I left a "Deep Transition"<http://www.genesisfarm.org/program.taf?_function=pdetail&program_id=142&id=10> course at Genesis Farm in New Jersey where we decided that one of the "take aways" was to look for streams in our home watersheds called "Mill Creek" and streets in our towns called "Mill Road." In doing so we might find a mill converted to another use. I easily found at several Mill Creeks and one Saw Mill Creek <click here> in my watershed.
[image: red mill clinton]<click here> Near a farm where I work part of the week In Clinton, NJ, one mill is an art center and the other is operating as an exhibit <http://www.theredmill.org/>. In Thompson PA the old grain mill is operational but abandoned. Many mills are currently used as educational tools by historical societies or operated as restaurants and shops rather than for the purposes for which they were built.
Water mills are being built and rebuilt for grinding grain, pressing cider, as well as producing electricity for individually owned operations and nearby communities. Building, restoring, preserving, and actively using these technologies is key to preserving the past to serve the future. In order to support these efforts, Transition advocates must make alliances with historical societies who use these mills as educational tools but are not operating them for the purposes for which they were built; with restaurant owners and antique stores that are using the mills for a completely unrelated purposes; and to identify locations where mills can be built or rebuilt in order to re-skill the woodworkers and millwrights, and inform farmers about the advantages of water power for the future.
Commerce and water transport of farm and manufactured goods flourished for millennia before cheap fossil fuels became readily available. Short Sea Shipping: i.e., carrying freight that does not cross oceans, is having a resurgence particularly in Europe as more people build and rebuild ships for the transport of goods along coastal waters. The inland waters of the mid-Atlantic is a region where sailing cargo vessels may well be competitive right now for certain cargoes.
Erik Andrus' Vermont Sail Freight Project <http://www.vermontsailfreightproject.org/> is the most viable such project in The Mid-Atlantic region. The [image: vermont sail freight]<click here> vessel Ceres, built on a farm near Lake Champlain, will carry Vermont farm goods to New York City and ports in between, and return to Burlington with fair-trade goods like cocoa beans that have been delivered by sailing vessel to Brooklyn from the Caribbean.
The Vermont Sail Freight Project is worthy of our support, but Transition advocates must encourage the owners of small sail freighters like the South Street Seaport's Pioneer to put her back into that service for the part of the year she is not carrying passengers, and for other vessels like Clearwater to become pilots for the Slow Tech freight carriers of the future.
The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) of Transition US <http://transitionmidatlantic.org/> will support these efforts in the fall of 2013 by bringing together builders, millwrights, boat builders, woodworkers, crafts persons, and historical societies to participate in a Powered-Down Waterways Reskilling Festival. Jim Kricker, preeminent restorer of traditional waterwheels, windmills, and sailing vessels, [image: rondout woodworking 2]<click here> will anchor a two-day Reskilling Festival featuring demonstrations, talks, and hands-on instruction. Jim's website <http://www.rondoutwoodworking.com/>, Rondout Woodworking, is a valuable resource for locating working and restored mills.
The International Traditional Knowledge Institute <click here> gathers and protects historical knowledge and promotes and certifies innovative practices. Using traditional knowledge does not mean direct reapplication of techniques from the past, but rather seeks to understand the logic of past models of knowledge. It is a dynamic system able to incorporate innovation subjected to the test of the long term and thus achieves local and environmental sustainability.
Lewis Mumford <http://www3.nd.edu/~ehalton/mumfordbio.html> wrote in 1970:
"The great feat of medieval technics was that it was able to promote and absorb many important changes without losing the immense carryover of inventions and skill from earlier cultures. In this lies one of it vital point of superiority over the modern mode of monotechnics, which boast of effacing, as fast and as far as possible, the technical achievements of earlier periods."
There are schools and apprentice shops for learning large-scale woodworking skills that are and will be needed for Slow-Tech water-driven mills, and wind-driven vessels that will be part of the continuum that supersedes the "blip" of petroleum-powered short-term thinking and consumption.
The following are some links to the resources, skills, and techniques that are needed to Transition our Bioregion to one that is carbon-constrained yet resilient, abundant, and equitable. Let the following list be a starting point an opportunity to contribute your [image: water wheel]<click here> own favorite sites, books, drawings, and especially experiences with humans with these skills. Perhaps this list can be the beginning of a Bioregional Traditional Knowledge Database <click here> that will gather and protect historical knowledge and promote innovative practices based on traditional skills.
The recently launched "International Traditional Knowledge Institute" (ITKI) <click here> is an ambitious effort to preserve, restore, and promote the re-use of traditional skills and inventions from all over the world. It includes an online encyclopedia of low-tech know-how. - WoodenBoat magazine <http://www.woodenboat.com/> can be a resource for wooden boat-building apprenticeships - The Museum of Old Techniques <http://www.mot.be/w/1/index.php/MuseumEn/Museum> Compendium of operating grist mills <click here>
<click here> - Low Tech Magazine <http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/> - Museum of Early Trades and Crafts <http://metc.org/> - Institute for Traditional Knowledge <http://www.intk.org/> - Appropedia <http://www.intk.org/> - The Whole Earth Catalog <http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php> (ask your parents or dig it out from under the other stuff on your bookshelf) - Ropes, Knots, and Hitches <http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots> - Maritime Museums <http://maritimemuseums.net/> - One windmill source <http://www.windmills.net/> - A mill source, Mills restored by Rondout Woodworking <http://www.rondoutwoodworking.com/Clients.html> - Rocking the Boat NYC<http://www.rockingtheboat.org/programs/jobskills/
<http://www.rockingtheboat.org/programs/jobskills/> - East Hill Boat Shop Apprenticeships <http://www.easthillboatshop.com/ehbsapprent.htm> - Mystic Seaport workshops and classes -
<http://www.mysticseaport.org/learn/adult/> - Boat-Building Center Buffalo NY <click here>
[image: red mill clinton]<click here> Near a farm where I work part of the week In Clinton, NJ, one mill is an art center and the other is operating as an exhibit <http://www.theredmill.org/>. In Thompson PA the old grain mill is operational but abandoned. Many mills are currently used as educational tools by historical societies or operated as restaurants and shops rather than for the purposes for which they were built.
