Soil Blocks

I've been using soil block to start seedlings.  For those who aren't familiar, it's a block of compressed soil with a divot in the top that you put a seed.  The advantage is mainly that the roots of the seedling grow to the exposed sides and than wait to be popped in the ground.  as opposed to other methods where roots either have to grow through something (peat pots, or newspaper)  or are cut (large trays of soil).  The down side is that because of the exposed sides they dry out and need to be watered frequently, especially in full sun.   

Mixing compost and peat about 3:1






Make a nice muddy mix

Early March: still a little cold in the greenhouse for starts 

I've just been using the 2" x 4 version that I bought and a 4" x 1 version that I made.  For some strange reason the former cost $30 while the later would've cost $120.  So I made my own out of some scrap metal that work well enough.

a current state of affairs

Here we are dear friends and readers, 2011.  6 years into the peak oil crisis, still pumping just as fast as we can, whilst cogs and bearing are daily being flung off of the machines that run our modern lives.  

This empire shudders, and millions panic in fear of a thing they don't understand.

Our state dismantles civil services at a faster pace, leaving us individuals to battle it out with the corporate people on our own.

This is a good time for more action...

..earlier this winter I had backed my self into a corner.  I started a job that I thought was going to be great.  It was (I thought) going to provide an interesting challenge, more money(farm starting resources), and allow me to continue my transmogrification from cook to farmer.  However it required that bigger dreams be put on hold for yet another year.  I tried to calm myself because it was a safe way to slowly change into a farmer, but a need to act arose that was too powerful to set aside.  So I quit, and started making plans to start a intentional community.  

So this is a call to all those interested in permaculture, natural building, farming, gardening, living without money, DIY ethic; to the peak oil aware; to the dissatisfied and the dismayed, and to those ready to relate to their world in a different way.  Whether you are just interested in helping out for a day or you too are looking for a different way to live.  I'd like to share this thing that I am creating, with you.  I'd prefer to share it in the real world, but when that is not possible the internet will have to do. 

The following is my mission statement, and a basis for the community I envision:

Statement Of Intent
Or How I plan to do my part

 This farm will be place of healthy living and learning. A place where viable options for a sustainable life are tried, revised, and put to use reconnecting our isolated selves to earth.  As we create a space that meets our physical needs and is nurturing to the mind and spirit, we discard old habits that have us acting as destructive and unwilling managers of an ecosystem.  We return to being an integral part of the ecosystem that provides our lives. This is as it should be.

Desired Farm conditions:

• All food is grown on the property. The end goal that it would come mostly from perennial forest garden, with “extras” coming from interwoven annual patches. While the forest garden is being established an annual garden will be the main source of food.
• As much as possible all other needs, (heat, clothing, money for taxes, etc) should be met by the farm. This is a boundary that will continuously be pushed, both in the sense of relearning lost skills, and in the sense of removing those thing in my life that are too energy intensive to ever be considered sustainable.  

Possible manifestations of the goal:

The ideals that drive this project are set in stone; the physical realities are still very much in flux. For many reasons I feel that South Hope could be, and is a fantastic location. However I realize that there are other considerations because I don't technically own any of the land yet. My current vision is of a 2 acre Forest Garden, encompassing the house and a few possible outbuildings in the immediate area, and in the future probably an addition to the house including some sort of barn. I will try to balance a respect for the people who own the land with my need to be active with these ideas.  
Some ideas I've had so far:

• Terracing or swales on the hill behind house
• Small water storage pond from feed from seasonal spring
• Barn with root cellar for winter storage
• Attached foundry and forge
• Living raft for vegetable and fish production
• “Four seasons” style cold frame green house
• Bucky Dome for food production before forest garden is fully yielding

How the Farm relates to the world:

• 
  True sustainability cannot be measured on the time scale that humans are generally are familiar with. This is part of why the word “sustainable” has come to mean “less of an impact then the conventional equivalent” The great law of the Iroquois states ”In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation” To me this is the idea that should be conveyed when using the word sustainability. The ultimate goal then would be to create a sustainable lifestyle.  
• This is to be a place where I can start to learn how to live without destroying the ground beneath my feet, where others are welcome to do the same, and/or to learn from my experiences.
• To encourage people to make lifestyle changes on their own by, spreading the information gained by experience, and creating a supportive community those difficult tasks.
  

Farm Establishment
The Forest garden will be established over the next ten years, with heaviest amounts of work being done the first few years.  Work will tend to be concentrated in the spring followed by maintenance through rest of year.  The garden will begin come into its own 8-10 years after start.  Early establishment will concentrate on major land moving (if needed) projects, tree plantings, and cover crops.  Aqua culture, cold frame, and Bucky dome projects are on a 'as the opportunity presents itself' basis.  Most likely these projects will happen in the 3-7 year range.  As they are no longer needed for food supply they will be dismantled and the site returned to nature (in better shape than found) or evolved into the expanding forest garden.  As the farm provides for more of personal needs a shift can be made where more time will be freed to spend working on the farm.  A personal goal to this end is to have retired from the workforce by the time I am 30.  Creating a garden that will yield more than what is needed by the farm will provide the opportunity for the farm to be economically sustaining.  Though a requirement of income generating project is that they add more to the soil than they take.  Income generation through craft is a more likely solution.


