Got my first meeting! I will be meeting with the producers of This Old House on Friday! Who knows, I'm crossing my fingers...

Patti

Congrats!

Patti
I came across the video link last Friday and was blown away, I think the time is now for a show like yours! Figured that I better pop in and drop a line before you really take off!!!! Good luck and be ready for unintended consequences and grow some thick skin, your message is important and I think you are differently the Poster Person to do it even if others will try to marginalize you.
Read through the thread and was impressed and wanting to know more of your "Garden Girl" homestead. At this point I cannot add any thing more looking at all the great advice you got so far. I was shocked to read of your PV/Lister generator. I finally got a 12/2 and a 10kw gen head and am going to set it up as a CHP (combined heat power) and tri fuel it (bio-diesel, straight veggy oil and wood gas). I too like electricity and the leverage it gives me to make things plus there is a lot you can do with the hot water.
In the 80's I was in urban Minnesota and was planning to do something along the lines that you are doing but fate moved me to my great grandmothers homestead on a lake in northern Minnesota. I wound up rebuilding and adding on to the old farm house and making it a super insulated "Green and Green style" house. Lots of set backs through the years but the goal remains!
I sent your link to people I know and put it on the Oil Drum plus I got you booked marked, great to be on the ground floor and watch this grow! Jeff

Or even better, she needs her own forum.

Good luck with your meeting, Patti.

CityBoy: Did you see the photos on the new site where I call myself CityGirl?
JChrstn: A Lister fan! Sweet. My idea, and the show will feature this is to use the hot water to heat the aquaponic rig! I have a old two car garage that this project is going to work out of. I'm hope that the system will be totaly self sustaining! I wish I was on a homestead sometimes. I love my mini farmette, it is just the city noise that sometimes gets under my skin. Thanks for the words and talking to us.
LeadEagle: I will definately contact you soon. I'm a bit burried but pulling it together. I dig your site a lot. Good work! I will put a photo of my cat "Dirt" up tonight for you. Meow yourself.

Thanks folks, hope to have some more time soon. I am about to post on the site my inspirations for Urban Sustainable Gardening. And sorry about not having an editor yet.

Patti

Patti
Not sure if you have your lister up and running yet but here are some sites that have a lot of info.
http://www.utterpower.com/ and http://listerengine.com/smf/index.php.
One idea for me is to balance BTU needs with KW needs and fuel use by having a battery bank and an inverter makes it a building block to add wind and solar later. Hope you have a good crew to make all your ideas happen, We will be pulling for you up north here.
Jeff

i just found this on someone's blog today and i loved it! i was saddened to learn there is nothing else to see at this time and i hope you are able to get this project going.

i think you have a great thing going. i just spent too much time reading through all these comments and i am amazed at what you are doing.

fwiw, being a woman, i am not at all turned off by your appearance. it appeals to me more with you being a woman, being beautiful and being able to handle power tools and willing to get a bit of dirt under your nails. kudos to you!

i am rooting for you as much as i can from my small corner of the world. having too many blogs, i have plugged you on all of them:


Musings on the Farm

Stellas Terra (my private site)

Live Journal

the last two are by subscription only but i have a lot of readers on them, most of them being very into this sort of stuff.

and i will be adding a link to my business site as well tonight or tomorrow:

Luna Herb Co.

The only thing that stuck out for me in the video was the use of 'so' a lot but it could have just been the way everything was pieced together. Good luck in your journey!

Kristine

Garden Girl, great job on the video. Keep up the good work and I linked your site to the Lister engine board . I am sure they can help spread the word.

Sorry just realized that I gave a bad link above. It should be
http://listerengine.com/
Jeff

Just a quick update, I had my meeting today. It went well. They gave me no promises, but they thought that I was too green. Gimme a break. I'll post more details tommorow.

There will be some new video on google tommorow! Something from the "Lost Tapes".

More Tommorow,

Patti

Too green? I figure they just won't be able to sell corporate sponsorship (advertising) with your show and message. I think doing your show through the internet or DVD and a web site as some have suggested would parallel your message and grow a strong base of people and give you full control. MSM and corporate America are in a fight to keep the spin of business as usual going even in the face of the mounting debt starting to crush those on the margin. Add a slowing economy and an energy cost crunch i feel that will make it self evident in the near future along with GMO foods and clone meats in the market................well I sense a ground swell of people asking what is going on and there has to be a better way. If you had a show that would appeal to the entry level type that watch HGTV, then when I talked to someone I could easily point to your show/site before I overwhelm them with what I think.
I figure that you all ready know this. Just adding my support to your cause! Keep up the great work. Jeff

Well, the meeting went will. The producers were definately more interested in me as a host type than my show. I think if they are serious it is still a good opportunity in that I can increase my shameless self promotion. It does mean to me it is important that I get into WGBH, but the woman there hasn't returned my phone call or email. If This Old House paid me as a host for their thing, I could take that money and invest it in Garden Girl.

I did have a good vibe from the head of this Old House's underwriter. He was suggesting Toyoto Prius as my first sponser, and he seemed interested in working with me on the project. Either way I still need WGBH, for now. The problem with doing the project myself for the home video/web market, is the usual, money. I'm considering taking out a loan for it though, but it will be a lot of money, which I find scary.

I threw some of what I call the "Lost Tapes" up on google yesterday. It's mostly out takes from the Promo vid, but it's kind of cool. In one clip it is me in the pond, trying to fix it, and the other is me and my daughter playing with the livestock. They're both pretty relaxed behind the scenes type footage, but you get a better idea of my house and farmette.

I'll get back to specific responses this weekend. Thank you all!

Patti

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 4236943883

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5040135390

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1106557170

Here are the thoughts of an Advertising guy:

The show defenetly has potential although the demo seems a bit to crunchy granola/tree hugh / utne reader [lol] I mean not Martha Stweart enough (may be that'sthe intention) What I am trying to say is that it does not seem mainstream more like
a cable or video pod cast type.

Also for some one like me who grow up in the city and appreciates a bit of what the show offers... it still feels "to easy' it shows a great idillic world to easy to achieve. It seems to me that you need a lot of tools (lots of it) a lot of knowledge on many areas, carpentry, landscape, animal care, etc... And then the
rality of neighbors How many neighbors are going to tolerate all that mess? in such narrow spaces. That said it might be ideal for an audience of people with a bit more money who are escaping the city but may not ready for the suburbs, but they do
have a bit of land and they want to play "Green Acres". Also may be it could work as a community work a community where the chores are divided...

Technically the only thing I did not dig was the music it felt to Jazzy, to up front, knowing the TV exces out there they might want something more commercial, soft/neutral, flofier (sp).

My other recomendation for your show is to try to recruit a known star to be hostess of the show (you know a known face helps) Have you thought of any one?

Look forward to your thoughts on this one.....


Thanks Patti

Yup,,,, Dont like any of the suggestions.
Being different is one of the best ways to get noticed.

Tried contacting Prius people directly? (Easier to pitch if you already have backing,,, even if it is tentative)

Cheers

Any suggestions for a weekend/ish not so cold here in Maryland project? ( Now a good time to start a raised onion or garlic bed?. I can do my own research, but any ideas?


And if the idea was simple,, a bunch of people doing it would certainly raise awareness with their friends, family and neighbors!

As well as allow the opportunity for people to provide “buzz creating feedback”

Cheers