I want to know why after years studying physics and chemistry all I can remember is what a rheostat does [dimmer switch technology] and how to change a plug.. oh yes, I also remember that Na = sodium and that sulphuric acid really burns!

I sat for years in a geography class listening to Miss Church droning on about the products and flora/fauna of faraway lands.. whilst being forced to take down all she said using a dip in pen and an inkwell.. no biros!  I remember that Hawick produces wool, and that was only because her Scottish pronunciation of the word was so amusing.

I spent years creating great masterpieces of essays only to find I had been downgraded because of crossings out and inkblots.  A fine way to encourage a budding author.

I was forced to memorise useless facts and wear a uniform that included lisle stockings, a boater hat and flannel knickers with a pocket for my hanky.  When I individualised my clothing I was called a rebel.

I worked beside people who were labelled as dumb because their academic abilities weren’t up to scratch.. and yet I have seen these same people go on to make great successes of their own lives, not because of but in spite of this so called privileged education.

This is what I call crap education.. and believe it or not, parents  paid good money to subject their kids to this rubbish.

I was very ‘clever’ in school [that means I could REMEMBER FACTS] and they had high hopes of me filling their expected quota of Oxbridge students.   I wanted to study psychology and they laughed at me.   Why?  Well, I represented the school’s worst nightmare.

On one hand I was a potentially great academic star for their portfolio but I did the minimum amount of work to get by [my reports often read A minus, can do better!].   On the other hand I was the ringleader of a group who smoked, played truant to sell and make wire jewellery in Russell Square, ran away from the games pitch, drank in the pub underage and hemmed my school skirt into a mini-skirt– we won’t talk about the drawing of graffiti in the metro and we certainly won’t talk about the hideous practical jokes we played on teachers.    For this I was labelled a rebel.

What if the school had looked at me for who I was.. instead of labelling me A- can do better, they could have praised me for my good results.. Instead of labelling me a rebel troublemaker, they could have focused on my individuality and my potential for leadership and entertainment.

Rebels make great leaders and motivators

Instead of dowmarking me for inkblots they should have seen through them to my eloquent words and nurtured me as a great writer…  They didn’t. They failed me miserably. I a lucky, I found a way to turn it round thanks to the many self growth programmes I have taken.   Many people don’t!

Learning how to live

So, Johnny what did you learn in school today…? How many of you have asked that question of your children and how many have been asked that themselves…

How many of us can reply, we learnt to be nice to each other or we learnt that together we are strong or we learnt that it is everyone’s basic right to have food shelter and education [we’ll come to what kind of education later!!]   Not a lot of us,  I suspect!

Schools spend far too much time teaching kids facts, history dates, chemistry symbols etc… This is crap education promoted and encouraged by generations of governments and compliant voters.

Schools place excessive value on academic achievement.  Parents, many of them ignorant themselves of what makes up good education, berate their kids for not passing exams and encourage them to swot, memorising fact after fact.

Some parents remember their own awful experiences at school and conspire with their kids to play truant.    Other parents despair because little Johnny likes to play football instead of studying yet when he tells them of his dreams to be another David Beckham or Joe Namath, they dash his hopes with tales of how so few succeed in a competitive world and advise him to buckle down and work for his exams so he might get a decent job with a pension in local government or a bank!    And most of the kids who don’t succeed academically, are discarded as no-hopers.

OK, I know that things are changing, but is it radical enough or soon enough.. and how many people are aware of the desperate need for a complete revision of the current education system?

It’s time for an alternative curriculum

Facts about anything and everything are freely available on the internet.  Kids can find out about anything that interests them if they are encourage do so.

Learning that Hitler is an evil man in history is not useful.  Being encouraged to discover that Hitler was helpless without all the people and governments who accepted and supported him in his philosophy, is far more useful..

Caitlin Moran, the prodigy child author who produced her first best seller at age 17 was removed from the formal education system by her parents.  Caitlin came from a large, blue collar, Irish family. Caitlin’s blessing was that her parents had radical ideas about education.  They filled the house with books and encouraged their children to discover for themselves, allowing them to develop their own natural talents.

Caitlin became an author, another sister became an expert on dinosaurs and each child found that special something inside.

“ Follow your fascinations and the money will appear” – Joseph Campbell

I was talking to a cab driver the other day who was worried about his daughter not performing at school  I asked him what she was good at.. he said, she likes to draw.   By the end of the journey, he said to me ‘You know you’ve made me think.  I ought to spend some time finding out what my daughter loves doing and what she’s good at and encourage her in that’.  I smiled at the thought of having made a difference somewhere…How many other parents are convinced their children will fail because they don’t rank high up in the academic achievement list.

How many schools, like mine, encourage people to go on to further education in the form of teachers training, because it is better than no further erducation and a second best for those that failed to get to university… I dread to think how many teachers out there are the product of the ‘well I studied for it, might as well use it’ syndrome.

I spent 10 years working as a secretary because I took a course ‘as a back up’, when I dropped out of University… I didn’t get to study psychology, didn’t try the Oxbridge exams [much despair an dhair wringing on the part of my teachers]..and I discovered that the study of English literature was not for me!

I was a lousy secretary and I suspect some of those teachers are just as lousy.   Whatever job you do it is vital that you are doing your lifework.. what is you.. and if you aren’t, you will feel the sense of being off kilter… many of us live with that for the rest of our lives.. how sad!  But it’s not too late for our kids..

So, I’m promoting the development of a blueprint for a radical new curriculum.. it excludes all factual learning and it was inspired by Neale Donald Walsh’s Conversations with God, Book 2 and the work I have been doing with Joseph Riggio around realising your personal myth and living from the space of who you are, completely.

Walsh asks these questions some of which I have modified and added comments to– you may want to consider them carefully?

Why do you spank children the moment they exit from the womb, wrapping them in blankets and keeping them from their mothers? Is this really the only way to get them to breathe.. I think not!   And why do they need to be cleaned up in preference to being placed on their mother’s belly while still attached… Why do women give birth upside down, against nature…and gravitiy.

Why do you allow some of your child’s earliest images to be exposure to violence..? The media is a powerful, influential, distorted and addictive force and  yet we allow it to babysit our kids.. If you were interviewing a nanny for this job and she told you her favourite books were murder mysteries and that her hobby was talking about death and violence, and that when her friends came round you could expect them to indulge in fist fights and stabbings…would you employ her.. I think not!  Yet you give the TV [purveyor of violence, crime, greed and anger] pride of place in your children’s education!

Why do you teach children to be ashamed of their bodies and their nakedness. As a child my parents were naturally naked around the house and I never remember my father covering himself in shame. Consequently I never had the experience of shock and horror at seeing a penis for the first time.

Why do you think children spend time in the playground exploring each other, maybe its because they’ve never seen another naked body.. who knows…Why do we teach children not to touch themselves and make them afraid of giving themselves pleasure.. What awful messages of shame are we passing on?

Why don’t you teach children about movement and music and the joy of art and the mystery of fairy tales and the wonder of life?

Why do you put kids in schools where competition is encouraged and there is an interminable race to be best be first and slower than average pace is barely tolerated.

Why don’t schools understand the gifts of ‘different’ brain wiring and dyslexic people who have become great architects, mechanics and artists, like the guy who carved detailed figures out of toothpicks, barely visible to the naked eye.. And how did he discover this talent?    Boredom led him to find something to do while the lessons passed him by.  He was lucky, he found value in his ‘disability’..

Dyslexics have an ability to visualize in 3d i.e look around corners in a way so-called normal people cannot.  That’s why my husband can put together stuff without measuring just from the feel of it.

Most dyslexics have no idea that they have unusual gifts around perspective.  Instead, they get shunted into ‘special classes’ and classed as learning disabled..And, yes, they are disabled in a society that places value on facts more than intuition, creativity and exploration.

Why don’t kids get to learn from the beginning about critical thinking, logic and evaluation, using their intuition rather than rules and memorised systems of a society which has already proven itself to be unable to live satisfactorily by these methods?

Walsh suggests that the new curriculum should have 3 core concepts.

Awareness, Honesty and Responsibility.  I’d add Curiosity and a Go for It Attitude as well as practical skills.   In addition they need to learn to read and use a computer so that they can explore facts for themselves.

New Paradigm Curriculum

Here are some of Walsh’s suggested courses

• Understanding Power
• Peaceful conflict resolution
• Loving relationships
• Function and interrelation of body mind and spirit
• How to learn
• Creativity and using it
• Joyous sexual expression
• Fairness, Compassion and Tolerance
• Awareness and responsibility
• Science and spirituality
• Ethical economics – trading, bartering, resource based economics

We need a Holistic Curriculum NOW

And we also need to teach practical skils for the new paradigm that is evolving.

Permaculture – how to grow perennial food plants symbiotically without pesticides or fertilizers incorporating useful animals and water catchment.

Natural building – creating homes and other structures from natural resource materials relevant to the area  e.g. Adobe in desert areas and Cob  [clay straw and sand] in other areas. Earthship homes are created out of discarded tyres filled with mud.

Herbal medicine – learning the healing and nutritional value of local herbs, and how to make tincture and powder medicines from plants, how to use plants in emergencies

Repurposing – learning how to create useful stuff from material that would normally be thrown away.

