Financial Permaculture

I've spent the last four days at a conference focused on Financial Permaculture.  "What is Financial Permaculture?" you might ask.  Well, that was one of the things we tried to define.  In my own words, it is integrating the concepts of both finance and permaculture in order to make finance more green and permaculture more effective.  The financial guru in our corner is Catherine Austin Fitts, a former insider who saw what was wrong and tried to fix it, and in doing so realized that it was meant to be that way.  All of the poverty, death, and destruction on this earth is a result of the centralization of the financial system.  The rich continue to get richer at the expense of the earth and all the rest of its inhabitants.  Using Permaculture, we have developed methods and tools to heal the earth and re-forest the deserts, but we will never succeed if we cannot heal the financial system.  

Permaculture teaches us to solve problems creatively and strategize.  We realize that to combat centralization we must decentralize.  We must take back every county, every city, every town, and make them serve the inhabitants of those places.  To do that we must know who the players are in our financial ecosystem.  Where are the pools and flows of money in our community?  Most communities are like a leaky bucket.  Money comes in and goes straight back out again.  If people start shopping locally, the money circulates like a fountain.  

Another important aspect is banking.  For each dollar you keep in the bank, it can lend out $10.  If you keep your money in a national bank such as Bank of America, your money is used to fund projects such as coal power plants in Chile and Pebble Mine.  If you keep your money in a local bank, your money is used to fund projects that increase the health and wealth of your community.

The third thing that everyone can do to increase the wealth of their community is to vote.  Not just for the person they think will win, but for the person who has integrity and is truly looking out for the long-term health of the community.  Get involved in local politics and find out who these people are.  We need leaders that are not just looking out for their friends.

The economics of growing my own food

I will not kid myself that all the hours I spend tending my garden provide me with a lot of economic return.  I do it mostly because I enjoy the challenge and the fruits of my labors.  The tomatoes I grow myself taste ever so much sweeter than the ones from the store, even more so because I have tended so many tomato plants that have yielded not one ripe tomato.  But every year my garden gets better, more efficient as I learn.  

But besides the pure pleasure and enjoyment I am getting out of my garden, sometimes I wonder what is the monetary value of my work.  This was acutely brought to my attention last Sunday when Matt and I bought four cabbages (because the moose had eaten all of ours) and some pickling cucumbers (because we aren't very good at growing them yet) at a farm stand out in Palmer.  I love supporting our local farmers, but I almost choked when Matt handed over $27.  I felt completely inadequate as the provider of our vegetables.  So, I have started to pay more attention to what I'm eating and putting away for the winter.  

I packaged up just over 5 pounds of blanched kale (from my mother's garden because the moose ate ours.)  It took me about 5 minutes to harvest and 25 minutes to wash, blanch, package, label, and freeze it.   That is not taking into account the time it took to plant and tend the kale, which is a more complicated calculation.  A bunch of organic kale from Freddies is, what, $2.50?  So, if a bunch of kale is about a pound ( I should check these numbers) then I froze the equivalent of about $12.50.  If we pretend that it took about another half-hour of tending for those five bunches of kale, then the hourly rate would be about $12.50.  Not stellar, but it is something.  And the carbon footprint of the kale is much smaller than the stuff that comes from Cali in the dead of winter.  

Perhaps the raspberries will be more economical.  I spent about 15 minutes collecting about a pint of raspberries today.  

A Site Visit

Following up on a seed that was planted over a year ago, a small scouting party goes to explore a possible site for a Permaculture Design Certification course for next summer.  I am the pilot of the trusty new Volvo.  Sharon, fellow Permaculture Designer is my copilot, and in the back are our spiritual guide Liz and her daughter, Raquel, the animal tamer.  The weather is beautiful as we drive out to the valley, past the state fair where families are lined up with strollers to get in and the ferris wheel turns endlessly.  We turn onto a smaller farm road, and drive just past our destination.  As we turn around we see a sign on a mailbox... "The obstacle is the path."  

As we pull into the driveway of Yoga in the Valley, tranquility engulfs us.  A picture-perfect farm house, flowers everywhere, the snow peas beckoning us from the garden, "come eat me!"  We meet our hostess Tammy who is a bundle of light and energy and has a contagious laugh.  She shows us the yoga studio where we can hold the classes.  It is not huge, but peaceful.  We walk around the site, through the hayfield, by the creek, through the woods.  There is so much to talk about... where people can camp, what their hopes for the property are, which mushrooms are edible.  

I am floored by the beauty of all this raw land.  How lucky their three daughters were to grow up with all of this.  It is no accident that they all decided to study environmental science and education.  Tammy and her husband Mike are at a turning point, they are sending their youngest off to college and need to figure out what to do with all this property and their big house.  They are thinking of making it into an eco-village.  The big house could be the common house, and many smaller homes could be built around it, with thriving gardens and a community aspect.

A permaculture design on this property would be ideal.  Drawing people into the project and possibly even having work parties to implement some aspects of the design.  Mike and Tammy don't know that much about Permaculture yet, but it as if we have all been sent there to help them achieve these dreams.  We arrive on their doorstep with the right information just at the time that they need it.  And they provide us with the space to help others feed their hunger for knowledge.  Some might say, "the obstacle is the path."  In Permaculture we say, "the problem is the solution."

