Redesigning Our Lives, as if Caring for the Planet Mattered...
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Redesigning Our Lives, as if Caring for the Planet Mattered...
Midwest Permaculture |
Even though they live in Las Vegas, Julie and Kim own a wonderful piece of land in Idaho that they intend to move to. They want to implement a permaculture design on the property that will last for generations. Here are a couple of photos of this property as it exists today.
Jan. 1, 2008 There is no doubt in my mind that our lives will be changed forever after this experience. I serve on the Board of Directors for the architectural firm I work for and I will try to get Permaculture integrated into the firm in the future. We will do our best to send you some regular emails from 'down under'. _________________________
Monday, Jan. 7, 2008 We're here! Our trip started out on Friday. We flew from Las Vegas to LA, to Sidney, to Melbourne. Twenty-one hours of travel and we were ready for a good nights rest. On approach into Melbourne one thing we noticed from the air was the number of small dams and ponds built into the landscape. Australia certainly seems to know a thing or two about water usage that farmers in the U.S. don't. Also, many of the fields were protected by tree windbreaks on one or all sides. It takes about a half hour taxi ride to get to the university from the airport. We had to laugh...the first personalized license plate we saw was G'DAY 12. When we got to the university the conference manager said they had just sent someone to pick up Bill Mollison at the airport. This morning, Monday, was our first class. There are 70 students including us. So far, we have met one man from South Dakota. There is at least one other gentleman from the U.S. The others we have met are from Australia. We start introductions tomorrow. We'll do ten people a day since there are so many students. The morning session was taught by Bill Mollison – how colorful. Bill's stories are one of a kind and give you a perspective on a variety of topics that, like Bill said, "you'll never find in books". Our daughter (Kelly) enjoyed listening to Bill as much as we did. He is a very down to earth individual. Geoff Lawton is an excellent teacher as well, just not as many stories. He is very entertaining with a good sense of humor. I struggled to keep up with my notes since I felt everything he said was worthy of being written down. There are some field trips being planned for next Sunday so I'll tell you more when we get the information. Looking forward to tomorrow... G'Day Bill and Becky! Julie, Kim and Kelly Pagliaro _________________________ Wednesday, January 9, 2008 We are having a great time at this course! We have already met a lot of wonderful people and are meeting more by the hour. Students have come from Japan, Turkey, Brazil, New Zealand, India, Italy, South Africa, the US and of course, Australia, and that's just the ones I know so far. It's really quite amazing to find you have so much in common with so many people from so many different lands and that you can learn so much from each person you meet. One gentleman is interested in teaching children about permaculture. Another student is helping to feed hungry orphans in India.
Our eleven year old daughter Kelly was given permission to sit with us during the course so we could bring her with us. She came armed with schoolwork, books and video games to keep her occupied. On the first day the book came out for a few minutes but Bill Mollison won her over and I haven't seen it since. She loves his stories. Geoff was more technical in the afternoon sessions but since yesterday she's been taking detailed notes, drawing diagrams and photographing the blackboard throughout the day. As a matter of fact, those were Kelly's photos of Bill and Geoff we sent the other day. On our tea break this morning Bill Mollison came over to Kelly and asked her if she was understanding what was being taught and if she was taking notes. She told him she was. Bill said, "Good... you'll never be the same again." While she won't get a certificate she will have the knowledge. I have no doubt he's right about the course changing her life. Geoff's son took the course at 13 years. Perhaps it will get people thinking about getting their kids involved at a young age Cheers, _______________________ Friday, January 11, 2008
Last night after dinner, the students were invited to come back and preview Geoff Lawton's new video, Water Harvesting:The Permaculture Way. This video really helps you understand the concepts of dam and swale building. it includes actual footage of Geoff as he designs and builds the system on a client's six acre farm. There are some great animations in the video. It also includes extra footage of an interview with Geoff and slideshow of dam and swale projects around the globe. This is a great resource for any permaculture student. You can see an excerpt from the video on the Permaculture Research Institute's website at www.permaculture.org.au. We also spent some time today on a discussion of the chinampas farming system of ancient Mexico - the 'floating gardens'. Thought you would enjoy this photo of Geoff's art work.