Basic Survival Skills – how to make a fire, how to cook on a woodstove, how to forate for edible plants, how to catch and cook wild game and so on.

Nutrition and Food Awareness – every person needs to know what crap is in which processed foods and how it can affect them. And they need to know what goodness is in natural foods and how to grow and prepare their own food so that they are not forced into dependence on the processed/junk food industries poisons.

Walsh points out that many of his suggested topics are already taught in the guise of Social Studies.   BUT it only takes up a minute percentage of the current curriculum. Walsh suggests it should BE the curriculum and I believe that it should also include the practical topics.

Once a kid has developed creativity and learnt how to learn, and a sense of the wonder of each individual, the world is their oyster.. if they want facts they are all out there on the internet, in books etc…

This is where NLP and associated ‘sciences’ come in useful.. Kids can be taught some of the skills of rapport, language, second positioning, pacing and leading, creativity processes, creating anchors for the good times, positive self talk, affirmations etc…

The Hero’s Journey – everyone’s path is unique

Joseph Riggio, my former mentor bases his work on, amongst many other philosophies and scientific, social, psychological, neurological studies,  Joseph Campbell’s study of mythology..and Roye Frazier’s Generative Imprint work.   Frazier believes that we all hold every experience somatically in our body.. and that we can relearn the ultimate state of being at our best.. and with guidance can learn to pinpoint it exactly, by making minute adjustments to our posture, line of sight etc..   This is the essence of the practical work I do with personal coaching clients.

Campbell says ““If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.”

When you learn to Do what is YOU, you will be happy.. BE who you truly are, follow your divine blueprint and it will all work out OK.

Campbell examines the common underlying theory  and structure of mythology all over the world.   It all follows the same pattern.  Campbell outlines this in what he calls the Hero’s Journey.  It goes like this.

We all hear a call to adventure, many of us ignore it because we have been taught to buckle down and accept our lot.  Get a sensible job rings in our ears, competing with the knocking.   Some of us never answer the call and die unhappy and unfulfilled.   The call is always about who you are asking to be heard.

When we do answer the call, it is because the knocking is so loud we are compelled.  At that point, a master teacher appears [remember that saying ‘when the student is ready the teacher appears].. then we begin our trials and throughout magic helpers come to us..

Finally we come through, find the elixir and take it back.. but of course we know that the elixir is not the holy grail, but one of many similar elixirs… and before we know it we are ready for the next call.. It takes courage, but once the leap of faith is made, and the intent is out there, the universe conspires to assist…

I like this because it works for me and I am currently experiencing my latest call to adventure…

Instead of teaching kids, “Life happens, struggle through because it isn’t fair but tough”,  we could teach them that Life Happens, What Next? If you can’t change something move on..   there is only living in the now then moving on..

Life is a journey and we are all unique so when we open ourselves and our kids out to that fact and teach them the values of harmonious living, and how to survive in an alternative system, we will truly be contributing to the evolution of the world through the evolution of each individual to their own greatness.   If we continue to teach them what hasn’t worked for us, we are not following the basic presuppositions of life.. If it doesn’t work, do something else..

My son the Surveyor – NOT

I had a client recently, a 21 year old student who came to see me ostensibly for flirting tips.  What he really wanted was to talk to someone about his dreams and desires.  He was studying to be a chartered surveyor which was a ‘follow in the footsteps’ of a respected step-father, a successful property developer.  And yet what he wanted to do was make a difference in the world.

His plan was to study and open his own company and give lots of money to charity.. When I worked with him, I uncovered that he didn’t really want to be a chartered surveyor, but felt that unless he had a ‘good job’ he couldn’t make a difference.. he equated money and charitable donations with the only way he could do it.

Once he had expanded from his tunnel vision he realised that he could not contribute to the world by doing work he hated.. and that he would have to seek other paths to follow his bliss… I love my work!

And so, when you ask each kid, how are you when you are at your best.. you will find a uniquely different answer. If being at their best means writing poetry and living with very little to do so, fine.

If being at their best means running a large business that gives people work fine, and if being at their best means travelling the world looking for fauna and flora fine .

AND if, like the lovely lady who sweeps the road in Hammersmith a London suburb, [she got the British Empire Medal for long service, so I took a chance meeting on the street to ‘interview her’] being at your best is just looking around and seeing that she has made a difference and feeling a pride in a street well swept – wonderful!

Let Your Children BE

Until we give children free rein to be themselves and provide an education system that fosters this fully, we will continue to produce generations of unhappy people locked into what other people think they ought to do, taking on beliefs and values that aren’t right for them… What a terrible thought…! I know, because I’ve been struggling to emerge for a long time.

It took me 50 odd years to travel my path, rewrite the old programmes, gain courage and attitude and create new programmes, to believe in me being me and to find my way… perhaps we can help the next generations of kids to find their bliss a little more quickly!!!

Sunny Soleil Sunny is a survivor of a crap education system . She is a writer, facilitator and coach. A Licensed trainer of NLP  and MythoSelf Process -tm Facilitator as well as a Licensed Strategic Attraction-tm coach.   a consummate networker.  Her passions are communication and linguistics, permaculture and a new kind of education system that teaches the skills of today – natural building, growing food forests, water conservation and catchment, repurposing, alternative healthcare prevention and sharing and caring with a focus on 7 generations into the future.

Sunny is writing a futuristic novel and developing, with her husband, Forest Gardener, a transition workshop  for urbanites who want to sample living communally and simply and learn some simple everyday creative survival skills.

To enquire about the following click the link

Transition Courses in Northern GA/Tennessee

or

Pathfinder life coaching with Sunny

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

Brownies know that we have to go beyond the ‘green’ concepts of water-saving flush toilets and store-bought organic fertilizers.    If you are going to ‘brown down’ and live the simple life, then creating a compost pile and building a composting toilet are a couple of the self-sustaining, organic methods of re-purposing waste into rich natural fertilizer for your veggie garden.

The indoor composting toilet

Here is a video from a composting toilet manufacturer.  It makes a great case for changing to a composting toilet.  You can buy the expensive one OR you can make your own using an RV porta-potty or wood, buckets, sawdust and more buckets.

Ingredients for a basic composting toilet

• A wooden flat top box with a hole cut in the top  [screw on a regular toilet seat for extra comfort]
• A bucket that fits under the wooden top.
• Sawdust – put 3 inches of sawdust in the bottom and then add an adequate amount of sawdust to cover the contents of the bucket each time you use it
• When bucket is full, remove, take into the garden, throw in a bit of soil, seal and leave or put it in a composting pit [dig a trench in the pit and then cover each 'dumping' with leaves or hay. In a year you'll have wonderful mulchy organism filled organic compost.
• Or you can dig a large hole in the ground and empty the bucket into it, covering it with soil or hay or old leaves and use that as a  rich growing patch for veggies after at least a year

The Forest Gardener Composting Toilet

Forest disappeared into the yard for an afternoon and the result was this

Everything, except the padded seat [$6 from the dreaded Wal-Mart] was found in a dumpster or stuff we had laying around. The wooden box and step up was made from wood we’d retrieved from the moldy cellar we cleaned out. One side ‘wall’ was a fold out door from an old RV and the other a piece of old trellis.  The fancy toilet roll holder was found in a dumpster.  Even the ‘reading material’ was a free give away.

As you can see from the picture above, the bucket is contained in one of those $4 lidded plastic storage boxes.  When you want to go, you slide out the brown box and take off the lid then slide it back in again.

At the back of the platform on which the bucet and container sits are wood blocks that keep the container in the right position.

The RV sliding ‘door’ wall is secured with wire attached to hooks screwed into the ceiling of the car port.

On the wooden platform where the seat is mounted, we have room for reading material and a small spray bottle of colloidal silver mixed with a drop or two of oil or oregano. This makes a great hand cleanser as opposed to chemical hand sanitizer.

One friend suggested having a plastic bottle of sweet and nasty soda and a small glass bowl. Empty a drop or two of the soda into the bowl and it will keep the flies occupied and away from the poop!!

The entire toilet can be broken down and stored in the RV should we have to take to the woods !

Toilet in the Woods

Friends of ours building a log home have gotten the camping lifestyle down to a fine art, including potty stuff.   Digging a toilet in the woods is respectful, natural and feeds the earth with our waste.

Their outdoor earth-based toilet’pit’,   is almost invisible such that it blends into the natural setting. Clue – look for the twig toilet paper stand crossing one of the tree shadows.  Our friends set up this gorgeous homely camping site to live in while they work on constructing the log/earth house.

Kitchen Composting

By the kitchen prep area we keep a 5 gallon bucket for the compost and a cardboard box full of sawdust and wood chippings from our wood cutting [we use a woodstove in winter for heating AND cooking].  Just like the pooper, I line the bin with the chippings and each time I throw something in, I sprinkle a handful or two of chippings onto it.  This stops the smells and also begins to compost the material before you throw it onto the main compost pile.

Composting – 4 ways to do it

If you are going to grow food in a garden, it makes sense to compost.    This concise article by Ernest Wilmington outlines four methods of composting.

