Permaculture Day 5

Permaculture

Day 5

1/31/09

Nature is the base!

Ben said it perfectly... Nature, be part of it, dont try to direct it.

Today was a slow paced day. We started off by talking about Permaculture rooted in nature, and that it is better for us to work withen it, ie; building swales on the natural contour rather than building one that is against the natural flow. You will just end up crating more work for your self if you try to go outside the rythems of nature, And sometimes it is more work to go with the rythem. For example instead of spraying chemicals you might have to weed a little more,, but that is the right thing to do, cause if you spary you will only be creating even harder work of reparing the soil that is damaged. And now that i think about it, their are plenty of ways of keeping weeds down with out spraying chemicals. -mulching with organic matter, cardboard.

Then touched on the triple P's

Profit, People, Place

Profit- growing a cash crop

People- providing a place of wealth and growth for people to live for

Place- a clean healthy environment for people, animals, plants, and all other beings.

Goal of the farm is to move beyond just the first one, and really build all three up.

To do this a cash crop will be grown, and processed at the farm to provide viable goods. this will create income, jobs, and a productive environment, that all will benifit, and set an example for St Criox.

then off to the beach we go, its a friday ritual to celebrate the end of a productive week of education.

Permaculture Day 4

Agroforestry & Aquaponics

1/29/09

woke up before the sun... always a treat, i was the first to step into the community center today, so i took the opportunity to enjoy prepearing some ginger ylang ylang tea. verynice... followed by some quick yoga and pleasent sit under a palm facing the rising warming sun.

well today we started out with a vizualization activity, we alll closed our eyes and imagended we were tree seed. Ben the head director of the programe walked us through the stages of the seeds growth from sprouting its tap root all the way to droping its firts fruit. I was a mango tree, which there are tons of different mango treeson the farm and big wild mangos all over the island, but i will have to be patient and wait to May when we can start to harvest the beautiful gift from the trees. Excited for that.

Next we started to talk about and take notes on Agroforestry. In a nut shell, Agro foresty, is the combination of foresty (tree farming) and agriculture (crops & animals). It is the stacking of functions, which is a big concept in permaculture.

Benifits of agroforestry : Multiple crops, and and uses to attain economic and viable wealth on the same piece of land at the same time. The trees can shade the crops and animals, can fix nutrients into the ground, can provide a wind break, can help preserve and regenerate the soil, it is culturaly compatable, helps creat local based economies, can creat farmer co-op's.

The trees them selves can be used for: timber, firewood, pulp, forest establishments, gums and resign, oil,'s.

Main benifit: FOOD; nuts and fruit!!!

In agroforesty it is wise to try and cultivate the multi purpose species. For example the Coconut palm is often referred to as an allstar tree, for its many uses. I invite you all to discover its many uses, along with bamboo. i would list many of them right now but i am pressed for time. I will try to come back at a later point.

Next i met up with my focus area instructor, to go over some questions regarding the topic. Each one of us students was asked to pick a focues area to spend extra time in studing and getting a deeper understanding of the topic. each topic has a week set aside to be taught, but we needed to choose one to specialize in. I chose to pick renewable energy.

So i am now in the process of learning the basic of how electricity works, and am going to apply it to my final project, which is to research, consult with client, order parts and then instal a solar elsectric system, to a structure that is just about finished up. Very excited about this project. I feel it will i will gain a foundation of understanding how a solar energy system works, and the confidence to apply it out side of the farm. I will be posting more about my progress very soon.

Then after lunch we took a field trip to the UVI University of The Virgin ISlands to check out their Aquaponics system.

Aquaponics is a hybrid sytem, meaning it has fused two individual sytems to create one that involves both. Aquaponics is the combintaion of aquaculuture (fish farming) and an hydroponics (soil-less plants).

Let me break it down for you... Aqua ponics uses's the fish poop as nutrient additives in the water that flows in this big banks that plants float on. The roots soak up the poop nutrients and uses them to grow. the water is then filtered back into the fish system.

This relates to permaculture in the following reason. mainly the stacking of functions. bringing two sytems together to help each other out in a benifical manner.