Marriage

Ok, ok, so I kind of skipped over a very important event in my life that happened almost two months ago: I got married to the love of my life, Matt.  

The wedding was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined.  We were married on the beach by our good friends, Margi and Scott, with our parents standing in support behind us.  The sun was beaming down on us as a black rain cloud threatened, making the backdrop of the tall mountains across the fjord even more dramatic.  Our friends KB and Emily sang the song "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles.  Matt's mother read a poem.  Matt and I exchanged vows and rings and a kiss.  The rain blessed our marriage as we ate elk kabobs under the tent.  The amazing food was generously prepared by our friend Sarah entirely from scratch.  We cut the cake, lemon-raspberry, with real frosting, and had a champagne toast, and then the band played.  We danced, sang, played games, laughed, and hugged, surrounded by all the people most important to us in life.  All the stress and work of putting together this event was gone, we were married and we were happy.

I can't tell you exactly how it is different, but I love being married.  It is somehow comforting to know that we will be together no matter what.  Other people now know the strength of our commitment to each other as well.  Every time I look at my ring, I think about the symbolism of the circle, and I know that Matt and I are in for an amazing ride.  

Moose Battles

It's after midnight and Matt and I are cuddled up on the couch when we hear a flowerpot crash to the ground.  I jump up and run to the window and there is a huge cow moose in the middle of my garden with a big leaf of kale in its mouth.  I run outside and I'm yelling at her, but she doesn't want to leave... there are too many tasty treats in the garden.  I pick up some wood chips from the path and throw them at her, but instead of scaring here away, it looks like she wants to charge me.  Matt comes out and the two of us convince her to move on.  But she runs around the house and comes back into the garden behind the house!  She really wants our goods!  I put a ladder across the back to keep her from going in that way, and pull out the fencing we had up over the winter to keep them away from the fruit trees.  Matt is trying to help me but he is quite sleepy and the whole thing is starting to feel a bit like a bad dream.  

The moose seems to be gone, so we go off to bed.  I toss and turn, thinking about my precious vegetables and all the hard work we have put into them.  Just after we drift off to sleep, we are woken up by a loud CRASH... the ladder in the back, the moose had returned!  She is scared off  by the crash and she runs off, so I go out and put the ladder back up.  I see that she has eaten all the cabbage in the back, unfenced garden.  What was I thinking, planting it there?  We just have not seen any moose this year or last, and we are letting our guard down.  

I go back to bed but I sleep with one ear open, listening for any sound of the moose returning.  In the morning we get up and with sleepy, disbelieving eyes, we see that she got through our shoddy late-night fence.  She had a gourmet late-night buffet of beet greens, chard, kale, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, and even young birch leaves.  I wimper and Matt hugs me.  I pick up the tiny young beets she so carelessly left on the ground.  I right the garlic she trampled on her way to the cabbage.  What about our sauerkraut we were so looking forward to making this year?  What will Matt eat for breakfast?  I feel sick to my stomach.  How could we let this happen?  

Only in Alaska do we have to deal with the world's largest herbivore.  One that can wipe out an entire garden in a late-night snack.  It takes an eight foot high fence, minimum to keep these guys out.  And it has to be strong, as we found out.  We did discover what moose don't like to eat, however.  Mustard greens, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, squash plants, herbs, and parsnips.  And we were very lucky she didn't find the fruit trees.  Today, construction of the fence continues, and this time, she is not getting through!  

the garden lifestyle

You can't procrastinate in a garden.  Especially not an Alaskan garden.  A long, leisurely summer compressed into three months, accelerated by the long days and moderate temperatures.  You can practically see the grapevines climbing, the strawberries ripening, the zucchini popping out of nowhere.  The life-cycle of the seed popping from the earth, blossoming, rushing to set seeds before winter gets here.  Like the maddening tick-tock of the clock, the garden grows and grows.  Weed today because tomorrow it will be out of control.  Miss the spinach at its prime in the morning and by the afternoon it has bolted.  Seeds won't grow if they aren't planted.  You said you meant to pick the strawberries?  Too late!  The birds beat you to it!

Like all of the best things in life, a daily dose of gardening keeps me and the garden healthy.  Eating, drinking, exercising, journaling cannot be crammed into one day of the week.  They all have to be a part of my lifestyle.  It is a great way to live, connected to the rhythms of the earth and the cycles of the seasons.  I begin and end each day with a walk through the garden, checking on the progress of everything.  I harvest what is ready, pull some weeds and make notes of longer projects that need to be done.  I eat from the garden, I read about the garden, I even dream about the garden.  And tomorrow I'll do it all again.