There are four methods of composting. Hot, Cold, Sheet and Trench

Hot composting is the fastest. However, it is also the most labor intensive.

When hot composting all of your ingredients have to be ready to go at once. You start your heap by placing sticks or twigs on the ground. This is for air circulation. Next you pile about four inches of brown dry material. Then four inches of fresh green material.

You want you pile to be about 3 ft sq. and 3 ft. high. This can be done using some kind of a wire cage. While you are piling this material, you are wetting it as you go. When you pile is 3 ft. high, you need to cover it with heavy plastic or a blanket (or old piece of rug, etc).

After three days, check the temperature. When the pile reaches a least 140 degrees, its time to turn the pile. From now on you must turn the pile every other day until its finished, which is in about four weeks. This is the method that is used by commercial compost makers. Of course, they don’t turn by hand.

Cold composting. This is quite easy, but takes the longest. The plastic bins that are sold for making compost, uses this method. You simply toss all of you compostable material into the bin. After 6 months, lift the little door at the bottom and you have compost, all the while, you are still throwing stuff in the top.

Cardboard composting is used to create new garden bed or plot. Like hot composting, all of your ingredents must be ready at once.

Choose a site where you want to create a new bed. Cover the area with a couple of inches of newpaper or non-waxy cardboard.

Then pile on alternate layers of brown [leaves, coffee grounds, twigs, torn up cardboard and paper and green manure [fresh garden mowings, green leaves]  in layers of 2 – 4 inches each.

When you get to at least 18 inches, cover the pile with heavy duty black landscaping plastic cloth.

In six weeks, remove the plastic and you are ready to plant. Nothing else needs to be done.

Trench compost is simply burying your food waste and other compostable material in your garden. The earthworms will work on it and it will be gone in about a month. This is the easiest and best to get rid of household garbage that might otherwise smell in a regular pile.  Some composting gurus suggest that you can compost anything including meat and bones [which is what we do] and others say ‘no meat or dairy’.

Here’s another video on composting which has a good tip on starting the pile with crossed over branches to allow air pockets in the bottom.

Compost Tea

I got this recipe on my permaculture design course.   It’s really easy and makes a great addition to the garden.

Ingredients: 1 x 5 gallon bucket with lid.  A mesh bag.  Comfrey or Garden weeds, Yogurt liquid.

Recipe: Fill the  bucket water [put it out in a heavy rainfall and let it collect the water from nature].  Stuff the mesh bag with weeds or preferably, comfrey [it grows wild or you can cultivate it most anywhere].  Put a rubber band round the bag to close it off and put it into the water.  Pour in  the liquid from a large container of natural yogurt.  Seal the lid

Leave this for a couple of weeks and you have 3 – gallons of rich compost tea.  Water your plants with it once or twice a week.

It’s natural, way cheaper than ready-made plant food and it’s loving and kind to the planet.

Heirloom Seeds

And once you get your compost pile built, you’ll want to plant some really great organic heirloom seeds.   We love this company because they sell a vacuum sealed variety of seeds for every situation be it the single urban liver, a family of 4 or a larger homestead or farm. They also sell specialist packs such as medicinal herbs, tomatoes and tobacco!

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

 I am renewed with inspiration and ideas to begin to live in a self-sustaining and regenerative way that will save the earth and promote co-operation and love amongst communities.

Permaculture is one of those words that most people who don’t know might easily associate with gardening.  That’s a bit like associating spirituality with prayer.  It’s an important part but it isn’t the whole.

On the last day as we shared our gifts in a circle outside on Koinonia Community Farm, we were reminded that permaculture is more than just growing food ecologically.  It espouses a way of life, the principles of which relate not just to growing food, but to our very way of living and being.

Golden Learnings – a way forward

With 230 million acres of forest being decimated in the last 3 years, we must change the way we live.  As long as people are addicted to MacDonalds and the like, forest will continue to be slashed down to make way for grain to feed animals for human consumption.

The Sahara desert was once a lush forest.  

The concrete skyscrapers of New York stand on land that was once covered with diverse trees and plant life, home to a plethora of wildlife and harvest-able edibles.  

We humans are gifted with intelligence and cognition.  We have used these gifts to do many good things, but we forgot to put on the brake.  

Human magnificence has created the keyline plough that doesn’t compact but aerates the land and it has also developed agriculture row farming and chemical fertilizers /pesticides that quickly destroy the natural fertility of Earth.

Say no to chemical fertilizers and yes to pig/chicken poo, compost teas and mulching

The same spark of creativity that discovered fossil fuels in the ground and a way of harnessing it for human energy can now be converted and harnessed to discover ways of capturing and storing energy.

Say no to city water, the electricity grid and say yes to elemental power from sun, water, wind and earth [solar, hydro-electric, windmills and geo-thermal sources of energy]

The same genius that learned to build cities is now able to find creative ways of creating natural dwellings that can appeal to all tastes from simple cob huts to huge earthship systems [Actor Dennis Weaver was one of the first people to build an earthship on his land in the 70's].

Say no to cement and urbanite and yes to sand, clay, straw, bamboo and tire-based structures.

The same genius that discovered penicillin and created anti-inflammatory drugs is now beign redirected to developing herbal medicines, alternative wellness programs and miracles like colloidal silver.

Say no to big Pharma and yes to growing your own medicinal herbs and plants, learning to make medicines and practising and using wellness ways as found in yoga, tai-chi, acupuncture and shiatsu.

The mind power that learned how to store and process food from across the world for mass consumption can also be turned to growing food forests that offer an earth-friendly way of feeding humans coupled with old-timey ways of preserving produce that promotes wellness and doesn’t drive us into the arms of diabetes, heart disease and toxic poisoning.

Say no to mass cultivation and imports of foods that enlarge our clod-hopping carbon footprint.  Say yes to home grown, local produce that is still replete with valuable vitamins and minerals because we pick, eat and share it as soon as we harvest it.

The same intelligence that worked out how to clone and genetically engineer can also be put to divining natural patterns and learning to grow in a way that preserves Earth and makes her a richer, longer lasting source of bounty for all life.

Say no to ‘So not Man’ and yes to heirloom seeds, non GMO foods and the right for farmers to save and distribute their own seeds.

We cleverly developed microwave ovens, espresso machines,  gas powered BBQ systems and state of the art kitchen appliances and it is that same cleverness that will help us to develop resource conserving solar and cob ovens as well as woodstoves that can serve dually as a heat source and cooking facility.

Say no to microwaves, electrical kitchen gadgets and discover the joy of woodstove cooker, solar oven baking and open fire BBQ’s using deadwood from the forest.

The intelligent faculty that helped us invent plastic bowls and man-made fibres can also be turned to learning how to make tree bark baskets, weave natural cloth from animal wool, and eating utensils carved from wood [ecologically harvested to encourage not deter reforestation]

Say no to buying more man-made fibres and plastics, re-purpose what exists instead of land-filling it and say yes to natural ecologically harvested materials for clothing, furniture, cooking utensils and building.

It took a genius to develop suburbia and vast city living structures and that same genius is now being harnessed to create transition initiatives, bringing communities together to build shared resources, and begin the ‘energy descent’.

Say no to urban skyscrapers, isolated housing and road dependent urban sprawls and say yes to helping your community begin to pull together and become self-sustaining and regenerative.

Our greatest gift and that which sets us ‘above’ the animals is that of intelligent creativity and innovation.   That is why we are the designated stewards of this land we call Earth.   Animals and plants know how to live symbiotically and harmonically, accepting natural culling from predators and death to ensure renewal but they do not have an overall sense of the whole.  

We do and it is our birthright to ensure that every life form is taken care of and that we restore natural patterns of living that will ensure the eternal existence of this birthright.

A Native American said to me the other day, pointing to the land we were standing on, ‘This is MY land’ ‘You are standing on the land of my ancestors’.   My response was ‘this is neither your land nor mine. 

It is not a question of right but a question of right stewardship and native ancestry does not always mean that someone knows what is right.

The land has been leased to all humans and we all have a duty to tend it with the same outlook that came from the true spirit of Native Americans not the one corrupted by the white man.     We are all potential stewards not owners.   

Owning land privately should not mean that you can treat it any way you care.   Ownership comes with a hidden responsibility to care for it with the whole planet in mind, not just your selfish concerns.  

Selfish Manicured Lawns

Behind the 10 acres and house that we are renting lies hundreds of acres of neatly manicured non-productive land.   The owner has a massive mansion set in the hilltops, a guest house and a shooting lodge. 

The land has been deforested to create a parklike atmosphere.. and a pond is fed from the creek to house fish that are only avaialble to the few.     And they visit it no more than 3 times a year for an odd day or two.

Say no to manicuring and hoarding land for ego purposes and say yes to land-sharing and using the land to create food, ecological living space and a haven for all of gods creatures, plant, animal and human.

Share The Land

Pic by localfoodcleveland.org

If you own more than 20 acres, you probably have far more than you need and are able to farm and nurture holistically without damaging that land.  If this is the case, please consider sharing your land with those who are willing to work for the good of Earth first and create a pleasant, productive, ecological space for humans, animals and plants to thrive and feed each other in reciprocal generosity.

