Earthblog

Photos Courtesy of Susan Hazel Rich

On Saturday, December 11th, The FREEdom Market will be taking over The Bean Cycle and Matter Bookstore, filling the space with handmade crafts created by local artists. This year, the FREEdom Market is adding a second location - the Old Town sewing shop, Mama Said Sew.

The FREEdom Market is a juried arts and crafts fair that can only happen in a donated space. There are no fees or commissions for the artists selected, but they are all asked to volunteer their time to set-up, clean-up, and promote the event.

The market will feature 20 local artists selling their handcrafted jewelry, ceramics, household items, accessories, and art.  Grab a cup of freshly roasted joe at The Bean Cycle, check out Matter Bookstore’s new books, and browse Mama Said Sew’s unique and beautiful fabric, all the while supporting the community of local crafters and artists.  You might want to set aside the whole day for this event!

Visit the FREEdom Market Facebook page here.

WHEN:
Saturday, December 11^th, 2010
9am-4pm

WHERE:

The Bean Cycle/ Matter Bookstore
144 N. College Ave

Mama Said Sew
121 E. Mountain Ave.

There’s a hub of radical activity at the east end of Laurel Street in Fort Collins. As Garrett Carr describes it, “there’s a whole slew of visions, it’s not just my vision, everyone comes here with a new vision. Primarily this place is just a venue, it’s just a big, empty square and we filled it up with resources. We have tools, we have information books, we have internet, we have different people who come and teach classes and provide information, we have documentary nights to increase awareness.”

I walk east down Laurel. Houses and lots shrink, traffic thins out, and fewer cars line the street. As Laurel comes to an end just shy of Riverside, the zoning shifts and chain link fences guard some garages and dirt lots full of cars to be repaired, trailers, and other equipment. A red truck bounces through a gate kicking up dust and setting off a sort of welcome horn blast.

I continue, heading into an open garage door where a few young guys drift in and out on bicycles or to their vehicles with handfuls of tools. A young woman says hello as she leaves. Welcome to Hammer Time! Projects.

Garrett, one of the founders of Hammer Time!, tells me to look around. The place is clean, organized, labeled. The west wall of the garage backs bookshelves reaching about a dozen feet into the air. The shelves are labeled for borrowing, sometimes with drawings playfully referencing the sections. Edgy philosophy books, books on hippie culture, and other revolutionary movements, other marginalized populations. It’s a good collection.

Photo by Jordan Twiggs

What would it be like to create an urban homestead at New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat? A homestead with chickens, gardens, greywater buckets, rainwater barrels, a few Wolverine Farmer’s and a kitchen to center all the hustle and bustle?

Even with an estimated 80,000 dams in the United States, seasonal floods still happen, and this was the case for Wolverine Farm Publishing’s DIY Urban Homestead at the launch of New Belgium Brewing’s 2010 Tour de Fat in Chicago. Thanks to a heavy rain the night before, our homestead was literally under water when we arrived at Palmer Square Park in Chicago, Illinois on June 26^th. We scooped and pushed the water off the 25’x 30’ canvas our homestead is painted on.  The park was full of bicyclists waiting to go on the bike parade and we were scrambling to salvage our homestead, like so many settlers before us. While the parade took off for a 45-minute ride, we used our Bicycle Water Pump to siphon off the rest of the water, and prepared for the cyclists to return.

We built our homestead to inspire and ignite conversations about self-reliant urban living. We see and read dozens of new books each year at our bookstore about this very subject—why not have a traveling road show, too?  When the bicyclists returned we talked chickens, gardening, water conservation, and canning all day long while a full festival of wonderment pulsed around us. Our bicycle water pump proved reliable and awe-inspiring, and while we pedaled to make water fall, we ruminated on how much water it takes to make one automobile (over 39,000 gallons!). Who needs to be involved in an equation like that?  We got to show off the new issues of Matter and Boneshaker, and we even had returning customers from last year! Unbelievable joy!

Chicago, thanks for being our first pancake, and good luck with those chickens.