Check out the article on solar energy in the same issue of National Geographic.

Family’s lifestyle is ‘globally sustainable’

By MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer

POSTED: April 18, 2008

MARQUETTE – Surrounded by tall trees and a rugged escarpment, John Jungwirth stirs hot maple sap over a fire in an open air teepee. As he sips on a cup of steaming maple sap, he listens to the nearby trout creek rushing down the hill. John and his wife Victoria Jungwirth spend most of their spring days like this, preparing maple syrup that they harvest on their 80-acre property in northwest Marquette County. Making maple syrup from their 70 or so trees is crucial for their winter survival. “We make our own maple syrup and trade it for vegetables from Seeds Spores (Family Farm),” Victoria Jungwirth said. The Jungwirths have lived in their wilderness paradise for the past 20 years with the goal to escape a lifestyle that does not support sustainability. “We try to live a life that is globally sustainable,” Jungwirth said. “It’s been our intent to learn what it takes to do it differently; how to make your own food, clothes, build a house and still have a really comfortable and quality life.” Their motivation to pursue such a different lifestyle sprung in part from their parents’ preaching that the modern world with its nuclear threats, its reliance on fossil fuels and unsustainable resources would come to an end in their or their children’s lifetime. “The system at the moment is probably not going to work our lifetime,” Jungwirth said. “There have to be changes.” Tighter supplies of fossil fuels and a global trend toward safer energy sources and reliance on sustainable resources seem to support the Jungwirth’s theory. “It’s become fashionable (to go green) in the last couple of years,” Jungwirth said. “But we have been working on it for decades.” The couple lives in a 20 by 20 log cabin that they built over three years in the late 1980s – without power tools, using the wood on their property. “We built this completely by hand; that’s why it took three years,” she said. “… because we wanted to do it in the most sustainable and cheapest way and put our labor into it.” Learning the skills from books and by discovery, they built the two-story house with logs as big as they were able to carry by themselves. With a sauna for a shower, a composting outhouse, wood heat, no running water and no electricity, the Jungwirth raised two children, Lake and Bryn – now in their 20s. A set of solar panels helps with powering their luxury items: lights and a stereo. “It’s a much more higher-maintenance lifestyle, but I wouldn’t want anyone to get the impression that it’s a really audacious lifestyle,” Jungwirth said. “We enjoy what we do and we enjoy it all day long.” Hunting and gathering their own food, the Jungwirths do not rely heavily on money to live their lives. “We eat a lot of wild food and local food,” she said. “We hunt and fish and eat wild berries and mushrooms. We got stockpiles of food, but we’re not necessarily subsistence people.” John Jungwirth traps and hunts small game, deer and birds, while his wife runs a garden in the summer, growing garlic, tomatoes and other vegetables. With their innovative skills, the couple built a creek-fed sprinkler system that even makes the sounds of a modern suburban sprinkler system, Victoria Jungwirth said, laughing. About 80 percent of the food they consume is hunted or grown by them, but the Jungwirths do not shy away from indulging in store-bought food such as lemons and chocolate, John Jungwirth said. They also have a snowmobile to haul stuff out to their home and a truck to get to Marquette. A travel fund that helps support Victoria’s trips to visit family in her native England also makes their lifestyle more modern than it might first appear. And the couple does not live entirely without money. John Jungwirth builds specialized wood pieces, hand tools and birch bark canoes – one of the canoes is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Victoria works two days a week at the Marquette Food Co-op. The couple are both in their early 50s but look younger. They credit their green lifestyle for their physical and mental health. They are happy, they said, because they don’t have to deal with the complexity of modern society. “Everybody on the planet could live like this,” Jungwirth said. “(But) everybody’s got to make their own choices.