On rain and tomatoes

It's been raining for two days but this morning it suddenly stopped and the sun came out.  It has been a very dry summer and the plants are thankful for the rain.  No amount of chlorinated city water can take the place of mother nature.  The sun beckoned me away from my desk to check out the garden.  I found some snap peas happily climbing on the fava beans near the hazelbert.  For some reason the soil is richer around that tree and the guild is all working together as it should be.  If I could replicate that to the other trees, I would be pretty happy.  The pumpkin vines are out of control and I should have a bumper crop if the start making pumpkins soon!  The other squash in the hugelkultur bed are faring not so well... they seem to be a bit nitrogen-starved because their leaves are pale and yellowish.  I will try using fish fertilizer to give them a boost, although I fear it may be too late.  

I am doing an experiment to find a way to grow tomatoes outside.  I made two cylinders out of chicken wire and planted tomato plants around them.  I filled one with unfinished compost and left the other one empty, but draped row cover over it to provide more heat.  The one with the compost is doing way better, even though the compost registers only 80 degrees.  I think where it really helps is retaining heat through the night.  We only have 6 weeks left of summer, so we will see how many tomatoes we get.  I also planted tomato plants through special black plastic which lets air and water in but does not let weeds grow.  I then stuck huge jugs filled with water between the plants.  It worked like a charm and we are already getting red tomatoes off of those plants.  

I wander over to the strawberries and marvel at how there can already be huge red ones when I just picked yesterday.  They are so sweet and juicy.  I can't believe that everyone doesn't have giant strawberry patches in their yard.  How simple and rewarding they are!  A few red raspberries call me over to eat them.  Heavenly!  And here are some snow peas that I forgot I planted in among them, going gangbusters!  What a sweet surprise!  Just another amazing day in the garden!

The Perfect Guild

I am in search of the perfect guild for my fruit trees.  A menagerie of plants growing together, helping each other and the tree reach their full potential.  I started about a month ago digging out the encroaching grass and creating an air-barrier between the grass and the mulch surrounding the tree.  Grass feeds at the top of the soil, the same as fruit trees, and is not a good companion for them, even though many orchardists plant grass on purpose.  So far, I have found no good use for grass and would be happy to have none.  Then I planted onion and garlic bulbs to help keep the grass out.  These can go in early and need a long season to mature.  I came back later and planted some fava beans and bush peas to fix some nitrogen for the guild so I don't have to fertilize with anything.  I came back later to start planting some greens and flowers but I wasn't sure where I had planted the other stuff.  Hmmmmm.  Then, trying to scatter four or five different seeds evenly around a 10 square foot area was not the easiest task, especially since some of the trees still had a bunch of wood chips around them from last year.  As I went, I became more and more methodical about how I planted.  I started using a little potting soil to get the seeds off to a good start, and planting in designs around the trees.  I planted each tree a little different so I can see as the season wears on what works best.  A nasturtium or two for beneficial insects and edible flowers, an artichoke for mulch, and, cross your fingers, even maybe an artichoke to eat!   When all is said and done, I have dramatically increased my plantable area without much extra work, and the trees will be happier as well!

Super-Insulating the Williams St. House

In the past year Matt has learned a massive amount about home efficiency.  Last summer he found out that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation desperately needed people to become energy raters, and he saw it as an excellent way to break out of standard bathroom remodels into green building.  Multiple rounds of classes, books, plus visiting hundreds of homes to rate their efficiency has given him a good understanding about how all the different factors work together to make a healthy home.  

But of course Matt wasn't satisfied with just seeing and studying about homes from the outside.  It drove him crazy to come home to our single pane windows, four inch walls, and leaky doors.  Every time a customer would say, "you must have a really efficient house!" he would cringe.  We had to get an independent auditor to rate our home, but by the time he finally came in March, Matt already had ordered the new windows.  Only, Matt was not content to just replace windows and do some air sealing.  He wanted to go top of the line.  

We are installing a "remote wall" system, which means that we insulate on the outside of our house and then put on new siding on the outside.  It is a fairly new concept, and has many details that have not been totally worked out, so Matt has been doing tons more research to figure out details like how to attach siding to four inches of foam.  He even built a "model section" of wall to figure out how the windows and corners were going to fit together.  

The dumpster arrived two weeks ago and he hired a couple of guys to help him.  First they had to rip off the 50 year old shake siding and install a new vapor barrier.  Then they replaced the windows with triple pane, building them out four inches so that they will be flush with the new siding.  We made the window in our bedroom that faces north (and another house) smaller, and the kitchen window which faces south a little bigger.  It is amazing the difference in the comfortability of the house already... cooler by day and warmer at night.   Yesterday they started putting up the foam.  

Matt is still doing energy ratings for other people... they are helping to pay for our project, as well as the wages of the guys helping.  When we are finished we will bring our two-star home to a five-star-plus!  This will qualify us for the whole $10,000 rebate from the Alaska Housing Finance Center's energy rebate program, plus there will be some tax incentives.  This will help with the costs, but in no way cover them.  It is not cheap, and many people that need it the most cannot afford to front the money.   We are very lucky to be benefitting from this program in two ways.  We will also recoup costs many years to come with dramatically lower energy bills.  

We are hoping to learn a lot through this experience to be able to pass it on to other people.  As energy costs continue to rise, these sorts of retrofits may become standard.  We will no longer be able to waste our precious resources.  People are already starting to take notice.  The energy rebate program has been extremely popular, with a waiting list thousands of people long.  Rich or poor, everyone is feeling the hit.  So, let us plow on ahead and figure these details out!

