Living Organ Donation

Over the past years I have been drawn more and more to doing what I can to help the people around me who need it. It has become something I love. The Donation Gardens was the first truly larger scale project that I was able to get off the ground and since then my path has led me to something very singular, organ donation.

My decision to become a living organ donor happened as many such things do, in a sweeping motion that seemed to need almost no effort from myself. I was reading and doing research online when I came across the Trillium Gift of Life website and noticed one of the links on there to the living donor page. The page itself told of the possibilities of the process, yet was very vague on how to initiate it. I went on my way for a few months, not looking to the website but always thinking about it.

After these months I decided to put out an email to Trillium to see what it was about. A day later I had a response with two email addresses, one for living Kidney donation, and one for living Liver donation. A day after that I had sent and received emails from both of the doctors with info for their respective departments. In a matter of days I had my first appointments set up in Toronto for testing and the process was underway, with what seemed to be a will of its own.

 The process, which seemed very alien to me, was not very well documented online and I could not find any accounts of previous donors about the process of donating itself. All of the accounts were of the actual surgery and recovery period. I decided to make a video blog about the donation process, how it happens, the things that have to be done and the impact one emotional, social, and financial environments. I have since been posting these vlogs on Youtube and am happy that some people have seen them. Hopefully they will help others who are faced with the decision of becoming a living donor.

I must say that this experience isn't how I had thought it would be. This is particularly true of people reactions to this whole process, from my decision to the surgery itself. Of the people I have told about it only a small handful have had a positive reaction. The majority of people actually react by talking at about how they cannot do it for one reason or another. Another common reaction is saying that it is a bad idea, that Im not thinking it through, or that I can donate when I am dead! Haha!

The financial consequences of doing this is such that I may lose my job when I go in for surgery. I haven't been able to confirm that my employer will keep me on the books when I’m in recovery, or that Ill be guaranteed any hours when I am back from the recovery, 8-12 weeks after surgery. There has also been a withdrawal from some of the closest people to me financially and physically. It has been challenging in this regard, mostly because of a sense of loneliness that comes when you are doing something without the support of those closest to you.

There has been a lot of support during this process however. My sister has driven me down to the hospital when I have had appointments, and her friends were kind enough to let us stay there over night. There is also a very good support system in place at the transplant clinic whose job it is to make sure you are doing OK with everything emotionally and financially.

This has been a grand journey for me thus far. A recipient still has to be found and a surgery date set. But I am looking forward to the whole process being played out. I wish every person who is currently waiting for an organ the best and pray that there will be someone there to aid them in their journey. I love you and thank you for reading this.

Peace

~Danial McCoy

Farming and Kittens

Farming and Kittens

I was very happy to have been able to spend a couple days recently with one of my best friends on his new farm. Being a country boy at heart I was simply overjoyed to be able to connect with the land again. My friend John is getting his farm established and right now has quite a good assortment of livestock, from pigs and ducks to rabbits and gorgeous highland cows.

While I was there I helped to build a couple more pig pens and pulled fence posts from a field to re-purpose them in the pens. I also milked a goat he has and drank some milk right out of the pale, something I haven’t done since I was a kid. It was great!

There were also a couple farm kittens there that were extremely cute. One is black and the other is grey. They are polydactyl cats with 6+ toes on each front foot. I played with them as much as I could and also was able to get some video of them playing around. I love cats!

 

All in all it was an amazing visit and I look forward to going back to help out again. I hope to have some land of my own one day. I definitely did not want to come home to the rat race of Huntsville after being there.

Mushroom Mania

 I have been fascinated by mushrooms for years! How they appear out of seemingly nowhere, how delicate and sublimely beautiful. They embody the whimsical nature of fantasy, and yet in many cases cause people to steer clear for fear of poisoning. They are brief in their existence and so have generated a sense of mystery to use humans who eat certain varieties for both culinary and vision inducing purposes.

Oh how I love mushrooms! I have been photographing them over the last few years. It is like a grand treasure hunt for the smallest of wonders. I often find them in the strangest and most remote places on my treks through the forest. Under rotting logs, inside old trees, high up on a rock face, everywhere you can imagine!

