Back home after a weekend away teaching an introduction to permaculture course in North Staffs. It can be pretty exhausting travelling around, sleeping in a tent or on a couch, and I feel it a bit this morning. However, it was another uplifiting and inspiring weekend for me too, met some lovely people and took some time to think deeply about the subject of permaculture, sustainability and energy descent.
My friend Ian Watt was along to help, having cycling a lot of the way down from Scotland. Ian is on his own Eco adventure, and has finally shed the car to move to the next stage of his low impact existence. Follow his adventures on Ian’s Eco blog.com.
It was frustrating not have had more takers on the course, but it was still very much worthwhile, not least for the feeling of having sown some seeds which hopefully will lead on to more connections being made, more projects starting.
A growing feeling of restlessness is taking hold, I have been based at the Llanfyllin Workhouse for the last 2 years and am very involved with a new housing co-operative group, Permanent Housing and we are seeking a more permanent and permaculture focussed hub to live at and work from. The Workhouse has been a great staging point, but it is finally time to be moving on to pastures new and I have handed in my notice there and will be moving out at the end of the month.
It is fantastically exciting to be contemplating the next move and what could be a huges tep forward for all of us in the group, but also unsettling to be considering up rooting and finding a new base to work from. Putting my life in storage while we wait for the next opportunities to present themselves.
The fact that increasingly we are getting requests to run courses at other people’s venues has contributed to the decision to move. I cant really justify the expense of keeping on a large studio at the Workhouse, to basically store a few books, tools and plants, so the idea is to get a caravan and go mobile- so I can turn up at a course with my little caravan in tow and everything I need in it, ready to rock.
Our next course is in Stoke again, at Farm2Grow and it is yurt making and an introduction to green wood working with the fantastic team from Pikea.org. There are places still available, to make a full Yurt wheel, or to come along and help and learn some skills at a reduced rate. Please get in tocuh if you are interested .. it is Friday, Sat, Sun on the first weekend of August on a small holding in the stunning Churnet valley, North Staffordshire Moorlands.
Peak Oil, keeps hitting the headlines and there was a Radio 4 spot on it on Sunday. Trivialised by a jokey format and undermined by a random interviewee claiming that there is plenty of oil left and eveyone should go back to sleep. The show is about getting an investigative journalist to look at a contemporary issue, and report back th efollowing week, so before I criticise the show I should wait and see what they come up with in the report.
I found this snippett on David Stahan’s site> “…And the fact that BP was drilling for Macondo, a tiny field containing less than 12 hours’ global consumption, under a mile of water tells us all we need to know about the state of oil depletion.”
For more Peak Oil related fun check out the interactive Oil Depletion map
Click image for link to a posting on air ship design
From Guardian article
Click lower image for link to recent Guardian article
The thing about petrol is energy density. it is an incredibly compact way of storing energy, very handy for things like airplanes, which consume a lot of energy and are very weight sensitive. If you try and run a jet plane on bio diesel then the whole payload of the plane ends being the fuel, as i understand it. So it make the whole exercise pretty pointless. Aside form the environmental damge they do, and the fact that global oil supply is peaking and climate change, planes needs loads of infrastructure, like airports and runways. airships dont need any of that… and as most of lift comes from the helium all they need is a little engine to push them forward, you can run them on chip fat, with lots of possibilities for solar powered, in part anyway. It changes everything.
The Graf Zeppelin in its hayday in the 1930′s flew from Paris to New York in 20 hours.. a much more sedate speed than concord and still workable, without the noise, expense and pollution. Think about this though, no more road freight, no more trucks, or even big ships potentially. The future is airships, get on board.
We are offering two Permaculture Design Courses this Autumn – a 2 – week intensive in October and one spread over 6 weekends and 6 months starting end September
The 72 hr Permaculture Design Course curriculum can just about be sqeezed into an action packed fortnight of classes, practicals, field trips and site visits. It is a truly intensive experience, an immersion in sustainability and a step change in your thinking and a chance to meet people with similar interests adn obkectives. For many participants the course is a life changing and life reaffirming experience.
