Category: technology

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Make Your Career in Permaculture

Richard Telford made a career in Permaculture by putting his values and ethics into his work. He works with a “just do it” passion and commitment to meet the need.

What Richard Knows

Richard knows “You can create a career for yourself in permaculture using your previous experience. Most people have some kind of Interest or career before they get into Permaculture. And then, they have some kind of crisis point where they go “what am I doing?… This doesn’t align with my values!”.

And so, rather than dropping a career, embody principles and ethics into your whole being. So that, everything you do aligns with permaculture.

First Step

Find somebody who’s practicing what you’re interested in and work with them. Gradually try and embrace it. Incrementally improve the way that you do things.

Richard’s Career Path

Richard tells his story. “Well I was working in advertising as a graphic artist in the early 90s. And I built up my skills and a career in that over a number of years. And found that the people I was working with, and things I was doing really didn’t align with my values. So, I just decided to hit the road and go exploring.

Richard and his Kombi Van

So I bought an old Kombi – a 75 VW Kombie van. And hit the road traveling around Australia with a plan to travel around for a year. I did some freelance work. As I was going, I came across permaculture. I actually saw a sign on the road that said Permaculture with an arrow on it so I followed the sign and saw another one another one and ended up at Bill Mollison’s place [in Tyalgum]. And Bill was teaching at PDC at the time I poked my head in. He gave me a grumpy old look. So, I had a look around and went on my way. I think that started my journey of interest in permaculture and I continued traveling around Australia.

Richard with his restored Kombi

Travelling and building skills

The plan was to go for a year and it ended up taking me about five before I got back. But I got involved with the Rainbow gatherings up in Cairns. And some of the protests from there. That was really amazing. Because it showed me that if you really want something to happen you’ve got a put in. And do it yourself. It was also my first real experience of intentional community.

We travelled across in a convoy after the Rainbow gathering to Darwin. And got involved in some of the protesting up there at Jabiluka. And I discovered the book ‘Introduction of Permaculture ‘ by Reny and Bill. I started to see suburbia in a completely different way and asking “why aren’t we growing food in the streets?”

Darwin Jabiluka protest

Questioning Everything

In the Jabiluka protests and that was really questioning the way society exploited natural resources. And I produced a zine we called ‘Tribe’. It was the first time I’ve really using the skills to do something that I believed in. So, I continued traveling around Australia and ended up down in the southwest W.A. (Western Australia). I became involved in the protest to save Karri and Jarrah forests in the southwest.

Finding Connections

Northcilffe Western Australia Lane Forest Protest

I made a connection between the Jabiluka protest and the saving the old growth forests. I saw that it was all part of the same problem. And one thing that I really got from the protest was it was quite aggressive. Coming from the protest side it was very confronting to be telling the timber workers that they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing. There were lots of really full-on protests happening. Forest workers coming into the sites and bashing people and things. And I just didn’t want to get involved in that.

Action – The Tree Sit

I thought a tree sit would be a pretty safe way to to approach it. And it gave me a ‘ticket in’ to go for respite at Carter’s Road. So that was the beginning of a whole other journey at Carter’s Road Community.

Meeting Leaders

I met up with Jody Lane and Chris Lee and a bunch of other amazing Margaret River forest protesters. And the house that they’d set up as a respite for Forest protesting became an unintentional community. It was a permaculture-based unintentional permaculture community. I guess it had a dozen residents or so. There were a whole bunch of other people coming through the place fairly regularly. When I arrived the core members were about to go away for a Joanna Macy retreat. They needed somebody to look after the place while they were away. So, I offered to do that for two weeks and ended up staying there for about two years!

Mentors

During that time David Holmgren was traveling down the west coast. I was really curious who this other fella was. Because, I’d only heard of Bill. And so, I went out to meet and hear David speak. I offered for David, Oliver and Su to come over and see what we were doing at Carter’s Road (now called Fair Harvest). We showed them what we’d been working.

I let David know that I wanted to do work if he needed help with graphics, graphic artwork or design let me know. David told me that he was putting together a book about the principles and wanted some help to design the icons. So, that was the first permaculture project that I did – the Permaculture principal icons.

Driven by Passion

My passion is really around visual communication. And helping people get an understanding on different levels. So, you get initial sort of grasp of what something is and then you can go deeper and deeper if you so desire and that sort of aligns really well with with visual communication and the way an advertisement’s set up because, yeah, sort of grabbing someone’s attention and layering depth into that. After doing the icons I was interested in how do you present that information in a way that’s a bit more digestible to people because the the book was pretty hard going. I think for a lot of people – especially as an entry level book. It’s not really suitable.

