From Mary Delbecq, UUCGV Green Team Member        
 
Some Notes from the “Compost Lady”

Do you compost your yard waste or food waste? In 2019 when the UUCGV Green Team surveyed folks at church, 40% were composting regularly, 12% occasionally, 10% wanted to and 36% were not composting at all. The national average for home owners composting yard and food waste is about  28% so it was good to see we were above average.
Here in Mesa County we can drop off our yard waste which I prefer to call yard trimmings at the county's composting facility at no charge. We also have leaves picked up in the fall and taken to the compost facility. Mesa County uses the the finished compost around the valley and also sells it to residents. Presently there is no place to take our home food waste so it all just goes into the land fill as garbage if you are not composting at home. You may think, the yard trimmings and food waste that goes into the landfill is no problem because “doesn't it just decay like it does in the compost area?” but the answer is NO. It breaks down anaerobically in the landfill  and releases methane into the air. Methane is a powerful green house gas contributing to climate change. Also in the landfill, the yard trimmings and food waste cannot release nutrients back into the soil. Composting yard trimmings and food waste is an aerobic process of decay that does not produce methane and recycles nutrients back into the soil. Compost is a valuable soil amendment that helps soil hold water and increases the activity of beneficial soil organisms. Gardeners have nicknamed it “Black Gold”.
For the past 3 years I have been representing the UUCGV Green Team volunteering at the Library's Discovery Garden as their “Compost Lady” a title I have come to enjoy!  Cheryl Roberts, my husband Eric and I constructed the gardens compost bins out of wooden pallets(non chemically treated) and surrounded them with burlap to help retain moisture.  I turn all the leftover and rotten produce from Tuesdays Mutual Aid  Food Distribution and all the Library's coffee grounds  into compost. It averages about 5 pounds of food waste per week in the winter and 15 pounds of food waste per week the other seasons. That's about 500 pounds of food waste per year that stays out of Mesa County's landfill and turns into “Black Gold”. It's  used throughout the garden and makes the flowers and vegetables grow and makes me very happy!  In the fall when the garden is cleaned up for the winter, additional compost bins are filled and when the 6 bins reach capacity the rest is hauled off to Mesa County's composting facility.
I will share my process with you in case you want to give it a try in your own back yard. It's simply Chop, Mix, Layer and Moisten.
Chop: Eric has sharpened the edge of my shovel so I can chop up all the food left for me into about 1-2 inch pieces. This is a fun work out and so far I haven't chopped off a toe. This step is not absolutely required but smaller pieces break down much quicker. Your home food waste can be easily chopped on your cutting board before adding to to your compost pile.
Mix: Here is where the magic starts to happen. I add dried leaves on top of the food mash and mix it up a bit and shovel it onto the compost pile. You need to get the Nitrogen (Green Stuff-fresh garden trimmings and produce) and the Carbon (Brown stuff-dried leaves and chopped branches) mixed together in a ratio of about 1 part Nitrogen to 3 parts Carbon. I just do it by volume, so for every shovelful of  Green Stuff I add on 3 shovelfuls of Brown Stuff.  I will spare you the science of decomposition and just tell you that this ratio keeps the microorganisms that are breaking every thing down very well fed and active. Your compost should have NO odor just an earthy smell. If it starts to smell like garbage you need more Brown stuff mixed in.
Layer: I layer the new stuff right on top of the old stuff week after week and every so often about once a month in the summer I get a real work out when I turn the compost . I shovel the new top stuff to the side and bring up the old bottom stuff. This provides good aeration and supplies oxygen to the microorganisms.  It also is the time you get to meet the macro organisms living in your compost pile that have been busily eating and breaking down the organic matter. My favorite are the Sow bugs and Pillbugs. The kids call them roly-polies because they call roll up into a ball when you pick them up. They are not really bugs but are soil dwelling crustaceans that breath through gills on their abdomen and have been nick named “wood shrimp”.
Moisten: Since we live in such a dry climate I give the compost pile a good water mist between layers. Without adding water the microorganisms will all die off and the whole process will come to a stand still. I aim to have the center of the pile a little damp to the touch. It takes about 3-4 months for everything to be decomposed and then the compost is ready to be used as mulch or mixed into the soil.
If all this sounds like too much work for you  perhaps you could invest in a tumbling composter for your backyard .  These enclosed plastic bins are easy to fill and tumble. They handle kitchen food wastes and small amounts of yard trimmings. You still need to manage the Nitrogen:Carbon ratio so you will need to keep a pile of dry leaves handy. The hard part is removing the finished compost so make sure to get one with a big side door.
It's good to know what not to put in your home compost pile: milk products, meat scrapes, dog or cat feces, weeds that have seeds on them and vegetation that has been sprayed with weed killers should not go in your compost pile.
Happy Composting!
Mary Delbecq

