Tonight as I sat down to relax with a little snoot of Bermudian Black Seal rum and some organic cheese crackers, I perused my video collection in iTunes. Since my wife is still in the green and pleasant land I chose a BBC production from the Natural World series called "A Farm for the Future".
It chronicles the journey one woman takes from her traditional farming roots to Permaculture in order to future proof her family farm in Devon in the face of Peak Oil. It is an excellent program and I highly recommend it if for nothing else the beautiful scenes of British countryside and wildlife.
At one point our heroine, after talking with Patrick Whitefield about permaculture, is touring Martin Crawford's food forest, gobsmacked by the abundance growing naturally with very little maintenance, and it struck me, here I sit munching highly processed snack foods while sipping an imported rum while there are greens aplenty and tomatoes still to harvest from my own garden! Pausing the film I went outside and gathered two types of parsley, basil, two types of spicy lettuce, some tomatoes and my all time favorite, fresh stinging nettle!
Into a colander it went, a quick rinse, and now I'm finishing my repast of fresh greens and tomatoes, no dressing, no meat, no dairy, all grown right here within 100 feet of where I stuff my face. Bliss!
Showing posts with label permaculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label permaculture. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Taking my time
So I'm eating my breakfast, it's a cool morning, rain is forecast. I hear a large truck pull up outside. It's from Lowes, on the flatbed is a project, a deck perhaps, maybe even a shade structure by the looks of the materials, the only thing missing is the labor. I'm struck with the realization that I still haven't built our shade structure, not even the grape arbor. I could have just specced it out and had all the arsenic laden pressure treated lumber delivered, put it up in a weekend. I didn't. I've been pondering ways to accomplish it in a sustainable manner. I'm getting better at the primary permaculture principle of "Long thoughtful observation". I've been drying bamboo and studying techniques for building with the plentiful, hard grass. I've been collecting urbanite, busted up concrete on it's way to the dump, to build the retaining walls and foundations with. Well, today I will get a start.
That's my urbanite pile behind the wood pile. I'd been picking it up piece by piece when I found it on the side of the road but this past Thursday I found a crew tearing out a driveway and arranged to divert one load from the landfill to my driveway. In fact, in this picture you can see, more instances of scavenging, the compost pile in the foreground (built mainly from grocery store waste, the frame is from timber found on the side of the road), the manure pile just past it on the left (scavenged from some folks with horses), the pine log terrace border (gleaned from a friends yard when they removed some beetlekill, I'll use much of the urbanite to shore this up as a drystone wall), the wood pile (found along the side of the road on trash day).
I might not be as quick but I'm sure my project will have a much lower impact than the one that just arrived on the back of the Lowes truck.
That's my urbanite pile behind the wood pile. I'd been picking it up piece by piece when I found it on the side of the road but this past Thursday I found a crew tearing out a driveway and arranged to divert one load from the landfill to my driveway. In fact, in this picture you can see, more instances of scavenging, the compost pile in the foreground (built mainly from grocery store waste, the frame is from timber found on the side of the road), the manure pile just past it on the left (scavenged from some folks with horses), the pine log terrace border (gleaned from a friends yard when they removed some beetlekill, I'll use much of the urbanite to shore this up as a drystone wall), the wood pile (found along the side of the road on trash day).
I might not be as quick but I'm sure my project will have a much lower impact than the one that just arrived on the back of the Lowes truck.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Another Long Day
Finished digging a long thin strip bed for corn, beans and squash
More heavy landscaping; creating 2 terraces with cut logs 14" to 22" long by 15" in diameter
Ripped out the nasty old lino in the bathroom, more cleaning
Got started organizing the workshop under the house
Lots of hand watering in the garden
Planted and replanted
In the middle of it all we played a game of scrabble over a lovely lunch before some restful internet research during the heat of the day. Checked out this new type of treated wood.
http://www.timbersilwood.com/
and some rainwater storage tanks.
And now to go read my book (see below) and go to bed. This one is our current bible.
More heavy landscaping; creating 2 terraces with cut logs 14" to 22" long by 15" in diameter
Ripped out the nasty old lino in the bathroom, more cleaning
Got started organizing the workshop under the house
Lots of hand watering in the garden
Planted and replanted
In the middle of it all we played a game of scrabble over a lovely lunch before some restful internet research during the heat of the day. Checked out this new type of treated wood.
http://www.timbersilwood.com/
and some rainwater storage tanks.