 Each new find causes an inspiration in me that brings new drawings to life. Ideas of little worlds and whole civilizations that live in the shroomy forest grow in my mind until they find a way out into the world through words or art. I have created a whole world with a race called the Wee’Ones, a tiny species of ‘people’ that are intimately connected to the mushrooms of the forest. They embody the jovial side of human nature that seeks to come out in the most awkward and inopportune times. They are pranksters and poets and architects of grand structures of small stature. Indeed I do spend quite some time in my mind walking through the simple dwelling and vaulted cathedrals of the small mushrooms of the forest.

As it turns out, there are many people who are drawn to this strange flora. It seems that humans are deeply connected to this mystical plant and are drawn to it in many different ways. Either through food or art or games, sometimes stories; there is always a way in which we can enjoy mushrooms. 

In the last year I have started to use a wood lath and quickly found myself drawn to making mushrooms on it. These little wooden sculptures caused quite a stir among some of my friends and I was urged to continue to explore making mushrooms on the lathe. One slow work day I was sitting at with my ideas sketch book and was drawing out different shapes when an idea came, why could I not make an incense burner that was also a mushroom? Needless to say, I was smitten with some kind of mushroom frenzy until I finally got a design that I liked. I went off to the lathe and created a bunch of different incense burners. I tested different styles and configurations and am continuing to refine them slowly.

 I took the first two I had made down to some friends working  the local new age store, lit up some incense and watched them both smile from ear to ear. After thirty minutes of talk and watching the smoke curl up and around the mushroom caps I walked out of there with a handful of money and short two mushrooms. 

 

As is usually the case with me, I got excited about this and went out to buy all the supplies I would need to streamline the whole process. I made ten more mushrooms on the lathe and then…I found something else to get excited about! OK, so this is not new for me but it is very funny that I now have ten mushroom incense burners sitting all over the place. I do hope to get back up to the shop and make some more, maybe sell them to local shops, or even put them on eBay.

My mushroom Mania comes and goes from time to time but it is always there in the background. Whether I’m drawing, photographing, researching, or growing them they are always there in the back of my mind, inviting me to engage in another fantasy that could take me, well, anywhere!

Organic Community Gardening

Last year was the first year of the Donation Garden Project that I started in order to grow food for some local charities, the Table food Bank, and Chrysalis Women’s Shelter. The last two summers have taught me a lot about organizing community and volunteer events, long term volunteer management as well as opening me up to a variety of new gardening challenges.

The donation Garden Project originally wasn’t meant to be at all. I had intended to create a rooftop gardening initiative in Huntsville which got downsized to a living wall project when I realized that the resources simply were not there to commit to such a large project as rooftop gardening. Then  after some time the vertical gardening idea collapsed under the weight of permits, bylaws and again, money.

It was around this time that I saw an article in the local paper that was announcing the first meeting of what would become the Huntsville environment group, and later on, Transition Town Huntsville Muskoka. At the meeting I put both my proposals out for the rooftop and vertical gardening projects. They were both well received and there was even talk about fund raising for various ‘green’ projects, these included.

It became readily apparent that any funds that were to come would come at a much later time and so I switched yet again to focus on a more mainstream gardening method, and the Donation Garden Project was born. The environment group volunteered their time and labor to help with the creation of the first gardens. In total we had four gardens tended sporadically by six to ten people on and off throughout the summer. I was overseeing three of the gardens and so I spent my time going to each and making sure that they were kept up.

By the end of the harvest that year (2011) we had collected and donated just over one thousand pounds of food to the local charities. What put us over that mark was an apple picking day that we organized to pick apples from a local untended orchard in Huntsville. Nearly two hundred and fifty pounds of apples were collected and donated.

This year saw a change in the structure of the project with all but one of the garden being taken in other charitable directions. The garden that remains this year is being tended by my mother and myself and has been truly spectacular in both the way it has been tended and how little labour and resources it has required.

We have grown squash, tomatoes, broccoli and potatoes this year, which is one third of the variety that was planted last year. Refining our selection of the plants allowed us to specialize in how each one was planted. Where last year the planting was chaotic and haphazard, this summer the planting was quite orderly with great consideration for the plants individual needs.