For this month’s column I have decided to revisit the first article I wrote for the newsletter, back in March of 2016. The article was a little silly, as I tend to be. It was written from the perspective of the building, as though I was interviewing the building, as though the building could speak. Anywise, there are many new congregants who do not know the history of our wonderful UUCGV building. And even for those who’ve been around a while, I think it’s a good time to be reminded of how fortunate we are to have such a beautiful home.
Do you remember? Can you recall? The long journey – the Odyssey, the 40 years (and then some) wandering in the desert? All the people power poured into the renovation? How jubilant we were when we walked through the door at 536 Ouray to celebrate our first worship service?
I won’t write about the early years when our congregation met in people’s houses, or on the monument, or in the Mesa State Chapel, etc. Let us start this historic tour at the building we rented one lot over from the corner of 10th and Grand Avenue. We were renting a building that was previously a preschool, next door to an old church with a steeple that housed the Emily Griffith Opportunity School. Do you remember when our rent started to rise, when we began to realize how much cheaper a mortgage would be? When we formed a building search committee? When we all went out like worker ants searching for crumbs? Could the old Hobby lobby building on North Avenue possibly work? No. We were considering everything. You remember touring the church building on Glenwood Avenue? Too small. You remember touring the mortuary building? Too expensive. You remember touring the church on Orchard Mesa? They rejected our offer. (Thank goodness!)
Then, in 2011 we decided to share space with the First Congregational Church across from Grand Junction High School. I think our rent was less than 1/3 of what we had been paying. Do you remember all the work that went into moving? Getting rid of the (heavy) old carpet padded wooden church pews? Storing a bunch of stuff in the cellar of the Carr’s house. Remember the survey to decide the time of our Worship Service? I recall 4:30 PM being the median time selected. We seemed a small crowd in the long pews of that large sanctuary. Yet, during the 2+ years we spent scheduling our meetings and events after first checking the Congregationalist’s calendar, we formed a fondness for the kitchen that would carry over to the final blueprint of our new building.
Do you remember the first whisperings of the property at 536 Ouray Avenue? We had inside information from a Library Board member that it would soon be on the market.
Wow! What an amazing location – right across the street from the main library branch. But could we really make it work? From the outside the building looks small, yet as you enter the reality is much larger, and there is a full basement. The building would need a major renovation, yet the foundation is good, the structure is sound, the pillars are sturdy and the spine is very strong
(much like the people-gathering of the UUCGV).
The building at 536 Ouray Avenue was completed in 1977 and was home to the Mesa County Teachers Federal Credit Union. At some point it was taken over by the Western Rockies Federal Credit Union, and then sometime in the next century the Mesa County Library bought it to use for office space and book storage. Could we really make it work? Could we turn this building into a loving space that would become a home of our own?
Yes! If we tear down this wall, and that wall and that wall and that wall, and we put up this wall and this wall and this wall – we could build a beautiful place, an amazing wondrous wonderful space. We can take out that drive-in window on the wall and the driveway can become a patio with a flower garden; we can remove the conveyor belt that the library used to bring books from the basement, and fix the hole in the floor. We can remove the enormous, thick steel doors and make use of the space inside the vault, upstairs and down – the vault runs through the entire vertical length in the middle of the building, the walls are 2 ½ feet thick with reinforced concrete (the spine). We can build an altar with space for a choir, and we can replace practically the entire electrical system and put in an amazing audiovisual sound system.
But can we afford it? How can we possibly afford it? Thanks to a kind gentleman, who wished to remain anonymous, we were able to purchase the building – and set it up so that our mortgage wouldn’t kick in for a few years, which allowed us to complete most of the renovation.
“Imagine. Imagine all the people, living for today…” Imagine about 12 people (the building committee) sitting around the table. In the middle of the table and architects drawing. Twelve people with different ideas on the shape that our building should take. Going back-and-forth, moving walls, shifting shapes – should we put a kitchen in the basement? Do we need a foyer: how big should be? How many offices do we need? How many classrooms should we put in the basement, where will we put the lift so that we can be welcoming to all? On and on and… Consensus!
Imagine all the worker bees, buzzing around the hive. The demolition began. Concrete was broken up, walls were smashed away – dust flew, and wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of the rubble was carted away. And then we built it up. Some of the work had to be contracted out (much of the contract work was done by the company of one of our congregants) but most of the work was done by our own people. I’m not going to mention names because I cannot remember all of them and I’d surely leave some of them out, and also get many of the details wrong. Many devoted congregants poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the search process, getting a mortgage – and especially renovating the building. One member lost his mind and committed a whole year of his life, as what would amount to a full-time job. We were lucky to have members with a lot of knowledge, some who were project managers and architects, others who brought a lot of common sense and countless hours of labor.
Nelson Mandela said it always seems impossible until it is done. I’m not mentioning names –
yet you know who you are. Each of you, throw your fists above your head, and yell – yes, I did that! We owe you all a world of gratitude, including those who have moved on and those who are no longer with us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
 