Great gardens!

It is early but the spring sun is blaring through my window and my dog is nudging me to go outside.  We stumble into the garden and are greeted by the fresh morning dew glistening on the plants.  It is too early in the season to start planting, the danger of a late frost is too great for most things, but the success of my garden last year is still fresh in my mind.  I remember many mornings like this, snacking on a leaf of lettuce or a bean.  I would check on the zucchini every day, but inevitably I would miss one hiding beneath a leaf until it reached astronomical proportions.   My pumpkins did really well, providing us with pies and cookies and soup all through the winter. 

My dad says we live in the banana belt of Anchorage, but I attribute my gardening success in last years dismal summer to the goat manure I grew it all in.  My parents are die-hard Alaskan gardeners and I grew up eating veggies from our garden almost year-round.  I spring when we ran out of our own potatoes and had to eat store-bought ones, my brothers and I vehemently protested.  My mother also took the time to put away broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and many other garden goodies. 

I didn’t realize how lucky I was until I went away to college and had to eat bland, tasteless veggies all the time.  I studied Environmental Science and learned about the horrors of the conventional agriculture system.  Why do we grow our food on huge, inefficient, industrial farms that rely on petrochemicals then truck it thousands of miles to our supermarkets?  By the time it gets to our plates the food has lost most of its taste and nutrition, no wonder kids won’t eat their veggies! 

The day after we closed on our house I hauled a load of compost over from my parent’s house and shoveled it onto some cardboard on the lawn.  Since then we have been busily converting our lawn into a garden oasis.  My parents gave us extra shoots of raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries, black currents and gooseberries.  We also planted apple, pear, cherry, Manchurian apricot, plum, and hazelberts,  a cross between hazelnuts and filberts.  This year we will add hardy kiwi, lingonberries, juneberries, and many more. 

I believe in beautiful, edible and functional gardens.  I believe in planting my vegetables in the front yard where everyone can see them and marvel in their beauty.  I believe that kids should know that carrots come out of the ground and peas come out of pods that grow on a vine, not from a can.  Most adults don’t even know that green beans should be crisp and tender not mushy or tough.  I have converted more than one of my vegetable-wary friends into die-hard beet lovers.  You will never taste a carrot as sweet as one that comes from an Alaskan garden.

I’m not an expert and have definitely had my share of failures, but I am always amazed at the tenacity of a seed.  I marvel at the wisdom of nature in my garden, it is my finest teacher.  Take the time to plant a seed this spring.  Feed the soil it is growing in and nurture it with love and water and you will get to taste the miracle of life.

On becoming a permaculture teacher

Output 5.  My Process of Becoming a Permaculture Teacher

 

Output Specification

This output is about my process of becoming a permaculture teacher.  I am writing it in order to analyze this process, evaluate my progress, and give some insight for others who would like to become permaculture teachers.  If you take a look at my new and improved mind map of my projects in the appendix, you will see that teaching is one of the avenues Matt and I would like to pursue in diversifying our business, Red Edge Design.  We see the dissemination of valuable information and skills as key in our rapidly changing world.  Matt is largely tied up with the 'homes" portion of our business, and I am focusing on learning the teaching part.  

In this process I am finding that one key to being a good teacher is being a good designer.  It is about being crystal clear about the message you are trying to convey, and designing a plan that will make that happen.  Although I wrote my output #3 on designing my projects, I realize I am still a neophyte designer, making slow and steady progress in discovering the process within myself.  

I am also learning that being a good teacher is about facilitating the learning process in other people.  It isn't so much about telling them what I know, but letting them discover their own truths.  This realization has helped me see my own learning in a different way, emphasizing the process instead of the result.  It has helped me to be more open to asking for and accepting help, and allowing myself to be imperfect.  In this way it also builds on my last output which was about my zone 0, or my internal processes.

 

Report

 

Introduction 

In this report I will share my process of becoming a permaculture teacher.  I will take you through my journey so far, step-by-step, explaining what I did, why, and what I learned from it.  You will see that although I have made a lot of progress toward my goal, I am still a beginner.  This process is neither easy nor fast.  Like a tree in a forest garden, it takes years to grow and mature, making all the beneficial connections with its neighbors and reaching its full potential.  I am still a seedling, reaching for the sky.

With my previous outputs, I found I needed to spend more time designing my output before I start writing.  Although my first output was on design, I am realizing that it takes a lot of practice, and I am still learning to be an effective designer.  

For this output I began with setting goals.  I wanted to write this output on my process of becoming a permaculture teacher because I thought analyzing it would be helpful not only for myself but also for others. My goals for Output #5:

•    My output clarifies and improves my process of becoming a permaculture teacher.

•    My output is a useful tool for others who aspire to teach permaculture.

With my goals clearly articulated for my output, I first made several different mind maps and then used that to make several different outlines.  From those I made a final outline, which I also modified several times.  Although my design for becoming a teacher was not necessarily conscious from the start, I organized my sections into a design framework for the purpose of this report.  This helps me understand and relay my process more effectively.  