And now to go read my book (see below) and go to bed. This one is our current bible.
Thursday, 25 March 2010
David Holmgren on the Endurance of Suburbia
"The End of Suburbia is a must see documentary about peak oil, arguing that it spells a hard crash for the suburban dream. David Holmgren here offers a counterview, a vision of a radically retrofitted, food producing suburbia. David Holmgren is the co-originator of Permaculture. http://www.holmgren.com.au"
Saturday, 13 March 2010
The next AKG podcast audio contribution.
You can download the latest episode at The Alternative Kitchen Garden website, listen to it in the audio player here or just read the transcript of our bit below, but it would be a shame to miss the AKG content.
"In the last episode we mentioned the shade structure we are planning for the south side of the house in Hickory North Carolina. Due to the intensity of the sun at that latitude we will eventually extend it to the SE and SW sides of the house as well. This structure forms a boundary between the house and the gardens.
Today’s permaculture tip is from “The Woodland Way - A Permaculture Approach to Sustainable Woodland Management” by Ben Law published by Permanent Publications in 2005.
“Wherever species, soils, elements, or natural or artificial boundaries meet, edges appear. Edges are highly productive environments. ... If we look at the edge between woodland and grassland, we find that the edge contains both species from the woodland and the grassland, as well as the species unique to the edge itself!”
This edge idea helps us to introduce the Permaculture concept of Zones.
In the book “Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future”, Bill Mollison discusses 6 distinct zones. These are largely based around how much time is needed in each. For instance, a chicken coop might be visited more than 400 times in a year to gather eggs and manure, deliver water, cull, and perform maintenance whereas an oak tree may be visited only once or twice to collect acorns. Therefore it makes more sense to place the chicken coop close to the house and leave the oak tree in the woods.
Here are the zones according to Mr. Mollison, moving from the woods to the house;
Zone 5 is for the wild; unmanaged, lightly foraged and generally left alone, used for study, a place to learn the rules of the locale. This will be quite small on our 1/3 acre.
Zone 4 will be even smaller, it borders on the wildest areas and typically contains pasture and larger ponds, which we will not have room for, and minimally managed trees and shrubs for foraging and fuel.
Zone 3 is more for commercial use; livestock (only chickens for us) and crops for sale, natural or minimally pruned trees, storage and animal barns, water storage, vegetative windbreaks and habitat.
Zone 2 is less intensively managed with small ponds and hedges, home orchards and kitchen crop beds.
In Zone 1 are areas needing more frequent interaction; kitchen herb gardens, chicken laying coops, seedling propagation areas, rainwater tanks, small quiet livestock, and household waste recycling areas. To quote Mr. Mollison “In this zone, we arrange nature to serve our needs.”
Zone 0 is the dwelling and it’s attached structures, including potted and trellised plants and associated animals.
As our most urgent need is to get zone 0 prepared for occupancy, we must first consider how our structure interacts with the surrounding environment. The shade structure forms the interface with the surrounding environment.
In our design we’ve referred to The following principles from a Toby Hemenway slideshow at the Natural Building Convergence in May of 2002, it is available at the “I love cob” podcast archive at ilovecob.com/. The author of “Gaia’s Garden; A guide to home scale permaculture” Mr. Hemenway discussed the concept of “The Unified Landscape”.
#1 How can inhabiting the site be a net gain for the environment?
#2 How can we tie buildings into the site aesthetically and functionally?
#3 How can a building heal its own damage to the site, as well as past damage?
These principles take into account the effects of construction including materials production; be it mining, logging or petrochemical manufacturing, transporting those materials, as well as detrimental effects of construction; such as soil compaction, erosion, and habitat degradation.
Subsequent to construction there are the effects of inhabiting a site; energy and resource use, waste issues, and the long term effects of the structure such as impermeable surfaces and daylighting changes.
Hopefully while minimizing these negative effects we can compensate by capitalizing on opportunities created by the site; such as onsite resource collection, use and recycling, as well as creation of microclimates and increasing edges, thus achieving greater biodiversity. And lastly, by taking over the site we hope to increase human stewardship compared to its current use.