Life flows on... in endless song…
 

         It is becoming more apparent to us in western Colorado that climate change’s increasing drought is going to impact the availability and cost of water for our lawns, shrubs, trees and gardens. We must realize that lawns are the least necessary and very water-hungry of our vegetation types. 
        Our sunny desert climate dictates that irrigation methods that spray water over large areas (like for lawns) during daytimes are hugely wasteful----not to mention encouraging weed growth everywhere. Impact and pop-up spray systems for lawns should only be run during nighttime/cooler daytime periods--- to avoid evaporation loss. Spray-watering for long periods (e.g. one hour) for only 1 to 3 times per week puts water deeper into the soil for plant uptake later, minimizes surface evaporation and fosters deep plant roots. 
      ”Furrow” irrigation (sending a stream of water down a small trench used for vegetables, orchards, and field crops) can often only require irrigating once every week or two. A general rule when to water: don’t water unless a flat-blade screwdriver can’t penetrate more than 2 inches into the soil. Better yet, take a small shovel and “peel back” a soil clump and then feel how much moisture is actually there! 
     Drip and bubbler irrigation methods are much better options for non-lawn areas. Your household’s water source determines the materials you will need for drip/bubbler irrigating. If your water source is domestic, i.e. your ‘house” water supplied by a city or Ute Water, you will need a backflow preventer and pressure reducer for drip/bubbler systems. [Domestic “clean” water requires preventing water that has been in-contact with soils (that might have chemicals or pet fecal matter on them) from backing up into your home]. Domestic water is also often supplied at very high pressure (100 psi) that can cause pipe connections to come apart.  Dirty “ditch” water comes from commercial irrigation companies. It is not sanitized (since it flows via mostly open, dirt canals) and often has various kinds of debris. Because drip/bubbler systems have very small emitter holes it is necessary to filter “ditch” water before entering drip/bubbler pipe lines. There are numerous kinds of filter assemblies with screens inside them to filter ditch water. Drip/bubbler systems need a filter screen of 120 microns (or smaller) to keep ditch water debris from clogging your small drip emitters or bubblers. [Domestic water can often get by without a separate filter assembly because the small screens in the pressure reducer catches any fine debris …and can be removed occasionally by hand to clean the tiny screen inside the reducer].  
     Drip/bubbler systems utilize black polyethylene (“poly”) or white/grey PVC (“plastic”) pipes and various kinds of connectors and emitters.  Black “poly” pipe can be of several different types. One type is used for feeder lines (main or secondary,) another type is just for drip lines, another type is called “funny” pipe and used for small location adjustments for spraying  sprinklers. Black poly pipe feeder lines use insert connecting pieces (with ring clamps) and threaded connectors. Black drip and funny pipe poly pipe use push type and/or threaded connectors.  There are slight differences in different manufacturers’ drip pipe diameters. Don’t mix brands--- you’ll get angry trying to use connectors on the wrong brand of pipe! PVC “plastic” pipes are used only for the main and secondary “feeder” water lines and  use PVC cement ( i.e. glue) and threaded connectors. Recently there has been more introduction of push connectors for PVC parts----- no glue needed! Then adaptor pieces will be needed to transition from PVC to the softer poly pipes for your drip/bubbler lines and emitters that are usually laid right on the soil surface. 
     The emitters that actually dispense your water will be “flag” or “button” or “shrub” (bubbler) types. Some emitters also shoot a spray. However, those facilitate the evaporation loss mentioned---the very thing you are trying to avoid during a drought! Emitters are of fixed volume (i.e. 1 gallon or 2 gallons per hour); bubblers are often of adjustable volume by hand. Either type are usually punched and pushed into drip poly lines at your plant locations. Some factory drip lines have built-in fixed emitters every 12’ to 18” so no punching/pushing in is necessary. These also are self-cleaning and pressure compensating so there is consistent watering. These are well worth the small additional cost if you have lots of plants in an area or want to provide water throughout the very broad root zone of a shrub or tree.  
       The other action that is crucial to addressing irrigating in our drought–increasing area is mulching. Mulching with shredded bark, leaves, grass clippings, non-flowered weeds, and even rock, keeps the direct sun from drying out the soil top quickly before plants can use the water. Mulching with organic materials, or rocks, and/or in conjunction with landscape cloth underneath keeps weeds from stealing water from your plants, also. The added benefit of organic materials breaking down and supplying the soil with nitrogen/other nutrients and increased earthworm activity aerating the soil is of immense value to all plants in your yard. Caveat: rock mulch has the adverse effect of reflecting more hot sunlight onto the plant ----thus stressing a plant during sunny drought periods. 
      Substantial water price increases and mandatory restrictions from water suppliers are very likely in our near future. Replacing lawn turf and spray sprinklers and utilizing drip/bubbler irrigation systems now will prepare your yard and gardens for our warming desert climate. 
​ 
- Joel Prudhomme, UUCGV Green Team Member        

Kitty Tattersall was raised as a Unitarian Universalist. It is a big part of who she is. Her first memory of UUism is when she was five years old (1961). The members were meeting in a person’s house in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Many UU Fellowships across the country meet in people’s homes. Our own congregation has roots as such a Fellowship, when UU’s in the Grand Valley first started to get together over 50 years ago. Kitty recalls playing with blocks and other toys, and having a great time. Her UU experience has been positive all the way through to the present. 

Kitty feels like she often lacks self-confidence in social situations. Yet, Kitty is able to find a sense of belonging within Unitarian Universalism. Being an introvert is not so odd for UU’s and she’s able to fit in. We UU’s covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We try to cultivate a genuine sense of compassion and kindness. So, in other words Kitty says (humorously), they “have to” like me.

Kitty’s heart is especially attached to UUCGV. She appreciates the UUCGV because we are so welcoming. The people are so supportive. On Sundays she hears affirmative words from our wonderful minister, Rev. Wendy. (Our Congregation is a big reason why she recently chose to move back to the Grand Valley when she retired.) An instance that particularly touches Kitty’s heart comes from an earlier time when Kitty attended the Grand Valley UU from 1997 to 2010 – at this time we were calling ourselves the Uncompahgre Unitarian Universalist Society. Kitty was living in Delta, and would often carpool to the Congregation with Bill Theimer, one of our many beloved members who have passed. 

Kitty teared-up a little while telling this story. In 1998 the state legislature was taking public comments on domestic partnerships, and held hearings at various locations around the state. At the time, Kitty was in a long-term relationship with Tina Naugle. Duane Carr found out that the State would be holding a hearing in Grand Junction and asked if Kitty and Tina would be willing to testify. Duane and Arleta Carr really stepped up and supported them during this process, and they also testified at the hearing. Duane and Arleta are two of our beloved members who have passed yet are with us still, living on in our being, moving with us in our present and guiding us into our future. Kitty has always felt supported by our congregation.

