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Michael is on a quest to get his environmental footprint as low as humanly possible, so he built his own off-grid tiny house. But he doesn’t know if all the downsizing and minimizing make a difference. He feels in over his head! It’s time to bring in the experts. Join Michael as he sits down with scientists, policymakers, industry leaders, and environmental experts to figure out how to effectively reduce his footprint, while also exploring the bigger questions around sustainability and the good life.
(00:00):
Well, I'm in over my head. No one told me trying to keep my footprints hotter than I thought it could be. I'm in over my head. What do I really need trying to save the planet. Oh, will someone please save me? Trying to save the planet. Oh, will someone please save me?
(00:24):
Welcome to In Over My Head. I'm Michael Bartz. In February, 2023, I traveled to the village of Myrnam, Alberta to learn all about their sustainability projects, including their Cool Bus, which was a school bus. They were converting into a tiny house. The trip was so fun and inspiring. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to listen to that episode. The link will be in the show notes in April this year, I was invited back to Myam for their student Spring showcase to see what the students were up to. Now, the first person I ran into was Principal Danielle Erickson.
(00:54):
All right. Good to see you again.
(00:55):
It's good to see you again. It's nice that you made the time and the effort to come out here and see us.
(01:01):
Of course. Yeah, it's been two years. I'm excited to see what you've been up to.
(01:05):
Let's come up here. I mean, there's always lots of projects and things that we're working on, but the last two years we've spent a little bit of time breaking it down from the big projects that we've been working on to getting kids to focus on some smaller science fair projects.
(01:22):
Our project-based learning approach that we took on the macro level with the bus project and our tiny home, or the tiny home project and the Tower Gardens and the Sustainable Greenhouse and everything. We've brought some of those skills downsize to what teachers are doing in their individual classrooms. All of our grade five to nine students participated in a science school-based science fair this year, and the work was to prepare them for the Lakeland Regional Science Fair that happened in St. Paul in April. We had a team of kids be able to go to that. They registered on their own. It's not really a school event, but we prepared them for it through the school science fair. And we had a team go to that with Cheyenne and Harper. That team went to the regional science fair and their science fair project that they did, won them a trip to Frederickton New Brunswick later this spring to participate in the National Science Fair. So they're very excited. Their project was on the color red impacting chickens and what they would feed on.
(02:41):
Speaking of chickens, last time I was visiting the school, was working on a sustainable poultry project and changing some bylaws in Myrnam. I caught up with Harper, who's now in grade nine to see what became of this project.
(02:52):
So we ended up changing the bylaw, and then we ended up being, or I, Myrnam school ended up being the first people to purchase and raise chickens in Myrnam. So that was so exciting, just to know that you're the first ones that are going to be raising chickens in Myrnam. And since then, I think there's been some other families in the community that have had chickens. One morning when I went out to check on our school chickens, I could hear some chickens across the road, so that was pretty interesting to hear. A couple years ago, there was some high school students that actually built the coop before I came to Myrnam, and then when I came, they had graduated the year before. So it kind of just worked out perfect timing and slid into the project. I love chickens. I have my own flock of chickens, and when I found out that the school had a chicken coop, I was like, Mr. T
(03:48):
can I put chickens in there? And then I found out about how the bylaw had to be changed, and then I found out that I have to go apply because the high school students, previous high school students changed the bylaw already. I just had to apply for the permit. And so that was a process I also never thought I would have to do because out on the farm, you don't have to do that. You just can get as many chickens as you want and do kind of whatever. And so read the book on a big stack of papers on how to raise chickens and the rules that you had to follow of them being in Myrnam. And then, yeah, day later, got the permit. It was exciting being the first one. And it's actually really nice having the chickens out there because from our cafeteria, you can have any table scraps per se, like the vegetable peelings, like carrots. Any lettuce that she has that needs to be used up bread, like ends of bread slices, all the chickens get that. And so it's nice to, instead of just throwing it away in the garbage to give it to the chickens and they just love it. It's so awesome. And there's also bugs around that area, around the shop, and so they love catching bugs and it's a perfect spot for them to be
(05:07):
Like my tiny home. The students found that the cool bus was taking a little longer than expected to finish, so they're still working on it. Currently, they've been working on the furniture, drywall and electrical. Harper told me a bit about this,
(05:19):
Lots of people working on it. Lately in shop class, there was a couple senior high kids working on the electrical, and so we're trying to wire in the lights and around the bus.
(05:33):
Samuel gave me an updated tour of the Cool Bus.
(05:36):
The big thing right now is we have the power rooted down here, and we have the electrical stuff connected through here with our merrets. We have our ground, we have our positive, we have our negative pots, our cold, hot and neutral. And then here we have our light switches, which I have done everything for this, the electrical stuff. So we have our power on the bottom right side, and that's going up to the first light fixture and the second light fixture through merrets in the back. If you open it up, it's going to look like a jumble of cords, but in my head it makes sense and it works. So we're there. I was working on the light switch and just getting these set up was like I was a daring task. I waited last minute to do this, but when I did it, it made sense. I got it all to work. So the power connects to the outlets that go alongside the right wall,
(06:31):
And it goes through power here, but the power also connects with the light switches, which connect to each individual light. My thing that I was really confused with was how to get it working with each light switch having, because I thought, oh, just one turn on. It'll turn on both of them. How am I going to make that not happen? I have only done the outlets for now, but then I did the light switches and I learned a lot out of doing that. I did the power here and then the power here through different colored wires. We had two different types of neutrals. So the black wire is tied to itself here, and it goes all the way down to the other side of the bus to this light fixture. And this one's working with the black wires. And I think that was a big learning curve, but when I actually got it done and Mr. T helped me kind of figure that out, I have a really big understanding of electric's now.