Recycling is American as apple pie

By MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer

POSTED: April 25, 2008

MARQUETTE – Betty and Charlie Shirtz of Harvey don’t hesitate picking up abandoned furniture from the side of the road. They welcome used work surfaces such as their church’s old kitchen counter top. And old boxes never end up in the trash at the Shirtz home. In their mid-80s, the couple has been recycling and reusing items for many decades; at first not so much to be more environmentally friendly, but out of necessity. “I didn’t think of it as recycling,” Betty Shirtz said, adding that when she and Charlie were children – during the Great Depression – Charlie’s father tore down old buildings and reused the materials to build new ones. Charlie’s job was to straighten old nails. “It was hard times that made recycling necessary,” Betty said. “We didn’t have much to begin with and our families just learned to get along without much.” Nowadays, the couple can afford to purchase new items, but prefer to recycle or reuse. They also realize the environmental benefits of their habits; less trash goes to the landfill and they are saving energy by not supporting the production and transportation of new items. In addition, they’re saving money and are having fun being creative. “I enjoy doing it,” said Betty, a retired art teacher. “It’s a form of sculpture.” While many people recycle in Marquette, Betty has gone a step further. She makes new things out of the old. For instance, she created office items such as filing folders, paper trays and shelf dividers out of old cardboard boxes. She also made a cardboard holder for plastic bags, which she also reuses. “For years I’ve been the pie maker for Thanksgiving, so I came up with this thing,” Betty said, pointing to a rectangle box that can hold four pies on two levels with a Velcro fastener to keep the lid shut. When Betty’s aunt was in the hospital and she had to take care of her aunt’s legal papers, instead of buying a file carrier, she made one out of an old box. “We would need a notebook to store things in,” she said. “We would take a piece of cardboard and cover it with wallpaper, and we made our own portfolios.” She often uses the tops of boxes to make temporary display units. Betty used the display units when she showed her creative recycled items at Sunday’s Going Green Community Fair at Marquette’s Peter White Public Library. Betty does not spend energy and money to go to the store and buy a new item unless she has to. “Many times I think about what I can change into what I need,” she said. When the couple does go shopping, they buy in bulk and then they reuse the larger containers to store things. Most of the Shirtz’s furniture in their workroom is made from recycled pieces. A former double dresser serves as an art supply cabinet. An old plant rack holds paintings and the computer desk is assembled from recycled furniture parts. Betty said she and Charlie watch closely what is happening in the world in terms of global warming and the depletion of natural resources. “Things are getting really rough,” she said.

Frugal living – greener lifestyle

By MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer

POSTED: July 11, 2008

MARQUETTE – Bart Carroll’s and Kathy Erdmann’s initial motivation to conserve energy and live in a more eco-friendly way was simple – money.

“We conserve energy, save the environment but first and foremost we save money,” Erdmann said.

Rising energy bills and food prices encouraged the couple to find simple ways to save cash. At the same time they discovered that one of the benefits of using less energy, growing their own food and exchanging the car for their bicycles or their feet, minimized their impact on the environment.

For example, the couple makes a point to save gasoline by walking to work every day, riding their bikes to the grocery store, doctor’s appointments and other places in town.

“We take the bike path down to Econo,” Erdmann said, who lives together with Carroll in East Marquette. “It really doesn’t take us any longer. It’s just something that you make up your mind to do.”

Erdmann’s bike has baskets to carry groceries and Carroll’s bike pulls a children’s trailer that he uses to transport things.

“Could we afford to drive to the store? Sure, but it doesn’t really make sense,” said Carroll, who owns South Shore Barber on Third Street.

Carroll not only tows groceries on his bicycle, he even constructed a bicycle trailer to haul his kayak to Sunset Beach near Presque Isle. As a result of all his walking and biking around town, Carroll has lost 30 pounds in the last four years, he said. And more recently, he has gone more than 10 weeks on half a tank of gas in his truck.

“It’s cost efficient, more fun and you get exercise,” Carroll said.

Erdmann and Carroll also save the shower water to use for their herbs and vegetable gardens.

“We take a bucket and put it under the shower,” Carroll said. “We catch that first gallon of cold water before it turns warm.”

This clever habit saves them $6 a month on their water bill, saving an average of three gallons of water a week.

“If you count 15 different ways to save $6, it adds up,” Carroll said.

Changing light bulbs to more energy efficient ones, strictly turning lights off when they are not needed, and using the clothes dryer less, also reduced their electricity bill by $10 per month. In the winter, the couple layers on the clothing and keeps the heat at 58 degrees in their house, which has evened out rising fuel costs for them.

