Although our first year of PC internships(2011) went quite well at seven months, 2012 will see some adjustments. The PC Design course will be four months, mid-May to mid-September. This will allow for a full experience in the garden–seed sowing to harvest, as well as intensifying the permaculture study schedule.

The fee will be $1200. all inclusive, with half paid up front and half at the mid-way point. However one slices it up, the fee is relatively inexpensive, the idea being that your work(approx 20hrs week) around the farm, in the market garden, and at the Saturday farmer’s market will serve as trade against food and lodging(however, if you really want to do this and just can’t make the fee,there is some  flexibility…so contact me please). Our intention is to create a win/win situation: you get an intense four months of PC study, lots of real life hands on experience, lots of great food, good company, and a comfortable bed. We get our work done, projects accomplished, and a further year of experience and evolution for our permaculture teaching.

Our projects(each approached as a design solution) for 2012 vary from creating better drainage for certain areas, to small construction projects in and around the Longhouse(where we’ll be living). From goat care and milking, to carpentry, to earth plastering, to tincture and ferment making, you will have ample opportunities to learn new tools and new skills. Weekends will be free except for daily chores, but since we share these that’s not much. We will also take occasional field trips to other farms, and put on at least one workshop. More info will be forthcoming to those wishing to apply. To do so, write to Alex at alexdenicola(AT)hotmail.com

Please apply soon, as we’ll only be taking four or five folks. Thanks!

I’m delighted to report that our first year of an extended Permaculture Design Course via internships was quite successful. Running from mid-March to the first of October, we hosted five interns through late July and three to October, while one stayed into November to help out.  It has always been inspiring for me  to work with responsible, serious young people ; this group was always ready to learn and do whatever needed doing, and i feel  we all learned alot while getting much work done. From planting, tending, and harvesting for market, to hauling logs with the horse, to installing our cob floor, to a very well done design project(just to name a few)–2011 ends with a sense of appreciation by all. If you’re interested, please check out the intern blogs listed under that page to the right

 For me personally, the opportunity to be in community here, even though temporary, is perhaps what i appreciate most. Relationships, if we are willing to really listen, and reflect on ourselves honestly, are a crucible for learning and even perhaps transformation. And heaven knows we need transformation–and with that said we can look at the Occupy movement and feel that maybe, just maybe– we can turn the larger collective towards sanity. One description of sanity i heard and find inspiring to remember is that it is a basic allegiance to non-ego. Easier said than done of course, but there it is–and i dare say in complete alignment with permaculture’s prime directive–to take full responsibility for our personal existence, as well as the ethics of care for planet and people. To follow a path that guides us towards non-ego seems essential, and fortunately there is an abundance of guidance in the wisdom traditions . My intention for Motheroak is that we can integrate such guidance into our permaculture curriculum for those who choose to pursue it. Please see the page on internships for more on this. 

The weather pattern here this year has definitely been getting cooler and wetter, much wetter–just as climate models have predicted for this region. The impact on farming is huge: forcing later plantings in spring, more difficulty making hay & maturing certain crops, more molds all around, and in the long(and short) run, more soil compaction–just to name a few. And yet, given catastrophic weather events everywhere, the mainstream media seems to have solidified a taboo which prevents it from even uttering the words “climate change.”  This does not bode well for us, and adds weight to the imperative of designing for disaster–something we learned quite personally via our collapsed greenhouses(see Spring 2011 post). And then there are those lovely days,  when our planet, with all the serious problems we face,  seems so beautiful, and each moment a gift.

Functional and beautiful--reflecting light!

The photo above is the north wall of our common room–what you see is a design solution–a way to cover the wall, add thermal mass,increase light by reflection, and have a good time both learning and doing! Abundant yields indeed!

All in all 2011 was a rich year–the people, the plants,the animals, the projects, the food–literally much milk and honey–the designed site feeling natural and good. An abundance of dragon flies and frogs, of blossoms and tree growth, of opportunities for personal growth and learning–blessings all!

an alternative to money in the bank

 Our seven month internship program is coming around to the home stretch. We’ve just begun our design process on what is now the goat pasture–it’s almost a blank slate from a buildings point of view, and could stand many trees and some garden, so it should be interesting.

