Fifty-Five - Spring Cleaning + Online Resources + a little less paper

This is a hodgepodge week. I don't feel like each one in itself is good for a week, but all of these are things we did not do/utilize last year.

Swaps
The clothing swap was a fabulous event and I am loving my new threads. I also wanted to shout out a couple of resources that we have signed up for accounts online that have helped us to give and get cool secondhand stuff.

Twins Cities Free Market - Powered by Eureka! Recycling. It's a lot like the free section from Craiglists. People giving away a lot of furniture, household items, some bikes, toys, anything! You can also great listings for things in good condition that you want to get rid of. 

Freecycle Network - Guthrie and I just picked up a humidifier on this cite. Something we wanted all winter, but with some patience and timing, we will have one for next winter that was free, in the 'hood, and did not end up in a landfill just because someone didn't need it anymore (they are moving away to better winters). Not only can you search and browse what people are giving away, but you can also request items. 

Connecting with our Community - Online
Guthrie and I are finding some great new ways of being in touch with our community. While living in Atlanta, there was a message board for people who lived in the neighborhood where I worked. I joined the group to help aid in projects for Everyday Leaders, the service-learning after school club I facilitated. Here in Minneapolis there is a very cool online resource called E-Democracy -- a site for local politics and action in Minnesota. It's like an online "town hall". Read more about its mission here. We are in the group dedicated to all things Powderhorn. Like any online group, you can receive messages a little or as much as you want--I get nice email digest once a day at 3 pm and click on the posts that are relevant to mean. Guthrie and I learned about the Take Back the Night Vigil, PoHo events, info related to Powderhorn 365, history about our neighborhood, and general requests. We also recently made a request for compost and a neighborhood who is unable to garden this year due to housework has generously donated to us and Paradise Garden.

Along Chicago -- Main Street Market

Powderhorn 365
I realized last week we have not mentioned this. Guthrie got involved in this project last summer when looking on Flickr for photo groups related to PoHo. The project is awesome. Each day of the week a photographer is assigned to take one photo within the neighborhood and post it to the blog. There are more than one photo per day on the Flickr account, but the blog gives a very nice running history of the blog. It celebrates the people and businesses that are from Lake to 38th, Chicago to Cedar. Guthrie is sometimes featured as a "guest" photographer on the days that the regulars are unable to fulfill their duties. Look at his work for this year here. At the end of the year, a book is created of the 365 photos. They are for purchase online at the website as well. Guthrie has met some cool neighbors through this project and some, including Guthrie, are going to documenting the work at the Paradise Community garden this summer.

Check Register
Guthrie just announced today as he was balancing the check book that we need a new register, but we don't have any more in the drawer. Sadly, my first instinct was to do what we would normally do, order more. But then I said, I'm sure we can do this on the computer. Sure enough, Microsoft Excel has check register workbooks. It's great because we can categorize as we go for budgeting and it does the math for us. I know this is simple and almost silly, but it's a good reminder how there are still so many little changes we can make.

Alright, all of those little things make up our 55th post. Peace!