If you're an optimist... - 864

Excerpt - Interview with Bill Mollison: Permaculture

Alan: Let's get back to permaculture. What's your current best definition of it?
Bill: You could say it's a rational man's approach to not shitting in his bed.
But if you're an optimist, you could say it's an attempt to actually create a Garden of Eden. Or, if you're a scientist, you could liken it to a miraculous wardrobe in which you can hang garments of any science or any art and find they're always harmonious with, and in relation to, that which is already hanging there. It's a framework that never ceases to move, but that will accept information from anywhere.
It's hard to get your mind around it - I can't. I guess I would know more about permaculture than most people, and I can't define it. It's multi-dimensional - chaos theory was inevitably involved in it from the beginning.
You see, if you're dealing with an assembly of biological systems, you can bring the things together, but you can't connect them. We don't have any power of creation - we have only the power of assembly. So you just stand there and watch things connect to each other, in some amazement actually. You start by doing something right, and you watch it get more right than you thought possible....


..."Then I sort of pulled out for a while in 1972 - I cut a hole in the bush, built a barn and a house and planted a garden - gave up on humanity. I was disgusted with the stupidity of the University, the research institutions, the whole thing.
When the idea of permaculture came to me, it was like a shift in the brain, and suddenly I couldn't write it down fast enough. Once you've said to yourself, "But I'm not using my physics in my house," or "I'm not using my ecology in my garden, I've never applied it to what I do," it's like something physical moves inside your brain. Suddenly you say, "If I did apply what I know to how I live, that would be miraculous!" Then the whole thing unrolls like one great carpet. Undo one knot, and the whole thing just rolls downhill."

Source - Complete Interview : http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Mollison.htm

Additional Links / Research - Building your own Oasis
Permaculture in Austria with Sepp Holzer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHkFG21mtcI

Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution - An Interview with Bill Mollison
http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/mollison.html

2,000 Year Old Food Forest in Morocco with Geoff Lawton
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=E5120F998378156892BA39C1F9AE5F45

7 Food Forests in 7 Minutes with Geoff Lawton
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=33B3A51230BB04745756E3E88DFA81FC


God Bless and Good Growing,

~ antbrother

Compassion - 845

We had a great church service tonight in the jail and there were a lot of testimonies.  Both the inmates and the visitors are going through many challenges in their lives and because this church family is so close knit, we bring those things to others as a witness to what God is doing in the situation.  Encouragement for one another, directed prayer, laying on of hands, and anointing with oil are the natural things that come forth when we are in one accord, and when our compassion for one another is greater than our own concerns.  This is a changed heart that many described and one that we shared with each other.  God changes our hearts from cold stone to soft flesh.  Compassion for others is a result. 

We now get to keep our eyes open to watch the great I AM change things for good. 



God Bless You,

~ ab

Go To The Ant - 844

Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain,
Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.

Cocoons, Rocket Stove Research, and Other Natural Systems - 807.2011

Cocoons, now there is a natural system.  A system of rebirth, one of transformation from crawling to flying.  i wonder sometimes if the caterpillar ever gets depressed wondering if he will ever get out of this cocoon.  Do such thoughts ever enter into your mind or maybe that is just how we feel at times.  Will we ever get out of this constraining bondage, these closed in walls?  The cocoon as a natural system really doesn't care what the contents think or feel.  It is there, created by it's occupant to protect and sustain a process of transformation, a process of change, one that the caterpillar must go through and one we often have to go through ourselves.  The difficult time is in the bondage and times of walking through the valley.  Sure is quiet.  The time of rebirth and regeneration comes after one emerges from the cocoon.  Instead of crawling, it is a time to fly.  i also remember that we often create our own cocoons or walls in order to separate ourselves.  Time to ponder, reflect and hope for the future.
  One of the interests i have had over the years (pondering) is to research and learn the simpler ways, old technologies, time-tested methods, and this has sparked a renewed interest in researching additional pieces to a puzzle.  My love for good masonry and the fireplace as the hearth of the home lead me to find a European fireplace called a masonry heater.  Lately i've looked into simpler variations on this, something the common man may be able to build and afford.  The rocket mass heater surfaced and the many varieties of use were only as limited as the immense body of imagination out there.  Really amazing to see what people around the world are doing to survive and live with the basics, the inventive nature is very alive.  Several well outfitted, well financed examples of homesteading exist, but i have witnessed that many of the simplest solutions are the most elegant and easy to maintain. 
 i've had my head in various research on energy and natural systems, permaculture and wood gasification.  Real broad variety of sites and videos leads me to realize that there is a huge move in people to already be living a life different from where they once were and who they used to be.  There is a better way and a simpler life, within this beautiful creation, just open your eyes and watch it work, then borrow the beauty and truth of the natural system.  Permaculture is the best current description, with a pioneer Spirit guiding this new movement.
  There are the complex, expensive solutions, but my eye was always drawn back to naturally sustaining systems.  It was a real eye opener to see working examples of people helping the soil by rebuilding it and increasing the wormbed, organic matter, etc., the results are a whole host of changes in the natural system.  Grasses, weeds and trees find a fertile soil, birds and beneficial insects return, and what was initially planted takes a home in the naturalized landscape.  You help the soil and it returns the favor, ten to one hundred fold.  Creation of natural swales on a slope allow the rainwater to percolate into the layers as it drains into the hill rather than washing over it.  Building up the organic matter on these hills creates vistas of planting beds and the water allows the process of garden making to begin.  Makes me want to dig more, continue growing the compost and organic base.
  Beyond the land i am also looking back into a greenhouse that will morph out of and into some type of structure.  i've always seen this garden house as a hybrid of multiple natural systems and technologies and there may be one possible outlet to actually build something now that the idea is pretty ripe.

