Plans for 2011

The last couple of weeks have been really exciting for me.  Forest and I started working on our plans for our garden.  Now we've lived in Minnesota for the last 4 years and have had a garden at his parents house every year, but this year will be the first time we get to garden at our house and set it up using the sustainable, permaculture methods we have learned about.  We went out on a warmer day a week or so ago and got the rough dimensions of our gardening space.

The area we'll be fencing in is approximately 218' long (north to south) and I'd say an average of 50' wide (east to west.  The land contours down every so slightly towards the northeast and there is also a large tree to the northeast the overhangs the garden.  We're planning to trim the one branch that is giving the most shade, but the north end of the garden will only be getting afternoon and evening sun during the summer.  We're going to have a 3' bed around the whole garden for boarder crops, in hopes that the multiple layers will help keep the quack grass out of the garden.  Or at least minimize it's invasiveness.  After that we have at least a 3' footpath and on the east side of the garden it will be 5' so we can get the riding lawnmower and bigger carts and things through for harvesting purposes and to get organic matter in and out easily.

Most of the beds are 4' wide except those few which are obviously bigger.  To me there is still quite a bit of work to be done in the planning, but it's a really good start.  It's to scale to so we really have a good idea of what our space looks like.  I worry that we're to optimistic with our spacing and that we wont be able to fit this many beds in that space, but between the northern boarder and the central keyholes we have a lot of room to work.

The keyhole bed in the lower left hand corner we had planned to let Aurora have a flower garden.  but after looking at it more we have decided to make our duck house and small yard for them over there.

This will be our first year with ducks.  I'm nervous but we just have to do it.  With a garden this size and the slug problems we had last year, we can't do it without them.  I sent my order in two days ago to Sand Hill Preservation Center and we're ordering 15 Cayuga ducklings.  It was hard to figure out the breed we wanted but eventually we decided on the Cayuga because of it's hardiness in the cold and it's ability to reproduce naturally and it's more relaxed personality.  I had thought about Indian runners or Campbells for a while.  But after a little research I realized those breeds were rather high strung and with dogs and kids around I figured we would do a lot better with one of the heavier breeds that was a little more mellow.

We're ordering seeds and plants from all over the place.  At least 10 different nurseries and seed companies, and the orders are starting to roll in.  Hopefully I'll be placing my huge Seed Savers Exchange order today so that we can get things like our tomatoes and peppers started soon.  It feels so good to finally see this dream of ours coming to life and to know we'll be producing food in our own backyard this year.

So, How "Permy" Are You?

During the last week in my varying research about permaculture and hugelkultur I found myself checking out the different conversations happening on the Permaculture Forums.  I have hardly touched on anything there.  But one subject that caught my eye was that of a permaculture/eco rating system a few people had come up with.  One post by Paul Wheaton in Montana says:

Level 1:  is thinking about the environment.  Bought fluorescent light bulbs.  Is trying to do a good job of recycling.  Reads an article or two.

Level 2:  30% of purchased food is organic

Level 3:  Has an organic garden and 80% of purchased food is organic

Level 4:  Grow 40% of their own food.  Studying permaculture. 

Level 5:  has taken a PDC and/or grows 90% of their own food

Level 6: Moving away from fluorescent light bulbs.  Living a footprint that is 10 times lighter than average.  Maybe living in community.  Maybe living in something very small.

Level 7:  Permaculture teacher

Level 8:  Doing things that are currently improving the world in big ways

Level 9:  masanobu fukuoka, paul stamets, art ludwig, bill mollison, ianto evans ....

And 10 was Sepp Holzer.  His first post was a little more complicated and more like the number of people that were at each step in the scale instead of how one would be placed in each level (which I will admit confused me).  You can read the thread buy clicking here for more about what they are talking about.

If I followed this example I my family would be between 3 and 4.  Some years are better then others.  This year I had a baby and last I was pregnant and sick as a dog, so we haven't done much recently.  The two years before that though we gardened quite a bit probably getting 90% of our food from the garden and anything we didn't grow was always organic.  Maybe next year we'll be more of a solid 5, I hope.

Still there was another scale which I liked as well, posted here by Old Hammy:

I agree that there is a definite spectrum of eco-ness out there and I think I understand your need to try to classify things with an eco-scale... I'm not sure I agree that your scale defines what you are trying define though. Too much seems benchmarked against how much food consumption is home-grown while not taking into account what practices are used to grow the food. Obviously, there is also more to being eco than just growing food...

I recently engaged in a debate over the usefulness of the term "green" specifically with respect to how it's used in describing a house. My contention was that the term "green" is essentially meaningless since its definition can be written to suit any situation you want. Ie: "I am green because my house is green. My house is green because I put in bamboo floors and curly light-bulbs." Never mind the fact that the bamboo was steamed across the ocean, the 4000 sq ft floorplan or the petrochemical foams used to insulate and "save" energy. Within these "shades of green" I think are where the 0s and 1s reside on your scale.

I would like to propose my own scale if I may:
0: People who just don't care, who don't understand or who view being "green" as a marketing opportunity.
1: People who care or think about being eco but who are not actually able to bring themselves to change anything meaningful about their consumeristic lifestyles and who think that simply buying "green" things is doing their part.
2-10: People who have gained the awareness that being eco or green involves constantly changing the way you live on the earth. 2 would be where most people start when they achieve their awareness and 10 would be a theoretical pinnacle of sustainable living. The numbers between 2 and 10 represent each individual's journey of self discovery and lifestyle change.

I like this scale because once you become a 2 or more, it acknowledges that you understand where you need to get to but gives people the room to not feel depressed about where they are (think of the guy who has an epiphany while in the middle of his 2 hour commute). I'm not sure anyone can be a 10 since there's ALWAYS more you can do to be more eco...  like the Zen equivalent of reaching enlightenment.

Another thing I like about this scale is that it separates two totally different points of view. In other words, there's no reason for a 2 or more to disparage against another 2 or more since idealogically they should be on the same page despite the fact that one individual may not be as far along the same road to eco-ness.

I was just going to post a snippet of that, but the whole thing was so good I just had to post it all.  Kudos Old Hammy!  On this scale I would still say we are a 3 to 4, but like Old Hammy said,

...once you become a 2 or more, it acknowledges that you understand where you need to get to but gives people the room to not feel depressed about where they are....

Very cool.  Hopefully we continue up that scale at a decent pace, but if we don't it doesn't make us lower then other people.  Sometimes fitting children and work into the picture makes things a heck of a lot more complicated.  So we do what we can and continue on the path to enlightenment. :)

Of course, this whole eco/permy rating system is really just for the fun of it.  But it did help me get a little bit better perspective of what we're doing here.  Sometimes I feel totally "eco-er then thou" and other times like a complete loser because I'm not growing my own grain to make my own bread and raising cows or goats for cheese and butter and yogurt and meat.  With this knowledge about where we are I can get off my high horse, or stop beating myself up and just be happy knowing I am doing the best I can at the moment and will always continue to grow and try harder.

So, the question now is: How eco/permy are you?

Resurrecting Our Passion For Permaculture

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.