I filled in points that I wanted to touch on in each section, and then began filling in the sections, starting with the specification.  In college I learned to write my specification last for my scientific papers, because it is in essence a summary of the paper, but I found that by having a crystal clear vision of what I wanted to cover in my output, it was no problem to write the specification first.

I also chose to use a story-telling style in this output instead of a more technical style because I felt like I was sharing my story of the process.  I wanted to make it more entertaining so that it might be read and enjoyed by more people.  This also made it much easier to write.

 

Step 1: Decide you want to become a permaculture teacher. (Articulate your goals)

I never set out to become a teacher.  When all my friends were doing substitute teaching to make ends meet after college, I steered clear.  The thought of standing up in front of students and being the "expert" is frightening.  I began my journey from my meta-level goal of having a diverse and successful business that makes a positive difference in my community.  When Matt and I first started our business we put "permaculture" on our business cards as one of the things our company did, but nobody seemed to know what permaculture was.  I realized that a part of being at the forefront of any movement is educating people about that movement.  There were no permaculture leaders or teachers here in Anchorage, or even in all of Alaska.  If I wanted people to know about it and learn about it, then I was going to have to get over my fear of staring into expectant faces and start teaching.

I'm not sure when I actually admitted to myself that I wanted to become a permaculture teacher.  I had visions and plans to hold workshops long before I set the goal of becoming a teacher.  I think it was in a conversation with my advisor, Jennifer, that I finally realized that was what I had to do.  When I finally set that goal, I set in motion the rest of the process.

 

Step 2:  Evaluate your needs and resources.  (Analysis and assessment)

I moved into the analysis and assessment phase by doing some research about my community.  Who else was doing permaculture in Anchorage?  No one.  The nearest permaculture teachers or designers were in Washington.  This meant the field was wide open but there were no local mentors for me.  I did find, however, that there were a lot of people interested in permaculture and eager to learn more.  

I also researched what the requirements are for becoming a permaculture teacher.  This is not cut and dry, and depends very much on who you ask and what you want to do.  Bill Mollison himself encouraged all graduates of PDC courses to go out and start teaching right away, and yet Tagari, the organization that grew directly out of his work, states that you need a diploma of permaculture design and to be on their teacher register in order to be considered a bona-fide teacher. Apparently it has become a divisive subject among the lead permaculturists between those that want to regulate it and those that want to keep it open.  In the US it has remained more open, and although there aren't formal hoops you have to jump through, you still have to build your teaching ability and your credibility by learning from experienced teachers.   It makes sense that new PDC graduates are not teaching new PDC courses by themselves, but there is a lot of grey area in between.  There is no established pathway, or a moment when you are deemed a teacher.  I suppose this is more realistic because everyone is different, learns at different rates, and comes to permaculture with different skills and experiences.  Some people have more drive to learn on their own or better access to a mentor.

I evaluated my own skills and learning needs.  On the positive side, I was good at and liked working with people.  I had some experience leading groups and public speaking.  I had been learning about permaculture for about 8 years, and had gotten my PDC certification 5 years previously.  On the flip side, I did not have a lot of practical hands-on experience with permaculture.  And I had a fear of teaching.  I wasn't even sure what I needed to know to become a good teacher.  I mean, people get college-level degrees in that.  Could I teach myself to become a teacher?  How does one even learn that?  And is a permaculture teacher different than any other kind of teacher?  

 

Step 3: Find a teacher that can help you meet those needs. (Design)

The one thing I kept running into on the web during my research was that it was highly recommended for aspiring teachers to take a permaculture teacher training course.  In fact, it was recommended to me personally that I take the teacher training being offered in February in upstate New York by Dave Jacke and Ethan Roland.  I knew Ethan from my Gaia University orientation and I really wanted to go, but it wasn't adding up in my head.  Between the costs of the course, airfare, transportation, and lost wages, the course was going to cost something like $8,000. How many workshops would I have to teach before I earned that back?  I would be an indentured servant to permaculture.  Permaculture isn't about laying out a ton of money.  You can't buy your spot as a teacher.  Permaculture teaches us to use small and slow solutions.  

Meanwhile there was a discussion on the Gaia University forum about that model of education, of action learning in your own community.  There was also a group of people who practiced a certain method called the Art of Mentoring and wanted to integrate this into the Gaia toolbox.  I'm not even sure what the Art of Mentoring is, but it got me thinking that if I was basing my entire masters degree on long-distance mentoring, that certainly I should be able to find someone who could mentor me to be a permaculture teacher long-distance.

It seemed like a logical solution to ask Ethan to be my mentor since I already knew him and he was already teaching other teachers.  I was very lucky that he said "yes," even though I was still not very clear about what I wanted or needed to get from him.  In the future I would be certain that both the mentor and the mentoree was clear about their roles.  In our situation it worked out, but I can see where that would not always be the case.

Ethan was very excited about pioneering this model of teacher training and had the idea that we should document this process for replication.  This is one of the reasons why I felt it was important to write this output.  Additionally, we have also created a working document on Google Docs, which allows us to edit the document simultaneously while we are talking on the phone or through Skype.  This document has become a record of everything we have done, and I have included it in the appendix of this output.