Find out how land trusts can be written to ensure your lifetime stewardship and provide a measure of security for those who are willing to put their life toil into the land.

If you are on Facebook please join our Share The Land group or pass on this blog or link to people you know who have land and are willing to share or those who are willliing to work and need land on which to homestead and build local co-operative community.

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

As you can imagine,  I was not looking forward to having to make a scale map of a 500 plus acre farm as part of my team permaculture project.   

 Handy Body Measurements

As we sat down to a session on map making given by Dylan, another of the dedicated assistant trainers on this amazing 2 week permaculture course,  my automatic psychological ‘numbers escape mechanism’ was activated and my eyes started to close. But not for long.  It’s amazing how learning just meanders in when you’re having fun.

Instead of being confounded by trigonometry and calculations I found myself learning how to measure using my bodies.   I discovered that the space between the top and second knuckle on my pinkie finger measures roughly 1 inch.   My arm span is 5′7 and when I stand up straight and raise my right hand, it measures 7′2″.  Wow, I’m a living ruler.   

One of the ‘design principles’ of permaculture is ‘use appropriate technologies’. This means finding tools and technologies that liberate us from dependency.  It doesn’t mean that we have to throw away our tractor or computer and build a road with a shovel and a pen and paper.  

Modern technological tools can be really useful and whilst we still have the electricity and fuel to power them and they are utilized for the greater purpose we should.  A chainsaw can help us build a log home quickly, and when the fuel runs out, we can learn to use a cross saw just like the participants in Frontier House did.

If we’re creating a food forest garden that will eventually feed hundreds of people, it’s perfectly ethical to do what it takes to set it in motion, using big and techie tools in the beginning and then moving onto more ecological innovative, simpler methods.

And what could be more ecological and simpler than using our bodies as measuring instruments?    If you don’t have your tape measure or one of those digital laser things that need batteries and are liable to break down [as was my experience years ago when the realtor reduced the size of my living room by 6ft because his fancy digital measure was on the blink] relax, because as long as you’ve got all your limbs, and a willing friend, you can still take pretty accurate measurements.

In that spirit, we step outside into the crisp sunny afternoon to watch the intrepid Dylan demonstrate how to measure 100 ft using our paces.  

He marks out a 100ft path and places two flags at either end. Starting at the first flag, we walk to the furthest one and back again at a regular leisurely pace counting up each time we put the same foot on the ground again.   Average out the two and I now know that twenty of my leisurely paces are equal to 100ft.    It’s so simple I want to cry!

A few minutes later, Patricia prances onto the grass waving a round protractor with a string dangling from it with a pen attached to the end of the string.  She shows us how we can measure the angle of rise of a distant object by holding the protractor to our eyeline and tilting it to meet the top of the object we’re measuring.   The string moves round the protractor to reveal the angle.   Doh!

And if you’re going to build a road, you’ve got to know the angle of elevation so that you can calculate how to wind the road round so that the rise is not too steep.    Yes, I did say ‘build a road’.

Little Old Lady Road Building

After Patricia’s presentation on road building yesterday, as someone whose home improvement skills were limited to what I could do with a hammer and a box of nails,  I had a big grin on my face as I thought to myself  ‘ohmygosh, I actually know how to build a road’ 

Patricia remarked to me on the way out of her road building presentation, with a twinkle  in her sparkly green eyes,  ’If a little old lady can build a road, anyone can’. 

Back out on the lawn, Dylan took us through our paces again.  This time we were learning how to measure  the distance across a creek by using nothing more than our hand, eyeline and the foot of a friendly partner.  This is of course vital if we want to know how long a tree we must cut down to make a bridge across the water.   I am beginning to feel more than a little empowered!

This course is peppered with all kinds of fascinating  tricks and tips for doing things simply and innovatively and in particular gardening.

Make-do Gardening Tips

Chuck Marsh’s gardening tips are unmissable.  This man has 35 years experience of permaculture and he must have tried every trick in the book.   

If you are thinking of throwing away that old mattress forget it.   You can turn it into a garden by placing it on top of a piece of old plastic sandwiched between two layers of old carpet and a bit of straw.  Poke a few holes in the top, shove in some seeds, water it and hey presto.. you’ve got a raised garden bed.

And instead of forking out $9.99 for one of those fancy tomato hangers [as we did in our ignorance] you can make one out of a couple of plastic store bags and some old chicken wire with a bit of scrap material scraps wrapped around it to stop light degradation [Bob added in that bit].

Old tires, which generally end up being burned are an amazing re-purposing resource.  Slice off the top, shove in some soil and a bit of manure and you’ve got an urban container planter.   Short of space?  Plant some tall growing field corn and a little later, shove in some beans which with a little bit of encouragement from you will grow quite happily up the stem of the corn. 

Chuck advised urban gardeners to carry a poking stick around with them… and each time they see a bit of earth, poke a hole in the ground and shove in some seeds.   He told us how he got his landlord to plant a couple of apple trees in his garden which fed the homeless with nutritous organic snacks.   The trees were conveniently located along the route from the homeless shelter to the liqor store!!!

If you’ve got some old windows [and there's plentiful discard of old windows as more and more of those who can afford it sling out their old ones in favor of energy saving sealed units] and a bale of straw you’ve got the makings of a greenhouse.  

Stick the bale of straw on its side, stuff in some manure or mulch on top, pour water into the bale until it’s saturated, shove in some seeds and lean a window up against it.   On top you can raise the hardier green leafy stuff while using the space between the angle of the window and the straw bale as a kind of make do hothouse.

If you think you can’t because you don’t have any space, we heard today from one participant about the abundant gardens being raised by New Yorkers in tiny apartments using a 3′ by 4′ window and vertical spacing.  ANYONE can grow food.   There are even portable plastic sprouters that provide high quality, portable nutrition that can be grown in  two or three days in the back of your rucksack.  

If you want to find out more, there are oodles of books appearing on the market on the topic of guerrila gardening, dumpster diving and repurposing

Map Making Triumph

And as for mapping, my design team consisting of a retired lawyer, a refugee worker, a farmer and myself actually managed to draw out our map tonight using google earth and a calculator.  After hours of debate, hair tearing out and sleepless nights we finally did it.   

Next comes the good stuff.. planning out how to make an income yielding resource out of an intentional community farm that will not only feed the members of the community but also provide plenty of excess to share with friends and neighbors and be regenerative and self-sustaining for many years to come.

I can’t wait to get back home and put all this into action.. and already we’re thinking about how our newfound knowledge can really and truly help to put nutritious food in the mouths of the hungry and set up a food forest for the future.  

I’m hooked and I bow down to the wonderful people who’ve made it their life mission to take permaculture from a little known esoteric activity to being the potential answer to saving and healing this planet.   

Incidental Mushroom Foraging

And a special hurrah to Bob’s design team who found a huge clump of Lions Mane wild mushroom in a hole in a tree.    Looks like we’ll be eating exotic wild mushroom soup tomorrow alongside all the other amazing goodies our chefs are cooking up each day.

More Permaculture Info

There’s another of these courses planned in Atlanta this year… and I suspect it’ll sell out quickly. For more information check www.georgiapermaculture.com  and check Patricia Allison’s site for more permaculture events round the country.  http://www.patriciaallison.net/schedule.php.  Chuck Marsh teaches permaculture and also runs a medicinal plant nursery in NC.  http://www.usefulplants.org/

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

Oooh as a revolutionary activist at heart, that got me good and proper.  This morning was filled with profound statements and stories about permaculture, what it is and what it means to us…

Ask most people who aren’t overly familiar with it, they’ll probably tell you it’s about ‘gardening’ and it is. BUT that’s just the surface of this design for life on earth.

Permaculture is a spiritual practice. And I don’t mean that we sit and meditate underneath the canopy trees or worship at the altar of richly mulched soil.   

Permaculture is a design for ethical living and perhaps the only thing that will save this earth from the crap we’ve inflicted on it.   Patricia, one of our lead teachers, suggested we start to call her ‘Earth’ leaving out the ‘the’.  As she pointed out Earth is a living being and deserves to be recognized as such.   

Chuck, our lead teacher with Patricia, and a 35 year-long permaculture activist and passionata, described it as

“An ecological design system for creating regenerative human habitats’.  He said that when he heard politicians using the world ’sustainability’ he knew it was time to find a new word. Regenerative kind of works for me too.

One by one the teachers stood up and shared their definitions of this thing called permaculture. Each of them were obviously moved deeply by their passion.   I use the word passion a lot.  Passion for the earth, for the sanctity of human life drives these people and I can feel it welling in me as I sit there immersed in it.

Bob told us that yesterday he saw a tree on this land that he could hardly put his arms around. It was a tree that he planted here 20 years ago.    He’d tried living in different communities and somehow found himself back here in Georgia, homesteading 40 acres with his partner Isabel, because, as he put it, his mission was to ‘bring Permaculture to Georgia’.  I’m with you Bob…

Penryn talked of the land she’d inherited in Kentucky and how she’d realized that her mission was to bring this work to Kentucky….