“As a result there is less coal that has to be burned to heat our home,” Carroll said.

Using a non-motorized push lawn mower, shopping at thrift stores and garage sales, trading goods and services, recycling, composting, cooking with local foods and replacing old appliances and parts of the house – such as windows and doors – with more energy efficient ones are all ways the couple has embraced their eco-friendly life.

In addition to the environmental benefits, the couple said they also feel healthier and happier.

“It’s just a better quality of life and you’re more in tune with your community,” Erdmann said, adding that her and Carroll observe a lot more details of city life when biking around town.

“The things that we do are old school,” Carroll said. “It’s mostly simple things.”

Are chickens compatible with in-town life?

By MIRIAM MOELLER, Journal Staff Writer

POSTED: November 14, 2008

MARQUETTE – They have names, they get petted, they are loved, yet they are not considered pets.

They are chickens – and in the city, they’re illegal.

The Gray family of Marquette decided to raise chickens in their backyard this summer as an educational exercise for their children, to eat food grown closer to home and to have a few more pets.

“We got them because we wanted our food to be grown closer to home,” Michelle Gray said. “We wanted the kids to understand where their food comes from.”

The Grays harvest the eggs from their seven chickens for food.

While the Grays believe their efforts toward a more ecofriendly lifestyle are legitimate, Marquette police are not so happy about the chickens, which are housed in a coop behind the house on 10 acres of their land.

Last week, Marquette’s animal control officer informed the Grays of their violation of a city ordinance. They have been given a week to get rid of the chickens.

City ordinance states: “It shall be unlawful for any reason to keep animals within the City of Marquette, except for domestic pets.”

According to the ordinance, a “domestic pet includes dogs, cats, or animals customarily kept or housed inside dwellings as household pets.”

“If you can make an argument that a fish is a pet, you can make an argument that a chicken is a pet,” added Paul Gray, who said they plan to challenge any citation they receive if they do not get rid of the chickens.

However, Det. Lt. Gordon Warchock said he is trying to work with the Gray family, since most people aren’t even aware of the ordinance. He added that in his 20 years of employment with the Marquette City Police Department he has never had to deal with chickens.

Karl Zueger, assistant city manager, said the ordinance helps to sustain property values and enforce order in the city.

“I think it’s to create some type of order within the community,” Zueger said. “Ultimately the community has to have a certain standard.”

He said the ordinance can be challenged by community members and can be changed, but “it has to be in the best interest of the community.”

Fred Benzie of the Marquette County Health Department said raising chickens poses no health threat to the community.

“(It) is a local zoning ordinance, not a health ordinance,” he said, adding that farming is an American way of life and that raising chickens is a good thing whether done in rural or urban settings.

Marquette city planner Dennis Stachewicz said the animal ordinance has nothing to do with the zoning department.

“That’s a nuisance ordinance enforced by the police department,” he said. “There is nothing in our zoning ordinance that has to do with agriculture.”

The Grays – especially the kids – said they are quite unhappy at the prospect of having to dispose of their chickens. In addition to raising their own food, they also found feeding the birds food scraps kept the family’s food waste down.

The chickens also proved to be an effective form of pest control – they ate bugs that were infesting the garden this summer. And chicken manure works as a natural fertilizer, according to Michelle Gray.

The Grays aren’t the only family raising chickens in the city. Jim McCommons has four 8-week-old hens. McCommons said he read the city code and felt there was nothing unlawful about having chickens as pets and for eggs. McCommons said he has done research and written an article for Organic Gardening magazine about raising urban chickens.

“They’re legal in L.A., New York,” he said. “You can go online and find chickens in Manhattan. It’s a growing movement.”

The Grays have also done some research on the issue, finding, for example, the city of Ann Arbor recently allowed its residents to raise chickens.

“We want to see if we can make a change that’s good for the community,” Paul Gray said.

]]> http://greenupmichigan.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/some-of-my-favorite-green-stories-published-in-2008/feed/ 0 greendaup John and Victoria Jungwirth Carroll http://greenupmichigan.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/hello-world/ http://greenupmichigan.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/hello-world/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:32:12 +0000 Miriam Moeller ]]> Watch for future words on green issues in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.