Sunday, December 28, 2008
Great Video
http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html?v=/ted/movies/PaulStamets-2008&cid=/ted/movies
Monday, December 22, 2008
(Sometimes) Stunning Images of Your Property
Head on over here:
http://maps.live.com/
And search for your address, then click on "Birds Eye View" if it's available. If it's not at your place, head to a nearby town you know and try out the Bird's Eye View -- pretty incredible!
http://maps.live.com/
And search for your address, then click on "Birds Eye View" if it's available. If it's not at your place, head to a nearby town you know and try out the Bird's Eye View -- pretty incredible!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Reasons to be cheerful
Reasons to be cheerful
Buddhism teaches that good cheer, rather than 'happiness', might be the key to beating winter blues
·
Ed Halliwell
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 20 December 2008 10.00 GMT
Article history
The next week or so will bring most of us a higher-than-usual number of wishes for our "happiness". Whether it's "Happy Christmas" (which seems to have eclipsed the more traditional exhortation to be "merry"), "Happy New Year", or the religion-neutral American import "Happy holidays", so many hopes for contentment can have the unintended effect of seeming like a reproach, especially if we are not feeling as chipper as the season appears to demand.
It is often claimed that the "festive" period is one of enhanced misery for many, with rates of depression soaring as people grapple with family strife or loneliness that is in stark contrast to social expectations. There is conflicting evidence on this – calls to helplines like the Samaritans do increase over the holidays, but the suicide rate tends to dip, at least until the New Year kicks in. Nevertheless, the common perception of widespread seasonal woe, even if anecdotal, suggests that the forced imposition of "happiness" on a particular time of year can have unintended consequences.
However, there is another, much more useful phrase for describing the potential of the holiday period – "the season of good cheer". Whereas the word happiness implies an end state, the result of causes and conditions over which we may have little control, cheerfulness is volitional, a deliberate decision to be good-spirited. Indeed, it may be especially appropriate to rouse "good cheer" at times – such as midwinter – when outer circumstances seem wretched and we are more likely to feel downcast.
The value in distinguishing between "happy" and "cheerful" was underlined by the Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa was hugely influential in bringing Buddhism to the west in the 20th century, not least because of his precise and profound understanding of the English language and his ability to apply it in expounding Buddhist principles. He used to make a point of wishing people a "cheerful birthday" or a "cheerful new year", emphasising that we can make a decision to connect and identify with our basic wellbeing (also known as Buddha-nature), even when we are in the midst of suffering.
By making a conscious decision to be cheerful, including when we are in pain, we diminish our identification with unhappy circumstances and strengthen our confidence that we are not entirely at their mercy. This brings us choice – perhaps not over the circumstances themselves, but over how we relate to them. If we choose to respond with cheerfulness, we not only stand a better chance of weathering the storm, but we are subtly strengthening our ability to deal constructively and positively with life's inevitable insults.
I've learned a little of this through my own experience. During an almost-three year bout of depression and anxiety, I became stuck in negativity, digging myself further and further into a pit of despair. In an attempt to understand my gloom, I dove right into it – unfortunately this just strengthened my habitual tendency towards seeing the dark side of things, entrenching my sense of self as a "depressed" person, which as a result I continued to be. It's only when I learned first how to accept rather than fight than my mood, then to detach from it, and then finally to actively cultivate its reverse, that I was able to recover. I still have a predisposition towards melancholy, but by applying cheerfulness even, or rather especially, when I least feel like it, these days depression seems to overtake me far less often and for shorter periods.
The acceptance part of the process is important – cheerfulness should not be confused with the sometimes-nauseating "everything's-going-to-be-alright" approach that positive thinking gurus often appear to advocate. The purpose of cheerfulness isn't to deny that life is sometimes shit, it's that we aren't dependent on the happiness that comes from circumstances in order to find ways to wonder at it – as one Buddhist elder once asked me: "Rather than just liking the smell of roses, or hating the smell of manure, perhaps you could start appreciating that you have a nose?"