Permaculture Principles website

Seeing the Need

At the time I was searching for how to find out more about permaculture and everything I found on the internet was really around people’s projects and farms and things like that it wasn’t really anything that just explained what permaculture was. So I looked at incorporating the icons and work that I did and the work that David did and the essence into a website which is the permaculture principles website.

In 2008 David Arnold was working to put together the permaculture calendar. It was all about the same kind of thing – helping people get an understanding of what the design principles were. So, we worked together on developing the calendar. And have merged the calendar in with the website over the years the principal’s website. Initially it was really just sort of a summary of the principles and ethics. I worked with David and Su’s son Oliver Holmgren on a upgrade to the site and we started to develop a store for the Holmgren Design website. I was selling books from under my bed!

https://au.permacultureprinciples.com/product/retrosuburbia/

Achieving Goals

When RetroSuburbia came out, that’s when the business sort of really took off. So, we started employing others. We’ve got Christine Cahusac handling all of the sales and we’ve been developing the distribution side of the business for selling primarily David’s books but also other permaculture self-published books. And I’ve also been involved working with David and Su in producing doing the artwork for RetroSuburbia – quite a number of their titles.

https://au.permacultureprinciples.com/product/earth-restorers-guide-to-permaculture/

Earth Restorers Guide to Permaculture is the latest book – the most recent one that I was involved with. I worked with Emma O’Dell who now works with us as well. She handled the artwork but I was sort of directing that with her. So it’s managed to tie together all of my interests really particularly the RetroSuburbia project because the house that I’ve built here in Seymour – Abdallah House is one of the featured case studies in the book and lots of the things that I’ve been doing are in that book. It helps to tell my story. I’ve managed to do the artwork. And now, I’m distributing and selling. And it’s the whole box and dice in that book for me!

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The Late Phillip Gall – Integrators

spoof on Da Vinci Venturian Man

The late Phil Gall was one of the great integrators. He grew up in Tasmania in the 1950s and passed away mid-2023. He was a skilled architect of buildings and landscapes. And he was part of a generation of sharing people who built a knowledge and experience in Permaculture, Keyline, and Biodynamics.

In a conversation with Richard Telford (permacultureprinciples.com) he talks about how his generation were integrators. Phil Gall was proud that his generation shared ideas and collaborated. They questioned things, did the scientific tests, adapted, reflected and become resilient.

Phil said: “I introduced Bill Mollison to P.A. Yeomans one day”. [At first], “they refused to talk to each other. Alex Podolinsky (1925-2019) then said Bah! about Permaculture and Bill said Bah! about Biodynamics. And it took a generation of David Holmgren (I’m a bit older than David) to integrate ideas. We are the integrators for Yeomans, Podolinsky, Peter Bennett and Mollison.”

The late Phil Gall

After a Grand Vision, Careful Trials and Adaption Begin

Because “the visionaries were solo flyers that take no prisoners and have a single-minded focus thinkers on so, no one deters them from their mission. They can’t be persuaded and dilute their vision. And that’s fine, I think, when there’s a need for that and that passion and that single mindedness.”

Visionaries Need Integrators

Phil goes on to point out “beyond that it came for a time for application and adapting it on scale, adapting in different climates and integration. “

“So, for my generation it’s all about that. We would experiment saying “let’s use mineral fertilizers, let’s see what this about the magnetic benefits and different types of Rock Dust. Yeah, that’s interesting! And let’s use Soil- tests appropriately. And let’s not just take the fertilizer companies people advice on how much NPK you need. We said, we shouldn’t being doing it in the first place!”

the multitasked ganesha keeps everything for the current task ready at hand

“We can encourage the soil to naturally release fertility to the plants. “And so, we went back to some of the old-fashioned, medieval and European ideas. Which biodynamics (also) borrows from the ancient traditions. Permaculture borrows from ancient traditions and tribal ways of doing things”.

Phil continued to point out “Permaculture offers a design method philosophy, a way of consciously creating landscapes and using the traditional techniques. And not just being bound by tradition but actually picking and choosing”.

How Does Permaculture Use Integration?

In nature, there is a complex web of relationships. We can copy this our designs by creating useful connections between the components. David Holmgren summarized this as integrating rather than segregating.

Firstly, we analyse some of the major components in the design such as the waste system, a growing area or a processing area such as a kitchen. Then we determine which outputs can become useful inputs for another component. And we find ways to make those connections. For instance, waste from the food preparation area can go directly to a worm farm, then the waste from the worm farm goes directly to a growing area.