I focused on making the garden both low maintenance and water efficient. As it would only be the two of us tending the garden it was necessary to make sure we were not overwhelmed by the work as last year there was five people tending to it. The building site that the garden is located on also does not have any accessible water, so all the water must be carried in from our homes.  We ended up only having to bring in ten gallons of water per week in the beginning and one every one to two weeks as the garden took hold. We also only spent about an hour a week at the garden tending, with most of that dedicated to trimming the grass around the plot!

Forty broccolis were planted ten per row and four rows. Straw was placed around them lightly to help keep the moisture in the soil. The plants grew very well and very fast until a friendly neighborhood groundhog got hungry and over the course of a week ate it all down to the ground. Surprisingly they did make a comeback and have produced a meager helping of greens. Some was harvested but it came so sporadic that most of the small amount went to seed, which the local bees have loved!

The squash was initially planted alongside a chain-link fence and were being trained up it. After some concerns for the fence by the homeowner they were removed from the fence and have since flourished in the ground beside it. There are Hubbard and spaghetti squash planted with about 20 squash growing on the vines at the moment.

The 78 tomato plants were planted using a technique I saw on the internet that was used by farmers in Africa to combat the frequent lack of rain there. It involves creating wide, deep, earthen berms around where the plants are to be placed. Then after they have been planted the crater created by the berm is covered with biomass, which in this case was straw. This allowed any rainfall to channel down to the stalk of the plant and the straw helped to keep the moisture in and prevent excessive evaporation out of the soil. Here is a drawing of how it is done.

In the beginning of the summer after the tomatoes were planted we were watering each plant about a cup of water every other day. That was reduced to about a cup of water per week per plant. This was sufficient even during a six week heat spell and drought that hit in June-July. The plants are carrying so much fruit that we have had to re-stake every plant, including the bush tomatoes. It has been quite the experience with them so far!

Lastly, the potato plot was designed as a straw bed. I came across this technique a couple years ago. It is a garden plot that involves placing newsprint on the grass or earth 4-5 sheets thick. On top of that you spread 4-5 inches of compost or aged manure. The seed potatoes go on this layer, and on top of them goes a very thick layer of straw. We added straw twice in the early summer as it settled and have ended up with a 1 ½ foot thick layer of straw. After this is done it is a matter of waiting for harvest.

The potato plot is one of the marvels of this garden this year. It is a large 15x20 foot plot that has never been watered or tended in any way beyond the initial setup. Harvesting is as simple as pulling the plants out of the straw and shaking the potatoes off of it! I am looking forward to this year’s harvest and have several people waiting to see it as well.

 

All in all it has been a great experience and we are all looking forward to the harvest!

Designing an Open Source Hammer Mill

One of the machines listed in the Global VillageConstruction Set (GVCS) on the Open Source Ecology website is the hammermill/shedder. This machine is to be used to reduce the size of biomass passed through it. This may be anything from wood scraps left over from construction to corn stalks left over after harvesting that will be used as cattle feed. It can also be used to mill grain or shred yard waste. Large hammer mills can be used to shred entire tree stumps, concrete or rock.

The basic design of a hammer mill uses sets of metal hammer that spin around an axel. Small units usually operate at high speeds whereas large units usually operate at low speeds.  The axel(s) are placed in a case with an opening to allow material in, and an opening with a screen over it to allow only materials of sufficiently small size to exit. The material being fed into the mill is smashed by the spinning hammers which render it down to a size small enough to pass through the screen and fall down into a container or onto a conveyer belt or the ground. Some specialty high speed mills are able to smash minerals and rocks, while the majority of hammer mills are used on organic materials.

The hammer mill I am designing is small and of fairly common design. These preliminary drawings have been done so I could better understand all the parts that make up the mill. Not all of the parts are named correctly as of yet. I need to look over an existing mill schematic to get all the names down right.

I still have to reference existing mills to find out the average thicknesses and sizes of the steel used. I would like to mill to be about 1.5-2 feet in diameter and would use an electric motor to power it.

The interchangeable power source in the GVCS is called a Power Cube. It is a gas engine coupled to hydraulic pumps that provides power through pressurized hydraulic fluid. In this respect it is likely that a hammer mill in the GVCS would have to able to use a hydraulic motor of sorts. For the time being I am going to move forward with an electric motor, but keeping in mind the size and shape of a hydraulic motor.

That’s all for now, off to play!