The Earth Day in Sherman, Texas, scheduled for April 20th at the Sherman Municipal Grounds, offers opportunities for the public to learn about a variety of topics. The workshops will be held in two tents on the grounds and will run simultaneously. You can learn about native plants, rain water harvesting, container gardening, building with compressed earth blocks or how to make your own laundry soap and dishwasher detergent.
Key Note Speaker for the 2013 festival is Terry Jensen of DFW Ecovillage. DFW Ecovillage is in the planning stages. The sustainable community will be built in Hunt County. Homes will be built from compressed earth blocks and will include solar energy and rainwater harvesting. Residents will practice permaculture to help support the community. While in the planning stages, the principles of the community are conducting workshops to educate potential residents in all of the aspects of sustainable living.
The morning will kick off with a workshop intended for children and adults and is offered by Rachel Van Citters and Reah Easley, members of the Bois D' Arc Master Naturalists. Mother Nature and Old Timer Raccoon will talk about the native animals that youngsters may encounter in the North Texas area. Primary discussion will be about mammals, raccoons, opossums, skunks, coyotes, and other local rural and urban dwellers. Focus will be on what to do and not do if you encounter a wild creature and encourage respect for all living things. A panel of participants in the Tar Sands Panel protests will discuss their experiences and the dangers of this specific pipeline. Lanny Joe Burnett is a Poet, Storyteller Extraordinaire. His workshop is for all ages and will include poems, stories, and songs with a few tips for writing and performing included in the mix. Lanny Joe Burnett was raised on a ranch in Fannin County, Texas. The son of 5th generation Texans, he learned at an early age the responsibility of being a steward of the land. After graduating from East Texas State University, Lanny Joe taught school, was a ski instructor, raced motorcycles, worked as a cook, and was a sales trainer and motivator. He's been a cowboy all his life. He can't help it; it's in the blood. Lanny Joe has performed at venues across the United States, in Western Europe, Central Asia, and in the galley of a 777, high above the Atlantic Ocean. His poems and performances have won best of show at gatherings in Texas and Oklahoma. Several times, the Academy of western Artists and the Western Music Association have nominated him as "Cowboy Poet of the Year". The Western Legends Roundup Poetry Rodeo in Kanab, Utah honored him with first place in their competition. The Natives “What We Overlook” workshop between 2:30 and 3:20 pm will address the differences between ornamental, horticulture and natural / naturalized plants. Richard Bayless will teach the benefits of "Wild Things" and what constitute "Junk Trees and weeds". Bayless has been a resident of Sherman for 16 years. Richard started gardening as a child in his backyard. He studied Horticulture at Skyline CDC and Richland CC, both in Dallas. He worked for eight years as a Nursery Professional / Horticulturist at North Haven Gardens in Dallas and for two years at Twin Oaks Nursery in Denison. He has worked in Plano at TruGreen LawnCare as a Lawn Technician. Since 2009 he has been employed as a gardener for an estate in Grayson County. He is a founding member of the Sherman Community Garden, started in 2008, and a member of the Texoma Parks and Trails Association. Rick and Sharon Reece, owners and managers of Cypress Lake Ranch, LLC near Bonham, TX, are international speakers and seminar coordinators. They have authored one book and are working on two more. Their workshop, titled Reuse, Recycle Container Gardening is from 3:30 pm to 4:20 pm. The workshop will focus on Container Gardening with an emphasis on reusing and recycling containers. They will also include a short talk about growing heirloom plants. Rick has a BS in Industrial Education from TAMU - Commerce and Sharon has a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The ranch provides healthy, naturally grown produce and eggs to local residents and Dallas area residents through their partnership with Squeezepenny CSA. Cypress Lake Ranch grows primarily heirloom varieties and does not use pesticides.
The second workshop tent will feature workshops on rain barrels, grassfed beef and making your own laundry and other soaps. Rain Barrels & More will be presented twice, 9:50 to 10:40 am and 1:30 to 2:20 pm. According to workshop presenter Gil Alexander of Two Bears Ranch, blue plastic barrels have a variety of uses around a farm, ranch, or home. The plastic barrels that are blue in color are extremely resistant to UV rays and may be counted on to last 6-10 years in direct sunlight. Examples of the following will be shown: raised bed garden in half barrels, strawberry bed barrels, dog house barrels, water gap solution barrels, mineral feeder barrels, and rain barrels. The workshop will include a demonstration on how to make your own rain barrels. Barrels will be available for purchase for $15 each. Gil Alexander grew up in Sherman and graduated from Sherman High School in 1962. He and his wife, Marilyn, obtained BS and MS degrees from East Texas State University in Commerce in 1965-67. They moved to Montana for him to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Montana. Following educational pursuits, both became science teachers in Helena, Montana. At mid-career, they founded the Montana Science Institute, which gained national recognition for their efforts in teaching field research methods to teachers and students in the field of Water Quality and Resource Management. They returned to the family ranch outside of Achille, OK in 2005 where they now reside. Wes Adams has been farming and ranching in northeast Texas for 30 years. His workshop GrassFed Beef: Healthy, Environmentally Responsible, Local Food is from 12:30 pm to 1:20 pm. Adams will explain the health aspects of grassfed beef. He is an expert on how to use grassfed beef as a part of an environmentally sound land management system. He has been active in bilogical farming methods for his entire career through use and development of cover crop strategies in rotation with crops and grass as well as use of biological soil amendments to build healthy soil. Wes's seed business dates back 28 years; he has developed his own line of native organic legume seed and a pasture mix of introduced legumes for which customers have returned for many years. He is listed as a contributor to the book, Managing Cover Crops Profitably, third edition 2007, from the Sustainable Agriculture Network. He gives soil and pasture workshops at Good Earth Organic Farm of Celeste Texas. He also contributes research data to Watson Ranch Organics of Hawkins Texas. He attended Austin College in 1980 and 1981 after which he retired from formal higher education to pursue a career in farming. Adams Blackland Prairie Farm, located just outside of Ladonia Texas farm produces certified organic grains, legume and grass seed and Grassfed Beef which they sell direct to the consumer. Holistic Resource Management has been used as the guiding force in the ongoing process of making the farm an economically sustainable resource base. They have been awarded two conservation security program contracts by NRCS in the past six years. The Adams are members of the Grassfed Livestock Alliance, a group of ranchers from Texas and Oklahoma who are committed to providing grassfed beef to local markets. The group has been under contract to sell grassfed beef to Whole Foods Markets Southwest for the last five years - all of the grassfed beef at the meat markets in all Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana Whole Foods is produced by the group.
For the complete workshop schedule, please visit www.earthdaytexoma.org.