Although there has been nothing going on here on this forum for some time now, I'm hoping that will change soon.
WHD and I spoke via phone last night for a little over an hour. We concluded that we would begin attempting to breath new life into SUN via this forum.
GM and I are going to be in a position in the near future to buy some land here in the Upstate of SC. We are talking about donating it to the SUN to get something on the ground. Currently the idea is to cultivate a bamboo and Permaculture plant specific nursery on the land. There are a lot of inns and outs and what-have-yous that will be involved with such a thing. It will benefit GM and I by giving us a tax break as well as being able to operate on the land without needing to pay property taxes on it.
My current bamboo nursery, Kitsune Bamboo Nursery, has already made some bamboo sales this year. Along with the site being a nursery we will also focus on spreading the culture of bamboo in America. Not just growing bamboo but actually using it. Currently I am interning with Keiji Oshima in Hendersonville NC at Haiku Bamboo Nursery. Along with learning to cultivate bamboo groves for specific purposes (such as for shoots, weaving, and landscapes) I've also learned to split bamboo with a traditional Japanese bamboo knife. Eventually I will learn to weave with the splits. I'm also learning to make Shakuhachi flutes (as well as how to grow and harvest the bamboo for that specific purpose). I'll be learning how to make charcoal with it soon as well as how to cure it via fire. I have interest in learning to build with it, and I've been learning how to craft with it.
Beyond focusing on bamboo we will also be raising permaculture shrubbery (nitrogen fixing plants such as goumi, seaberry, and veronia amongst others), nitrogen fixing trees, as well as dynamic nutrient accumulators and other rare and useful plants.
What we need are people with knowledge specifically with using non-profits to benefit us the most. We need a good grant writer. We need to identify people in the Upstate of SC that will be interested in becoming involved with SUN. We also need to begin revamping Sun4living to get it more up to date. Currently there are many bones but not much meat on our website.
Any ideas about how to proceed are welcomed here. Please let's get this site moving so that we can gain interest and make SUN a reality on the ground.