Awesome sysytem, sopposedly their is a completely organic aquaponics system thats is pumping out fish and produce in hawaii.

This Type of multi farming can produce some nice income as well.

And after that we played a few games of Ultimate Frisbee. Awesome excersize and a good time.

Thanks for reading everbody.

coyote chi

Coyote Teacher: one who teaches you something without you knowing that you are being tought.


Today was a little hard to wake up and jump into the day as i have been doing lately. I am also finding it hard to make time for adequete reflection and further more the recording of my reflections from they days activities, lessons, thoughts and feelings. i know this 2 month experience will past as quickly as it came, and i would like to have recorded alot of it, to save and express to others.





well i little run through my dday today...


breakfast at 7:30


finished organizing and fine tuning the porfessor games for the kids.


lunch at 12


inugaration watch after lunch


rest of the day off, which i then spent a couple hours hanging with Ashley, i taught her three chords on the guitar G C D. She then read my palms, which i never thought could be so interesting. the lines which is only one part of reading palms tell you about your poteniality, so your heart line for example could tell you about your potential to have or cultivate a humanitarian or loyal caracter. etc...


We then continued to have a great conversation about energy!!! About the importance of recognizing your one energy and how it relates to others around you, how group dynamics work or sometimes hit ruff spots. We shared experiences and both listend carefully. she is becoming a good freind of mine, some one that i wish to share stories with, for i know she really listens and has her own mind to comment, reflect, and advise with. So very glad to have met Ashley here at this farm in these surroundings.


Dinner at 7 and then ryan and i busted out the dishes with some local reggae music Midnite bummping loud in teh community center with everyone vibing well.


Then went for a hike up the hill for a fire to celebrate Chi(Bearded man in pic) and give thanks for his time and shared wisdom on the farm as he is leaving tommorrow, and lesson in a fire bow drill. And learned how to spot the north star, something like the edge of the big dipper, and also this other constilation (something about and old lady in a chair) i'll have to look it up.





All and all it was a relaxed day.





Chi, be well brother so blessed to have crossed paths with you, forever changed.

NAMASTE

Permaculture

Permaculture

1/27/09

Well lets see, today was the second day of Permaculture, for those who dont know. I am involved in a 2 month programe about a holistic learning of sustainable permaculture, on a educational farm in the rainforest of St Croix, one of the US Virgin Islands.

Each week we focus in a section of the holistic understanding, there are 7 areas, with 7 weeks to be taught through hands on experience. this week is permaculter. last week was Farm based Education. if i can find time i will post some thoughts on it.

Any who... Permaculture what is it???

Permaculture stands for permant agriculture

PC (permaculture) design is a system of assembling conceptual material & strategic componets in a patter which functions to benifit life in all forms. It seeks to provide a sustainable and secure place for living things on this earth.
Definition from Bill Mollison's book
A Designers Manual

basically permaculture is the study the science the method the observation and action of meeting our needs in a fasion that does not take from teh earth and leave it scared, but rather, tends the earth in a way that helps the natural systems provide abundance for us and everything else. Instead of tilling the land and droping chenicals into the ground to control it, which ends up turning our natural topsoil rich land into barren desserts, (Check the facts), you could braodcast seed balls, and throw mulch over them, which helps speed teh procces of topsoild production up.

Instead of raping the land by conventional means of agriculture and land/homestead devolpment, by doing our way regardless of the natural cycle, permaculture observes the natural cycles and farms withen natures flow, develope land in a manner that pretects all living organisms from harm and destruction, and build houses that are eco freindly and built smart, energy effiecent.

Ethics of Permaculture.
1. care for the Earth
2. Care for the people
3. Dispersal of surplus

The really is so much more i could talk about, but i have got to catch some sleep,
however to get the real jist of permaculture, type in Bill Mollison into youtube and listen to him talk about it,
Bill Mollison is the "Godfather" of permaculture. he has written a few different books: Permaculter 1, Permaculture 2. Permaculture; A designers manual, Intro to Permaculture.
Check out Global gardens its a documentary about permaculture gardens around the world in varing gardens.

David Holmgram is also recognized as the Godfather of PC as well. He wrote Permaculture: Principals and pathways.