However it is not always possible to take 2 weeks out of your life to immerse yourself in this way.. so I am pleased to be able announce we are offering our first PDC spread over a series of 6 Weekends and six months. Starting in September 2010 and finishing in March 2011 – with the Dec/ new year off, of course.
This will be based in Llandrindod Wells, in the middle of Powys and we will be working with the Llandod Transition Towns group and the Mid Wales Permaculture Network to deliver the course. Its a must for anyone in the Mid Wales or borders area who want to be part of this active and growing network and to be equipped with the knowledge and vision of permaculture design to create sustainable homes, lives and communities.
Requiem for Detroit – welcome to the future
(not sure why I am getting auto draft as a title above.. sorry ’bout that)
With its big chrome cars, 24 hour production lines and fantastic wealth, Detroit was the very embodiment of the American dream. Consumerism began here.. and it died here. Population has collapsed from over 2 million to less than 800,000.
“Amongst the ruins of the city, what was the Paris of the midwest – the frontier city of american dream, lies the first post-American city. Its a darkly cautionary tale for the whole industrialised world. Its a first pioneer’s map of the post industrial future which awaits us all”
“Over the last few years 50,000 houses have been pulled down and turned into vacant lots (in Detroit)”
“the fastest growing movement in the United States today is the urban agriculture movement”
“Food is the way you begin to care for yourself and (and growing food makes you) begin to think about yourself in a very different way”
This excellent documentary is the tale of our times really. The century of the motor car, also the intransigence of big business, the inability to see ahead and to embrace change, its a tale of greed, oppression, racism, divided communities. It is about how money looks after itself and people are expendible. AND It is contains real hope, a real positive message, that you can rebuild from the bottom up, that nature will reclaim the ruins of our so called civilization and that we will be able to move on and find new, different and more creative and sustainable ways of living.
Here’s some links: BBC News story on Urbam farming in Detroit
3-day Yurt making course in August The three day yurt making course is definitely one of our most popular courses, the mix of practical work and new skills and the relaxed chatty atmosphere of doing the work makes for a great experience. We are trying to reach out a but more and work with new partners all the time and in the spirit of solidarity and spreading the good will we are planning our next course to be held at a lovely place, not far from Leek in north Staffs, called Farm2Grow.
The owners Helen and Ian came on our Permaculture Design Course last Autumn, as a way to develop their plans and ideas of how to develop their 10 acre plot, which they have the vision of developing as a care/ theraputic farm. A place for people to connect with nature, convalesce perhaps and they also work with all sorts of differently abled and special needs types groups I understand.
Rhian at the roundhouse near Rhaeadr
We run all our courses in the spirit of permaculture design ethics and principles. The idea to create beneficial links and to strengthen our community of artisan, teahcers and gardeners working for sustainability on personal and community levels. So its all about working together as best we can, to reinforce our wider goals and aspirations. So it is a great pleasure to be working with Pike at Farm2 grow…
I have also been very busy working on the Pikea website, my green wood working friends who I run this course with. We want to build a shop for products from people from the region here.. from baskets to musical instrument, Yurts to doors and windows. We are developing more course ideas with Pikea and trying to build comissions for their original work onto some of the projects we are working with. I am keen to use greenwood benches and as well as the timber frame round house on the Cwm Harry project. I want everything we use as far as possible to embody our principles of working with sustainable, natural local materials and skills to both demonstrate what is possible and hopefully inspire people to realise how easy it can be to make this kind of stuff oneself.
Round house roof detail
I was really inspired to see the traditional round house they are building near Rhaeadr, as part of woodland project they are running there, building space for kids and adults to connect with woodland work
Roundhouse wall detail
The visit has given me lots of ideas for what we might build at the project in Newtown I am working on – more fantastic green wood working ideas. We want to buld a shelter at Cwm Harry for the communty garden project to create a space for people and store our tools etc. I also want to create something striking that will stand out on the industrial estate there and get us noticed. weare working with Youth Offenders adn ohter special interest groups there and I am hoping it will generate useful interesting work for volunteers to engage in that will be genuinely inspiring for them to do and can really take pride in.
Innaugural meeting of the Permaculture Wales development network in Llandrindod Wells
Permaculture Wales development group
[in picture; Anthony, Rhian, Mervyn, Martin , John, Steve, Julie, Chris, Jane, Chris , Ros. Lower; Janys, Van, Steve, Mandy, Sharon, Looby.]