Basic approaches
• The main desired condition being that of a independent food source, food plants will be the main concentration, due consideration will be given to other characteristics of the plant so that harmful species are not introduced
• K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). Simple solutions often work best, and even better is to eliminate the cause of the problem in the first place. 
• In this civilization we have very little cultural memory, our gardening “traditions” are very new relatively speaking. While current traditions will be given due reverence, empirical knowledge will be valued above all else.


Motives
 How to put my motivation into words? The obvious answer is that I can't, the level of exaggeration required to pass a feeling along to the reader would render the words unbelievable. In comparison I have not been truly motivated in anything that I have thus far done.  
What I seek to do is something that I am simultaneously drawn, and pushed towards. A life without a carbon footprint, providing directly for my own needs, and spending the majority of my time outdoors working for myself, are all thing that draw me to do this. On the negative side I am  totally dissatisfied with the modern, distraction oriented lifestyle.  Also the way the world is dealing with climate change, peak oil, government incompetence, and blatant corruption, Add up to some serious objections.
We have reached a point in these issues where I have realized that I am no longer comfortable with effect minimizing actions.  how can a cleaner ski lifts be called“good for the environment” when everything about getting a free up a hill is damaging to the biosphere.  The same is true for everything that's called a "green" product. For many years now many people have been saying "in the future we will be do better"or"Technology will provide a fix for that."  It's time to realize that this is not true.  Because above all else we can count on distraction and inaction Climate change and peak oil are now questions of when and how quick of an effect they will have. It will be sooner rather than later.  Oil peaked in May of 2005 and we seem to be on the plateau, though is starting taking steps downward. 

These are the facts, off the top of my head, which I am working with:
• We live in a society where things are considered disposable, which is most untrue, everything we have is already on earth and can't go any place (with the obvious exception of the occasional spacecraft)
• The current prevailing lifestyle in this country (and the lifestyle that most people in the world strive towards) has and is having a huge negative effects on the climate of the planet.
• Oil production peaked in may of 2005 
• As excess oil supply is used up instead of turning to sensible option (using less energy, using alternative energies) the gut reaction of any governments that has the ability will be to fight, steal, and embargo their way into “energy security”
• Politicians are ultimately people, as such they are given to looking out for themselves first.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Just as it’s silly to expect them to do otherwise, just as it would be silly to trust them for that exact reason.
• The first world economy is based on continuous growth and thus has very limited and unhappy options for facing the physical reality of a finite world.
• All empires end
• Civilization itself is based upon a population density that grossly outweighs the carrying capacity for that given area. Thus civilization requires the importation of resources from other areas. This is NOT A SUSTAINABLE WAY TO LIVE. Meaning that it is a way of life that can not be sustained. This also means that every person in an industrial country still has slaves; we just don't have to look at them.

• The fact of these problems are rooted in physics and the laws of thermodynamics, as such they are subject to arguments e.g. "we can't go back."  Physics just doesn't care what you think. 

I have hope that I can live a life more closely in tune with my beliefs, a life as close to free as one can hope to get, that I can live working directly towards my immediate needs, and do away with all that I don’t truly need. To live this way would be to live knowing that I would have done my best to change the world in a positive way. I need to be free from this civilization, or to at the die trying. If I fail to reach my goal than at least I've given the next generation a good starting point. As I live now I am constantly and painfully aware that everyday everything that I do and use is in some way contributing to the destruction of a planet.  Historically planets have been important to all those who live on them. This knowledge is unrelenting and at the same time I find it absolutely necessary to me.  It is a very cold comfort, but I love it, because it reminds me that I alone am responsible for changing myself.
I am motivated by the scope of what I can do. I recognize that this project will require blood, sweat, flesh, and tears, and lots of it.  This will require me to give up many things that I currently enjoy from this culture.  For me there is much more to be gained than lost. I am being drawn away from this culture because I find that my fundamental beliefs are at odds with the majority. I believe that everything is connected. I reject the idea scientific idea that something can be singled out for study, or that effects have only a singular cause. I believe that when we live out a certain lifestyle there are both negative and positive effects, these are the direct result of that lifestyle. These effects are not always seen as being connected because they are happening in many different theaters simultaneously. I believe that because they are intrinsically connected to the whole lifestyle.  We cannot single out a condition that we find unsatisfactory, such as war, famine, or strife and expect to change it; without first changing the whole of our cultures. I do not hold anyone to the standards that I set for myself. We all need to find our own version of right and wrong. I only hope that you can understand it as my unique truth. I in return recognize that if there is any truth to be found anywhere we must each find it of our own fierce will. 

Good luck.

More posts coming soon....