A theme was developing that touched me deeply… we all have a duty to spread the word, at local level, no matter how tough the resistance.  That is what pioneers do… and in their own way, these people are all pioneers.  Again, I feel humbled to be part of this growing movement…

Another description that moved me was the idea of permaculture as a ‘design dance between people and the natural world’ an interaction of flow and motion rhythm, give and take.

Patricia described Permaculture as an ‘umbrella for all her spiritual beliefs’ and that echoed what my husband has been saying for years in reference to his love for the earth first manifest in the woeful cry of a twelve year old writing a poem about his beloved… His warcry is ‘It’s my religion’.   

That about sums it up.  Permaculture is the new religion.  Now I know that some people might consider this ’sacreligious’ but it makes sense to me.  Eons ago when the principle energy of the world was feminine, Gaia or mother earth was worshipped, adored and taken care of… and then the male energy came in and we entered a long period of earth rape.

I’m not getting at men… it’s just a way of describing the difference between softly treading and harshly marching… And now,I sense that this female energy is emerging again in both men AND women and we are finding a new way to honor Earth.

The big difference now is that we don’t have time to waste dancing naked in the woods and adoring the earth in ceremony, sweet as that may be.  This lady is dying and we gotta get down dirty and give her CPR.  

Which was exactly what we did today in the mulching exercise.  I knew I was in love when I got down on the ground and dug my hands eagerly into the pig manure to spread it on the garden.   There’s something so alive about touching her body… this lady we know as Earth.   She’s so responsive…

We were presented with two young peach trees which had grass growing a little around them.  Various heaps of material were piled up, in the same way professional chefs on TV have those little white bowls of ready chopped ingredients that they just pop into the mix.

First off we learned that turning the earth with tractors or even spades was an absolute no no. It compacts the earth…So all Bob did was stick a pitchfork in here and there to aerate it. 

After that we shovelled on a heap of pig and chicken poop mixed with a bit of straw and other dirt which we spread in a 10ft diameter circle around the little peach tree.  Then we stuck in some blueberries.  And I literally mean, stuck in.  Someone dug a spade into the ground, pulled back the sod and in went the yummy antioxidant cuttings…

After that we covered the entire circle with cardboard [all tape removed] and a discussion ensured about pure cardboard, chinese cardboard, soy printed paper and more… Bottom line is if people are starving a bit of chinese cardboard is better than none!  But we were going for the full on organic thing here so we used pure cardboard.   Every single gap was covered and double covered. This Bermuda Grass is a greedy blighter and will peek it’s head up through even the teeniest gap.

I realized that my rather half hearted effort to ‘mulch’ our bit of growing land was pretty inadequate.. sheets of cardboard and a scattering of yard mowings won’t cut the mustard here.  And our gratitude to the Deputy Sherrif [our neighbor] who cut and turned the land with his huge tractor is somewhat diminished.. but as they say ‘bless them for they know not what they do’ and the generous intention is well appreciated].

The cardboard was watered down and then some..

After that we shoved on heaps of straw, fully covering the cardboard.   Then we planted some irises around the circle of the tree, after Brendan, the lead gardener of the community, had placed some plastic pots around the base of the tree to protect it. 

We used knives, trowlels and whatever was on hand that would cut the cardboard.  Bob showed us how to make a slit in it and just laid the iris with its root on top.. after that, we just shovelled a little bit of soil starter to give it a booster. and tucked it up in a bed of straw.  

Bob reminded us to plant the annual foody stuff where we could reach it. Irises don’t have to be picked but taters and onions do! 

So here we have this little permaculture plot with a peach tree, blueberries and annual such as potatoes and onions.   Seed potatoes grown up North were used.  And we’re doing this in the beginning of February… Tthe temperature outside here in Southern Georgia was up in the late fifties and delightfully warm so God blessed our planting today.

A hole cut in the cardboard, the potato was simply laid on top and covered in straw. Bob assured us that it would be enjoying a period of growth while the cold was still with us and would give around 6 – 10 potatoes per one planted.   

The onions were planted in triangular form… we used green onions… and again a little hole dug, in the cardboard, pop in the onion, shove on some soil starter and spread the straw around it and finally we heaped piles of pecan shells onto the top. Because people come to visit here and like it to look nice, we also placed circles of bricks around the garden.  

A little part of me and all my fellow permaculturists in waiting will be left in this wonderful place.  Perhaps like Bob, we’ll return in twenty years and with tears in our eyes look at the little bit of garden that we were responsible for starting.  

I loved every moment of it, from picking up handfuls of piggy poop to spreading straw..digging holes in cardboard and putting in blueberries.   And as I remarked to one of our group… these things are like weeds down here yet we still pay $3.99 for a pathetic punnet that’s probably travelled a few hundred miles.  Not for long. 

Somehow everyone just mucked in and did their bit… There’s something so satisfying about getting down in the dirt.. and even more exciting for me was that I’d actually done something practical and that for many years down the line,  people will be eating luscious berries from those little shoots that we stuck in ground today.

After that we engaged in the planting of a number of yummy foodstuffs in our stomachs.. including the hog that was slaughtered this week.  Quinoa pilaff, broccoli and cheese, I can’t even remember what we ate only that it was downright divine…Of course Earthy Girl is pretty versed in giving her lovers a great time!!!

The afternoon was taken up with patterns, led by Zev who talked earlier about how nature’s cuisine is different everywhere populated by species that want to be there.   I thought about my husband and his affinity with patterns and wished he could have been there to see it..

I studied something called NLP for many years. NLP is about modelling what works and adopting strategies for success. Permaculture is Nature’s NLP… It takes what works, uses patterning and reapplies it to create edible gardens using strategies tried and tested by nature herself.. But as we learned earlier, this stuff goes way beyond gardening… It truly is a design for living…More of that later.

We in the West are well aware that we won’t be able to live the way we do for much longer.. The Cubans didn’t have a choice. When we embargoed them and Russia collapsed they were left with nothing.   Our bedtime movie was all about how, through dire need, they learned to permaculture the entire country…

But it truly is bedtime now and I’m ready to hit the sack.. and despite the sunshine today it’s pretty cold right now… and tomorrow is another day….

And I leave you with the thought that, as we were told today…

It’s time to put the ‘nature’ back into ‘human nature’.

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

On our way down here we came through Atlanta, another huge monument to concrete, ostentation and the money lords.   And I realized how I no longer have the urge to engage in  retail therapy in a mall.   My retail therapy nowadays consists of a trip to Dollar General to buy cheap plant pots and bathroom tissue.  And even that will probably phase itself out the more we return to earth..

A once in a blue moon visit to Sevenanda  one of the cities oldest co-operative stores in Atlanta’s Little 5 area, is the ultimate excitement.  

Aaaah my life is so simple, so sweet…fetching wood, making cornbread, dressing for comfort not fashion.. so what it was not!   We are living on the edge, we have far less  stuff, no TVand I’m far happier.

The back holler folk are amazing… they know how to live and many of the oldies we’ve encountered express concern that ‘these young folk gonna have a hard time cos they don’t know how to look after themselves without flickin’ a switch’. cern that ‘these   There are so many skills and knowings about the land, how to lives self-sufficiently and how to make do. 

They are literally walking Firefox encyclopedias and we’re reading them hungrily and they love sharing their knowledge.  But, I digress…

Six hours after leaving home via a leisurly wander around Wal-Mart and Target to pick up supplies, noticing the way people wander around picking up things because ‘they’re on offer’ or ‘that looks cute,we needed to stop again.

It was late, the truck was unheated and we pulled into a small town MacDonalds to get a coffee as my husband was in danger of falling asleep at the wheel.   Outside two or three ‘kids’ stood drinking liqor, the bottles hidden in brown paper bags. 

It’s still strange to me coming originally from the UK to see that phenomenon.  People in the UK drink just as much in public, they just dont cover it up in paper bags!  And it’s so sad to think that the only entertainmnent for kids like this on a Saturday night is to hang out in MacDonalds drinking booze.   

As we drove through the strip malls with signs saying ’strippers – need we say more’ flashing between countryside lit up by fluorescent and neon adverts for motels and insurance companies cajoling you to ‘have a better year in 2010′ [by buying insurance?]I realized how much I love the earth and the rural areas where I am blessed to live. 

Even if we have to return to living in an RV in the forest, it will be far more rewarding and closer to earth-living than cooped up in a town.  I crave the earth, the countryside and the sounds and smell of fresh cut wood, firesmoke and the deep fecund experience of walking in the forest.

As we moved out of the urban sprawls of lower income Southern Georgia reeking of dying attempts to survive in this illusory world of ’stuff’, we found ourselves in a ‘tree farming forest’ , the smoke of a local pulp mill blowing across the flat countryside.   

Nothing like the wild forests where we live. I love the area because it’s full of hollers and hills.  Round here it’s very flat which is an interesting contrast. 

Arriving last night after dark at Koinonia farm where the permaculture course is being held, was a breath of fresh air.  The prettily painted signs told us we were entering another world and in a way we were. You can smell and feel the peace here. 

Situated in over 500 acres, this Christian peace community is pretty laid back.  I’d called earlier to confirm that it would be OK for my husband to sleep over and break the 10 hr drive..and one of the ladies in the office said ‘there’s plenty of food – we had a great meal last night- so help yourself to leftovers’.