Water mills are being built and rebuilt for grinding grain, pressing cider, as well as producing electricity for individually owned operations and nearby communities. Building, restoring, preserving, and actively using these technologies is key to preserving the past to serve the future. In order to support these efforts, Transition advocates must make alliances with historical societies who use these mills as educational tools but are not operating them for the purposes for which they were built; with restaurant owners and antique stores that are using the mills for a completely unrelated purposes; and to identify locations where mills can be built or rebuilt in order to re-skill the woodworkers and millwrights, and inform farmers about the advantages of water power for the future.
Commerce and water transport of farm and manufactured goods flourished for millennia before cheap fossil fuels became readily available. Short Sea Shipping: i.e., carrying freight that does not cross oceans, is having a resurgence particularly in Europe as more people build and rebuild ships for the transport of goods along coastal waters. The inland waters of the mid-Atlantic is a region where sailing cargo vessels may well be competitive right now for certain cargoes.
Erik Andrus' Vermont Sail Freight Project <http://www.vermontsailfreightproject.org/> is the most viable such project in The Mid-Atlantic region. The [image: vermont sail freight]<click here> vessel Ceres, built on a farm near Lake Champlain, will carry Vermont farm goods to New York City and ports in between, and return to Burlington with fair-trade goods like cocoa beans that have been delivered by sailing vessel to Brooklyn from the Caribbean.
The Vermont Sail Freight Project is worthy of our support, but Transition advocates must encourage the owners of small sail freighters like the South Street Seaport's Pioneer to put her back into that service for the part of the year she is not carrying passengers, and for other vessels like Clearwater to become pilots for the Slow Tech freight carriers of the future.
The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) of Transition US <http://transitionmidatlantic.org/> will support these efforts in the fall of 2013 by bringing together builders, millwrights, boat builders, woodworkers, crafts persons, and historical societies to participate in a Powered-Down Waterways Reskilling Festival. Jim Kricker, preeminent restorer of traditional waterwheels, windmills, and sailing vessels, [image: rondout woodworking 2]<click here> will anchor a two-day Reskilling Festival featuring demonstrations, talks, and hands-on instruction. Jim's website <http://www.rondoutwoodworking.com/>, Rondout Woodworking, is a valuable resource for locating working and restored mills.
The International Traditional Knowledge Institute <click here> gathers and protects historical knowledge and promotes and certifies innovative practices. Using traditional knowledge does not mean direct reapplication of techniques from the past, but rather seeks to understand the logic of past models of knowledge. It is a dynamic system able to incorporate innovation subjected to the test of the long term and thus achieves local and environmental sustainability.
Lewis Mumford <http://www3.nd.edu/~ehalton/mumfordbio.html> wrote in 1970:
"The great feat of medieval technics was that it was able to promote and absorb many important changes without losing the immense carryover of inventions and skill from earlier cultures. In this lies one of it vital point of superiority over the modern mode of monotechnics, which boast of effacing, as fast and as far as possible, the technical achievements of earlier periods."
There are schools and apprentice shops for learning large-scale woodworking skills that are and will be needed for Slow-Tech water-driven mills, and wind-driven vessels that will be part of the continuum that supersedes the "blip" of petroleum-powered short-term thinking and consumption.
The following are some links to the resources, skills, and techniques that are needed to Transition our Bioregion to one that is carbon-constrained yet resilient, abundant, and equitable. Let the following list be a starting point an opportunity to contribute your [image: water wheel]<click here> own favorite sites, books, drawings, and especially experiences with humans with these skills. Perhaps this list can be the beginning of a Bioregional Traditional Knowledge Database <click here> that will gather and protect historical knowledge and promote innovative practices based on traditional skills.
The recently launched "International Traditional Knowledge Institute" (ITKI) <click here> is an ambitious effort to preserve, restore, and promote the re-use of traditional skills and inventions from all over the world. It includes an online encyclopedia of low-tech know-how. - WoodenBoat magazine <http://www.woodenboat.com/> can be a resource for wooden boat-building apprenticeships - The Museum of Old Techniques <http://www.mot.be/w/1/index.php/MuseumEn/Museum> Compendium of operating grist mills <click here>
<click here> - Low Tech Magazine <http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/> - Museum of Early Trades and Crafts <http://metc.org/> - Institute for Traditional Knowledge <http://www.intk.org/> - Appropedia <http://www.intk.org/> - The Whole Earth Catalog <http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php> (ask your parents or dig it out from under the other stuff on your bookshelf) - Ropes, Knots, and Hitches <http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots> - Maritime Museums <http://maritimemuseums.net/> - One windmill source <http://www.windmills.net/> - A mill source, Mills restored by Rondout Woodworking <http://www.rondoutwoodworking.com/Clients.html> - Rocking the Boat NYC<http://www.rockingtheboat.org/programs/jobskills/
<http://www.rockingtheboat.org/programs/jobskills/> - East Hill Boat Shop Apprenticeships <http://www.easthillboatshop.com/ehbsapprent.htm> - Mystic Seaport workshops and classes -
<http://www.mysticseaport.org/learn/adult/> - Boat-Building Center Buffalo NY <click here>
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