(07:31):
I asked Harper about any challenges that came across in this phase of the build.
(07:35):
Just learning different things about how we had to convert the bed onto the hinges, so it'd be more functionable to fold up instead of just a big chunk of what that's taking up most of the area. So
(07:50):
This one was something we took some time figuring out we can take all these pillows off, take this mattress off. We have a functional bed that is bigger than most trailers will offer for coach beds.
(08:08):
It looks great.
(08:10):
Very, very comfy. And I think it's a great alternative. The way it was designed is a lot better than just those pullout couches that you have sitting on. It's great. There's storage in it. You can store the other mattress underneath the couch. So it's a very compact design.
(08:26):
Of course. I was curious about what the next steps were.
(08:28):
The next step is kind of to put the chimney in for the cool bus that's connected to our wood stove and the solar panels on top of the roof. Those will be getting mounted on there.
(08:39):
During the cool bus tour, Ava showed me a welding project she had undertaken for the solar array.
(08:44):
There was metal pipe that Mr T brought in that was very rusty, so I had to grind all the rust off and then measure it of course. But it's going right on top of the bus. And the reason with why it's curved is because it's going over here. And so to make it curved, I had to use a zip disc and cut a whole bunch of slits into it and then use the vice, put it in and bend it, and then I welded all the gaps and then I grinded it down.
(09:21):
Was that the first time you'd done that sort of thing?
(09:23):
Yeah. How was it? It was pretty fun. I had a really good time doing it.
(09:29):
I asked Samuel about his experience working on the Cool Bus.
(09:32):
I love the learning. I dunno, it gives me an insight onto how I can learn better, but also how things I need to learn about. I like what I can take in from this, the electrical work. I love how I'm learning. I feel like it's big of my dad proud with that kind of stuff. That really hits nice close to me. And just the problem-solving aspect. There's a lot of issues you find out that are there, but with Mr. T, he's very patient. He listens and we can get the work done and it's great. I think it's just training a lot of the students to create a better future, to create a future where we can have self-sustainable energy, less reliant on paying for things. We can create things ourselves, showing us how to create these things ourselves. And I think I love it. I really enjoy working on this bus. It's a lot of opportunities I get just being in this school.
(10:37):
I also asked about Harper being a team lead on this project.
(10:40):
First of all, I never even thought I'd be a team lead per se. Having the title team lead is cool, but it takes lots of your other team to make everything come together. And so having peers in my class that are willing to help out with the project and actually have the work ethic it, it's really a big help for sure. It's great having a school that you can do all these things and it's awesome. I know lots of kids don't get this opportunity, so I'm very fortunate as well as my other peers and classmates and yeah, it's just awesome.
(11:20):
While I was there, I learned that New Myrnam School was undertaking a new project called Stream of Dreams.
(11:26):
So the Stream of Dreams is a program that Leica runs. Leica is a local Lakeland area group that Thanks, bud. That focuses on environmental stewardship in the Lakeland area, so kind of Bonneville, cold Lake, St. Paul. So this program, stream of Dreams is where they get to talk to students about the health of our watersheds and why it's important to take care of the water in our area. So they do that educational piece, but then partner it with this mural project. So the mural project is each kid in our school and each staff member got to paint a fish, and the fish are all going to be put up on the fence outside our outdoor sport court later in May. And it'll be kind of a lasting memory of the education that they've had.
(12:21):
Okay. Yeah,
(12:23):
It's a very topal thing right now. Water,
(12:26):
Absolutely. We've got to protect our watersheds and people do get very protective of their water as we should. It's the most important thing in our ecosystem. Without that water, without the health of our water in the ecosystems, everything else will suffer. So it was a really neat project to be a part of with Leica because number one, they took on all of the heavy lifting. We got to do the fun part of teaching and painting, and they organized and brought in all of the supplies and everything, and even the teaching resources. So that's always lots of fun when we can partner with people that are helping us teach the kids without adding a lot of extra work to our plates. So Leica has been a really great partner. So next time you come out, maybe you'll be able to see the giant fish mural that's going to be up on the fence.
(13:20):
Coming back to New Myrnam School, I'm reminded how special this place is and the amazing experiences their students are getting. Whenever I feel in over my head about climate change, I should visit Myrnam because being here gives me hope that we can all live in a more sustainable way. And if they can do it, you can too. Oh, and one more thing. This trip was so much more than just a quick afternoon visit. I'll let principal Danielle Erickson explain
(13:45):
Four days. He said what? He hitchhiked here, took him four days he said. Are you serious? Yeah.
(13:51):
You heard right? I hitchhiked 1400 kilometers round-trip to get to the student showcase. It was an adventure in itself, and I made a documentary film about the journey and the people I met along the way, which you can find at michaelbartz.ca. Of course, the link will be in the show notes. Well, that's all for me. I'm Michael Bartz. Here's to feeling a little less in over our heads when it comes to saving the planet.
We'll see you again soon.
(14:19):
I'm trying to save the planet. Will someone please save me?