Kitty is 65. She was raised mostly in Eugene, Oregon. Her sister, Ann was born in March of ‘51, her brother James in October of ‘53, and Kitty in June of ‘56. When James started school he would often take Kitty downstairs to the blackboard and teach her everything that he had just learned. So, when she started first grade, she already knew everything they were teaching, therefore they moved her into second grade after the first month. Kitty found it difficult to fit in with her new classmates – she was younger and could tell that she was behind them socially. It seemed like she was socially behind them throughout her school years. Kitty’s brother James died tragically when he was 12 years old. The family was living in Venezuela where Kitty’s dad was working as a visiting professor of economics, helping the Universidad de Los Andes in Merida set up a graduate program. On their way to visit Angel Falls, James was swimming in a hotel pool when he was electrocuted due to faulty wiring in the lights. It was a devastating loss for the family. It was horrible for Kitty to lose James – her brother was sweet and outgoing and she was very close to him.

Kitty had been planning to take a year off after high school. She didn’t know what she wanted to do, what she wanted to study. But she ended up getting a scholarship to the University of Oregon and couldn’t pass it up. It was free. Because she wasn’t decided on what to study, she ended up taking a variety of different subjects, whatever appealed to her. She lived in the dorm for a year, even though the University of Oregon is in Eugene, where her family lived. And then she took a year off. She worked at the Id Bookstore, near campus. After her gap year Kitty returned to school on the opposite side of the country, to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She took geology and political science and other various courses. She was still undecided about what she wanted to do, but she was beginning to think that it was more in science. So, after a year she headed back to the University of Oregon for another year of school. And then she started to think that maybe she should just get a job for a while. So, she focused on getting her college degree because she thought it would help her get a job. Kitty examined her transcripts, plotted a path toward graduation, and ended up with a degree in Latin American History. She was able to finish up after three years (and a gap year) because she had so many high school AP credits.

After Kitty completed her first stint at college, she joined the Hoedads. What are the Hoedads, you ask? Well... The Hoedads were an employee-owned co-op. They planted trees. Their name comes from a handy tree-planting tool called a hoedad. They arose from the counterculture movement of the early 70s. At their peak in the late 1970s, Hoedads Inc. had about 250 members and annual earnings over $6 million (adjusted) per year. They had nine different crews. Hoedad crews planted trees, dug fire lines, thinned timber stands, built bridges and fences, and cut forest trails in every state west of the Rockies. Kitty joined Hoedads in 1978 and left in 1983. She worked at various locations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and a few jobs in Colorado and California. They usually set up camp in the woods or an old gravel pit. Kitty was the treasurer for her treeplanting crew. Around 1980, her crew started doing contract timber stand exams and stocking surveys, which sample big trees and seedlings. 

If you want a great read check out this short article by one of Kitty’s favorite authors – Robert Leo Heilman (With a Human Face: When Hoedads Walked the Earth 
https://around.uoregon.edu/oq/with-a-human-face-when-hoedads-walked-the-earth)

I personally liked the article, and the idea of Hoedads, so much that I can’t help but throw in a few quotes from the article:
“the counterculture it was called, and though it presented itself in forms that were shocking to their parents and the House Un-American Activities Committee, it was, at heart, just an attempt to bring into the world a society that lived up to solidly American principles. Beneath the beards, beads, long hair, and odd forms of dress and speech, the hippies were merely young people who wanted to live according to the sorts of things they’d been brought up to cherish: freedom, equality, kindness, honesty – all the noble Sunday school and scouting values that, as children, they’d been taught to believe in, and which, they later discovered, were so very often either ignored or routinely violated in the conduct of our nation’s governance and business practices.”

“Developing ways of working together took a great deal of hard work in itself. It helped that there was money involved, since money provided a solid reason to organize. What helped the most though was compassion, the belief that everyone was truly equal and deserves to be treated as everyone else’s equal, not just in theory, but in fact. In large measure the co-op ran on respect as much, or more, than it did on manual labor and on money.”

“Both large-scale corporate capitalism and bureaucratic socialism as practiced during the 20th century lack compassion, joy, and affection – the very things that make human life worth living. It was a remarkably inhumane century filled with massive crimes against humanity committed in the names of capitalism and socialism. East or West, left or right, both undermined what people have always treasured the most, humane and loving relations with each other and with the Earth. Joy was always a big part of the Hoedad scene. Compassion does not merely lead to celebration, it demands it, and the Hoedads, if nothing else, knew how to celebrate.”

Kitty and I are heading up a movement to call all of the UUCGV volunteers, all of us, Hoedads. Join the Hoedads and work with joy, walking the world with a human face!

After Hoedads Kitty got a job as a summer seasonal employee for the Forest Service, at Brush Creek Work Center about 30 miles SE of Saratoga, Wyoming. In January 1984, she returned to school to study Forestry at the University of Montana.  During her school years Kitty continued to work at the Forest Service as a seasonal employee in Livingston and Missoula, Montana, and as an independent contractor.  Kitty completed the necessary credits to reach the level of Professional Forester in 1987.  That allowed her to apply for any jobs she wanted in the Forest Service.

In March 1988 Kitty moved to Ennis, Montana for a permanent USFS job. She wasn’t committed to a career in the Forest Service at the time, but it was a good fit and she ended up working for the agency for 34 years.  In 1992 she moved to Norwood, Colorado, and then to Delta in 1994. (Kitty likes living in small towns.) In 2010, Kitty moved to Payson, Arizona, and then in 2017 she moved to Roseburg, Oregon – and in 2020 Kitty retired from the Forest Service.