We agreed to meet every few weeks for an hour, and that I would pay him for his time.  Instead of being collaborators and working toward a common goal, he was helping me to achieve my goal.  At first it was a bit like enrolling in a class.  He asked me to buy a textbook (Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke) and gave me some simple assignments with tangible deadlines.  I was comforted by the structure and familiar learning style.  I have always been good at textbook learning.  Read, regurgitate.  I felt this sense of relief, he was there to help me and I didn't have to figure everything out for myself.  He would just teach me what I needed to know and then I would become a permaculture teacher.  

 

Step 4:  Design a teaching event (Design)

Ethan guided me through the design process to work out what I wanted to teach and when.  Then we went through the design process for the workshops.  Then we went through the design process for the workshops again.  I thought I already knew how to design, it seems like such a simple thing, and I have been working really hard on it with all my outputs so far.  I was a neophyte.  I would watch Ethan do a bit of the design, and it seemed forthright, and then I would try to do it and get stuck. 

My first big learning was that it is ok to be a beginner.  It takes a lot of practice to be a good designer.  I have never done this before, and making mistakes is how I learn.  This realization opened me up to accept the guidance that Ethan was offering.

I set some dates for my workshops and made up some fliers, and there was no turning back.  I set clear and concise goals, I analyzed and assessed, I designed and re-designed my outline.  I started to make a power-point but my laptop went in the shop and I couldn't find a projector so I made a hand-out instead.  I blatantly disregarded Ethan's advice to have visuals and to practice before hand.  

Despite all this, I felt reasonably prepared for my Introduction to Permaculture Workshop. I had spent a lot of time thinking about and designing this workshop.  I spent all day writing out what I was going to say.  I had a few activities planned to help the time go by faster.  It was only 90 minutes long, what could go wrong?

 

Step 5: Teach something (Implementation)

When I stood up in front of my white board and looked out into the sea of faces (all seven of them), my words got all tangled up.  I jumped ahead in my speech and lost my place.  It was like telling the punch-line in a joke first and then trying to fill in the first part.  With only seven people the activities went way to fast.  I had no choice but to end early.  Luckily, I told people about the other hands-on workshops I was offering, which began a bit of a discussion about sheet mulching and extended it a bit longer.  I don't think anyone was disappointed, but I felt a bit disappointed in myself that all my preparation did not show through.  

 

Step 6: Evaluate

After the workshop I took the evening off and socialized with some friends, but I woke up at five in the morning thinking of all the things I could have done better.  I should have put my talk back into outline form and used that instead of the whole written out talk.  Or better yet, a power point would have kept me on track AND kept everyone’s eyes off of me.  And of course I should have practiced…it just feels so silly when you are going through it, but it really would have helped.  And I would have seen that I had simplified my talk too much and would get through it too fast.

Right away I recognized that I did not give myself enough time between the two workshops to process and implement what I learned.   I underestimated how much I would learn in that first workshop and that it might be really useful in the day-long garden design workshop.  I had one day to get myself together, somewhere between watching the sun rise while reflecting in my learning journal and dinner with some friends that evening, I needed to redesign my workshop, get some handouts together, and make some food (I had promised a homemede lunch at my workshop.)

 

Step 7: Re-design your teaching event (Design)

I decided from what I learned in my first workshop that I needed a strong outline for the day... a really clear idea of what concepts I wanted to focus on, and what I wanted to have the participants do.  Ironically, the subject I had chosen for this six-hour workshop was "design."  I already had come to the realization that I didn't know how to design.  Even better, I had been trying to design my garden for two years, and somehow I thought we could do it as a group in one afternoon.  But the subject turned out to be a good thing, because as I was preparing my outline, I read in Edible Forest Gardens, "We cannot teach you how to design.  You have to discover your design process for yourself."  

I had read it before (when Ethan assigned me to read that chapter), but it had not struck me the way it did that morning, in my stressed out state, when I realized that it was not my job to teach people how to design, but to give them tools and guidance so that they could discover the process for themselves.  I was not to teach the way a professor does, imparting factual information to a sleepy auditorium.  I was to facilitate their learning process in the exact same way that Ethan was facilitating mine. In fact, I was so completely wrong when I felt like I was enrolling in a course.  It wasn't Ethan's job to teach me how to be a teacher, it was up to me to discover it within myself.  There is a Buddhist proverb that says, "It takes a finger to point to the moon, but woe to the person who mistakes the finger for the moon."  Ethan is pointing me in the right direction, but I have to see it for myself.

 

Step 8:  Teach something else (Implementation)

At 9:50am I returned from the copy shop with my handouts.  At 10am, the participants for the Garden Design workshop gathered in the driveway, chatting. Finally I went outside and decided to go ahead and give them a little site tour since they were all excited to see what I had going on.  They wanted to know about everything... what layers did I use in my sheet mulch, how did I make my cold frame, what trees did I plant... it was almost 11 by the time everyone got inside and sat down with their tea.  How could I be already an hour behind?  I passed out the handouts, took a deep breath, and started talking.  