Our shade structure, with integrated conservatory and solar panels, and the added terrace it is built upon will be instrumental in accomplishing many of these goals as it will drastically improve the passive solar performance of the existing house and will generate electricity for various activities around the site. The conservatory will not only heat the house in the winter but will provide a platform for seedling propagation and growing of tropical plants like bananas. The timber frame shade structure will provide vertical growing space, as well as the beginnings of an integrated rainwater management system. We’ll discuss rainwater harvesting in the next episode.
And that’s it for this episode. Thanks for listening and until next time visit us at sustliving.blogspot.com. We’ll leave you with a quote from Gary Paul Nabhan “ One permaculture application does not necessarily make a long-term solution; it generates new challenges in an ever-evolving setting. Our role is to participate in ecological succession, not to freeze the landscape.”
"In the last episode we mentioned the shade structure we are planning for the south side of the house in Hickory North Carolina. Due to the intensity of the sun at that latitude we will eventually extend it to the SE and SW sides of the house as well. This structure forms a boundary between the house and the gardens.
Today’s permaculture tip is from “The Woodland Way - A Permaculture Approach to Sustainable Woodland Management” by Ben Law published by Permanent Publications in 2005.
“Wherever species, soils, elements, or natural or artificial boundaries meet, edges appear. Edges are highly productive environments. ... If we look at the edge between woodland and grassland, we find that the edge contains both species from the woodland and the grassland, as well as the species unique to the edge itself!”
This edge idea helps us to introduce the Permaculture concept of Zones.
In the book “Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future”, Bill Mollison discusses 6 distinct zones. These are largely based around how much time is needed in each. For instance, a chicken coop might be visited more than 400 times in a year to gather eggs and manure, deliver water, cull, and perform maintenance whereas an oak tree may be visited only once or twice to collect acorns. Therefore it makes more sense to place the chicken coop close to the house and leave the oak tree in the woods.
Here are the zones according to Mr. Mollison, moving from the woods to the house;
Zone 5 is for the wild; unmanaged, lightly foraged and generally left alone, used for study, a place to learn the rules of the locale. This will be quite small on our 1/3 acre.
Zone 4 will be even smaller, it borders on the wildest areas and typically contains pasture and larger ponds, which we will not have room for, and minimally managed trees and shrubs for foraging and fuel.
Zone 3 is more for commercial use; livestock (only chickens for us) and crops for sale, natural or minimally pruned trees, storage and animal barns, water storage, vegetative windbreaks and habitat.
Zone 2 is less intensively managed with small ponds and hedges, home orchards and kitchen crop beds.
In Zone 1 are areas needing more frequent interaction; kitchen herb gardens, chicken laying coops, seedling propagation areas, rainwater tanks, small quiet livestock, and household waste recycling areas. To quote Mr. Mollison “In this zone, we arrange nature to serve our needs.”
Zone 0 is the dwelling and it’s attached structures, including potted and trellised plants and associated animals.
As our most urgent need is to get zone 0 prepared for occupancy, we must first consider how our structure interacts with the surrounding environment. The shade structure forms the interface with the surrounding environment.
In our design we’ve referred to The following principles from a Toby Hemenway slideshow at the Natural Building Convergence in May of 2002, it is available at the “I love cob” podcast archive at ilovecob.com/. The author of “Gaia’s Garden; A guide to home scale permaculture” Mr. Hemenway discussed the concept of “The Unified Landscape”.
#1 How can inhabiting the site be a net gain for the environment?
#2 How can we tie buildings into the site aesthetically and functionally?
#3 How can a building heal its own damage to the site, as well as past damage?
These principles take into account the effects of construction including materials production; be it mining, logging or petrochemical manufacturing, transporting those materials, as well as detrimental effects of construction; such as soil compaction, erosion, and habitat degradation.
Subsequent to construction there are the effects of inhabiting a site; energy and resource use, waste issues, and the long term effects of the structure such as impermeable surfaces and daylighting changes.
Hopefully while minimizing these negative effects we can compensate by capitalizing on opportunities created by the site; such as onsite resource collection, use and recycling, as well as creation of microclimates and increasing edges, thus achieving greater biodiversity. And lastly, by taking over the site we hope to increase human stewardship compared to its current use.