When Kitty began contemplating retirement and considering different locations to settle, Grand Junction kept pulling her strings – because of the access to so many wonderful spaces in the great outdoors, and her strong connection to the UUCGV. After looking at places throughout the Grand Valley, Kitty eventually bought a house in Fruita. Because of the circumstances, for the first few months back, her main connection to the UUCGV was through Zoom. Yet, it didn’t take her long to get involved at the church, helping out with leadership. Kitty discovered that we didn’t have a lead for the Stewardship Team this year, which was a perfect fit for her because she likes the finance side of things, working with budgets and figuring out how all the numbers fit together. She joined the finance team and volunteered to lead the Stewardship drive. She was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was, because when Kitty had volunteered in past years at her previous stop with our congregation, we did not have an administrator. Our wonderful do-it-all administrator, Maya, was a great help, and contributed to the success of the campaign in many ways, from offering good advice to creating and printing the brochure and other materials. Kitty enjoyed collaborating with Maya and Wendy, brainstorming – bouncing ideas back-and-forth until you come up with something better than either one of you could have done on your own. It’s a beautiful process. It’s fun!

Kitty enjoys being involved in governance – the sense of accomplishment that comes with getting things done, contributing to the life of the congregation. And she gets to work with inspiring, well-meaning people. Unlike most religions, we UU’s are self-governed. We vote to approve a governing body, and vote on important issues. We hire our own staff, including our minister. Our staff are crucial in helping us establish a beloved community and achieve our goals. At UUCGV our governance consists mainly of a Board of Directors that sets bylaws and policies and deals with finances, and the TLC (Team Leadership Circle) that focuses more on the daily operation of the church. We have various Teams and committees that work to accomplish specific goals. At the UUCGV we use respectful discussion to work toward consensus. We collaborate so that no one is left on an island. We try to make work fun and enjoy one another. Laughter is encouraged. Our process brings back memories for Kitty, from the time that she worked at Hoedads.

If you’re trying to get a hold of Kitty, there’s a pretty good chance she’s out hiking. Kitty feels most herself when she’s outside walking about. She particularly enjoys geocaching, which is an outdoor adventure – to play, one uses an app or a GPS device to find hidden containers called geocaches. Geocaching has grown to include over 3 million geocaches worldwide, in both urban and rural settings. When you find a geocache you open it up and sign the logbook. You can share your experience online. There are usually small swag items inside the geocache – toys, trinkets, keychains, etc. that you can exchange. (https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2018/03/what-is-geocaching/) 

Kitty was introduced to geocaching in 2003, when she found an army-surplus ammo can hidden in some rocks near Captain Smith's Cabin in Escalante Canyon near Delta, Colorado.  The fun of the search and thrill of discovery is still there after almost 20 years and 5000 cache finds.  There are many things Kitty likes about geocaching, including connecting with other geocachers, looking at maps to plan a caching trip- and often the cache takes her to a trail, view, or historic site that she never would have been to otherwise.  
Happy trails!

Life flows on...        in endless song...

Arbor Day, Earth Day, and Richard Nixon!?!
 
Arbor day:
In the 1840’s when Nebraska was still a territory with few trees for fuel, building, shade or protection from the wind, J. Sterling Morton moved to that treeless prairie, from Michigan. He and his wife began planting trees on their property immediately. Morton, a journalist, and later an editor for Nebraska’s first newspaper, advocated for planting trees and orchards to improve Nebraska’s economy and landscape.
 
In the early 1870’s he proposed that the new state set aside April 10th as a day to plant trees. He also suggested offering prizes to communities and organizations that planted the most trees properly. The idea was enthusiastically welcomed, and on April 10, 1874 the people of Nebraska planted about one million trees.
 
In 1882, Nebraska declared Arbor Day a state holiday and changed the date to April 22., Morton’s birthday. The idea spread quickly through the United States, and around the world. Today National Arbor Day is officially the last Friday of April, but is often celebrated at different times in different locations based on the local climate.
 
Arbor Day...is not like other holidays. Each of those reposes on the past,
while Arbor Day proposes for the future.
- J. Sterling Morton
Earth Day:
With the publication of “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, in 1962, awareness of ecological neglect and damage was rising. Damaging ecological effects were becoming more frequent, noticeable and concerning to Americans.
A few examples:
· Ohio’s Cuyahoga river caught fire in June 1969, not for the first time, as a result of industrial pollution being legally pumped into the river.
· Solid waste was being dumped into open trenches and unlined landfills, where it was often burned or leached pollutants in to ground water.
· Between 1947 and 1977 it is estimated that General Electric dumped 3 million pounds of PCB’s ( polychlorinated biphenyls into the Hudson River. This was just one of the companies legally dumping toxic waste into rivers across the country at the time.
· Birds, particularly birds of prey were being decimated by the effects of the use of DDT.
· Acid rain caused by emissions from power plants was reducing fish populations, and effecting crops, natural habitat and humans around the country.
· People were being harmed by the high level of lead in our air due to lead in gasoline.
 
But until the early 70’s protecting the environment was not part of our national political agenda. In the fall of 1969 Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student, managed to schedule a 10 minute meeting with Gaylord Nelson, US Senator from Wisconsin. Nelson had been talking up an idea for a national “teach-in” about environmentalism. That 10 minute meeting stretched into 2 hours. Hayes, looking for an internship or class project , ended up quitting school to become the coordinator of the student volunteers and a few of Nelson’s staff members to organize the first Earth Day.
 
Nelson’s vision was for a bipartisan effort and he recruited Republican Senator Paul McCloskey to serve as co chair. Nelson insisted that it be a decentralized event using the energy of schools, churches and community groups around the country to construct their own celebrations and actions. Minimal organization came from the DC based office, now dubbed “Environmental Teach-in”. April 22 was chosen as the date for the first Earth Day partly because it fell between Spring break and final exams, offering a greater chance of for involvement of young college and school age students. Coincidentally this was also Arbor Day, and many thought that the date may have been chosen for that fact as well.
 