The end goal is to create opportunities within your Permaculture Design for the components to have their needs met by another component through a beneficial connection. The permaculture design eventually creates a web of functional connections.

We can use a simple method of connecting the elements with considered placement of cards. Each card contains a analysis of an element. This approach makes the creation of functional links between elements easier. It is almost as simple as playing dominos.

An integrated Chicken house where the animal waste falls to the compost worms, the water flows to a pot.

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Integrated Technology 7000 yrs+

a Chinese kang uses small twigs to cook food and heat the bed

Rocket Stove Powering On

Get Hot Chow With Low Costs

Rocket stoves are super efficient. All you need is a bundle of sticks or dried cobs to cook dinner for the whole family.  Best of all, this fuel is easy to find. There’s no need to chop down trees or burn fossil fuel.

Last month we went on a great adventure shaoying from shaoyingtours.comstaying in an ancient village in the Shandong province of north-eastern China. We went with fellow Australian, Shoaying. She grew up in rural China and has expertise in Permaculture and Environment Management.

Shoaying is patient, knowledgeable, well-organised and fun. We were keen to see early stove technology known as the Kang.  April and Shaoying on Mulberry Island - shaoyingtours.comOur Permaculture courses demonstrate the use of integrated technologies such as a hybrid Rocket stove.

According to research at Tongji University, “The Chinese Kang is an ancient integrated home system for cooking, sleeping, domestic heating and ventilation. It is still widely used today in nearly 85% of rural homes in northern China. In 2004, there were 67 million Kangs used by 175 million people.”

Archeologists have found Kangs from 7,000 years ago. The Kang is still cooking, heating, drying herbs and garments and ventilating millions of homes everyday.  Ingeniously, the flue of the stove fans out underneath the big family bed in the next room before rising up a chimney in the next wall.  The warmth must be a joy when it is snowing outside and fuel is low.

Unfortunately, the Chinese Kang is in slow decline due to intense urbanisation. Given that each household uses approximately 4kg of poor quality fuel, a small city of a million people would need to bring in 4,000 tonnes of fuel each day and dispose or reuse the ash. This would incur a transportation and network cost. Not to mention the need to redesign existing urban buildings to incorporate chimneys.

However, more efficient rocket-stoves are growing in popularity in other rural and sub-urban areas of the world.

Ancient Rocket Stove Technology hasn't changed much - shaoyingtours.com

What Is A Rocket Stove?

Essentially, a Rocket Stove has well-engineered air flow, there is a J bend to the chimney and  good insulation to increase combustion temperatures. The hottest spot in a rocket stove is not at the flame, it is a little further up where the gases get fully party. As a result, the gases burn off furiously, whipping around in circles before they go up the chimney. A modern rocket stove sounds like a primitive turbo. To get this effect, it has a very good air intake and an elbow in the chimney. The fuel sits on a grate letting the air rush up from underneath. The combustion chamber is underneath the cookplate. In many other wood stoves, a lot of the heat flies away up the chimney.  The rocket stove intensifies the burn then concentrates energy directly at the pan.

Today, science is building toward a standard for the term ‘Rocket’ stove.  Because there is a tiny-sized, yet big difference between a modern Rocket stove [or Rocket-mass heater] the ancient Kang.  The modern Rocket stove has an insulated post-combustion chamber (technical term for a space between the flametips and the cookplate). This chamber intensifies the burn and reduces potential pollutants.  In addition to this technical development, a moving cowl would increase the Venturi effect of the chimney.

Insulation Builds Intensification

Insulation in a firebox is vital for conserving energy. As a result, the outer area of the stove stays cool. Only the flue heats up. In well insulated stoves, the energy is concentrated on the cook-top.  In China, locally made mud-straw bricks surround their stoves.  Sand or ash in the mud-brick can ensure even higher insulation-rates.  The Kang utilises the residual chimney heat. The chimney gases travel from the cooktop through the wall and fan out along a set of tunnels under the bed in the next room, then up a chimney on the next wall. Unlike the insulated stove, the bed has plenty of thermal mass, and the mattress is thin. So, the bed is toasty warm up by the time the dishes are washed.