I followed my outline, using examples and stories to illustrate my points.  People asked questions and I knew the answers... this was going much better!  Lunchtime came way too fast, but that was also a success.  People could hardly stop talking to eat, but they raved about the chili and pumpkin cookies I made.  After lunch we had some activities outside, and when we got back inside the energy was really high.  There was not enough time to finish everything we wanted to do, and the participants asked if we could resume another time.  They liked it!

 

Step 9: Evaluate

I journaled, I wrote pros and cons on my outline, and I wrote an e-mail to Ethan.  I had a lot more positive things to say this time, but I still saw a lot of room for improvement as well.  I would try to simplify my outline a little bit, try to concentrate on just a few things, and get my point across on those things.  Do more activities, and be more concise with the directions for the activities.  Allow time for questions and to follow people's interests, but also stay on topic.  Make note of hot topics for future workshops.

 

Step 10: Repeat Steps 7-9 indefinitely.

I have two more workshops scheduled one month from the first two, another introductory talk and then a day-long garden implementation.  I feel pretty confident that I can make them both better with what I have learned so far.  My laptop is coming out of the shop today and I will get to work on the power point, right after I re-design my outline.  I have some great ideas on handouts for the garden implementation. 

I also know my next workshops will still not be perfect and that I will need to keep improving my teaching and facilitation.  I am still a beginner and that is ok.  I don’t think the process of becoming a permaculture teacher is ever really finished. Just like a design is never finished because we can always increase the yield, we can always become better teachers.  

 

7. Conclusion

Looking back on this process has been very helpful to see the progress I have made.  Having survived my first two workshops, I am really looking forward to doing more.  I am becoming a better designer, little by little.  Even with writing this output, I spent more time designing it than writing it, and it has resulted in a much smoother, more coherent output with a lot less struggle.

Although each person aspiring to become a permaculture teacher will have to follow their own process and come to their own realizations, I hope that reading about my process will help them discover their own path.  Maybe even seeing the steps that I took and how they relate to the design cycle will help them design their own learning experience better.  Who knows, someday I might be the teacher’s teacher, guiding people down this very path.

How to Plan a Simple Wedding

For all you would-be brides and bridegrooms out there who want a simple, elegant affair, I have a few suggestions for you. Once you set the date, be sure to take on some other sort of major time commitment, such as graduate school or starting a new business... or both! This will assure that you don't spend too much time making it more complicated than it needs to be. Don't worry, you can fit a lot of planning in between 9 and 9:15 am Sunday mornings. Then, go ahead and invite all your long-lost relatives from across the globe. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after all! While you're at it, invite all your old baby-sitters and your parents friends. Be sure to plan it during the busiest time of year so that guests have a lot of things to do while they are here. And it is always fun to have it in another town other than where you live, so that not only will guests from out-of-town have to find a place to stay, but everyone will! Don't worry, there will be plenty of high-class housing in that quaint, eclectic fishing village. Don't bother planning activities for all those out-of-town guests, just trust that it will all work out. You can make all your invitations for cheap, unless you choose to try something you've never done before, like block-printing, that requires a substantial investment of money for supplies and time to learn how to do it. Get a friend to help you with the food, they can cook for 120 people and they won't flake on you if they are truly your friend. If you want to use local food and flowers be sure to plan your wedding for late in the summer so things are actually available. If you make your own wine be sure it is palatable. Then, when it gets closer to the date, start thinking about all the projects you can do to spruce up the house before your entire extended family comes to see it. You don't want to show them a dump, after all! Outdoor weddings are lovely and cheaper than renting a big hall, don't worry, if it rains it is lucky! Oh, and be sure to have your mother make your dress. Just because she was finishing your prom dress minutes before your date arrived doesn't mean the same will happen with your wedding. If you start thinking about it 6 months before what could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned for more helpful hints on how to have a simple, stress-free wedding!

Invest in Me, invest in Yourself!

The world is turning upside down before our very eyes. Most of us are able to go on quietly with our lives, thankful that we have our jobs, our houses, and our health. But all around us there are signs of the coming change. The stock market bombed, Bernie made-off with the rest of our savings, and our tax money is being funneled right into the pockets of the bank executives. Is there anywhere safe to put our money? Even if we hide it under our bed, inflation will dwindle our savings faster than the mouse can eat it. The dollar is strong right now because the whole WORLD is in trouble, and for some reason they trust the US. But only until they realize that we are in worse shape than they are. We have to change our strategies, and we have to change fast. We need to start putting our money in places we can believe in. We need to invest in our friends and our family and our community. We need to invest in local food and local energy before things get really bad. Form a solar co-op, join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and please, please, please move your money our of the big banks into a local credit union. Remember that even if you don't have large chunks of money to invest that you "invest" with every single dollar you spend. You can invest that money locally or shop at Wall-Mart and throw your money away. If you spend it locally, it will come back to you in some way. Your community will have greater depth and have more resillience to changes coming our way. And your neighbor will keep their job and their home and be able to feed themselves (hopefully) local food. Bon Appetite!