Our shade structure, with integrated conservatory and solar panels, and the added terrace it is built upon will be instrumental in accomplishing many of these goals as it will drastically improve the passive solar performance of the existing house and will generate electricity for various activities around the site. The conservatory will not only heat the house in the winter but will provide a platform for seedling propagation and growing of tropical plants like bananas. The timber frame shade structure will provide vertical growing space, as well as the beginnings of an integrated rainwater management system. We’ll discuss rainwater harvesting in the next episode.
And that’s it for this episode. Thanks for listening and until next time visit us at sustliving.blogspot.com. We’ll leave you with a quote from Gary Paul Nabhan “ One permaculture application does not necessarily make a long-term solution; it generates new challenges in an ever-evolving setting. Our role is to participate in ecological succession, not to freeze the landscape.”
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
The Sustainable Living Project podcast episode #2 at AKG
Here is the transcript of the next episode now playing over at The Alternative Kitchen Garden Podcast.
"While still in England and waiting for Jacqui’s US visa, we are doing the initial planning for our off grid permaculture based lifestyle and educational project in the suburbs of Hickory North Carolina.
We hope to demonstrate that a low impact, ethical, resilient, comfortable, healthy, and convenient lifestyle is possible in existing suburban developments. You can keep track of our progress on this podcast and at our blog, Sustainable Living at sustliving.blogspot.com
Our project will be sited on 1/3 of an acre with a 1950’s era, brick and timber framed, 1800 sq.ft, 2 story home. It has grid supplied electricity, gas, sewage disposal and water. Since we bought the property we have installed double glazing and loft insulation, and have done some landscaping to reduce moisture under the house. It has been rented out for 8 years while we have been living in the UK and Bermuda.
We plan to occupy the site in the spring and are currently studying the basics of permaculture design in the hopes of making fewer mistakes at the outset. Eventually we will attend a permaculture design course that is based in the same growing region.
The Permaculture tip for this episode is from Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future published in 1990 by Bill Mollison
The “Principle of Self Regulation - The purpose of a functional and self regulating design is to place elements or components in such a way that each serves the needs, and accepts the products, of other elements.” Thus “to enable a design component to function we must put it in the right place.”
As we apply this planing principle in our garden design, the siting of veggie gardens, fruit trees, biomass crops, compost heaps, leaf mould piles, water features, glasshouses and chicken coops will all require careful observation of the interaction between existing structures and environmental conditions. For example: a compost heap generates heat which can be used to warm a greenhouse or a chicken coop.
We will gradually transition to an off grid lifestyle which adds additional planning considerations regarding energy, waste and water. The placing of the energy systems will be governed by existing structural orientation, solar exposure and available wind patterns to which we will have to adapt.
Extensive collection of rainwater will require changes to the roof which is laid with asphalt tile. Dealing with waste onsite will require a whole series of design decisions which will be influenced by local regulations, relations with the neighbors, and our own ability to reduce waste producing consumption.
Some of the first design questions we are considering in detail relate to food production and initial structural modifications to increase the efficiency of passive cooling and heating.
Currently the clay subsoil is covered in a thin layer of topsoil, hosting lawn, shrubs and a few shade trees. How will we quickly create the large amounts of soil needed for growing? We will need a fast composting process with more inputs than our own property can provide and are considering a kitchen and garden waste collection scheme with our neighbors. This should foster an ethic of co-operation with our neighbors, a key principle of permaculture.
But how will the neighbors respond to this project and the obvious changes in the appearance of the property that will follow? What can we do to manage that issue? As we hope to spread the permaculture ethic, it is important to keep the neighbors happy. We are looking at where to put hedges and fences to screen less attractive items like biogas digesters, materials storage and compost piles. Any hedges will need to have productive qualities including biomass, habitat, and fruit, and fences will need to be durable but ultimately biodegradable; we are considering, bamboo and blueberries for this.
Next, Hickory is very hot in the summer and cold in the winter. What is the first thing we should do to reduce energy use in the house? Fortunately, we have excellent solar exposure along 3 walls of the house and this plentiful supply of energy needs to be properly utilized. In the summer we will need to utilize the excess solar gain on the south side of the house to produce ventilation, drawing cool air in from the North side. The first structural change will likely be the addition of a shade structure along the south side of the house that will block the sun in the summer but not in the winter.
