Permaculture

Moving day is getting closer and closer, and all I can think about is how much I want it to be here now. It sucks sitting in an empty apartment full of boxes, just waiting for the day to come. If Calgary taught us one thing, it's that the city is just not for us. Don't get me wrong, I like having access to pretty much anything I can think of, but it really feels like it's sucking the soul out of both Evan and myself.

Now I'm going to share my ultimate dream-life-goal with you. One day, I want to live completely independently of any outside resources, on a piece of land where everything is hand built by me. I want to learn how to make everything I use, and never buy anything. I don't want to have a career, because I don't believe in only doing one thing for a whole lifetime. Who thought of that?!!! Ideally, we'll be able to produce enough to sell and pay our taxes, and won't need anything else. One of my fellow hippy friends shared the idea of a gift economy with me - one where nobody holds on to more than they need. When you have an excess, you give it away, and when you are in need, it will be given to you. Why doesn't this exist?!

Hippy communes aside, permaculture is a seriously awesome and simple idea that doesn't require you to go completely off the grid to utilize the benefits. It's a method of design whereby sustainable practises are used, and modelled after natural ecosystems. Nothing is just plunked down somewhere without having a reason for being there. The goal within a permaculture system is not only to have a net zero energy cycle, but to actually come out with a net positive. Think about how many modern inventions are more than 100% efficient... Still thinking? Every time the human race comes up with a new piece of technology, a new set of problems comes along with it. We're so busy thinking about how we can create new gadgets to solve the problem, that we don't realize that the original change was the problem. We keep telling ourselves we need things. That is the problem.

One important (and really cool) element of permaculture is the swale. A swale is like a ditch, except instead of existing to drain water, swales are dug level to capture and harness water. Swales allow you to grow plants needing little to no irrigation, using water that would normally be lost to the ground. In Jordan, one of the most inhospitable places in the world for agriculture, where nearly everything is grown in a greenhouse, swales were used to effectively revegetate the desert. Amazing!

Check out the video!

If we only put some thought into our actions as a species and took action on those thoughts, we could really make a huge difference.

Thanks for reading!

-Brett