We’ve also recently installed a pole mounted photovoltaic array–six 185watt solar panels, easily swiveled towards the sun. The grid power will be retained for awhile since it’s currenty necessary to run our 220v well pump and cooler compressor. We’ll attempt to transition away from this in the next couple years, but design and construction take time….meanwhile, we’re enjoying our solar power via our 24v battery and inverter system. Our enthusiastic interns have also been firing up both the cob oven for weekly bread making(some of the wheat is ours and freshly ground)etc, and the rocket stove works really well for quick cooking projects. Still hooked into our little propane burners though, and using our electric kettles when the sun shines.

We’re currently evolving our internship/workshop pogram for next year, and will soon publish the details. Several folks have signed up already, so if you’re considering it you may not want to wait too much longer. Most likely it will be a four month program at more or less $300 permonth all inclusive

easily turned by hand

, with 30-40% of time spent on farm work and the market garden.

The greenhouses are now all repaired and functional–have been for over a month now, and the new winbreaks are complete–so some good news! The spring has been extremely cold and wet, but now with June we are having some warmer days and nights, and some of our outdoor annuals are beginning to grow faster.

We are seven at this point, the five interns–Andrew, Shamus and Vanessa, Kyle, and LolaJean, then myself and Louise in our new partnership. The permaculture studies have been going quite well, but less intensive at the moment as we are focussing our energies on getting the market gardens planted. The site itself is looking abundant with alot of healthy growth–and soon we hope to see the dragonflies again. We also just brought in two young steers to pasture through the season, and our two female ducks are egg setting. In addition we have a second draft horse, a Belgian, recently purchased by Anna, my oldest daughter, and together we are collaborating on the market crops. There is also Colleen, who is working directly with Anna as an assistant/ intern, and teaches yoga some evenings.

There is alot going on: evolution wise with how we wish to navigate into the future–an ongoing process for sure; with the dynamics of our group at work and in study, and with new plantings from chestnuts to collard greens. It’s also late in the evening, and tomorrow is market harvest day, so i need to scoot. Will try to get back here a little sooner next time!

Please be sure to visit Kyle’s blog for a ringside account of all the goings on!

www.downtoearthblog.ca

Alot of action at Motheroak Permaculture. We are now in our second week of our first season of permaculture internships with five keen and enthusiastic young people–so good news! We will shortly include links to their two blog sites, and hopefully some of them will write here as well. Look to the right for a new page titled “Internships,”which if it isn’t there now, will be soon.

So the greenhouses are soon to be rebuilt with adjacent windbreaks, and planted with our first round of early market crops. Clearly, with the integration of permaculture teaching time–the evolution of market gardening here will shift a bit. We’ll see what happens.

Still high winter here, and way overdue for an update. December brought very high winds–our greenhouses survived two significant windstorms and a mildish hurricane(Earl), but late in the month we experienced the worst i’ve ever seen here. Anna’s structure was close to 80-90% destroyed, my own attached greenhouse was a little over half wrecked, the nursery windows caved in, and some other damge too. Some of this was due to lack of upgrading and maintenance–mostly rotten boards giving way, but most of it could have been PREVENTED BY DESIGN!  A serious lesson for me! When the greenhouses survived the first storms more or less intact– i got complacent— MISTAKE! The lesson i’ve come away with is it(weather events in this case) certainly can, and probably will get worse–so design for events more destructive than any you’ve had before. In other words, design for disaster! Once we get the new windbreaks up, we’ll share the results.

January brought lots of snow, and now more again in Feb. About 3ft out there now–but we’re due for a little thaw later in the week.

Our intern quota is now full up! Although i’d had three in mind as a good number to start, five inspired young folks applied, and here we go. The plan is to complete the permaculture design course curriculum over seven months, as well as the market garden work. My feeling is that this allows us to devote much more time to studying the principles in depth, as well as having plenty of time to design and implement real projects. Since this will be our first year offering PC this way, it will be highly explorative for all of us! Much learning!

My intention is to let the interns share what they like here directly– and i dare say a new voice would be welcome! Meanwhile, a little more renovation has happened. Last summer i had the opportunity to rescue a like new finished oak floor(a crazy insurance company decision) from going to the landfill, and now a good portion is installed in the cobroom–one of our smaller ‘bedrooms.’ Perhaps some pics will follow later.