According to the ‘Gaylord Nelson Collection’ at the University of Wisconsin:
“A commonly cited attendance figure for all Earth Day 1970 gatherings is 20 million. Realistically, the work of 9 people over 4 months could never have organized 20 million people. The accumulated estimates for public events in major cities amount to only a fraction of that figure. In truth, it would have been impossible to count Earth Day participants. Earth Day happened in so many corners and took so many forms that to capture its extent would have been as difficult for journalists in 1970 as it is for historians today.”
 
Not everyone was happy about this event. In fact President Richard Nixon became very paranoid about it, worrying that would be a bunch of anti war protesters getting together. According to Senator Paul McCloskey, he was so worried, that he had the FBI engage in surveillance of many of the events. McCluskey:
“I was friends with John Ehrlichman at that time, who was an environmental lawyer.” (referring to Nixon's domestic policy chief, who approved the Watergate break-in.) "And he called me after Earth Day — he was laughing as hard as I'd ever heard, and he said, 'Pete, I've got this report from [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover to deliver to the president tomorrow,' because the president was so paranoid that Earth Day was going to be a bunch of anti-war kids gathered that he had put them under surveillance by the FBI,"
"He read me part of the report: ‘There's a bunch of girls with flowers in their hair, and they're wearing only three garments, no bras, And it was very benign. They were a little drunk, [there was] a little pot, maybe a little love out under in the bushes, but these girls sat in the grass patting their dogs, and it was a very benign affair." "He was laughing about having to give this report to Nixon," ….McCloskey said.
Though the report was benign, its effects were not. On April 14, 1971, Nelson and former Senator Edmund Muskie, both Earth Day organizers, released copies of the FBI reports, revealing the surveillance. The reports were the latest in a series of stolen or released documents detailing FBI surveillance of U.S. citizens through a program called COINTELPRO. After the resulting Senate hearings, Hoover said he would severely curtail such FBI surveillance.)
 
The enormous and enthusiastic turn out for the first Earth Day, was estimated to be one tenth of the United States population at the time. The resulting calls for change by the public, lead to the Congress passing the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, as well as, President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, creating the Environmental Protection Agency.
 
According to Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, “this is the major thing that turned Nixon around, it scared the hell out of him”.
 
Today Earth Day is celebrated around the world. Perhaps not with the enthusiasm of the first celebration but the spirit continues. New environmental dangers are being recognized, people continue to be educated and, hopefully, issues are addressed.
 
This year UUCGV Green team will be showing an environmental film addressing the importance of clean and abundant water, on Earth Day, at our local library, We have secured interest and sponsorship from the ‘Grand Valley Interfaith Network’ .
 
This is a FREE event. The hope is to turn this into something of a film fest or series in the future, to inspire not only awareness and action in our community, but joy for the wonderful earth we live on.
 
We hope that you will attend:
‘H2O: the molecule that made us’ April 23, 2022 at 3:00 pm at Mesa County Central Library.
 
Written by Debbie Buchele, who is proud to have possibly been under surveillance by the FBI when she helped plan and organize a two day Earth Day celebration, as a student at Fargo South High School, including speakers, panel discussion and some great films.

In November 2016, three UUCGV congregants traveled to the No Dakota Access Pipeline (#NoDAPL) protests.  When they later presented a worship service about their experience, my eyes started to open to the injustices that are occurring, the urgency to stand up against these injustices, and the beauty of the community that is standing up for the earth and our survival as a species. 
 
Since that time, I have gradually become convinced that even though changes in our personal habits to reduce our carbon footprint are important, even more crucial is joining our voices in community and becoming a part of a movement to pressure the large-scale changes that are needed to save us.  This year, I have set myself a goal to learn more about and provide more support to the Indigenous-led movement to protect land and water and to keep carbon in the ground.
 
Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe notes that “Seventy-three percent of people in the United States agree the planet is warming... And 62 percent of Americans recognize that the main reason for this warming is human activity; specifically, burning fossil fuels (that’s about three-quarters of the problem) and deforestation and agriculture (that’s most of the other quarter).”  With a plethora of renewable energy options available to us today, it is vitally important to put a stop to new fossil fuel infrastructure and pipelines.   Indigenous groups have been playing a leading role in standing up against these projects:  a recent analysis found that, “Indigenous resistance has stopped or delayed greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual U.S. and Canadian emissions.”
 
This grassroots Indigenous movement is also working to open our eyes to the beautiful values that guided people for millennia before the modern era brought in the disastrous cycle of consumption and pollution that has brought us to the crisis we are in today.  As Tara Houska-Zhaabowekwe, a Couchiching First Nation Ojibwe, writes, “I suggest we do far, far more to address our values– the core principles that guide us…Across many Indigenous teachings and cultures, several threads weave in and out, creating similar patterns and core understandings…These are values centered in balance, in life, not in human fallacy.  They are values that require commitment and self-sacrifice.  Humility, recognition of fragility and our place in the circular framework of nature, empathy, courage, respect– those are just a few threads of the many values that are meant to guide us through the whole of our lives.” 
 
Unitarian Universalists have been active allies of Indigenous land defenders and water protectors for years.  A December 2021 UU World article describes much of this involvement, including UU involvement in the #NoDAPL protest and more recently in the Stop Line 3 protest in Minnesota. To join with other UUs in supporting the Indigenous resistance against carbon, go to the webpage for the UU Ministry for Earth (uumfe.org) and subscribe to their emails.  Here you can learn about letter-writing/petition-signing opportunities, protest opportunities, movie viewings to raise money for Indigenous-led climate justice organizations, and more. 
 
