed to decrease the amount of time needed for decomposition. Materials

to avoid are bones, meat, fish, oils, and dairy products. The reason for not using these in the pile is the amount of heat needed for decomposition, which would be difficult to achieve with a small bin. It will also have the chances to attract pests such as raccoons. Finally the compost will have the same characteristics of soil. “The best compost we’ve seen almost looked like crumbled chocolate cake” (Coyne 49). Now we move onto the second step of the 5 essential projects; vermiculture or composting with worms. Worm bins are a second source for composting. This kind is particularly important when living in an apartment setting without a yard of some sort. The reason this is such a good method is the worms will eat

all your kitchen scraps and leave an odorless nutrient rich soil. Worms will consume vegetables, fruits, coffee grounds, tea bags, plain pasta, and cooked grains. Ground up eggshell is also a good material the worms can feed on because the calcium is necessary for there breeding process. Keeping the scraps underneath moist shredded newspaper detracts from flies. Properly keeping them in a plastic bin will not attract flies or an odor. A good spot for them is underneath a sink in a room temperature room where they thrive best but they can survive in temperatures below freezing and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In the event you do experience bad smells and flies here is what you do: The bin is either

CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL IS CLASSIFIED AS BROWN BECAUSE IT IS MAINLY DEAD THINGS SUCH AS DRIED LEAVES, WOOD CHIPS, AND SHREDDED NEWSPAPER

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to wet or overloaded with food and the worms can’t consume fast enough. Either puncture ventilation holes or stop feeding the compost for a while. In the event of flies the chances are they are getting to the improperly covered food in the bins. Be sure to keep the food well buried or use a piece of cardboard to cover the bed in a final effort to deter the flies (Coyne 55). Lets move onto the third step of the five.Mulching your yard is important to keeping healthy plants and rich soils around the homestead. This will keep

your garden in top shape. The reason for using mulch in your garden is that it keeps in moisture while regulating temperatures and weeds. There is three types of mulching you can do for your garden: regular mulching, sheet mulching, and lasagna mulching. They range in complexity but essentially its just loads of organic matter placed on your gardens and yards. Regular mulching is just laying down a thick layer of organic mulch material around plants that allows for the soil beneath to get strong in nutrients. Sheet mulching is just like regular mulching but it is upgraded with a weed barrier. The weed barrier is something permeable and organic that will smother the weeds and not let any new ones get any sunlight. An

MULCHING YOUR YARD ISIMPORTANT FOR KEEPING HEALTHY PLANTS AND RICH SOILS

example of this would be newspaper or cardboard. This will rejuvenate large areas plagued by weeds. Lasagna mulching is sheet mulching to the next level. It is the layering of different types of mulches to revitalize poor soil. The lasagna mulching process falls as so: Mow or stomp down weeds, layer high-nitrogen material, then the weed barrier explained before, a compost layer, and the top layer which is materials that will work its way through the layers bit by bit such as wood chips, sticks, or pine needles (Coyne 58). We’ve got all these nice composting techniques but now what about the place to grow your crops? Building a raised bed is the next step to the 5 essentials of urban homesteading.

This is an essential place in growing your own crops because the type of yield you can get out of a raised bed is immense. Raised beds provide nutritious soil needed for healthy root development. They are also easier to weed and maintain. Soil in them is warmer so planting earlier in the spring is a possibility and they drain nicely so waterlogged soil is no worry. They are typically bottomless to allow for the healthy soil and easy water drainage. The height of these beds range from one foot to waist level. They are constructed mainly from something that can retain water and soil such as wood. It is more common to see that of the one to two foot

beds (Coyne 61). For the final step in keeping this entire workhorse running is a self-watering contraption for all of these gardens. wThe problem for a city dweller and watering their plants is time. It is difficult to judge when your plants need water and on certain high heat days in the summer multiple watering trips are required. Not to worry anymore though. Building a self-watering container is the quickest way to solve this problem and keep your plants healthy and strong. Pots have a tendency to dry out fairly quickly. A solution to this is instead of there being a hole in the bottom there is a water reservoir. Water is then pumped through the soil by various

mechanisms, such as a pipe, keeping the plant constantly moist. It is possible to span watering up to once a week depending on the depth of the reservoir (Coyne 67). This is crucial to keeping your crop and garden in top condition because not everyone has the time in a day to keep an eye on their plants constantly. These 5 steps are truly important steps in making sustainable living become a reality. Creating a food source is extremely important. Knowing where it is your food is coming from and how it is grown is something that seems to have been lost for quite sometime. Being able to grow and maintain a portion of your food source is incredible.


feature > grow your own even in the city


re-use > MIAD BRIDGE

writer: Joy Maramskaphotographer: Joy Maramska


Make a paper bowl it’s easy

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FOLD IN HALF (LONG SIDE), THEN THE HALVES IN HALF AND CONTINUE FOLDING UNTIL YOU HAVE ABOUT 1/2 INCH WIDE STRIPS.

PUT GLUE ALL ALONG A STRIP AND START ROLLING IT IN A TIGHT SPIRAL. TAPE THE END WITH CLEAR TAPE, TO KEEP IT STILL WHILE THE GLUE IS DRYING OUT.

CONTINUE TO ROLL STRIPS WITH GLUE ON THEM AROUND THE SPIRAL TO FORM THE DESIRED BASE SIZE.

TO BUILT THE WALLS, IN SAME MANNER AS THE BASE, BEGIN TO GLUE THE STRIPS ABOUT 1/4 OF AN INCH HIGHER FROM THE PREVIOUS LAYER.

CONTINUE LAYERING UNTIL DESIRED HEIGHT IS REACHED.

RIP THE PAGES OFF.

thank you

cover photo: Temi Maramska

MIAD BRIDGE by Radostina Joy

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