I already knew this would be a good place to hang out for 12 days, this added to the welcome and being here confirmed it.

The accommodation is basic, shared rooms and bathrooms with a kitchen and living area.. a ‘boys’ side and a ‘girls side’ and it’s sufficient – all we really need.   After meeting Isabel Crabtree, one of the teachers and chatting about ‘permaculture activism’ before we found our accommodation, we knew we were with like minded souls.

My husband says ‘this is the war we are fighting and it’s very different from how it was’. We’ll win them over with food and health and a realization that we must grow to survive and beyond that we must grow in a more ecological way’.  That’s why we’ve pulled out all the stops to enable me to do this course..

This morning we got up at cock crow, drank some herb tea and ate an avocad before driving into Americus which is about 5 miles away. Stopping at a Waffle house for coffee and a once in a blue moon wicked [and not even well cooked] breakfast we passed, on the way out a mother, daughter and son, all of whom were testament to how a regular American diet is killing people off slowly. 

Food Forest Gardens – the answer to our dietary hell

That’s why we’re so passionate about inspiring and encouraging people to start growing real food, food forests that provide fruits, berries, herbs, alongside an annual garden.  In a few years when the price of a hamburger has soared, and more people are on meds or dying from a ghastly diet, it might just be the salvation this world needs.

And talking of nuts, Kiononia is famous for its Pecans.  They grow and process lots of pecans.  So, you can imagine my delight when wandering around the grounds today, I found pecans lying on the earth.  Picking up a stone I cracked one then one more then one more open… and smiled… at the experience of tasting delicous food, fresh from the tree, knowing how good it was for me. 

Gradual Dietary Transition Works For Us

Our own dietary transition isn’t as drastic as my venture into raw foodiesm a few years back. Raw food is great, and it’s ultra healthy, but until we start growing our own and the right kind of ingredients together, it will remain exclusive to the ‘rich greenies’ who like I could way back then, can afford the greenstar juicer, the vitamix blender, the nutmilk maker, the dehydrator and all the other ‘high ticket’, grid-dependent  items such as raw chocolate, coconut oil…and agave syrup.  

We are adding more raw, especially sprouts,still picking our winter kale and mustard leaves, eating lots of veggies with every meal and saving energy by cooking everything on the woodstove/heater/cooker. 

We haven’t stopped eating meat, but our intention as soon as possible is to be able to grow our own and treat meat as just that ‘a treat’.  Naturally grazing animals provide a very different meat from their hormone stuffed factory farmed brothers and sisters.   We eat more raw nuts as snacks and juice fruit and veggies but not every day.

Gradual transition is working for us… as we embrace wellness promoting products like MMS and Colloidal Silver.   And we sense that by this time next year, we’ll be ready to plant the first permaculture style food forest garden in our area.

Permaculture Design Course – So Right for Us

This course is a milestone in our purpose… and judging by the enquires and enthusiastic support we’re receiving from people on a more frequent basis, food forest farming is gonna take off. 

And so I sit here in bright sunshine, still a morning chill in the air, writing this looking out on the tranquil grounds and cottages of this part of the complex I know even more surely that this was the right thing to do. 

We begin the course tomorrow, officially, and today most of the students will arrive for the opening circle and potluck dinner.   I found some reduced mushrooms in great condition and am gonna cook up a brown rice, mushroom, onion and jalapeno pilaff to bring along.

Birds are chirping, people walking around and it’s definitely wake-up time on Sunday morning. 

Tomorrow is the first teaching day of the course.. I can’t wait, and yet, even as we use those words so frequently, I know that life is not about waiting for what is to come, but enjoying what is.. the sound of the birds, the rural peace, light chitter chatter from community members greeting each other and mmmm brilliant,warm sunshine and fresh air.. not to mention the pecans!

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

Tomorrow I leave for a twelve day residential permaculture design course, starting this Sunday in Southern Georgia.  

 There’s so much to learn and know and this is just the beginning of a beautiful adventure and the continuing of a dream my husband and I have been evolving over the last year from a lifetime of exploration..

Food forests in every community will Feed The Future

We know how important it is to reskill ourselves to be able to survive comfortably in this changing world.  Permaculture is gonna be big, real big as people get hungry for knowledge on how to grow sustainable food supplies that will ensure the future of their families and the generations that follow.

It wasn’t easy to decide to spend such a large proportion of our funds on this, but if you’ve ever had that ‘this is so right for me’ feeling you’ll know how it is.  I just had to be there.  

My husband and I passionately believe that we need to start growing our own healthy nutritious food now. That doesn’t mean just planting an annual garden. It’s much more than that.  We need to create ecologically balanced food forests, annual gardens, kitchen gardens.  We need to start growing for survival NOW.

We are creating our own food forest garden and knowing how to design something specifically for the location and climate will be invaluable.  And we want to share our growing knowledge with as many people as we can.

Our aim is to encourage people to start growing properly planned, ecologically functional fruit forest gardens, that will be there to feed not just their family but others too.    If you haven’t got a back yard, you can create a community project.   As your energy grows around the project so will the help and support you receive.

A certificated design course coupled with doing our own design are all part of being able to stand up and talk at 101 level in an informed and intelligent way. 

We want to reach everyday folk who are going to need to know how to live self-sufficiently. Food is a major need in our lives. Healthy, nutritious, wellness-promoting food can be yours for ever when you create a food forest garden.

 Shouting it from the Treetops

We aim to give talks to local communities and anyone who’ll listen to us.. we’re so convinced this is a MUST for every community in the world!

The course is run at a community called Koinonia in Americus, South Western GA,  so it’s gonna involve a 5 hour drive to get there form way up here in the North Georgia hollers! 

It’s back to the dorm and communal eating as I spend 12 days breathing, sleeping, drinking and learning permaculture in close company with 30 or so other eager permies-in-waiting…

Omigosh, today I took another look at the contents of the course.. it’s mindblowing and led me down a pathway of dreams..You’ll know what I mean when you read the course contents..

Permaculture Design course content

Even as you read that list, you can probably imagine how useful these skills are going to be.. And they are including things like barter and gift economy.  I really love the idea of ‘gift economy’ and what it means to me.

Image from pointloma.edu

Gift economy

Peopole and communities who plant food forests will have such abundant supplies in a few years that they will easily be able to gift those who have less.. there’s a sense of the voluntary sharing we’ve been encouraging in our selves and others from skills to land.  

And there are all kinds of other connotations and potential for the idea of a ‘gift economy’…gifts generate abundance for receiver and giver and gifts aren’t subject to.. you know what!

A way of life for us

With  the learning I’ll gain and share with my husband added to his Western Montana frontier upbringing, his 3d design skills, acute awareness of patterns a close relationship to the earth and a shared passion for growing food forests everywhere, I sense that we’re embarking on a wonderful new way of living, doing what we adore, wanting only to live simply and self-sustainably on the land, eat nutritious food, be warm and help others to make the transitions…and plant food forests EVERYWHERE.

Watch this space… as I share myexperiences with you on a regular basis

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes for me, what I learned, what I’m loving, what’s challenging and how inspired I am each day…

Meanwhile, I’m listing out all the things I’m gonna be taking with me from my work clothes, rain gear, comfy pillows , laptop, tape recorder and camera and yes.. chocolate. So much to do and already it’s mid afternoon. 

Rain is Good

The rain has been steady for a day and a half which makes us remember why this part of the world is so good for growing.  Apart from an abundance of natural creeks and streams, we have lots of sloping wooded hills and the growing season in the summer is long with sunshiney Aprils to mid October, usually. Spring is just round the corner here! 

Suki our spirt animal on this adventure, doesn’t get to enjoy running through the forest,climbing trees and perching on the woodpile but he’s healing from an awkward encounter with the female up the road which left him with a sprained leg so the rain is good for him too as he ‘rests up’ in front of the stove. 

My husband is out chopping wood on the front porch and while it rains where it needs to outside, we’ve got a heap big iron woodstove that keeps this place and us warm as hot toast while we get to write and design and connect with people..;-)  And playing in the background is Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen..one of the songs from ‘The Watchmen’.

And so tomorrow the adventure begins…and I’ve not even started getting things together yet and it’s almost time to start dinner. 

Permaculture Design Course.   http://www.georgiapermaculture.com info on upcoming courses in Georgia and the South East.

Feed The Future blog – follow my adventures and learn along with me
as I enter the world of permaculture design

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

Part of this was foundated on the concept of permaculture. Dune, the first of a series of books was written in 1965 even before the word ‘permaculture’ was made popular by Bill Mollision and David Holmgren in the 70’s.

One of Dune’s characters, Liet Kynes was a planetologist who was devoted to reviving the desert. He served as both the planetary ecologist of Dune and leader of the Fremen the simple, desert dwellers.

He continued his father, Pardot Kynes’s, vision of gradually terraforming the planet from a harsh desert into a temperate world with precipitation, greenery, and open water.

