Suburban Permaculture

Permaculture is one of those things that I believe in strongly but have an irrational fear of. It all makes sense but I’m kind of paralyzed when it comes to getting started. I found a local (Eugene, OR) site that I need to explore a lot more. It has some great resources in addition to describing their own experiences. Be sure to check out their Painting Adventures link. I may have to do a separate post on that. Here are two before and after photos of a residence that was transformed through permaculture practices.

Sunroom before

Sunroom after

This site has some great information on cold frames, too. Here’s the link to the home page: http://www.suburbanpermaculture.org/index.htm

Bees

Backyard Hive

I have long dreamed of keeping bees and gathering my own honey. Even when I was young, though, I was put off by the “necessity” of killing the queen bee. It didn’t seem right. The older I got and the more I began to realize how intrusive and exploitative humans generally are in their in interactions with the natural world, I became convinced that killing the queen wasn’t really necessary. And the more I read about the decline of the honeybee around the world the more I believed man’s interference with the queens and the natural evolution of hives has a lot to do with it all.

Earlier this year I took a short Introduction to Beekeeping class. My instructor was a more or less “traditional” beekeeper but he did tell us about a natural movement in beekeeping and he told us of some resources. I would like to share some sites that I found that fits with my philosophy.

http://www.spikenardfarm.org/honeybees.shtml

http://www.biobees.com/ (many people have told me this is one of the best)

http://www2.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm

http://www.beeguardian.org/

http://www.backyardhive.com/

I currently have my house up for sale and don’t want to start keeping bees until I move. But this is something I am definitely going to get involved in once I relocate.

Fresh Start This Summer

Roasting Corn

I’m unemployed now, have my house up for sale, am living with as little electricity as possible (we’ve shut off the fridge, the stove, and most of the lights) and want to focus on helping myself and others become self-sufficient. We all need to work together to take care of ourselves, if that makes any sense. The focus of this country needs to change from the masses eeking out a living while working for a few huge, wealthy, wasteful conglomerates to a country of individuals taking care of themselves with a little help from their friends and neighbors.

Here are two of my other blogs. http://stuckincottagegrove.wordpress.com/

http://1421laurelhilldrive.wordpress.com/

My daughter and I are cooking (when we cook) outside on an open fire, in a pit we put together ourselves. All of our food is in bowls and tubs that are filled with cold water from our spring and with ice when we get into town and buy some. Keeping the raw chicken I feed our cats and dog cold is my biggest challenge. Luckily, they don’t have the same foodhandling requirements that humans do. We use LED lanterns and lights in many of the rooms in the house, I wash only with cold water and hang my clothes out to dry. We do have our computers running and our TV, which we use to watch DVDs on. We don’t have cable or satellite or anything. We have all of that hooked up to a power strip which we shut off when our “toys” are not in use.

I got some books from the library on hydropower. I believe that even the little bit of water I have coming from my overflow hose from the water tank should be capable of providing me with some kind of power. I believe in making everything as simple as possible. I am disillusioned with solar power and it’s complex systems requiring that people have their own power stations in their back yard. We need to learn to build more efficiently and live simpler. We need to live with less. My daughter and I have no experience with “roughing” it. We are not do it yourselfers or adept at building/constructing/tool use. This is our adventure. We would love stories of similar adventures and any advice anyone can offer.

Catching Up

It’s been way too long since I wrote. I’m just going to include a link to my other blog, which explains my absence and catches up on things. Enjoy.

http://stuckincottagegrove.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/way-behind/

Wildlife Land Trust

I only own 5 acres but I think it is one of the most beautiful places ever. It’s not worth a lot, money-wise, but we have deer and an endless variety of birds and wild irises and mushrooms and exotic-looking wildflowers and we even saw a mom and baby bear once. Streams run on both sides of our property and timber companies own the land behind us and across the street from us. I worry about this little slice of heaven someday being destroyed.

I heard about the Wildlife Land Trust (http://www.wlt.org/index.asp) and it seemed like the perfect solution. There are different options for donating your land to the trust. You can retain ownership of your land but provide a wildlife easement, you can donate the property outright and you can even donate the land but live on it until you die. The site offers a lot of information about legalities and tax benefits. I actually filled out a form online to see if my land was appropriate. I admit I never got a response, which was discouraging, but I still think it’s a worthwhile idea to explore, perhaps if not through this particular organization (The Humane Society of the United States) then through another one, like Nature Conservancy.

First hand yurt living

Here’s a great article from someone who actually lived in a yurt: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/wolfe76.html It’s been a while since I read the article all the way through but it’s a neat story that covers everything from construction to history. Pacific Yurts is even mentioned.

The author is a woman and she says it took her and one friend to erect her used yurt in about 12 hours. Amazing. She also hauled the entire thing to her building site in a mini-pick up. Those are the kinds of things that give me hope. There are so many alternatives to the destructive nature of standard, modern construction. And the best part is, living in a yurt or cob house or other more sustainable type of home often is reported to be more inspiring, uplifting and healthier.

I believe the original story appeared in Backwoods Home Magazine, a magazine I would like to explore further. The picture is from the site.

Pooktre

I’m not sure exactly how well this site (http://www.pooktre.com/) fits into the sustainable category but I love the idea of living furniture and art. I’ve heard of manipulating trees so that they can be houses and I’ve thought about planting bamboo in a pattern so that it grows into the walls of the rooms of a house. I think it would be wonderful if we could find practical ways to make our homes out of trees without cutting them down; if we could integrate our lives into the tree’s life. How beautiful would that be? Anyway, I thought this was a very interesting site and concept. Sort of reminds me of the art of Andy Goldsworthy. See some of his work here http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/1049936558039909072XdMbZv

Community Supported Agriculture

I am thinking of subscribing to a farm produce program. I should get my tax refund soon and I think I will do it. The program I want to join is called Good Food Easy. It’s through Sweetwater Farm in Creswell, Oregon. One of the things that I like most about their subscription service is that it can be done month to month. There is no year commitment like with many other produce subscription services. I’m really looking forward to it. Check out their site at http://goodfoodeasy.com/

I found out about them through an old local newspaper article I found online. Here’s another interesting site from the University of Massachusetts about CSAs. http://www.umassvegetable.org/food_farming_systems/csa/resources.html

The photo is one of our chickens, Buttermilk.

Dirt Works

I found a site for a company in Vermont that sells a huge selection of organic gardening supplies; everything from bat guano to biodegradable plastic bags, in addition to lots of links and resources. I haven’t purchased anything from them but their site did help me when I was looking for natural flea treatments last summer. They’re worth checking out. (The bat picture is from their site.) http://www.dirtworks.net/

Farm Sanctuary

I have a friend who would be perfect for starting a farm sanctuary. She has some decent acreage and definitely has the personality and desire.

http://farmsanctuary.org/ is a site that has information on adopting rescued farm animals, starting your own sanctuary, animal care, etc. It’s a wonderful site for those of us who feel there has to be a better way than cruel mass production. Check it out. It has some great stories and valuable information. The photo is from the site and is of Harrison, a calf who was rescued and found sanctuary.