Indigenous activists in North America are currently resisting fossil fuel projects equal in pollution to 400 new coal-fired power plants.  Imagine if more of us joined our voices with these Indigenous activists and helped turn the tide of public opinion against such projects.  Imagine if these projects could no longer get funding or insurance or political support to move forward.  Now THAT would be reducing our collective carbon footprint!
 
- Elizabeth High, UUCGV Green Team
 
Reference details from this article are available at :
www.grandvalleyuu.org/green-team

   Have you seen the butterfly fairy fluttering around the UUCGV building, conspiring with hummingbirds and bees, musing from blossom to blossom? With a serene smile, she stoops and bends, she kneels amongst the green, a Woman of God kneading the soil, a flower-child caressing the leaves, love flowing from her fingertips, sprouting delight, all around her flourishing colors of the rainbow bright.

     If you listen faithfully you can hear, Joanie Mitchell singing – vibrations, joyful, near:
“we are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden”.
 
     Ann Barrett opened her arms (revealed her wings) and volunteered to tend the UUCGV garden this past year. She also recently volunteered to lead our Green Team, which gets together to tend to the Earth. Ann is grateful to be a part of the UUCGV community. She appreciates the camaraderie, the relationship with like-minded people. She enjoys the intellectual stimulation. She loves the sacred nature that is nurtured here, and the inspiration she receives from the Services. She feels that we fill her need for a spiritual connection, that we are blessed with a magnificent Minister. Many of you don’t know Ann, because she’s just recently become more active in the congregation; however, she’s been fluttering around the Grand Valley UU’s for decades – since 1973. Over that span her participation in the church has waxed and waned like a long, drawn-out cycle of the moon.

     The more you converse with her the more her carefully cultivated, subtle sense of humor comes out to play. Yet, now is the time to bend the story back a few moons, to her beginning. Ann was born at the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Her mother had contracted tuberculosis during World War II, so she had to be quarantined away from Ann. Ann was cared for by a special Navy intern, whom her mother and father said really loved her, and cared for her during the first three months of her life. After that they moved to Glasgow, Kentucky to live with her grandmother. Then she received extra special care from George, the dog. Because of the Navy, her family moved around a lot during her early years.

     Ann had three sisters and a brother; she was the oldest, and of course THE BOSS. When Ann was 12 years old her family settled in Ventura, California. Her father (who was an engineer) took a job at Point Mugu Naval Base. Although their house was a little rough around the edges (the girls slept upstairs in an unfinished room) their father bought it because it had such beautiful views of the ocean, and it had space for five kids. He was also impressed that it had an intercom system. The entire family was awakened early every morning by a loud recording of reveille. Over the first few years, Ann‘s mother remodeled the house into a wonderland – the upstairs enclave for the girls was perfect. Ann could hear the ocean from her bed at night; it was so comforting. And then the trumpets blaring in the morning!

     Ann was an extremely shy child, perhaps as a result of moving so often at a young age. One day while playing games at church someone accidentally “stepped on” her face. She saw stars and nearly passed out, but didn’t cry until she went into the bathroom, looked into the mirror and saw that her nose was bent off to the side. She had to wear a pink mask for weeks – so everyone in middle school noticed her for the first time. (Maybe somewhere in her subconscious she realized that if she could handle the attention from this embarrassing situation, and that it wasn’t half bad, she could muster the courage to come out of her shell.) Anyway, when she entered high school, she was bound and determined to try and reach out and be more social. She auditioned to become a pom-pom girl. Being a pom-pom girl and performing in front of crowds boosted her self-confidence. As she settled into her life in Ventura, she became more outgoing.

     Ann attended the local Ventura Junior-College for two years, with most of her friends. She then spent one miserable semester at Fresno State, until she received a scholarship to the University of California, Santa Barbara, which is 30 miles from Ventura. This was the late 60s, so yes, Ann was a bit of a flower child, grateful for the seasons of love, turning, turning. She ended up with a degree in medieval literature simply because that is the direction that the most interesting classes carried her.

     Yet, during her spirited college days, Ann also saw a lot of stupid things happening. Violence broke out at some of the antiwar protests. There were riots in the evenings. During one of the riots, Ann witnessed an event which she will never forget. She was walking home from a late class and noticed a big group of people near her apartment. (She lived on Sabado Tarde street, Spanish for Saturday Afternoon.) All of a sudden, a boy threw a Molotov cocktail into the crowd. Someone identified him and the crowd quickly turned into a mob. Practically right at her feet, they had a knife to his throat, ready to kill him. Ann and others who were more sane in the moment started yelling – STOP. Fortunately, at that time there were enough of them horrified by the mindless violence that they were able to prevent the guy from getting killed. Also, around this time some idiot set a bomb in the professor’s lounge and a janitor was killed when he went in to clean. Then a copycat bomber decided to one-up that, and blew the Bank of America building to smithereens. These events brought martial law to town. Eventually, the National Guard came too; but they were mostly young men who just drove around in dump trucks during the day, ogling the girls.