Never trust Google Maps. Matt and I are lost somewhere behind Big Lake. The road narrows, takes a turn, and narrows again. The sunlight filters through the trees, slightly melting the snowy road and turning it into an ice rink. This cannot be the way to Point MacKenzie... there is no way the farm trucks could negotiate this one-lane twisting road. We are looking for a place to turn around when we come to a four way intersection with a lone road sign... we are on the right road! So we keep going, deeper into the forest. Do people really farm out here? We haven't seen another soul for ages.

We are going to Point MacKenzie to check out a 300 acre dairy farm that is for sale. Not because we want to become dairy farmers, but because there are so few farms in Alaska, and we want to find a way to keep this one afloat. Alaskans get 98% of their food from out-of-state. Most of it comes from California or further and relies on fossil fuels to get here. If oil prices shoot up again, it won't be long before food prices are also sky high and we are paying $20 for a gallon of milk like they do in remote Alaskan communities right now.

Suddenly, the narrow road dumps us out onto a wide, plowed and sanded stretch of road. Ah-ha, we must have taken the scenic route! Somehow we find Holstien Road, where the farm is, but there are no addresses. Just a long straight open road with a few scattered farmhouses. We stop at one to ask directions. They must not get too many visitors. The dogs are going crazy, and the kids are cowering behind their mother as she gives us directions... "go back to the crossroads, take a left, it is about half a mile down on the right hand side. There is a big blue barn and cows everywhere, you can't miss it."

We finally pull into the driveway and park in front of the milking barn. We can see some cows in the barn beyond and a woman with some mini coolers is filling quarts from a big steel tank. The farmer drives down the long slick driveway from his house to come meet us. Gareth spills out of his truck and introduces himself, the woman from the cow-share program collecting milk, and his brother who helps him with the farm. We go up to the house first and he introduces us to his wife and two little girls. They sit us down and feed us brownies and fresh milk. Neither Matt nor I ever drink milk, but this milk is so delicious it makes my head spin.

Point MacKenzie sits across the Cook Inlet from Anchorage, and there has been multiple proposals to build a bridge connecting the two, driving up land prices. A few years ago Matanuska Maid, the state-run creamery folded amid lots of controversy and the farmers had no outlet for their milk. A private creamery was scrambling to come online, but meanwhile the cows still had to be milked, the mortgage had to be paid, and many of the farmers couldn't survive. The owner of this farm decided to go to greener pastures and move to Minnesota, where the dairy industry isn't quite so political or volitile. He sold his cows to Gareth and leased him the land. When Gareth took over the only outlet for his milk was a cow-share program in which people bought a share of a cow and recieved raw milk in return. That way they aren't actually purchasing raw milk, which is illegal. The cow-share program distributed milk from two cows, the rest of the milk from his herd of almost 100 cows he had to dump on his fields.

Gareth is showing us his hens and his pigs and telling us story after story about the ups and downs of just this one year he has been farming. He has formed a great relationship with the Wonderbread factory in town picking up their stale bread, but the moose tear up the hay bales he has put up. He is so passionate and wants to see this farm continue. He is one of only three dairy farms supplying milk to the new creamery. But the loan will default in June if the owner can't sell it. And it would be really difficult for a dairy farm to operate in Alaska with a mortgage as high as what the farmer needs to sell it for.

On the way home we take the fast road back to Wasilla and talk about all the ideas swimming in our heads. One option is to form a cooperative, with at least 100 people fronting the money for the dairy farm. But I know that if I invest $10, 000 I will want more than just milk as a return. So we need to diversify the farm, think outside the box. How amazing would it be to apply our permaculture principles and watch the yields multiply? With 100 people not only putting their money into it but also their energy and creativity. It could be the new model for farming. Everyone owns a share in their own farm and works together with the other owners to give them the yields they desire. Not only food, but education, building materials, wool, all the things that city dwellers can't provide for themselves.

Who's in?

Permaculture Guild

I reveal my intentions to the world and suddenly doors open. I could be looking for a car of a particular make, year and color, but no, I'm looking for a permaculture community. And wouldn't you know, I get an e-mail that a permaculture guild is forming right here in Anchorage, and they are looking for people to help form it. I jump in, head first. The people sitting around the table are a diverse group. Many are just curious about permaculture, a few have studied it extensively. But there is a palatable excitement in the room. They want workshops, a demonstration garden, and possibly a Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) course right here in Anchorage. I want to hold workshops, and create a demonstration garden, and help teach a PDC!

We meet next at my house. I make pumpkin cookies and soy chai, and my neighbor, Patrick brings chips and salsa. The group is smaller and more focused, and still very diverse. Allison wants to create a statewide network, Patrick wants to work at the neighborhood level. Libby is connected to and interested in politics. Terri still wants to organize a PDC. We decide that we can all head up our special projects, form subgroups, and support each other. It will be an informal group, with everyone finding their own niche, their own way to contribute to the common goals of learning about, practicing, and promoting permaculture. There is no hierarchy, we are all leaders.

I am amazed at the fluidity with which we come to these conclusions. But maybe that has something to do with permaculture. It helps us to see things in in different ways. Think outside the box. Make designs that are functional and encourage creativity instead of stifle it. I go to sleep and dream of the possibilities that have opened up to me because I opened up myself to the world.