Stove Fuel Resourcefulness

dumplings on rocket stove - shaoyingtours.com

Fuel is easy to find for the stove. For instance, most people burn a bundle of prunings from local orchards or stalks from the corn and wheat fields. In addition to these, dried corncobs  (after the juicy kernels have been removed) combust very well.  Each house has a collection of little bundles of sticks at their door and sunning on the roof.   Corn husks (the papery outer layer) are a convenient, easy, biodegradable material. Perfect to wrap the dumplings.  Also, rinsing and drying the wrappers enables easy re-use. Finally, these used wrappers become great starter-fuel for the stove.

steamed buns from rocket stove - shaoyingtours.com

Northern Chinese Kang Stoves are very adaptable. You can cook fish or soup at the bottom of the giant wok and stick corn cakes to the sloping sides. Alternatively, you can use water in the base and insert a grid at half way up to steam foods like the dumplings. The video shows how to make glass noodles.  Rocket Stove cuisine of Northern China doesn’t bake or grill foods. In summary, closed cook-pans with quick cook times are more efficient.

At the end of the day, home-made Mooncakes taste wonderful when steam-baked on a kang stove, the traditional way.

By the way, we have a
Permaculture Design Weekend Course – Nov17th and Nov18th
come and join us!

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Self-Reliance Not Self-Sufficiency

difference between self-reliance and self-sufficiency

Self-Reliance Is Empowering

Permaculture is not about self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is not as simple as the idealised ‘GOOD LIFE’ TV series in the 70’s by BBC.  It is full of long lonely days, repetitive hard work, and constant risk of starvation and disease.

If, however, you are looking for a lifestyle that connects you with nature and your neighbours, boost your Self-Reliance.

Self-reliance stimulates local production by giving, trading or sharing. Many people don’t realise what skills they have to trade. As a member of an informal trading organisation, some people offer cleaning fluids, dog biscuits, repairs. There are even systems with quick and easy exchange such a tables of free food plant harvests at the gate.

But, best of all, self-reliance enables us to care for the weak and the elderly. This strengthens community connections, improves our mental and physical health. And, as a community, we pool efforts to improve our environment.

Value your Community and They Will Value You

Permaculture promotes a sense of community because it is built on ethics: Care of People, the Planet and Fair Share. Caring for People invites us to build better communities. Then, with consultation with our community we can design adaptable community spaces. Both physical and invisible can be designed for adaptability. The physical structures for adaptability include social hubs, educational and recreational areas. Supporting this, are hidden structures such as trading centres, banking systems and news exchange facilities.

A Supercharged Design

winter harvest_cropped

When working for self-reliance, we design for whole ‘villages’ not just individual households. So, this increases the efficiency of the waste cycles. Resources (physical, intellectual, social) are more immediate and usable. As a result, the cycle of local production and disposal of the waste are tightly connected.

Self Reliance Grows By Sharing city-farm-sharing

Frequent exchanges on a small scale requires very little planning. As a result, a busy community has quick means for sharing, trading and lending resources. ‘Hand-me-downs’ are passed on as needed. Harvests and meals are easily shared. Also, valuable and timely knowledge is offered informally.

As a result of informal trading features of this ‘informal’ economy is that the consumer and producer get to meet. They tend to be kind to one another. Particularly, in his free e-book, Permaculture Strategy for the South African Villages Terry Leahy explores the power of the gift economy. In general, the gift economy fulfils the permaculture principle of ‘working where it counts’. And secondly, it can expand our circle of influence.

Self Reliance builds Self Esteem

Due to economic pressures and modern machinery, many farmers work in isolation with heavy budget pressures.  On a large property, farming is time-consuming, lonely and destructive. In contrast to this, small holdings can be highly productive and rewarding. This works especially well when the local community supports local food production directly through farmers markets. Given that Rural suicide is significantly higher than urban, healthy relationships are the key to survival. When farmers need assistance (psychological, medical and veterinary services) help needs to be close at hand. So,enriching the community bonds through localised trade helps to our social network and build bridges of understanding.

Owning a large property is huge responsibility

ladies-morning-meeting-in-glasshouse-market-garden

Because large properties have heavy maintenance requirements and the cost of neglect increases the risk of disasters such as fire, a community management team can help share this responsibility. So,owners can combine resources for tree loping, noxious weeds control, soil erosion management, water pollution filtration, and emergency response.

Elders adopt the ‘benefactor’ model

Self reliant elders

There is also opportunity for inter-generational learning where elders share their productive skills whilst mentoring young people. So, the sharing of resources, skills and know-how begins to create a closer-knit community. Also, it reduces waste.

Specifically, this ‘benefactor’ model works well for Polyface farms and many other rural communities. As a result, a succession of skilled people in a specialist field is ensured.

Permaculture values people as much as our environment.

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