This shade structure will also provide vertical growing space for climbing plants like cucumbers and grapes, further shading the area immediately surrounding the sunny side of the house. This interface between shelter and growing area will be the subject of our next episode when we’ll discuss the permaculture concept of zones.
And that’s it for this episode. If you have any questions about our project or this episode please leave a comment here at the Alternative Kitchen Garden Site or at our blog sustliving.blogspot.com."
"While still in England and waiting for Jacqui’s US visa, we are doing the initial planning for our off grid permaculture based lifestyle and educational project in the suburbs of Hickory North Carolina.
We hope to demonstrate that a low impact, ethical, resilient, comfortable, healthy, and convenient lifestyle is possible in existing suburban developments. You can keep track of our progress on this podcast and at our blog, Sustainable Living at sustliving.blogspot.com
Our project will be sited on 1/3 of an acre with a 1950’s era, brick and timber framed, 1800 sq.ft, 2 story home. It has grid supplied electricity, gas, sewage disposal and water. Since we bought the property we have installed double glazing and loft insulation, and have done some landscaping to reduce moisture under the house. It has been rented out for 8 years while we have been living in the UK and Bermuda.
We plan to occupy the site in the spring and are currently studying the basics of permaculture design in the hopes of making fewer mistakes at the outset. Eventually we will attend a permaculture design course that is based in the same growing region.
The Permaculture tip for this episode is from Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future published in 1990 by Bill Mollison
The “Principle of Self Regulation - The purpose of a functional and self regulating design is to place elements or components in such a way that each serves the needs, and accepts the products, of other elements.” Thus “to enable a design component to function we must put it in the right place.”
As we apply this planing principle in our garden design, the siting of veggie gardens, fruit trees, biomass crops, compost heaps, leaf mould piles, water features, glasshouses and chicken coops will all require careful observation of the interaction between existing structures and environmental conditions. For example: a compost heap generates heat which can be used to warm a greenhouse or a chicken coop.
We will gradually transition to an off grid lifestyle which adds additional planning considerations regarding energy, waste and water. The placing of the energy systems will be governed by existing structural orientation, solar exposure and available wind patterns to which we will have to adapt.
Extensive collection of rainwater will require changes to the roof which is laid with asphalt tile. Dealing with waste onsite will require a whole series of design decisions which will be influenced by local regulations, relations with the neighbors, and our own ability to reduce waste producing consumption.
Some of the first design questions we are considering in detail relate to food production and initial structural modifications to increase the efficiency of passive cooling and heating.
Currently the clay subsoil is covered in a thin layer of topsoil, hosting lawn, shrubs and a few shade trees. How will we quickly create the large amounts of soil needed for growing? We will need a fast composting process with more inputs than our own property can provide and are considering a kitchen and garden waste collection scheme with our neighbors. This should foster an ethic of co-operation with our neighbors, a key principle of permaculture.
But how will the neighbors respond to this project and the obvious changes in the appearance of the property that will follow? What can we do to manage that issue? As we hope to spread the permaculture ethic, it is important to keep the neighbors happy. We are looking at where to put hedges and fences to screen less attractive items like biogas digesters, materials storage and compost piles. Any hedges will need to have productive qualities including biomass, habitat, and fruit, and fences will need to be durable but ultimately biodegradable; we are considering, bamboo and blueberries for this.
Next, Hickory is very hot in the summer and cold in the winter. What is the first thing we should do to reduce energy use in the house? Fortunately, we have excellent solar exposure along 3 walls of the house and this plentiful supply of energy needs to be properly utilized. In the summer we will need to utilize the excess solar gain on the south side of the house to produce ventilation, drawing cool air in from the North side. The first structural change will likely be the addition of a shade structure along the south side of the house that will block the sun in the summer but not in the winter.
This shade structure will also provide vertical growing space for climbing plants like cucumbers and grapes, further shading the area immediately surrounding the sunny side of the house. This interface between shelter and growing area will be the subject of our next episode when we’ll discuss the permaculture concept of zones.
And that’s it for this episode. If you have any questions about our project or this episode please leave a comment here at the Alternative Kitchen Garden Site or at our blog sustliving.blogspot.com."