     After a whirlwind romance, Ann got married after graduating from college in 1970. They moved to Grand Junction in 72, after Mike finished his alternate service for being a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. It wasn’t easy adjusting to the conservative atmosphere of Grand Junction, but she had a small group of close friends, some from the Unitarian Congregation. What Ann liked about Grand Junction was the farming community. She strode into an adventure, venturing to raise awareness, to bring people into alignment with their connection to nature. She got involved trying to bring solar energy to the Valley “but, well, Reagan put a hold on that”. Her son Alex was born in 1975, and she divorced about nine months later. Ann was a single mother for nine years; her mother-in-law was a big help. She married Ed and they were together for 23 years but trying to be in business together drove a wedge between them. They are still friends. He and his wife still come over for dinner occasionally, and they all get along well, as long as they don’t talk about business or food (they are both adamant vegans).

     When Ann was 50 years old, she started the business of Meadowlark Gardens. It was a lot of hard work. It took up a lot of her time. (Which is why she didn’t attend the UU church during this period of her life.) Running a plant nursery/garden center is like doing farming and retail, which are both very demanding business enterprises in themselves. Yet, she loved every minute of it. She noticed some people would come just to be amongst the plants, like a botanical garden, not planning to buy anything. Yet Ann didn’t mind and actually found fulfillment in this – providing them the space to find peace of mind and experience joy in the garden. This is what she loved about the business, after all, being amongst the plants and spreading the love of all things sprouting green and wonderfully growing. Her way of tending to the Earth. (FYI, the beautiful fountain on our UUCGV patio was donated by Ann.)
​
     In 2015, after dating for several years, Ann and Frank agreed to adorn their plot and get married. Ann gained two stepsons, John and Tom. They have lived in their home on Mayfield Drive for three years now.

     A few years ago, Ann concluded that it was time to close up shop, say goodbye to Meadowlark Gardens, and deploy her green thumbs elsewhere. The economy wasn’t making things easy, and 70 was just around the corner, so she let it go and embraced retirement. She let her eyes wander, searching for spaces in need of pure fertilization, places where she could keep her hands working, spreading the joy of the Garden. Nature, she’s still digging it. She’s found many wonderful places to volunteer. She even hit the sound waves, helping with a radio program on KAFM called “Diggin’ The Garden.

     The projects most beloved by Ann involve working (playing) with children. She is currently working with a group of friends to get garden clubs started in the schools. They formed a club last year that was a great success. The kids loved it, even showing up early in the morning to weed. This is such wonderful, important, experience for the kids. Ann’s group just met with the local Colorado State University Extension Office to convince them to help spread the garden club program further into the local school system. They are excited about this prospect.

     People get so much joy from living organisms. You love your dog or your cat, yet you get such a reward from growing plants, whether from the harvest or simply being in the midst of their beauty or their shade. Ann gets so much fulfillment from revealing the secret that should be so obvious, that the garden brings peace of mind. The garden brings a satisfaction with self that cannot be found in technology. So many people are living virtual lives, finding it hard to sleep and becoming depressed. Ann wants to show the children the joy that can be found out-of-doors. Ann wants to awaken a world that has forgotten the wonder of being – of being in relationship with the Garden.

Life flows on...      in endless song…

Happy December, UUCGV Family! 
​
     What a blessing to celebrate another holiday season together this year, whether “together” means in person or virtually. Even if our fellowship looks different this year than what we’re accustomed to, there are so many pieces of the holidays that we still share, in the traditional sense of togetherness. 

     The trees along Main Street are twinkling with lights, and Santa & Mrs. Clause can be seen moseying around downtown on the weekends, greeting folks with smiles. Perhaps there’s snow on the ground as you read this, or maybe a menorah stands ready for candles in your home. Perhaps a Yule log will be placed on your fire soon.

     Whatever songs, symbols, rituals, traditions, or ceremonies create your holiday experience, remember that there are so many of us who share in those sacred, intimate experiences—and yes, I’m referring to hot cocoa and carriage rides as sacred, intimate experiences. Whatever this season looks like for you, I celebrate the joy that you find. Whether we’re in different buildings or different cities, we are still together. 

Hugs and love, 
Laurel Carpenter

What a privilege it is to step into the role of UUCGV President! My years serving in the leadership of our congregation have been a great balance of joys and challenges, and *this* year promises to level up the fun!

For those of you who I haven’t gotten to know closely yet, here are a few details about me. I’m a mom of elementary & middle school kiddos, a Registered Nurse, a 5-generation GJ native, a Miami girl at heart, a writer & artist, a serial entrepreneur, an activist, a fly fisher, a crazy chicken lady, a Unitarian Universalist, and a dreamer.

Our congregation has filled spaces in my life that I didn’t even know needed filled. The faces & voices & arms of our congregants have been my lifeline during some of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced. Now, as a leader, I look forward to embodying that steadfast love for each of you, in return.

Just as UUCGV lifts each of us up as an individual, our congregation is also a leader in our community. We’ve often been the one to speak out with our collective voice, open up our campus and our resources, and problem solve the challenges that evolve anew each day, for our broader Grand Junction community. My highest commitment as your new president is to continue all of these outstanding traditions of living into our Unitarian Universalist values. Together we’ll grow and thrive in whatever ways our congregation chooses. 

As we enter this new church year, I encourage each congregant to envision what our church could accomplish this year, how our church can contribute to your life, and how you can invest yourself in our church. Now that you have that vision in your mind, what are the action steps to make it happen? What do you need in order to make those action steps possible?

I can’t wait to hear what ideas and needs you have, and to work together for each of us to live our best lives, together. Thank you for trusting me to help steer our church family through whatever comes next.
   ___________________________________________________________________________
P.S. I can’t wait to get to know you (yes you!) better. I may not always be available for in-person events, due to the nature of my work and my commitment to my family, but if you’d like to connect online, find me at https://www.facebook.com/laurelripplecarpenter or http://www.laurelcarpenter.com or cinnamon06@aol.com.