Wishing cheerfulness on others is a simple way of spreading what in Buddhism are known as "the four immeasurables" – love, compassion, equanimity and joy. Such a wish is not only expressing a desire for people to be happy, but that they might have the tools to cultivate a sense of wellbeing independent of whatever pains and pleasures they experience during the winter holiday season, or at any other time. And that, to me, seems like a wish worth making.
Buddhism teaches that good cheer, rather than 'happiness', might be the key to beating winter blues
·
Ed Halliwell
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 20 December 2008 10.00 GMT
Article history
The next week or so will bring most of us a higher-than-usual number of wishes for our "happiness". Whether it's "Happy Christmas" (which seems to have eclipsed the more traditional exhortation to be "merry"), "Happy New Year", or the religion-neutral American import "Happy holidays", so many hopes for contentment can have the unintended effect of seeming like a reproach, especially if we are not feeling as chipper as the season appears to demand.
It is often claimed that the "festive" period is one of enhanced misery for many, with rates of depression soaring as people grapple with family strife or loneliness that is in stark contrast to social expectations. There is conflicting evidence on this – calls to helplines like the Samaritans do increase over the holidays, but the suicide rate tends to dip, at least until the New Year kicks in. Nevertheless, the common perception of widespread seasonal woe, even if anecdotal, suggests that the forced imposition of "happiness" on a particular time of year can have unintended consequences.
However, there is another, much more useful phrase for describing the potential of the holiday period – "the season of good cheer". Whereas the word happiness implies an end state, the result of causes and conditions over which we may have little control, cheerfulness is volitional, a deliberate decision to be good-spirited. Indeed, it may be especially appropriate to rouse "good cheer" at times – such as midwinter – when outer circumstances seem wretched and we are more likely to feel downcast.
The value in distinguishing between "happy" and "cheerful" was underlined by the Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa was hugely influential in bringing Buddhism to the west in the 20th century, not least because of his precise and profound understanding of the English language and his ability to apply it in expounding Buddhist principles. He used to make a point of wishing people a "cheerful birthday" or a "cheerful new year", emphasising that we can make a decision to connect and identify with our basic wellbeing (also known as Buddha-nature), even when we are in the midst of suffering.
By making a conscious decision to be cheerful, including when we are in pain, we diminish our identification with unhappy circumstances and strengthen our confidence that we are not entirely at their mercy. This brings us choice – perhaps not over the circumstances themselves, but over how we relate to them. If we choose to respond with cheerfulness, we not only stand a better chance of weathering the storm, but we are subtly strengthening our ability to deal constructively and positively with life's inevitable insults.
I've learned a little of this through my own experience. During an almost-three year bout of depression and anxiety, I became stuck in negativity, digging myself further and further into a pit of despair. In an attempt to understand my gloom, I dove right into it – unfortunately this just strengthened my habitual tendency towards seeing the dark side of things, entrenching my sense of self as a "depressed" person, which as a result I continued to be. It's only when I learned first how to accept rather than fight than my mood, then to detach from it, and then finally to actively cultivate its reverse, that I was able to recover. I still have a predisposition towards melancholy, but by applying cheerfulness even, or rather especially, when I least feel like it, these days depression seems to overtake me far less often and for shorter periods.
The acceptance part of the process is important – cheerfulness should not be confused with the sometimes-nauseating "everything's-going-to-be-alright" approach that positive thinking gurus often appear to advocate. The purpose of cheerfulness isn't to deny that life is sometimes shit, it's that we aren't dependent on the happiness that comes from circumstances in order to find ways to wonder at it – as one Buddhist elder once asked me: "Rather than just liking the smell of roses, or hating the smell of manure, perhaps you could start appreciating that you have a nose?"
Wishing cheerfulness on others is a simple way of spreading what in Buddhism are known as "the four immeasurables" – love, compassion, equanimity and joy. Such a wish is not only expressing a desire for people to be happy, but that they might have the tools to cultivate a sense of wellbeing independent of whatever pains and pleasures they experience during the winter holiday season, or at any other time. And that, to me, seems like a wish worth making.