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
The Sustainable Living Project
Since I started this blog I have posted about many developments of interest to me that pertain to sustainable living, from my own personal exploration of technologies to increase the sustainability of my lifestyle to trends which threaten the very basis of all our lives such as climate change and peak oil. Since those first posts in January of 2008 I have completed the work for my masters, I have attended transition training and helped start a transition initiative in Bermuda, I’ve built gardens in 3 countries, gone car free, and have generally tried to lower my carbon footprint. In some respects I have failed miserably, I have not managed to quit flying, I have not managed to get back to living off grid, but overall I feel I have been making progress.
And now I come to the culmination of much of my life experience over the past 30 years and most of my study and interest over the the past 10 years with the planning and implementation of a project in the US. This project and it’s peripheral issues will become the primary subject for this blog the closer we get to implementation.
Currently Jacqui and I are settling our affairs in the UK, shopping for a property in the southwest of England, obtaining my British passport, and applying for Jacq’s long term Visa for the US. As we have family on both sides of the Atlantic, we see maintaining viability in both the UK and the US as an investment in resilience in the sense that keeping options open provides security for the future, particularly for Jacqui. She comes from a long line of long lived women, all of whom seem to maintain their wits to the end. My genetics don’t look so good. The likelihood is that I will need more serious medical attention much sooner than Jacqui. Given the chaotic state of affairs with health care in America it is highly likely that we will return to the UK at some point in the next 15 to 20 years and almost certain that Jacq will return eventually. Thus we hope to find a house to buy that offers us a good southern exposure, some garden space, and proximity to the sea (albeit high above). In the meantime it needs to be viable as an investment. So we are looking for something we can rent out without spending too much time and money in renovation. We hope to put in an offer in the next 2 weeks. We must return to Sheffield no later than the end of February to attend to the details of Jacq’s visa application. Once that is in we will be waiting for a purchase to be accomplished. At that point we will move back to the southwest to live in our house until the visa arrives.
At that point we will search for a cruise line to take us to America. We are sailing because we can carry more tools, clothes, books and such with us at no extra charge and to avoid the carbon impact of flying. Also, I really dislike flying, I don’t like sitting still for hours and even the nicest airports are unpleasant places to spend any time at all. Our current hope to travel sometime in the spring.
We intend to set up a permaculture based off grid lifestyle and educational project in the small town of Hickory NC, where already own property.
Hickory is a lovely little town in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. It lies about an hour from the banking center of Charlotte, about an hour from the progressive town of Asheville, and about and hour from the crest of the Appalachians. It is struggling economically, it was even before the current recession, as it was built upon the furniture trade which has largely moved to China. We’ve chosen Hickory to be near my family and because we have purchased rental property there over the last 10 years.
We only own 3 properties but they have about 2 thirds of acre in total to work with. We will move into the largest place, a 3 bedroom brick home situated within easy walking distance of the downtown area and a supermarket. Situated on a third of an acre and excellent southern exposure we hope to grow significant amounts of food and biomass. Additionally we will take over the landscaping of the other 2 properties, a duplex across town, or as Brits would know it, both sides of a semidetached property. With the additional third of an acre, some of which is in woodland, we will supplement production.
We will be gradually taking the main property off grid, we already own 2 solar panels and a small wind generator which will be the beginnings of our energy system. To this we will add solar hot water, a multi fuel burner, various outdoor biomass stoves, a solar cooker, a bio gas digester, and significant passive solar and efficiency improvements to the structure. Additionally we will harvest rainwater, reuse greywater and of course practice the permaculture ethics throughout.
“Care of the Earth - provision for all life systems to continue and multiply
Care of People - provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence.
Setting limits to population and consumption - by governing our own needs we can set resources aside to further the above principles.” - Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future 1990 by Bill Mollison page 2.
I will cover the details of our plan over the next several months here on this blog. After we arrive we will cover the implementation for the foreseeable future.
And now I come to the culmination of much of my life experience over the past 30 years and most of my study and interest over the the past 10 years with the planning and implementation of a project in the US. This project and it’s peripheral issues will become the primary subject for this blog the closer we get to implementation.
