Howdy from Marin County, California! Before I dive into the next idea, I thought I'd share a few photos from the long ride out...
The trip out to California was absolutely beautiful. I've been wanting to take this trip for years, having missed the long trips I used to take with my dad around the whole of the western US, and since graduating in December '10, I've been longing for the sharp curves of the desert canyons, vast plains, and high mountain passes. The desert and the plains are a force to be reckoned with and somehow I've always felt very connected to the landscape there. Maybe it's the Edward Abbey inside me, a part of me longs for the solitude of the open road and the openness of the land and sky. But it's never empty. The desert is as rich and teeming with life as any biome, and it should be appreciated as such.
Wind turbines in western Wyoming. Wind power is thought to be one of the two actually viable renewable energy sources, the other of course being solar. Go wind!
The first day on the road, I met up with Annie and Sam at Antelope Island, an incredible expanse of land sitting in the shallow Salt Lake in Utah. It's only barely connected to the shore via a narrow causeway, but once I'd arrived, it was all endless meadows of tall sunflowers, the surrounding brine lakes, squawking seagulls, and even a roving bison to greet me as I pulled up to our campsite.
Tatanka!
The buffalo or bison totem represents many valuable assets within the human psyche. The most powerful at this moment in my life, is the ability of the buffalo to teach others, by example and action. Buffalo has the ability to bring positive change into your life, but not passively. Positive change, real change, requires action, initiative, honesty, and love.
Thanks LuAnne for passing on this info.
The view from our campsite at the edge of Bridger Bay Campgrounds.
A shot of Bridger Bay beach as the sun rose.
On my final stretch of road before arriving at Lindsey's in Marin, I was even able to stop off at Lake Tahoe, a first sighting in 24 years (that I remember).
On we go...
About four months ago, when my garden was just beginning to take off, I started seriously reading about permaculture. In the past three years, I had done some minor research here and there, but never truly dedicated myself. As I began more diligent study, our garden and the rest of the landscape around the house naturally began to show signs of certain methods used in permaculture. Around my birthday in June (gardening prime time) my mom and step dad bought me some books online, mainly Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Homescale Permaculture by Toben Hemenway and Permaculture: A Beginner’s Guide by Graham Burnett. As I got more and more into these books, as well as a few others, I began to long for more hands-on instruction in the field. Permaculture can be an overwhelming subject for some folks, but it doesn’t need to be. Almost as a constant, whether on a website or in a book, I’ve seen it defined using words like “relationships” or “linkages”. I think a basic grasp of ecology is extremely helpful for understanding the holistic nature of permaculture, but for those of us without a background in the sciences, it can simply be noticing the fundamental relationships between different components of a sustainable lifestyle. Think about reasons why you might want to grow your own food, drive less often, compost, or live in a greener home, it’s all fundamentally related to ecology and the inputs and outputs of the systems as a whole.
Initially, permaculture can be a difficult concept to understand because it encompasses such a wide range of topics. In Gaia’s Garden, Hemenway explains the complexity within the word’s meaning, ‘a contraction of both “permanent culture” and “permanent agriculture”’, the term was created by Bill Mollison, an Australian naturalist and teacher. To this day Mollison commits his life to spreading the lessons of permaculture and expanding on the constantly evolving ideas that it connects.
On Saturday, my class will begin and I’ll be joining Annie and Sam for the two-week intensive, where I’ll expect to be challenged and greatly rewarded. The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center is renowned for its programs. Offering classes like “Woodshop for Women”, “School Garden Teacher Training”, and “Starting and Sustaining Intentional Communities”, it has earned a strong and positive reputation among the growing community of individuals who seek to further educate themselves about ecological farming, community welfare, and personal growth. Even if you’re not interested in gardening, there is a lot to learn about within the network of permaculture. Maybe you want to build a sustainable home someday. Or you’re interested in the psychology pertaining to nature and our relationship to the environment. Permaculture is about humans and ecology, and will ultimately lead to the better and more sustainable survival of humans in their environment. We were meant to and are capable of adapting to the earth, and we should not continue to operate as if she were meant to adapt to us.
For more information about permaculture and other fun gardening and food related resources, check out some of the links below, as well as the OAEC website, a great source on its own. More to come very soon!
Awesome photos! Can't wait to read about your permaculture class.
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