JanG's Goals Articulation
Intro/Context:
This garden is designed for Jim and Anne Marie Treger and their three sons, Brian, Andrew and Charlie. Jim is an investment banker with J. P. Morgan and Anne Marie is charismatic, high-energy community organizer and environmental activist.
The garden design fully permeates the entire property and its paths, play areas and contemplative spaces are oriented to accommodate the flow of activities between indoors and outdoors. The garden is 60% shaded from mature forest borders; the lawn in the front of the house and wooden deck in the back of the house receive the most sun.
Furthermore, this edible forest garden is situated in the middle of a slope; the water run off from the top of the hill streams through the back yard and pools up in the back yard of the neighbor below. This garden is designed to catch all that wonderful water-energy, to heal erosion and to restore the soil.
Goals Articulation
This garden is a welcoming and comfortable place for hosting parties, events, workshops and tours:
---Spontaneous teaching and learning happens
---Visitors are inspired to plan and implement their own gardensVisitors are inspired to retain
pc designers to implement and teach
This garden is kid planned and kid played:
---A spacious and rugged play area; nothing off limits,
---Flexible and resilient plantings.
---Favorite edibles are incorporated in the design;
---Blueberries and raspberries are lavishly cultivated.
---Awesome variety of fruits, nuts and vegetables are introduced.
---boys’ play set is nested and accented with edible vegetation. Comfortable seating
constellations provide grandparents a place to relax and watch children play.
This garden design is a comprehensive water catchment system that absorbs and stores
and distributes all available water and eliminates erosion and achieves 100% on-site rain
water retention:
---A series of catchments and terraces along the high side of the property slow and spread
all the runoff from the lots above.
---Water that now crosses driveway surface (freezes in winter) is caught in rain-barrel
above driveway. The aged asphalt of the driveway is perferated in some artistic way,
custom designed “grass paveer”.
---Roof top vegetation absorbs rain water and any overflow is directed to ponds and swales.
---Soil is rehydrated, restored and held in place by plants and understory trees.
---Wild mushrooms and mosses love to volunteer in this garden especially on
SE side of house where shade and moisture are predominant.
This garden meets all its needs and provides excess for family and community:
---Fresh vegetables, nuts, fruits, herbs and mushrooms are harvested and distributed
to family, friends and community.
---Creates soil by composting on siteRestores soil nutrients by planting comfreys,
vetches and legumes
---Fruit and nut trees in sunny locations, as well as vegetables,
---Mushrooms and mosses are invited to grow in the shade and moisture of the
northeast side of the house.
This garden is a predominantly self-restoring and self-maintaining ecosystem.
---It is easy and inexpensive to maintain and becomes more stable and diverse over time.
---This garden asks question, “What if I do nothing here?
---This garden demonstrates the principle, “Make least change for greatest possible effect.”
---Persistent, hardy adaptable attractive in all seasons
---Thoroughly utilize deck and roof top as zone 1 and primary sunny area.
---Deck and trellis provide vertical growing space for climbing perennials
(kiwi) and annuals (beans and peas)
---Leggy, old shrubs, suffering from malnutrition, are replaced by beautiful,
edible shrubs. Old shrubs that can be pruned and revitalized are incorporated
back into the design where possible. Problems are solutions.
---Functional interconnections and redundancies are demonstrated.
---This garden produces no waste; waste is transformed into value.
This garden inspires a persistent and expanding pcd awareness/activist movement;
a fundamental mindshift that transforms private and public landscapes:
---Forests are liberated from lawnmowers and leaf-blowers.
---Ecotones and transitional areas, spaces-between and gap-moments are noticed
and valued as cradles of life, fresh beginnings and enlightening opportunities,
as well as great places to grow delicious food.
---Plants working together in guilds form an elegant a continuous spiraling system
of pathways, open spaces and perennial, edibleforest habitats
This garden is a radiant mandhala that magnetizes neighbors and community leaders:
---Inspires teachers and preachers, politians and municipal employees to design and implement
perennial edible forest suburban habitats for the benefit of all life on earth, visible and
invisible, present and future.