Currently Jacqui and I are settling our affairs in the UK, shopping for a property in the southwest of England, obtaining my British passport, and applying for Jacq’s long term Visa for the US. As we have family on both sides of the Atlantic, we see maintaining viability in both the UK and the US as an investment in resilience in the sense that keeping options open provides security for the future, particularly for Jacqui. She comes from a long line of long lived women, all of whom seem to maintain their wits to the end. My genetics don’t look so good. The likelihood is that I will need more serious medical attention much sooner than Jacqui. Given the chaotic state of affairs with health care in America it is highly likely that we will return to the UK at some point in the next 15 to 20 years and almost certain that Jacq will return eventually. Thus we hope to find a house to buy that offers us a good southern exposure, some garden space, and proximity to the sea (albeit high above). In the meantime it needs to be viable as an investment. So we are looking for something we can rent out without spending too much time and money in renovation. We hope to put in an offer in the next 2 weeks. We must return to Sheffield no later than the end of February to attend to the details of Jacq’s visa application. Once that is in we will be waiting for a purchase to be accomplished. At that point we will move back to the southwest to live in our house until the visa arrives.
At that point we will search for a cruise line to take us to America. We are sailing because we can carry more tools, clothes, books and such with us at no extra charge and to avoid the carbon impact of flying. Also, I really dislike flying, I don’t like sitting still for hours and even the nicest airports are unpleasant places to spend any time at all. Our current hope to travel sometime in the spring.
We intend to set up a permaculture based off grid lifestyle and educational project in the small town of Hickory NC, where already own property.
Hickory is a lovely little town in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. It lies about an hour from the banking center of Charlotte, about an hour from the progressive town of Asheville, and about and hour from the crest of the Appalachians. It is struggling economically, it was even before the current recession, as it was built upon the furniture trade which has largely moved to China. We’ve chosen Hickory to be near my family and because we have purchased rental property there over the last 10 years.
We only own 3 properties but they have about 2 thirds of acre in total to work with. We will move into the largest place, a 3 bedroom brick home situated within easy walking distance of the downtown area and a supermarket. Situated on a third of an acre and excellent southern exposure we hope to grow significant amounts of food and biomass. Additionally we will take over the landscaping of the other 2 properties, a duplex across town, or as Brits would know it, both sides of a semidetached property. With the additional third of an acre, some of which is in woodland, we will supplement production.
We will be gradually taking the main property off grid, we already own 2 solar panels and a small wind generator which will be the beginnings of our energy system. To this we will add solar hot water, a multi fuel burner, various outdoor biomass stoves, a solar cooker, a bio gas digester, and significant passive solar and efficiency improvements to the structure. Additionally we will harvest rainwater, reuse greywater and of course practice the permaculture ethics throughout.
“Care of the Earth - provision for all life systems to continue and multiply
Care of People - provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence.
Setting limits to population and consumption - by governing our own needs we can set resources aside to further the above principles.” - Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future 1990 by Bill Mollison page 2.
I will cover the details of our plan over the next several months here on this blog. After we arrive we will cover the implementation for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
My permaculture education begins!
As most of my regular readers know, my wife and I are planning on setting up an off grid permaculture lifestyle with a attached community education project when we get to the states in the spring. This, of course, necessitates a thorough understanding of permaculture. I hope to take a permaculture design course, probably in Asheville, while my wife would like it if we could avoid that and rely on our own study. This necessitates owning the right books. So....
Since I got back to England I've been trolling the used book shops for books on Permaculture. I finally found one at my friend Brian's bookshop yesterday and what a find! "Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future" by Bill Mollison, a tome, large hardbound 579 pages.
So my plan is to spend an hour every morning studying and keeping notes, particularly as they apply to our specific project. I will endeavour to post occasional updates on what I'm learning and the development of the plan.
Since I got back to England I've been trolling the used book shops for books on Permaculture. I finally found one at my friend Brian's bookshop yesterday and what a find! "Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future" by Bill Mollison, a tome, large hardbound 579 pages.
So my plan is to spend an hour every morning studying and keeping notes, particularly as they apply to our specific project. I will endeavour to post occasional updates on what I'm learning and the development of the plan.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Permaculture, self reliance and growing your own.