Huge thanks to Janys for hosting the event, Looby and Andy G for facilitating.. fantastic day and the seeds for many new collaborations sown I hope, I am sure.
A hastily written response to a negative article in the SHROPSHIRE STAR complaining of occasional release of odours caused by the composting process at cwm harry
Dear Anwen,
Stink? We are turning it into a tourist destination!
I read your piece on Cwm Harry on Friday with great interest and would love to respond to the article.
Whilst of course i have sympathy for those complaining about he ‘stink’ fom the community composting unit at Cwm Harry in Newtown my first thought was more about the nature of the plant itself and I wondered if people were aware of the potential importance of this ground breaking project.
There are of course tight environmental controls over such things as commercial composting and the Trust is regularly monitored by the Environment Agency to ensure there is compliance with regulations. There is a regular body of staff working there who really just get used to the sweet smell of compost and dont see it as a problem at all. It is a matter of perception to a degree, we all get used to traffic noise and fumes and other discomforts and I wondered if a lack of understanding of the project’s goals might add to the grievences, so I wanted to outline what the project is all about.
As a new recruit, i started working there a month ago I am full of enthusiasm for their work. In fact we are developing the back lot of the site as a community resource and garden where we are teaching food growing skills and promoting local food production. We take visitors from the community and school groups, have regular volunteers and even the occasional green tourist!
We live in intereting times, as the Gulf of Mexico fills swith spilt oil we are reminded that ten calories of oil are currently used to produce a single calorie of food in our modern system of production. Modern food production is simply not sustainable as it is so reliant on oil, which is of course a finite resource. Here at Cwm Harry we are not about preaching to anyone, but we do have a strong feeling that composting, recycling nutrients and more local food production will be an increasingly important part of food production in the near future and I am proud to be a part of that ground breaking research.
We are planning open days and other comunity events so there will be lots of opportunity to come and find out more about the project and a chance to make up your own mind – is it the sweet smell of a more sustainable future or the unbearable stench of decay? you decide!
As a new recuit these are my personal views and not necasserily those of the Trust.
–
Regards
Steve
Steven Jones
Sector39, permaculture courses, landscapes and design
Llanfyllin Workhouse, Llanfyllin, Powys, SY22 5LD
Back story: we are building a community garden on an industrial site in Newtown Powys. The unit we are connected to composts food waste from the local community, so we have lots of good soil improver, which is certainly needed as it is a very run down compacted site with no topsoil! Our vision is to create a beautiful and very productive garden, following permaculture principles and to use only donted labour and materials to do it. If we can do it here we can do it anywhere…..
Well we are thrilled ot hear that our grant application with Environment Wales has been successful, it gives us some capital resources to invest in the garden. Paths, a shelter, rainwater harvesting and plants for starters. I am still new to this project so I dont want to go blundering in with too many ideas, but it also seems like time is the essence and we need to be progressing the project every week – seeing as the opportunity I have to work there runs out at the end of September – so if we are to get funding to keep me on there, we need to make some things happen.
Artists impression of the garden in Newtown, by Mark
A lot of creative thought went into the garden project on the Permaculture Design Course, with participants coming up with lots of great ideas of how to develop the project. Key to it all is the need to create a people space in the garden, a shelter, tea room and tool store, so that we can work there without being too dependent on access to the industrial unit itself, to create a functional garden zone. Gardens are places where people and plants come together, so we need to create some people habitat to compliment all the polytunnels and raised beds.
The first of the mirco allotment garden clubs is planned to begin next week, on Wednesday afternoon and the whole garden is already coming to life after lots of hard work by garden volunteers and project staff.
Sketch of the garden refuge hut idea
The idea is to build something organic, out of wood and mud with a living roof, that is striking and generates interest in teh garden. Also the process of building it will reguire lots of volunteer input, so a chance for lots of people to get involved and be part of the garde project. So hoepfully it will put us on the map, get us noticed and in the local press, create something really useful as well as fun and create a focal point for the whole project.
Credit to Mark and his PDC gesign group for these lovely sketches.