---Heals our fears of the unknown and our fears of impermanence, calms and clarifies our
journey through life and death.
---Herbal medicines are cultivated and studied.
---This garden draws attention and yet plays well with neighboring landscapes.
---Radiant spiraling and interacting patterns breath in and out of the very center of the house
(which happens to be a kitchen with a skylight) through windows and doors, along garden
paths and play areas and beyond.
This garden inspires and invites families and friends into cooperative ventures designing
and implementing gardens in and around homes, schools, places of works, and public areas:
---Invite pcd teachers to come and speak and facilitate a multitude of pcd classes and
full curriculums in our area and beyond
---Many watershed associations visit this garden and form unified and coordinated bio-regional
watershed communities that help trigger off a national Greenbelt Movement (Wangari Maathai)
bringing us closer to the Great Turning.
---Governors visit this garden.
---President Obama visits this garden.
This garden demonstrates the authentic nutritional, political, community and universal
values of pcd and inspires transformative economies and enlightening societies.
---Individuals and organizations invest money in implementing designs and programs
that are centered on the ethics and principles of pc.
---Expands and multiplies opportunities for engaging in right livelihood abound.
---Plays well with others; respects the jobs and needs of conventional landscape maintenance crew,
companies and public-works crews; without pontificating, by example and positive, cooperative,
realistic, mutually beneficial exchanges of skills, materials, equipment, kindness and humor.
---This garden support independent heirloom seed-growing movement
(purchase seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Library)
This garden helps to heal our illusion of separation from the natural world.
---This garden provides a circular space that can accommodate 20 or so people in a
Council of All Beings (Joanna Macy)
---An ongoing process of meditation, contemplation and practice shapes and organizes
this garden.
---Feminine space all accommodating without bias, quiet and still, laughing and singing
---Distinctive individuals in a perennial multicultural edible forest dance.
---This garden relaxes and blends time and space.
---This garden settles and cradles the house and family activities
---Subtle, understated, lavish and surprising
---Whimsical, confident
---Spicy and sweet and good to eat
---Edgy, edgy and edgy
---This garden rocks!
FREEDOM FROM HABITUAL TENDENCIESThere are all kinds of habitual tendencies that are connected with holding on to what we are. People get divorced because they think they might find a better mate. People change restaurants because they think they might get cheaper and better food. The habitual patterns of ego work that way. The notion of enlightenment is a sense of freedom from those patterns. And the way to attain that freedom is by means of the sitting practice of meditation. In sitting practice, we look at our minds, and we maintain good posture. When we combine body and mind that way, we find ourselves emulating the Buddha -- the way to be properly. Then we begin to develop sympathy toward ourselves, rather than just holding on.
"Personally speaking I have never been put off. I never give up at all. I am not going to give up the cause of peace that might occur in this world. And I am looking forward to it in some sense. The more chaos happens, I feel more possibility of creating greater peace, and when I see more aggression, more chaos, I feel more encouraged. That is, my smile is never diminished. I always smile."
The Druk Sakyong, speaking to a Nova Scotia audience in 1982
It says I’m easy. I’ve arrived.
humorous and whimsical
sacred space
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the WeekDecember 21, 2008 THE SUN IS ABOUT TO RISEThe Great Eastern Sun is the sun that is fully risen in your life. It is the sun of wakefulness, the sun of human dignity. It is Great because it represents upliftedness and the qualities of openness and gentleness. You have an uplifted sense of posture or place in your world, which we call having good head and shoulders. It is East because you have a smile on your face. East is the concept of dawn. When you look to the East, first thing in the morning, you see light coming from the East, even before the sun rises. So East is the smile you have when you wake up. The sun is about to rise. Fresh air is coming with the dawn. So the sun is East and it is Great.From "Facing Yourself," in CONQUERING FEAR, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications, Fall 2009.