Take Care, _______________________
Monday, January 14, 2008
Fields trips were organized for the students on Sunday. We had our choice of three different field trips, visiting the urban garden at Ceres Farm, a swale workshop, or Dalpura, a 140 acre farm designed by Darren Dougherty and owned by George and Marie Houson, near Geelong. Eight of us visited George's farm. it was originally a horse farm established in the 1960's. George started the permaculture design in 1993. The property was keylined by Darren Dougherty. Many trees have been planted on the farm using tree mounds on contour which are supposed to work like swales to slow water and allow it to soak in to the land. Plowing was done with a Yeomans' plow, also to slow water down and remedy compaction. George has interplanted many species of trees, including nitrogen fixing species such as tagasaste and several types of acacias, as well as different types of ecualyptes. He has also hand planted several different pasture herbs including, Yarrow, comfrey, dandelion, oregano, marjorum, chickory, plantain and borage. In the future, George plans to bring livestock to the farm. George was a great tour guide and answered all our questions. He also gave us our first look at a Yeomans plow. We were just assigned to groups today for the design exercise portion of the course. Each one of us is in a different group, including Kelly. We will be given details tomorrow... Take Care, ______________________ Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wednesday after class we had a BBQ. It was nice to have a chance to relax and get to know each other better. After the BBQ, Tony Renaudo, who works with a group called World Vision, showed us a slide show of the work he has been involved with in Africa. It was very interesting. Now that we have received the design exercise assignment, the fun has really begun.Geoff broke us into seven groups of ten, with the exception of Kelly's group, which had eleven. Each group was given a different hypothetical client profile and were told to create a permaculture design for approximately one acre piece of land in the center of the Trinity College grounds. We had tea breaks, lunch and a little class time to work on the assignment and many of us also used time after class. It was a bit of a challenge to pull everything together and prepare for our presentation in the time allowed. Our group discussed the clients needs first and came up with an overall plan for the design then we broke down on smaller groups to work out the details (water collection, access, zones, house design, animals, solar power, etc.) We put it all together and developed a presentation strategy as a group. Each one of us was required to play a role in the presentation on Friday afternoon. The assignment really gave us a taste of what permaculture design and working with a client and a team is like. Take care, ________________________ Friday, January 18, 2008 This morning we had to wrap up our designs for presentation after lunch. It was amazing how good and how detailed the presentations were, given the amount of time we had to complete them. Kelly enjoyed the group exercise immensely. She said she was surprised that her group treated her as an equal and incorporated her ideas into the design. She was a little nervous about the presentation but she did a nice job presenting the information on chickens and goats. I think everyone enjoyed the experience. With the presentations behind us it was time for the Participation Party. What a blast that was! We laughed so hard our sides hurt. Some people wrote poems or sang silly songs or gave demonstrations. We wrote and sang "The Compost Song" (lyrics below) to the tune of London Bridge. Some were hilarious and some were serious and very moving...all were highly entertaining. A lot of us were pushed outside our comfort zone that day but the results were outstanding. Geoff called it "self-sustainable entertainment". I think it may have been the best party I've ever attended. Cheers, ________________________ Saturday, January 19, 2008 Most of us were up pretty late last night. People shuffled into class this morning. So here it is...Graduation Day. I found myself having mixed emotions. I was excited at the thought of getting our certificates and sad that it was almost over. No more Bill and Geoff stories, no more gobs of permaculture info for our brains to absorb, no more tea breaks and socializing with the most diverse group of people we've ever had the privilege of meeting. When Bill Mollison called the first student to receive their certificate I found myself holding back tears (I wasn't the only one). I'm getting misty eyed just telling you about it. After I went up, Bill called Kelly's name. The tears were rolling now! We had no idea that Bill and Geoff had decided to award a certificate to Kelly! She was just beaming. She adores Bill and Geoff and is already making design plans for our property in Las Vegas and our farm in Idaho. An eleven year old permaculture ambassador has been born! It was raining outside so we crammed together inside for a class photo. As we made our goodbyes to everyone I realized this was more than a permaculture design course, it was a transformational experience. Permaculture isn't just a design science, it's a way of living. The way we look at the world and the people in it has been changed forever. As Bill told Kelly, "You'll never be the same again"! I couldn't agree more. Cheers,
The Compost Song
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