There is an amazing garden in a couple places that show what is possible with a little property and an insanity and love of growing, innovating, and making a whole lot out of a small lot.

One great example is from my hometown, Milwaukee, WI .  Growing Power 
Will Allen, Founder of Growing Power 

Path to Freedom Urban Homestead - Pasadena, CA

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and May God Bless You and Your Family,

love,  ~ antbrother

The Ways of The White Man - 757.1

  Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house.  They told me it was a bank, and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back, with interest.
  We are Indians, and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them, with interest, and our hearts feel good.  Our way of giving is our bank.

Maquinna

Nootka Chief

 Native American Wisdom

The Solution to the Economic Collapse - Oasis 11.11.11 - 757

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
      That there may be food in My house,
      And try Me now in this,”
      Says the LORD of hosts,

      “ If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
      And pour out for you such blessing
      That there will not be room enough to receive it.
       “ And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
      So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
      Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”
      Says the LORD of hosts;
       And all nations will call you blessed,
      For you will be a delightful land,”
      Says the LORD of hosts.

~ Malachi 3:10-12

The Season of Building and Planting - 750

These are pretty amazing times that we are living through.

  The last month has held additional changes and challenges and has made me focus back to past directions as to why i am where i am.  i had gone through much paper work, cleaning and making room while organizing the new tree house space, and i came across a birthday card my Mother has sent me last year.  She went to heaven this year and memories of her bring a smile, a tear, and continue to motivate me in walking this path in which God has placed me.


"Just Think.
You're here not by chance,
But by God's choosing.

His hand formed you and made you the person you are.
He compares you to no one else - You are one of a kind.
You lack nothing that His Grace can't give you.
He has allowed you to be here at this time in history
To fulfill His special purpose for this generation."
How thankful I am that He has allowed me to be here at the same time you are!"

The rest of the card is for me alone - thanks Mom, Much love to you too.

  This morning i was making the staple peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch and i had some Proverbs time which always provides the spiritual food for consideration during the day.  Today's message goes directly with this season of building and planting.

Proverbs 31:8-9
Open your mouth for the speechless,
In the cause of all who are appointed to die.
Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

...and as it is said of wisdom...

20
She extends her hands to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.


  Just what is needed in this time of upheavel and those changes that were part of the past campaign promises.  Unfortunately words cannot adequately describe the motivation that i've received in answer to prayer to keep me focused on His work.  As i've written a couple times, it is a season of building and planting for me and manifesting those things that have been put in my heart and mind.  i have fortunately been working with Stephan and enjoying the construction projects and hands on, as he too allows me the trust to take responsibility on more work. 
  One of the current jobs over the last month is a residence in Tupelo, MS that needed a solution for water problems in the basement.  The solution was excavating the foundation walls to the footings and installing drainage pipe and gravel fill.  The house also was never waterproofed at the foundation so i was awarded that messy  tar job...lol... see more trust to mop the right way and fill every single pore in that foundation wall.  The dirt had to be hauled out in five gallon buckets and the gravel had to hauled in with the same.  We have since moved inside and completed hardwood floors in the entire house, new trim, mirrors and base, as well as fixing a couple rotted thresholds.  The last part of this project brought us to the basement for tile work and new tile base.  It has been a great experience here and with a great variety of work.
  The next building and planting i am focusing on is how this experience can be used toward the prison ministry efforts.  i believe it is integral to helping both the poor and needy and teaching the paroles through building and planting.  We are beginning to search on a possible halfway house location near the Clay county jail and are beginning to talk to the county about this.  This is a natural extension of how to use those gifts for others and to reach out in that manner, one of action followed by words. 

  i'm off to check the garden and enjoy the sun shooting through the fog on  this beautiful day.  God Bless and Love as always,

~ antbrother