This garden is designed for Jim and Anne Marie Treger and their three sons, Brian, Andrew and Charlie. Jim is an investment banker with J. P. Morgan and Anne Marie is charismatic, high-energy community organizer and environmental activist.
The garden design fully permeates the entire property and its paths, play areas and contemplative spaces are oriented to accommodate the flow of activities between indoors and outdoors. The garden is 60% shaded from mature forest borders; the lawn in the front of the house and wooden deck in the back of the house receive the most sun.
Furthermore, this edible forest garden is situated in the middle of a slope; the water run off from the top of the hill streams through the back yard and pools up in the back yard of the neighbor below. This garden is designed to catch all that wonderful water-energy, to heal erosion and to restore the soil.
Goals Articulation
This garden is a welcoming and comfortable place for hosting parties, events, workshops and tours:
---Spontaneous teaching and learning happens
---Visitors are inspired to plan and implement their own gardensVisitors are inspired to retain
pc designers to implement and teach
This garden is kid planned and kid played:
---A spacious and rugged play area; nothing off limits,
---Flexible and resilient plantings.
---Favorite edibles are incorporated in the design;
---Blueberries and raspberries are lavishly cultivated.
---Awesome variety of fruits, nuts and vegetables are introduced.
---boys’ play set is nested and accented with edible vegetation. Comfortable seating
constellations provide grandparents a place to relax and watch children play.
This garden design is a comprehensive water catchment system that absorbs and stores
and distributes all available water and eliminates erosion and achieves 100% on-site rain
water retention:
---A series of catchments and terraces along the high side of the property slow and spread
all the runoff from the lots above.
---Water that now crosses driveway surface (freezes in winter) is caught in rain-barrel
above driveway. The aged asphalt of the driveway is perferated in some artistic way,
custom designed “grass paveer”.
---Roof top vegetation absorbs rain water and any overflow is directed to ponds and swales.
---Soil is rehydrated, restored and held in place by plants and understory trees.
---Wild mushrooms and mosses love to volunteer in this garden especially on
SE side of house where shade and moisture are predominant.
This garden meets all its needs and provides excess for family and community:
---Fresh vegetables, nuts, fruits, herbs and mushrooms are harvested and distributed
to family, friends and community.
---Creates soil by composting on siteRestores soil nutrients by planting comfreys,
vetches and legumes
---Fruit and nut trees in sunny locations, as well as vegetables,
---Mushrooms and mosses are invited to grow in the shade and moisture of the
northeast side of the house.
This garden is a predominantly self-restoring and self-maintaining ecosystem.
---It is easy and inexpensive to maintain and becomes more stable and diverse over time.
---This garden asks question, “What if I do nothing here?
---This garden demonstrates the principle, “Make least change for greatest possible effect.”
---Persistent, hardy adaptable attractive in all seasons
---Thoroughly utilize deck and roof top as zone 1 and primary sunny area.
---Deck and trellis provide vertical growing space for climbing perennials
(kiwi) and annuals (beans and peas)
---Leggy, old shrubs, suffering from malnutrition, are replaced by beautiful,
edible shrubs. Old shrubs that can be pruned and revitalized are incorporated
back into the design where possible. Problems are solutions.
---Functional interconnections and redundancies are demonstrated.
---This garden produces no waste; waste is transformed into value.
This garden inspires a persistent and expanding pcd awareness/activist movement;
a fundamental mindshift that transforms private and public landscapes:
---Forests are liberated from lawnmowers and leaf-blowers.
---Ecotones and transitional areas, spaces-between and gap-moments are noticed
and valued as cradles of life, fresh beginnings and enlightening opportunities,
as well as great places to grow delicious food.
---Plants working together in guilds form an elegant a continuous spiraling system
of pathways, open spaces and perennial, edibleforest habitats
This garden is a radiant mandhala that magnetizes neighbors and community leaders:
---Inspires teachers and preachers, politians and municipal employees to design and implement
perennial edible forest suburban habitats for the benefit of all life on earth, visible and
invisible, present and future.
---Heals our fears of the unknown and our fears of impermanence, calms and clarifies our
journey through life and death.
