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permaculture Archives - The Year of Mud

Ziggy on The Permaculture Podcast

By Straw Bale Building, Homesteading, Cob Building, Permaculture, Media, Timber Framing
Clear Creek Road

This is Clear Creek, the valley we now call home

Last month, Scott Mann of The Permaculture Podcast came to our neighborhood to re-visit the community here on Clear Creek, the place we now call home just outside Berea, Kentucky. Last summer, he came for a visit to record a podcast and he had such a positive experience that he decided to make another trip. During his initial visit I was in Vermont attending a Permaculture Design Course, ironically enough.

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Restoring Vitality into the Land

By Permaculture, Homesteading
east slope into draw_20007536583_l

This land represents so much powerful potential for health

A few weeks ago, I took photos all over our newly acquired land to have good documentation for the future. In the coming years, we will no doubt re-envision this place, build new infrastructure, shape the land, and introduce new plants and animals. It’s exciting to think about tapping into the potential of this land, and restoring more vigor and vitality.

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I Love This Barn

By Design, Timber Framing
Southeast Side of Barn

The Whole Systems Design barn

I love this timber frame barn. Spending time in this building was a big highlight for me during the recent Permaculture Design Course I just attended in Vermont. Most of the “classroom” activity happened in this barn, as well as meals, playing ping pong, and general hanging out. While it’s not so much an agricultural barn (at least not currently), it’s a barn nevertheless, and I think it’s a great example of a well-designed multi-purpose space.

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2015 Permaculture Design Course Highlights

By Homesteading, Permaculture
Walking Around the Pond

Circling the upper pond at the beautiful Moretown homestead site

Three words come to mind when I think about the experience of participating in the Whole Systems Design Permaculture Design Course: full, filling, and fulfilling. It was an intensely packed 10 days of learning, and the long hours were thoroughly nourishing. Exhausting at times, but totally rewarding all the same. There was so much to think about and discuss that it was hard to pull away and find some decent sleep at night. At the closure of the course, I came away deeply satisfied, more confident than ever before in the journey towards establishing a home for myself that’s in alignment with my vision.

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Settling Back In After a Permaculture Whirlwind

By Permaculture, Homesteading
barn - view of pond

An amazing view out to the field & ponds from the barn

Earlier last week, I got back from Vermont after attending a 10 day Permaculture Design Course (PDC) with Whole Systems Design. Let me tell you, it’s taken me a few days to fall back into the groove of things here after a very rich, fulfilling, and thoroughly intense experience. It was a joy to participate. The days were long and full of great conversation and new ideas. It was actually quite moving at times and gave me lots of opportunity to think about what I want not just from the land we’ve recently come into, but from life overall.

I’ve barey begun going through my photos in hopes of writing a summary of my experience. While I do that, I want to at least share a few enticing photos from the journey. Here ya go… stay tuned for more of an in-depth rundown soon.

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A Brief Update & Some Bonus Land Photos

By Homesteading, Permaculture

bottom pasture - looking south

Tomorrow, April and I head east. I’ll be attending a PDC at Whole Systems Research Farm in Vermont for 10 days. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this trip since the spring, and the timing couldn’t be better. This fall, we’ll be moving onto our new land and the next year will be full of visioning and designing and making plans for the land and the future. I suspect a lot of the new knowledge I come home with after the PDC will be very helpful for our design process.

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Why I’m Taking a Permaculture Design Course

By Homesteading, Permaculture
Whole Systems Design Research Farm

The Whole Systems Research Farm, where I’m headed in August 

I’m awfully excited about the upcoming month. In August, I’m headed to the Whole Systems Research Farm in Vermont to take a Permaculture Design Certificate Course (PDC). In this case, it’s an  intensive workshop and immersion in designing and maintaining resilient farms and homesteads, based on the principles and techniques of permaculture design. Basically… it’s 10 days learning about forest gardens, water management, perennial plants, scything, self-sufficiency, and maintaining high yield / low input food landscapes.

Okay, that’s still a lot of words, but you get the idea. This is rich stuff, and I’m thrilled to be able to see Ben Falk and co.’s living examples of permaculture in action. The timing couldn’t be better, as we’ll be moving onto our land this summer/fall, and making grand plans over the winter and in 2016 for turning our own 28 acres in a slice of perma-paradise.

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Permaculture Film Recommendation: INHABIT

By Homesteading
ben-falk-permaculture-farm

Scything grass on a hillside — a beautiful scene in the film INHABIT

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to view a rather poignant and inspiring recent film, INHABIT. INHABIT is a documentary detailing the permaculture model as it has been explored and practiced by a number of farmers and food producers across the US, in a variety of settings and climates. The strength of the film lies in the excellent portrayal of diverse individuals using permaculture design principles to guide their work in a variety of locations, creating more resilient food growing systems, a healthier relationship with the land, and stronger communities in the process.

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Paradise Lot: Creating Eden in the Suburbs

By Resources, Gardening, Homesteading, Permaculture

ParadiseLot-bookAs I enter a new phase in life with the goal of obtaining raw land to create my own slice of homesteading delight, my appetite for books and stories about permaculture, especially of a more personal account is ever greater. This is a fortunate time, as the number of books over the past decade have only been increasing as people have had more time to take permaculture principles to the field, garden, and home with new results to share. Landowners and prospective owners should consider themselves lucky to not have to go in quite as blind as before with books like Paradise Lot, by Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates.

Actually, in this case a landowner could mean anyone with even a tiny backyard to their name, as this dynamic duo have created an unbelievable patch of perennial goodness on a mere 1/10th of an acre. Their experiment and book are a testament to the idea that even supremely ravaged land in suburban deserts can be transformed into thriving ecosystems, providing an abundance of soil, food, habitat, and ultimately reward.

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