In the last year and a half our dreams and ideas about permaculture and sustainable living have gotten buried under our everyday chores and the more dramatic things that have happened in that time. Like my fathers death and the pregnancy and birth of our third child, Gabriel.
While we live in a century old, seven bedroom farm house, only three of the rooms have been usable up to this point. Essentially we are a family of five living in a studio apartment. A big one to be sure, but still, the living room has been our bedroom for the last three years and now with three kids, it's starting to get cramped.
So we have allowed our minds to wander other directions. Sometime to the house, but in most cases to Forest's work with his family and to the kids. Permaculture and sustainability have been on our minds but we haven't had any extra energy to put into our dreams until just recently.
About a week ago Forest was talking with a good friend of ours who has a farm he is perming (ya know, permaculture-ing) down in Illinois. We lived with him and his wife for a short time several years back and their inspiration and dedication to permaculture is so inspirational. I don't know the full content of the 2+ hour long conversation that when on, but I do know that when Forest got off the phone he was beaming and excited about permaculture again. That conversation made both of us realize that "the now" is a great place to be, but dreaming about the future is just as important. Something we have lost sight of for a while.
Our friend told Forest to look up Sepp Holzer, a man who has created an amazing farm in the Austrian Alps. Everything he has done is from watching and learning what his land does natural and in a place where you would imagine nothing (or hardly anything) growing, he has created micro-climates and is growing things like cherries and citrus. I was shocked and had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I started watching the videos on youtube. Seeing what he had done was beautiful to me and inspired me so much. Hey, if Sepp can grow cherries on the tree line in the Alps, surely we can do smilier in the rich fertile prairie in central Minnesota.
This last week, since our re-awakening, both Forest and I have done a bunch of research. Forest, when he's not working, has been watching videos, studying videos about Sepp Holzer, Bill Mollison and permaculture in general. Constantly absorbing new informations and new ideas. And I, when not entertaining the kids, have been researching pigs and hugelkultur. It feels wonderful to be waking up again. The smell of the earth is so sweet and inviting and there are so many things we can start doing right now, even if we can't put a lot of energy into it just yet.
I'll leave you with the first video of Sepp Holzer that I watched. The possibilities seem endless right now and it's such a freeing thought.
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