---Herbal medicines are cultivated and studied.
---This garden draws attention and yet plays well with neighboring landscapes.
---Radiant spiraling and interacting patterns breath in and out of the very center of the house
(which happens to be a kitchen with a skylight) through windows and doors, along garden
paths and play areas and beyond.
This garden inspires and invites families and friends into cooperative ventures designing
and implementing gardens in and around homes, schools, places of works, and public areas:
---Invite pcd teachers to come and speak and facilitate a multitude of pcd classes and
full curriculums in our area and beyond
---Many watershed associations visit this garden and form unified and coordinated bio-regional
watershed communities that help trigger off a national Greenbelt Movement (Wangari Maathai)
bringing us closer to the Great Turning.
---Governors visit this garden.
---President Obama visits this garden.
This garden demonstrates the authentic nutritional, political, community and universal
values of pcd and inspires transformative economies and enlightening societies.
---Individuals and organizations invest money in implementing designs and programs
that are centered on the ethics and principles of pc.
---Expands and multiplies opportunities for engaging in right livelihood abound.
---Plays well with others; respects the jobs and needs of conventional landscape maintenance crew,
companies and public-works crews; without pontificating, by example and positive, cooperative,
realistic, mutually beneficial exchanges of skills, materials, equipment, kindness and humor.
---This garden support independent heirloom seed-growing movement
(purchase seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Library)
This garden helps to heal our illusion of separation from the natural world.
---This garden provides a circular space that can accommodate 20 or so people in a
Council of All Beings (Joanna Macy)
---An ongoing process of meditation, contemplation and practice shapes and organizes
this garden.
---Feminine space all accommodating without bias, quiet and still, laughing and singing
---Distinctive individuals in a perennial multicultural edible forest dance.
---This garden relaxes and blends time and space.
---This garden settles and cradles the house and family activities
---Subtle, understated, lavish and surprising
---Whimsical, confident
---Spicy and sweet and good to eat
---Edgy, edgy and edgy
---This garden rocks!
FREEDOM FROM HABITUAL TENDENCIESThere are all kinds of habitual tendencies that are connected with holding on to what we are. People get divorced because they think they might find a better mate. People change restaurants because they think they might get cheaper and better food. The habitual patterns of ego work that way. The notion of enlightenment is a sense of freedom from those patterns. And the way to attain that freedom is by means of the sitting practice of meditation. In sitting practice, we look at our minds, and we maintain good posture. When we combine body and mind that way, we find ourselves emulating the Buddha -- the way to be properly. Then we begin to develop sympathy toward ourselves, rather than just holding on.
"Personally speaking I have never been put off. I never give up at all. I am not going to give up the cause of peace that might occur in this world. And I am looking forward to it in some sense. The more chaos happens, I feel more possibility of creating greater peace, and when I see more aggression, more chaos, I feel more encouraged. That is, my smile is never diminished. I always smile."
The Druk Sakyong, speaking to a Nova Scotia audience in 1982
It says I’m easy. I’ve arrived.
humorous and whimsical
sacred space
Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the WeekDecember 21, 2008 THE SUN IS ABOUT TO RISEThe Great Eastern Sun is the sun that is fully risen in your life. It is the sun of wakefulness, the sun of human dignity. It is Great because it represents upliftedness and the qualities of openness and gentleness. You have an uplifted sense of posture or place in your world, which we call having good head and shoulders. It is East because you have a smile on your face. East is the concept of dawn. When you look to the East, first thing in the morning, you see light coming from the East, even before the sun rises. So East is the smile you have when you wake up. The sun is about to rise. Fresh air is coming with the dawn. So the sun is East and it is Great.From "Facing Yourself," in CONQUERING FEAR, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications, Fall 2009.
I been aimlessly wandering (a very profound and respectible activity) the web with Paul Krafel.