It's clear that folks are going back to small farming, growing their own and providing their communities with quality local produce. As reported on Associated Press by Rick Callahan;
"February's census report found that the number of farms under 50 acres soared nearly 15 percent between 2002 and 2007 to about 853,000 nationwide. Farms under 10 acres grew even more, with their numbers rising about 30 percent to 232,000.
As defined on the Permaculture Institute site Permaculture is;
" an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor. It teaches us how build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, catch rainwater, build communities and much more."
Using an ecosystems approach in planting, water management, resource cycling, animal management, and even the very design of the human presence in the landscape creates a highly efficient, low labour lifestyle.
Geoff Lawton, an Australian Permaculturist, from an interview on CNN;
"A good organic farmer works a thousand hours a year. The industrial mankind works two thousand to three thousand hours a year. What do we have to show for it? Gadgets.
"February's census report found that the number of farms under 50 acres soared nearly 15 percent between 2002 and 2007 to about 853,000 nationwide. Farms under 10 acres grew even more, with their numbers rising about 30 percent to 232,000.
Nearly 300,000 new farms began production since the last census in 2002, and they tended to have fewer acres, lower sales and younger operators who also work off-farm, said Ginger Harris, a demographer with National Agricultural Statistics Service, a branch of the USDA."
As communities and individuals turn towards the technologies of self reliance and resilience such as local food production, local energy production, support of local small business, and reduced reliance on debt, there is great potential for transformative change towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Many already on this transformative path are turning to Permaculture for signposts along the way.As defined on the Permaculture Institute site Permaculture is;
" an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor. It teaches us how build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, catch rainwater, build communities and much more."
Using an ecosystems approach in planting, water management, resource cycling, animal management, and even the very design of the human presence in the landscape creates a highly efficient, low labour lifestyle.
Geoff Lawton, an Australian Permaculturist, from an interview on CNN;
"A good organic farmer works a thousand hours a year. The industrial mankind works two thousand to three thousand hours a year. What do we have to show for it? Gadgets.
Sound good? Follow the links in this post to check it out in detail.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
The Kitchen Garden w/Geoff Lawton
Want healthy food at your fingertips?
How would you like to gain the psychological benefits of growing your own food and medicines?
Worried about peak oil and it's threats to you quality of life?
Check out this video by Geoff Hamilton about his Kitchen Garden.
How would you like to gain the psychological benefits of growing your own food and medicines?
Worried about peak oil and it's threats to you quality of life?
Check out this video by Geoff Hamilton about his Kitchen Garden.
Friday, 27 March 2009
A Farm for the Future
If you are at all interested in growing or eating food, and who isn't, you really should watch this film from the The Natural World series on BBC, "A Farm for the Future" over on Google video. Here's the blurb for the film from United Diversity;"Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key.
With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family’s wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is.
Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low-energy future. (from BBC)"
Thanks to Hermitage TV for the image.
Monday, 2 June 2008
A thought or two from Bill Mollison
Quoted from the introduction to the book "Permaculture: A Designers Manual" by Bill Mollison
"The sad reality is that we are in danger of perishing from our own stupidity and lack of personal responsibility to life. If we become extinct because of factors beyond our control, then we can at least die with pride in ourselves, but to create a mess in which we perish by our own inaction makes nonsense of our claims to consciousness and morality."
"A person of courage today is a person of peace. The courage we need is to refuse authority and to accept only personally responsible decisions. Like war, growth at any cost is an outmoded and discredited concept. It is our lives which are being laid to waste. What is worse, it is our children's world which is being destroyed. It is therefore our only possible decision to withhold all support for destructive systems, and to cease to invest our lives in own annihilation."
" The Prime Directive of Permaculture - The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. Make It Now!"
"The sad reality is that we are in danger of perishing from our own stupidity and lack of personal responsibility to life. If we become extinct because of factors beyond our control, then we can at least die with pride in ourselves, but to create a mess in which we perish by our own inaction makes nonsense of our claims to consciousness and morality."
"A person of courage today is a person of peace. The courage we need is to refuse authority and to accept only personally responsible decisions. Like war, growth at any cost is an outmoded and discredited concept. It is our lives which are being laid to waste. What is worse, it is our children's world which is being destroyed. It is therefore our only possible decision to withhold all support for destructive systems, and to cease to invest our lives in own annihilation."
" The Prime Directive of Permaculture - The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. Make It Now!"
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