An entire permaculture plan for the desert planet, Arrakis

In the Appendix to the first Dune, Herbert lays out Pardot Kynes’ entire imaginary, but sound, ecological plan for this transformation. “There’s an internally recognized beauty of motion and balance on any man-healthy planet. You see in this beauty a dynamic stabilizing effect essential to all life. Its aim is simple to maintain and produce co-ordinated patterns of greater and greater diversity’

‘Life and all life is in the service of Life. Necessary nutrients are made available to life by life in greater and greater richness as the diversity of life increases’

‘The entire landscape comes alive filled with relationships within relationships within relationships’

‘The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an eco-system’ Kynes said, “is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a mis-step in just one niche. A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late.

That’s why the highest functioning of ecology is the understanding of consequences’.

He goes on to talk about the revivification of the desert in a total permaculture way using the Fremen, desert-dwelling simple-living warriors to undertake this grand plan 

“When will we solve it [the water problem]?” the Fremen ask.  Kynes told them ‘in three to five hundred years’.

A lesser folk might have howled in dismay but the Fremen had learned patience from the men with whips…. somehow the disappointment made the prospect of paradise more real.

The concern on Arrakis was not with water, but with moisture. Pets were almost unknown, stock animals rare. Some smugglers employed the domesticated desert ass, but the water price was high even when the beasts were fitted with modified still suites

Kynes thought of installing reduction plants to recover water from the hydrogen and oxygen locked in native rock, but the energy-cost factor was far too high.

There was a native root plant that grew above the 2,500-meter level in the northern temperate zone. A tuber, two metres long yielded half a liter of water.  And there were the terraform desert plants, the tougher of which showed signs of thriving if planted in depressions lined with dew precipitators.

He began the re-examining of the evidence of dry wells were trickles of water had appeared and vanished, never to return… and through a series of relationships with the sandworm and other creatures he set up a system to irrigate the land..

Then they went to work on the climate. The sand surface often reached temperatures of 344 – 355 degrees. A foot below the ground it might be 55 cooler, a foot above 25 cooler. Leaves or black shade could provide another 18 degrees of cooling.

Next the nutrients.  The sand of Arrakis, a product of worm digestion. Dust is produced by constant surface creep. Course grains are found on the downward side of the dunes. The windward side is packed smooth and hard. Old dunes are yellow, young dunes are the color of the parent rock – usually grey. Downwind sides of old dunes provided the first plantation areas.

The Fremen aimed first for a cycle of poverty grass with peat-like hair cilia to intertwine, mat and fix the dunes by depriving the wind of its biggest weapon; movable grains. Adaptive zones were laid out in the deep south..the mutated poverty grasses were planted first along the downwind slipface] of the chosen dunes that stood across the path of the prevailing westerlies.

With the downwind face anchored the windward face grew higher and higher and the garss was moved to keep pace. Giant sifs along dunes with sinuous crests more than 1,500 meters high were produced this way.

When the barrier dunes reached sufficient height, the windward faces were planted with tougher sword grasses. Each structure on a base of about six times as thick as its height was ‘fixed’.

Now they came in with deeper plantings – ephemerals, then scotch broom, low lupine vine, eucalyptus [the type adapted for Caladan's northern reaches], dwarf tamarisk, shore pine, then the true desert growths, candellilla, saguaro and the barrel cactus.

Where it would grow they introduced camel sage, onion grass, gobi-feather grass, wild alfalfa, burrow bush, sand verbens, evening primrose, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush.

They turned them to the necessary animal life – burrowing creatures to open the soil and aerate it: kit fox, kangaroo mouse, desert hare, sand terrapin… and the predators to keep them in check, desert hawk, dwarf owl, eagle and desert own, and insects to  fill the niches these couldn’t reach : scorpion, centipede, trapdoor spider, the biting wasp and the wormfly..and the desert bat to keep watch on these..

Now came the crucial test: date palms, cotton, melons coffee, medicinals, more than 200 selected food plant types to test and adapt. Kynes and his people watched and waited.

The Fremen now knew what he meant by an open-end prediction to five hundred years.

Constant Monitoring and Re-Assesment

A report came from the palmaries. At the desert edge of the plantings, sand plankton was being poisoned through interaction with the new forms of life. The reason, protein incompatibility. Poisonous water was forming there which Arrakis life would not touch. A barren zone surrounded the plantings and even shi-hulud would not invade it. Kynes went down to the palmaries..he tested the barren zone and came up with a bonus, a gift from Arrakis.

The addition of sulfur and fixed nitrogen converted the barren zone to a rich plant bed for terraform life. …

Nor could the Fremen be ignored with their windtraps and irregular landholdings organized around water supply – the Fremen with their new ecological literacy and their dream of cycling vast areas of Arrakis through a prairie phase into forest cover.

So it was true as this umma had said in the beginning: the thing would not come in the lifetime of any man now living, nor in the lifetime of their grandchildren eight times removed, but it would come. The work continued: building, planting, digging, training the children….

 You can buy the first Dune book here
Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

Building and Growing with Nature

Earth builders and forest food gardeners who follow the permaculture principle of learning from the natural environment, observing patterns and using that to create  a design for the optimal needs for that environment, have got it right…

Bottom Line – We cannot fight with nature.  We tried that already and we’d be well to remember the Easter Island experience and how they decimated nature to create stone statues to their gods turning their home into an uninhabitable wasteland.

 Nature has much to teach us about harmonic and most productive design. 

The nature-harmonized earth house

We speak often of earth houses in general but there are many types of earth houses. What works in one environment superbly would be a disaster in another.

Naturally Right Building

Every style of natural building such as cob, log, straw bale, earth-ships, bamboo huts, houses on stilts, yurts and more, all evolved as a result of a direct relationship with and understanding of nature and natural design.

The design that works best for you is one that takes into account the natural ingredients of the specific location.  It may not always be the design you are locked into.

Early earth home builders studied the natural climate, land structure, soil type, vegetation and human and wildlife interactions and needs.

The Mandans of the Upper Missouri in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains designed log structures worked perfectly for and  with the natural contours and components of the Plains.

In the desert climes, thick-walled adobe structures painted white and thick walled serve the purpose of sheltering humans from the harsh sun and protecting them from colder extremes of temperature.  Damp is NOT an issue. Water was precious so they focused on water catchment and well systems.

 The log structure that works so well on the Plains won’t necessarily be as functional in hilly wetter climes without adaptation.   It is up to each builder to know how the area works by basing his design on what works in nature.

There is a harmonic building structure and design that is perfect for each unique climate and micro-climate and contour. 

 Evolving and Adapting

Given how bright we humans are and how much technology we have at our fingertips, we will quickly learn to adapt and evolve ways of earth building that take this into account.  Permaculturists are doing it already.

Edible food forest gardens mimicking nature

As students of permaculture and permaculturists know, nature has a perfect design for every part of the land.  The forests are living examples of eco systems.  By taking into account the natural design and what works, food forest gardeners learn the purpose  of patterns and structure and allow this to inform  their design. 

 They never try to impose a design that is contrary or counter-productive to natural workings because they know, in the end, it won’t be the most beneficial for nature or themselves.

They know they need canopy trees and they know they need ground cover. In the tropics mangos and coconut trees form the canopy layer whilst in Northern Georgia apple and pecan trees serve the same purpose.

In the same way when builders use natural designs and structures the structure is fluid enough so that someone building in wetter hilly lands can begin to devise a way to dam and reflow the water so that it doesn’t run back into and under the house. 

 Someone building in the desert of Nevada will design what works in a water-scarce desert. They won’t worry about excessive water flowing under or flooding the house because what little there is has been redirected to a water catchment system.

 The ultimate aim of both is to capture water without damaging the natural contours and flow.

 The Miracle of Nature-based Building

Mike Oehler, r-evolutionary author of  ‘The $50 & Up Underground House Book’, does not design cellars, mole holes or dark gloomy homes.  He designs homes that are functional and suited to the environment.

The home is constructed to reach below the frost line to protect the fragile structure from frost damage. 

It is a place where all the workings like pipes and wiring are underground in an easily accessible space.  This keeps them protected from freezing and other hazards of being exposed.  It also makes repairs and reworking easy as no structures have to be disturbed to get at the pipes and wires.

The merits of ‘underground’ housing are, according to Mike Oehler – author of ‘The $50 and up Underground House Book’ pretty fantastic.

If you are into natural building and could design and create an ‘earth’ home that is synchronized with the natural environment, and have all of these amazing facilities.. why would you choose any other way..????

Benefits of an ‘underground’ house

• No Foundation
• Less building material and labor
• Less Tax
• Warm in Winter, Cool in Summer
• Better view
• Built-in Greenhouse
• Ecologically sound
• Increased yard space
• Fallout Shelter
• Defensible
• Concealable
• Close to Source of Water
• Relatively fireproof
• Pipes never freeze
• Superior flooring
• Can be built by anyone
• Weatherproof
• Less maintenance
• Soundproof

We recommend this book and here’s our Amazon link to it.   

 The $50 and Up Underground House Book: [How to Design and Build Underground]

If you click here, and you do decide to buy, you are helping us as we re-route money energy from the machine towards supporting a more ecological cause!  Feed The Future – A food forest garden in every community is doable and could alleviate world hunger in 10 years.

Mimicing Nature is the Only Way

Builders who study the contours of the land, the rainfall, the flow of water or indeed where water, the position of the sun and all the natural ingredients, will design structures that work perfectly with nature and offer relative to that environment all of the above features. 

