Howl of the Squatch - Incident # 1
Location: Pelican Rapids, Minnesota
What a beautiful project image! What a magnificent idea from the mind of man!
This crowd funding project causes me to howl, for it brings out an instinct buried deep within me to farm to grow things, to bring forth an abundance of edible things from the soil of the earth.
But, then reality sets in, and I remember who I am, and how mine is the Thumb of Poison to all things that grow.
Every year, I want to plant a garden, and almost every year, I end up not doing so. My ideas for gardening are frowned upon. I think that there has to be a better way. There simply must be!
So, it seems that I am forever destined to garden vicariously through other people. One of these people, it appears, is a fellow who lives way up north, in the great State of Minnesota. His name? Ryan Pesch.
More than a mere gardener, Ryan is a full-fledged farmer, a true steward of the land. I've never met him, but I did stumble across his idea, as it wandered its way across the Internet right across the top of my desk. There it stood, right smack dab in front of me - right on the screen of my computer monitor.
I like the fact that Ryan is thinking big! Like Mr. Big from the WordGirl cartoon, Ryan Pesch has a big, Big, BIG idea!
He's going underground, sort of. What he's envisioning is a deep winter greenhouse and root cellar project.
Wow! That's a mouth full, for sure. But, it is a deviously good idea, one that mocks me from afar with its delicious scope and scale.
Just look at that huge chunk of dirt carved out of the landscape. That's no bomb shelter, right there. No, sir! That's a garden. More specifically, it's going to be a garden in a root cellar. It may not look pretty, right now, but you just wait and see. I guarantee you, this is going to turn out to be a wonderful thing.
Because Ryan lives so far away from me, I don't have to worry about doing any of the hard work required to make this project a reality. In that sense, I can't give him a hand, at all. But, that's OK, because Ryan can use hands of another type, also. He could use a few more hands with pledge dollars in them, and he can also use a hand with helping to spread the word about this bodacious project that he's conceived and attempting to implement.
That hole that he's digging - it isn't just man-size. It's Squatch-size!
And, so, I'm thinking that I need to be a part of this, in some way. Hence, why I am plodding along on the old keyboard, in an attempt to bring a greater sense of awareness to others about Ryan Pesch's root cellar plight.
The very last thing that this deep winter greenhouse and root cellar project needs are all sorts of things distracting Ryan from getting it done. So, the sooner that this project gets funded, the sooner that it can become a reality.
If you haven't watched the project video for this Kickstarter, then you really ought to take a few moments out to do that. It's about four and a half minutes long, but it really is worth the watch. I watched the whole thing, and it's chock full of interesting visuals and useful information. There's even a segment that shows you what his Minnesota farmland is like in the month of April. After you watch that part of the video, I think that you'll develop a much greater appreciation for why this project makes so much sense.
As part of my ongoing trek across the Kickstarter website, I invariably encounter all kinds of different projects that, in their own way, shape, or form, yield evidence of Squatch. While the term "squatch" is derived from the word Sasquatch, in the context of crowd funding, squatch is basically those things about a given project that make it bigger and better.
Ryan Pesch's deep winter greenhouse and root cellar project makes me howl with excitement, because it has bits and pieces of squatch scattered all throughout it. He's a level-headed man, and he makes a good case in his project video for this project to warrant the support of others. Whether it's vegetables or livestock, snow or a windmill, this video integrates various elements of crowd funding squatch in such a way that the video remains interesting to watch, from beginning to end.
At $4,910 dollars in pledges accumulated, to date, this project is only $90 short of its funding goal. But, I'm fairly certain that the full five thousand dollar amount of the project goal won't cover every expense associated with this project. So, anything over and above the funding goal can likely be put to very good use by Ryan and his family, in making this project all the better.
He's a wise man, and he's a smart thinker, where this project is concerned. This project will make a positive difference in the lives of others. It will also be a boon to the cause of farming, because it sets a very good example of applying good old fashioned ingenuity to solving a problem.
It has even set me to thinking about why farms tend to sprawl overland so widely, and why more farmers aren't taking more of a 3D approach to farming the soil? We build skyscrapers in our cities, but when it comes to farming, in many instances, we're still just scratching the surface.
The Earth and its soil have more depth to them than just the surface.
The squatch of human ingenuity is alive and well in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, and that, my friend, is something to howl about! Plus, they have a gnome.
Project: Lida Farm Deep Winter Greenhouse and Root Cellar Project
Project Creator: Ryan Pesch
Kicktraq Link
Kickspy Link
Lida Farm Website and Blog
Lida Farm on Facebook
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