So the seeds have arrived, the planting calendar begun, the photovoltaic system is here waiting to be installed, and those greenhouses need repair, just for starters. Right now the bread is almost ready to come out of the oven, and i have one more good book to finish! See you in the spring.

Greetings once again! October is a lovely month here–lots of sun, cool nights, no bugs, and another bountiful harvest this year. Also it marks the completion of several more projects: the stone staircase in the glasshouse along with a new fig tree growing bed, the wonderful little rocket stove that cooks faster than our little propane one(once its going/takes minutes), and some more alder fences. It also marks the departure of interns Yanette and Nick, who contributed a great deal this season, and we wish them well! The new Seaport Market that we attend on saturday mornings is going strong as far as customers go, but it is still plagued with poor parking and overcrowding. Perhaps those problems will diminish as the operating plan develops further. Another piece of news is that Chad and Wendy, the couple that had intended on moving in and joining our co-0p, have decided to move on. Since my own feeling and experience indicate that ‘accomplishing’ the people part of the great change will be the most difficult part, this was not a surprising development. It is also best for all that it happened sooner rather than later. The proximate causes had to do with inadequate personal finances–the ultimate cause–who really knows?

Anyhow the place is in great shape going into winter. Plenty of firewood, ferments, rootcrops, and still plenty of greens growing both outside and in the growing frames. The milkgoat is almost dry, tho her milk freezes/ thaws with no diminishment, and their are two healthy and fattening steers yet out with abundant pasture, and there is plenty of dry hay in the barn. So as we watch the global and especially the USA economy continue to crumble–with ramifications for all of us, and the continued hi-tech strife and conflict and ongoing murders around our globe, we can count our blessings for what we have here. i for one don’t take them for granted–but thats another tale. Please check out our photos–there might be something new! Adios for now!

yikes, there's no buttons to push!

another project almost complete!

  In tribute to our mother oak tree–and indeed to all trees and mothers, we’ve selected our new name. With the property division established by Pam and alex in their divorce, Highland Farm will slip away as our given name. My daughter Anna has (she says) selected EarthFirst Farm  as the new name for Pam’s and her share. Anyhow, MotherOak Permaculture will be it for us, and we like it!!

Yes, things constantly change, and around here a lot of change is deliberate, and hopefully evolutionary! We are constantly adding to, refining, finishing(sort of), and tweaking our building and garden designs. Although much has been accomplished in the last 20 months, significant work remains–particularly with installing clay/adobe floors. The stone staircase construction in the glasshouse has begun(slow!), and soon we will install the first window in Wendy and Chad’s(our new community!) new room on the east end of the Longhouse.

Sometimes, given the busy-ness of market gardening, weather related timing pressures, and the many details of  “managing” this place, i find myself a little burned out. Slowing the pace is probably a wise solution….before something happens that forces it, no? today, the first sunday of august, is fresh and sunny and delightful, and the day is young! Chad is working on installing many more photos(there’s a lot of interesting things to see here ( one of my favs is the new food forest garden), and we will soon layout our prospects for next years internships. Thus far in our history, our helpers/ interns have always recieved some small stipend, but beginning 2011 our intention is that internships(max 3-4) will contribute marginally to our income. Very cheap compared to college/university, and i dare say one will come away(at the very least) with a much more practical sense of how things work! Stay tuned! Celebrate sanity! Cheerio

It’s been many months since our last posting–mostly because we are so busy with our design implementation, the market gardens, interns, new community members, and more. we will soon be creating a foto gallery, as well as invitations and criteria for future internships.

As the world seemingly continues burning/ sinking/ turning and travelling on, the need for the sane and simple solutions of permaculture only increase. the broad patterns as well as many details of our site design are now in place, and at only approx. 16 months old are working fine. we look forward to sharing and will install the fotos soon.  as for now, most of the pics are on “our newly installed design” page.  if you’d like to get in touch please email alex –the at is of course@– alexdenicolaathotmail.com

cheerio

Greetings for another winter season–update coming soon. see “our newly installed design” page for more photos.

passive solar heater & growing frame