In Oehler’s book he points out all the mistakes people are making when they design earth houses and all the things they can do to create a successful, secure, warm, sound structure that utilizes the natural situation to the best advantage of all concerned including their needs.

For example he has come up with an amazing design for housing set against a hill.  He finds a way to avert the flow of water from the hillside, have it run down beside the house without ever reaching the house.  He describes how to create drains that naturally pull the water back into the house.  It’s not just a question of catching water or sloping roves, it’s creating roofs that contribute to the above qualities..

 His designs have been called ‘radical’, ‘revolutionary’ ‘unique’ unconventional’ ‘practical’ ‘masterpieces’.  

 They are based on pure physics and a study of natural design and purpose. 

For instance, It makes sense to have the kitchen garden, greenhouse as an extension of the kitchen and not an external entity. 

The greenhouse captures the suns rays while being protected by the house from winds.  In turn we get  easy accessibility to foodstuffs as they grow.  Nipping in and out of the greenhouse as you cook, you are more in tune with how it is growing and take more care of what’s there.. as it takes care of you by producing more abundant offerings.

 It makes sense in Tony Wrench’s underground house to grow grapes on the eaves of the house. The roof offers the grapes space to climb and protects the house while providing on tap food and with a little processing natural wine!

It makes sense to have a composting toilet that collects human waste and with very little effort other than facilitating natural process, it turns in to rich, natural fertilizer for the garden in less than two years.

It makes sense in some locales to have French drains that through a natural filtering and siphon system reclaim good water and direct it into the home.

 Forest Food Gardens – Natural Wonders

 Food Forest Gardeners observe what works in nature, how water flows and how to guide the water to where it is needed most and is kindest to the land.  

 They have a structure from nature of layers and inter-actions between different species for the greatest good.  They apply that structure to local specifics and as a result the forest becomes healthy, lush, self-sustaining and abundant. 

It makes sense to cover the ground with abundant, local herbs and beneficial plants because they offer not just nutritious food and medicine but also keep off invasions of unfriendly weeds.

It makes sense to plant mutually cooperative species because the system requires so much less maintenance after the early labours of reconnoitre, design and planting and pruning, the system starts to take care of itself and become independently inter-dependant.  The only ‘labor’ that remains is that of walking through the forest collecting the fruits – Tough eh!

It makes sense to let chickens run around in the forest [while protecting tomatoes from them!] and let them peck at fallen fruit and pests … while keeping down the tree pests, the chicken’s manure sows seeds and fertilizes the earth.

It makes sense to contour and dam water flow so that it is distributed in a natural way to where its needed most and away from where it can cause damage by accumulating.

So much of this just makes plain natural sense.   And all it takes is for us to get off our backsides and get into action.   We can’t argue with nature any more, so why not use her system to our advantage.

Here in the USA, the pioneer nature of the people is emerging to meet the needs of our changing times and the opportunities of re-contouring building and growing in a way that works for all perfectly. 

This spirit  genetically evolved and a part of our history, will save this nation.  When other countries, areas, look back to what worked and use what they know now to merge the two and alchemise new workable ideas.. the world will begin to flourish again.

 We simply have to stop being afraid, take that leap and JFDI

Recommended Books:

The $50 and Up Underground House Book: [How to Design and Build Underground]

 An introduction to permaculture (Design course series)

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes

While the rich go green at great cost, the rest of us can jump on this bandwagon

In the next few weeks, we will be featuring a series of blogs called ‘Going Brown’  inspired by an article by the cheap-ass curmudgeon.

By MICHAEL VAN HALL with additions by Pierre Soleil and pictures from Tony Wrench’s earth house

Michael Van Hall [the cheap-ass curmudgeon] is looking for people who live in low-cost to no-cost housing, by choice, to feature in his next book, titled Shacking Up. When he asked blog readers to send him leads,  he was disappointed with their responses.

He didn’t get examples of housing as featured in the picture above.  He got ‘green’ ’sterile’ ‘fancy’ houses.

Mainstream fancy eco-housing

Van Hall realized that people’s definitions of eco-living did not correlate with his own.

“Why not ? you ask. It’s green, smallish and built with all the latest sustainable building materials. It probably even has a dual-flush toilet or two. So what’s wrong with that?

You’re right, there is nothing wrong with that—as an example of the mainstream’s definition of eco-friendly housing. And yes, it’s probably even LEED certified.

I understand the thinking out there in the “green community.” There are benefits to using all these new building materials. Even though they cost a fortune, they are mostly sustainable.

So go ahead, install a $olar voltaic system to help reduce your carbon footprint. Use all the new technologies available to reduce your damage to the environment and our dependence on fossil fuels. I will applaud you.

By all means, go green. If you’ve got the money and want to live cooped up in a sterile box, go for it. Living in an expensive non-toxic box may be better than living in a cheaper toxic one. I’ll give you that.

Many companies have made it possible to go green and remain pristine. You no longer have to sacrifice luxury to relieve your guilty conscience.

But these companies and all this newfangled stuff they’re selling isn’t what I mean when I talk about low-cost and no-cost housing.

The word green has always stood for money. These days, if you want to go truly green it costs a LOT of money. If you want to make money, just tap into the green market. If you can label it green or natural, people will buy it—at almost any price.

But nobody seems to want to look at the environmental cost of going green. What environmental price are we willing to pay for the manufacture and disposal of those energy-saving solar panels and those big power inverters? How come nobody talks about that? And what about the manufacture and disposal of all those batteries, which are a huge biohazard?

And the hybrid revolution? Have we all forgotten that in the ’80s and early ’90s, we had more than a few cars getting over 40 miles per gallon and some over 50—all without hybrid electric power plants using all those batteries that we are going to have to dispose of. (The Honda Civic even had an EPA rating of over 50 m.p.g.—and it got it.)

Hybrid cars rely on electricity for manufacture, and whilst they might save oil, they wont be of much use when there’s no electricity.

Real eco transport is using a bicycle or a horse and cart which can also be used for ploughing. When the oil runs out even hybrid cars will sit rotting on the metalpile.

I could go on and on. But why? Is there a better way?

Yes, there is a better way. Go brown!

Come on, fellow greenies. It’s time we changed our colors. You don’t have to spend a lot of green to go brown, and going brown is about as green as you can get.

What is going BROWN?

It’s a hand-built house made of thick earthen or stone walls that never need paint. Why use those new, expensive, NO VOC paints when you don’t have to use any!

How to build a Low Impact Roundhouse An amazing book by one of the early pioneers of brown housing, Tony Wrench

It’s south facing windows with the right amount of overhang to let in the sun in the winter and keep it out in the summer.

It’s a rocket stove or box stove for cooking and heating and water piped from a stream to the makeshift kitchen

It’s living on wood from the forest for building, heating and cooking.  Gathering wood takes up time, but so does working at a sh***y job that you hate in order to buy electricity. Gathering wood provides good honest fresh-air exercise

It’s an outdoor shower in the garden—the plants will love it.

It’s creating your own food forest wherever you can, even on the eaves of the house

It’s a composting toilet—not the plastic ones you buy that hook up to electricity, but the hole in the plank with the straw or sawdust in the bucket nearby so you can turn your poo into fertilizer.

Brown housing is earthen floors, handmade windows, doors and … well, you get the idea.

I just can’t call these things green anymore. No one knows what I mean when I use that word. So I’m going to start calling them brown. Maybe it will catch on, and those of us who love this kind of thing will start referring to it that way.

Now, back to what I have been asking for. I want some examples of brown! Brown houses, brown people—people who have chosen to go brown because they believe in brown living and brown being.

Brown leads wanted by the cheap-ass curmudgeon

I want the real stuff, like Tony Wrench’s Low-impact roundhouse [featured in most of the pics in this postiing]

Now there’s a solar voltaic system I can get behind. They will never have to re-paint this house.

Look at those beautiful, natural, uncut timbers.

Compost Toilet – The compost toilet decomposes the humanure over two years to produce compost for the fruit trees and bushes

See how un-smelly and earthy a compost toilet is

There is no food in the world that will taste better than that which is cooked over an outdoor flame or on a woodstove that also supplies ample heating

If you want more detail on the design and building of this house, please check out ‘Building a Low Impact Roundhouse’ by Tony Wrench, available from Amazon.

How to build  a Low Impact Roundhouse

Look at this gorgeous winter light bottle wall insert

The low-impact roundhouse is a great example of going brown. I need to know about more houses like this one. If you run across any Web sites, have pictures of your own or, better yet, you are living the brown lifestyle, I want to hear from you. E-mail Michael Van Hall cheapasscurmudgeon@gmail.com.

Spread the word—go brown!

Michael Van Hall has been making magic out of dirt and whatever happens to be lying around since 1998. He is the author of The Cheap-Ass Curmudgeon’s Guide to Dirt

© 2010, Pierre Soleil. All rights reserved but relaxed Pierre Soleil We like to pass on the word so YOU are welcome to use this document in accordance with the Creative Commons license. That is, you can tweet, facebook, repost, excerpt and even adapt it so long as you don’t pretend it’s yours for commercial purposes