Can Goals Articulation be written entirely in upward spirals language? Yes, of course.
http://www.chrysalischarterschool.com/Paul/Paul/HOPE.html
So much love and appreciation for you all, for the opportunity to be in community practicing upward spirals and "relational trust" (Parker Palmer: Center for Courage & Renewal) interviewed: http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2008/repossessing_virtue-palmer/
In any words, language, way beyond words.
Cheerful holy days for all,
Jan G
Can Goals Articulation be written entirely in upward spirals language? Yes, of course.
http://www.chrysalischarterschool.com/Paul/Paul/HOPE.html
So much love and appreciation for you all, for the opportunity to be in community practicing upward spirals and "relational trust" (Parker Palmer: Center for Courage & Renewal) interviewed: http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2008/repossessing_virtue-palmer/
In any words, language, way beyond words.
Cheerful holy days for all,
Jan G
Friday, December 19, 2008
Weekend 02 Resources: Verbs, Pattern Languages, Web SA&A
Howdy All --
Click here to download a file containing a bunch of good verbs!
www.patternlanguage.com is Christopher Alexander's somewhat-funky website that holds some Pattern Language resources.
Web Soil Survey (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm)
Google Earth is great for aerial imagery, and some basic landform analysis. http://earth.google.com
Also, for fun and inspiration, here's Geoff Lawton's "Greening the Desert"!
Click here to download a file containing a bunch of good verbs!
www.patternlanguage.com is Christopher Alexander's somewhat-funky website that holds some Pattern Language resources.
Web Soil Survey (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm)
Google Earth is great for aerial imagery, and some basic landform analysis. http://earth.google.com
Also, for fun and inspiration, here's Geoff Lawton's "Greening the Desert"!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Connections Emerging -- Weekend 01 Photos
Howdy All!
Finally I'm getting a chance to post some photos from the first weekend. Anyone else got photos to share? We could also set up a flickr stream...
Connections emerging between participants!
Permaculture principles card game.
Finally I'm getting a chance to post some photos from the first weekend. Anyone else got photos to share? We could also set up a flickr stream...
Connections emerging between participants!
Permaculture principles card game.
Anya's goals articulation
Here's the goals outline I created for myself last year. It has a few added elements that, if you're interested in adding, you might want to look into. The questions following each smaller goal was to help me actually plan out the details of the design, which you won't need to do until later. Don't stress yourself out doing it this month. Also included is a whole-site values statement. Don't worry about that this month either.
Also check out Frances's goal statement below.
Hope you're all doing well and getting excited for next week's course!
-Anya
Also check out Frances's goal statement below.
- Anya's Goals •
- Values Statement: We grow as much food for coop as possible on site in a self-sustaining system that provies for people (food for house and rent for grower) and other life (soil, plants, animals, etc.).
- I'm growing as much food for coop as possible on site
- Land is under culitvation around house producing abundance of food for coop
- What food?
- How much of each food?
- Which land?
- How much land?
- Storage food that last through spring
- Which foods?
- Which varieties?
- How much of each?
- Chickens provide eggs we eat
- How many eggs do we eat?
- How many chickens do we need?
- What do they eat?
- Where do they live?
- How are they protected from predators?
- What else do they need?
- It is a self-sustaining system
- Most of additives to garden/soil from surrounding area
- What is needed?
- Where can we get them?
- Closest?
- Cheapest?
- Composting toilet exists, smells good, works
- Where located?
- How does it work?
- What does it require?
- I am practicing seed-saving on site
- Which crops?
- How?
- What tools do I need?
- All open-pollinated plants in system
- Fencing keeps out deer/rodents, trellising, beauty
- What kind of fence is used for this?
- Low cost
- Low maintenance
- Easy to build
- Where is it?
- All water for garden/animals stored on site, not in well
- How much water do I need?
- Where are systems located?
- Building, maintenance, use?
- Replenishing the soil
- Compost
- Mulch
- Soil-fixing plants
- No-till gardening
- Preventing erosion
- Where is erosion a problem?
- What am I planting there to help?
- Greenhouse
- The system provides income for me and part of my rent
- I am growing surplus that covers costs of growing season
- Cost of garden itself
- Cost of living
- How much surplus?
