Permaculture Principles Crossing over to Spiritual and Work Process

Think Small - Small scale intensive systems

The seed of the solution is in the problem

Optimize the edge - the intersection of two environments.

Design for resilience

Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be

Don't think you are on the right track just because it is a well beaten path

February Planting Notes

I didn't get to my next Permaculture class last week, but did start taking advantage of being within 8 weeks of last frost.

One bush cucumber SLOWLY, very SLOWLY starting to grow. Last of old seeds. New bush cucumber seeds arrived, but haven't planted yet.

Did move the light shelves upstairs last week giving up on the PVC arrangement from a few weeks ago.

Transplanted rooted basil in a six pack...kind of droopy. Might be starting to flower? Also started a second tray of rooted scallions. First tray started getting aphids...used some old insecticide...second tray started today. Put it outside...rainy day, spraying it first.

Pulling most of the volunteer tomatoes, but some have been saved. A couple in the first scallion tray need to be transplanted. Did start some heirloom tomatoes just purchased and have one more pack to start.

Starting to eat from the only AeroGarden romaine that grew. Started some new romaine, buttercrunch and spinach, the last two sprouted already!! Also planted some romaine and spinach outside this week.

Soaked some old herb seeds and planted all but cilantro tonight. Will give the cilantro one more day. (Chives, parsley, dill, and rosemary)

Permaculture is Design Science

 

Half of whole systems design is trial and error.

That sounds like a great approach for me. I love the experimentation. I don't know that I so much create a design as play a mental sliding square puzzle until I find what works.

As Bristol's recycling efforts have ground to a halt, I have become more aware of waste: both where to recycle what can be recycled and what can be reused. I anticipate getting to choosing products with less packaging soon, but that seems to be a slower process at the moment.

Last week's assignment was the Paradise Design Game where we were asked to consider the components for our whole system design and figure out which parts connect to each other. In the end, all of my components connected.

💚Vegetable Garden

💚Flowers

💚Compost piles

💚Rain barrel 

💚Gray water?

💚Watering plan

💚Micro climates

💚Turtle

💚Key garden

Using the GOBRADIME process, I believe the above list is the goal for the next few years (or a strong component in look for my next home).  The gray water is the biggest challenge to the system this year.

I will need to work more within the fencing to avoid having so much eaten by the deer, but perhaps I can also consider how to feed the deer...that will take some further study. I'd like to change the side walk path to contain flowers (maybe wildflowers) this year. But I also want to continue to figure out self watering systems, whether hydroponic, rain water or designed watering systems.

Shifting again...forgot about this space : )

I've stumbled onto "permaculture" through my attraction to English (kitchen?) gardens. From there, I enrolled in a year-long course to learn more, and was quickly connected to the cultural thinking introduced in Braiding Sweetgrass. This seemed as good a place as any to do my assignments (and perhaps hold myself a little more accountable).

1. Could you improve your day-to-day quality of life by improving your relationship with the natural environment? How?
• Yes.
• Through the last few months of the pandemic (since Fauci stated that Vit D offers protection) I have been miserable aware of how little natural Vit D I get each day. I've long known that just going outside can improve a mood, and I would like to be more in touch with my environment, just on my own property.
2. Could you improve your local community by improving its relationship with the natural environment? How?
• Not sure
• More people could probably benefit from some of what was mentioned above. More backyard (or porch) gardens to help grow food, and the work done to achieve it might help with area's obesity issues. 
• Better understanding of the give and take might be a place to start on all of the vitriol over politics
3. Can you find areas in your life/home/garden/community where you are working against nature, rather than with it? Make a list.
• The landscaping of our home
• Deer eating tomato plants
• Lost recycling
4. How do all of the aspects, elements, and components of your life, home, garden, community work together in a system?
• Life and home are slowly coming together in a system as a result of trying to figure out how to lead the rest of my life
• Garden is trying to support better eating habits
• Community is outside of these categories
5. Where can that system be improved so that it promotes healthy, regenerative relationships
• First challenge is better outdoor spaces that pull me outside and are easily accessed

Things to Try

This week it’s all about just opening the door….
Geek out on permaculture for 20 minutes every day.
Explore YouTube, visit Facebook groups, and talk to your neighbors. Read books, read magazines, and just allow yourself to get lost.
Start to think about your goals, and talk with your family about what you would like to accomplish in terms of applying permaculture design strategies to your living environment.

Here to Learn (Notes found from a year ago)

The point is to learn something from your experiences that you can use to help another person improve their life.
Make learning an act of love.
Heartbreaking is an opportunity for a heart to break open.

"Luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity."

• Examine
• Motives
• Learning from "ouches"
• Live and learn
• Self-involved 
• Expand
• Awareness
• Learn from their life
• Watch
• Timing
• Learn in experience, not just after
• Pay attention
• Write it down NOW
• Pay attention to same old same old
• Seek Opportunity

Bill Kirkwood's sermon "Here to Learn"

We Should Call It "Gun Violence Prevention"

Loaded Words: How Language Shapes The Gun Debate:
The debate currently raging over guns goes beyond a disagreement over policy. Advocates on both sides literally disagree on the terms of the discussion — as in, the words they use to describe it. They know that the specific phrases they use tap into deeply held values in the people who hear them.
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Full List of Executive Actions

One thing I like about this list is that more than one third of the items are assigned in the statement. I only find one item to be vague (#13). The mixture of data improvement, public information, skill building and support, incentives, changing access or the environment, and potential changes to policy, practice or procedures.

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. (President)
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. (AG)
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations. (P)
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement. (DOJ)
11. Nominate an ATF director. (P)
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations. ($50,000 including social workers, counselors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals.)
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence. (P)
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies. (P -> AG)
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers. (Up to 1,000 SROs or counselors)
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health. (Secs. Sebelius and Duncan)