- Surplus of what?
- Who am I selling to? For how much?
- Garden serves as workshop space for learning, and income
- How do I arrange garden to accomodate learning?
- how do I make it easy to maintain garden so that it's presentation-worthy?
- Building and upkeep is inexpensive
- Strengthens community and provides for people
- Garden strengthens community of coop and adds to beauty and sustainability
- Trellis fruits and flowers provides privacy in courtyard
- Which plants?
- How are they trellised?
- Loved outdoor cats have home and keep rodents away
- Where do they live?
- How to keep them away from chickens?
- Is this ok with Common Fire?
- What do they eat?
- Outdoor social & private areas for people.
- Where?
- What?
- Fire ring?
- Rendevous/outdoor sleep space
- Garden is beautiful and simple
Hope you're all doing well and getting excited for next week's course!
-Anya
Thursday, December 4, 2008
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Monday, December 1, 2008
Course Assignments for December
Please have the following done for December, so you can be up-to-speed with your design projects.
Design Project:
Choose a site
Goals Articulation:
- 3 - 5 goals, 1-2 pages in outline form
- present tense, active voice (remember, using the verb "to be" in any form usually means you'r'e in passive voice)
Meet with your Action Learning Guild at least once (in person or via phone conference)!
Some ideas of what to discuss:
- How you're feeling about the course
- your site
- your list of goals
- problems with goals/design and questions about them
- What your goals are for December's class
- How your ALG can support you through the course, or in December specifically
- What you're excited about learning through the design process
- What your personal goals are for your design
- etc. etc. etc. feel free to check in, get personal, set ground rules, whatever makes you comfortable and will enhance your experience of the PDC!
Optional Readings:
(check your email for the attachments)
Donella Meadows, "Places to Intervene in a System"
David Holmgren, "The Essence of Permaculture"
Andrew C. Haden Emergy Analysis of Food Production at S&S Homestead Farm
Good luck! I can't wait to reconnect in December and see what you've done!
-Anya
Design Project:
Choose a site
Goals Articulation:
- 3 - 5 goals, 1-2 pages in outline form
- present tense, active voice (remember, using the verb "to be" in any form usually means you'r'e in passive voice)
Meet with your Action Learning Guild at least once (in person or via phone conference)!
Some ideas of what to discuss:
- How you're feeling about the course
- your site
- your list of goals
- problems with goals/design and questions about them
- What your goals are for December's class
- How your ALG can support you through the course, or in December specifically
- What you're excited about learning through the design process
- What your personal goals are for your design
- etc. etc. etc. feel free to check in, get personal, set ground rules, whatever makes you comfortable and will enhance your experience of the PDC!
Optional Readings:
(check your email for the attachments)
Donella Meadows, "Places to Intervene in a System"
David Holmgren, "The Essence of Permaculture"
Andrew C. Haden Emergy Analysis of Food Production at S&S Homestead Farm
Good luck! I can't wait to reconnect in December and see what you've done!
-Anya
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Course Curriculum!
Howdy all - Welcome to the course blog! I'm excited to explore this as a tool for quick-and-effective documentation of our co-learning journey. Feel free to post comments and questions on this blog!
I've posted the course curriculum on my website; You can download it by clicking the image below:
http://www.appleseedpermaculture.com/docs/EPW_PDC_2008_2009_draft02.pdf
I've posted the course curriculum on my website; You can download it by clicking the image below:
http://www.appleseedpermaculture.com/docs/EPW_PDC_2008_2009_draft02.pdf
Welcome to the Epworth Winter Series PDC '08-'09
Welcome to your interactive blog for your winter permaculture design course experience.
For fun and excitement, check back frequently and post photos, information, resources, etc. Interested? Contact Anya or post a comment here and I'll get you connected as a blog author.
Love,
Ethan and Anya
For fun and excitement, check back frequently and post photos, information, resources, etc. Interested? Contact Anya or post a comment here and I'll get you connected as a blog author.
Love,
Ethan and Anya
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