The Ecological Unconscious – Links for Further Exploration

Yesterday’s Sunday New York Times Magazine included a real jewel of an article: Is There an Ecological Unconscious?. You’ll want to read it.
Photo of Illustration by Kate MacDowell.
Rather than do a commentary on the article, I wanted to offer a sort of annotated list of links of people and concepts mentioned in the article. Here they are, in no particular order:

There was one part of the article that really struck me:

So what to do? How do you go about rebooting human consciousness? Bateson’s prescription for action was vague. We needed to correct our errors of thought by achieving clarity in ourselves and encouraging it in others — reinforcing “whatever is sane in them.” In other words, to be ecological, we needed to feel ecological. It isn’t hard to see why Bateson’s ideas might appeal to ecopsychologists. His emphasis on the interdependence of the mind and nature is the foundation of ecotherapy. It is also at the root of Kahn’s notion that “rewilding” the mind could have significant psychological benefits. But it also isn’t hard to see how the seeming circularity of Bateson’s solution — in order to be more ecological, feel more ecological — continues to bedevil the field and those who share its interests.

While reading it, I realized that this is exactly what part of the Ecology of Leadership program does…gives us a prescription for rebooting our operating systems through the daily sit spot practice and by creating a space for us to develop our awareness of our interconnectedness…we ARE nature.

It’s very encouraging to see mainstream approachs to this topic appearing!

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Garden Project Ideas

We’ve been getting some beautiful rains here in Northern California — a good time to ask yourself what garden projects you might work on this year. Here are some favorites that I’m thinking about!

Build a SeedHouse/MiniGreenhouse!

This is actually a cold frame, a good way to recycle a window or windowed door into a cozy place get seedlings and cuttings off to a good start!

Build-a-SeedHouseMiniGreenhouse

Grow 100 lbs. Of Potatoes In 4 Square Feet: How To

build-potato-box
This article from TipNut gives three methods of setting up a potato box. I like growing potatoes in containers, especially in gopher country. In case none of those look like the right method for you, here’s a couple of others:

If you’ve never tasted roasted potatoes fresh from the garden, you are in for such a treat!

Garden Work Tables From Old Pallets

This quick post from Lloyd’s Blog shows off the pallet table from Home Grown Evolution:

palletgardentable2

By the way, I highly recommend that you follow both Lloyd’s Blog and Home Grown Evolution…both have excellent content. Home Grown Evolution is by the authors of the excellent book The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City. Lloyd Khan is the author and publisher of wonderful books on (among other things) DIY home building: Shelter, Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, and the most recent, Builders of the Pacific Coast.

Natural Wood Raised Garden

naturalraisedbed

I like projects that remind us of how to use waste products in creative beautiful ways, and this idea for raised beds out of natural wood, perhaps from your post-storm brush pile, is a great example.

Just some ideas to get your started. What projects are you thinking about for your garden this year?

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Ecology of Leadership – Bay Area Program Registration Ends Friday

Friday is the deadline for registering for Regenerative Design Institute’s distinguished Ecology of Leadership (”EOL” for short). If you’ve been awakening to a need for deep change in your life (or a way to respond to change that’s already happening), this program will provide a way to hold your vision and tools for moving forward.If you’ve ever considered participating in this course, I highly recommend that you take the plunge now.

eoltree

I almost didn’t participate in EOL because of the word “leadership”…it was a really loaded word for me. But I think you could also call this the “Ecology of the Self”. Check out this “Grad in Action” report from Carl Shuller, a fellow EOL grad and friend. What that essay doesn’t describe is the powerful, open, and loving energy you’ll encounter when you meet Carl. And Carl himself describes the effect of EOL best: “I was given a set of tools and a new “operating manual” for creating a life vision that empowers me to take my gifts back out into my community.”

Whether you’re inspired to be a community leader or (like me) simply want to gain a deeper understanding of how to lead your own life, EOL will help you access the capacity and abilities you already have. And you might be surprised at what they are! I won’t kid you, the program is challenging and sometimes difficult. But the atmosphere is fully supportive. I feel held by a vibrant community of people in my EOL circle.

This upcoming course starts in February and meets one weekend per month at RDI’s beautiful facilities at Commonweal Garden near Bolinas. Please contact me if you’d like to chat more about this program; I’d be happy to talk to you via email or phone. I can also help you get a 20% discount on course costs.

Links:
Ecology of Leadership Programs
5-Month Ecology of Leadership Program starting February 6 in Bolinas
Ecology of Leadership on Facebook

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NY Times Article on “Green Disputes”

The New York Times article Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes struck a chord with me. If you’re the type of person who digs permaculture, you’re also, sadly, part of the counterculture in this country. While that kind of outsider status has a certain cachet for many of us, it can also lead to great pain if that outsider status begins to extend into your closest relationships.

While no study has documented how frequent these clashes have become, therapists agree that the green issue can quickly become poisonous because it is so morally charged. Friends or family members who are not devoted to the environmental cause can become irritated by life choices they view as ostentatiously self-denying or politically correct.

Those with a heightened focus on environmental issues, on the other hand, can find it hard to refrain from commenting on things that they view as harmful to Earth — driving an oversize S.U.V., for example.

The article also points out that, in many cases, the rift between couples in particular tends to happen along specific gender lines:

Christienne deTournay Birkhahn, executive director of the EcoMom Alliance, an organization based in Marin County that provides education to women who want to have their families live more sustainably, finds that disputes over how green is green enough often divide along predictable lines by sex.

Women, Ms. Birkhahn said, often see men as not paying sufficient attention to the home. Men, for their part, “really want to make a large impact and aren’t interested in a small impact,” she said.

The article offers “tips” to the more environmentally conscious about how to accommodate the slower-changing members of their household. Mothers are warned to not change the family diet until all members of the family are ready. In other areas, “change only a few things at a time and provide lots of explanation.” The onus of accommodation is put squarely on the person who wants to live a less consumptive lifestyle.

I don’t feel that we need to go into what the article describes as “high priestess” mode, and I’m sure that there are situations where people actually do become very controlling and insistent about the way of life they want. But that’s not always the case. All too often, women who speak up for change, or simply try to live a life in accord with their own values, are cast in this light simply because they’re not serving the status quo.

I do think that, as permies, we need to find ways to express the joy and fun of permaculture…let’s hear it for sustainable hedonism! Although many of us respond to the environmental crisis around us, we need to remember that being in crisis mode all of the time is exhausting for everyone, and ultimately ineffective. I’d love to hear more discussion about how we can do that.

If you make the choices that are in alignment with permaculture and harmony with the planet, the truth is, no matter how much you try to be sensitive about it, you’re going to trigger a response in some people that you’re being judgmental and critical. I urge you not to fall prey to this. Be loving, be kind, be open-minded and value small changes. But do not expend your energy to accommodate others. Don’t put a damper on your own light. Because when they accuse you of being judgmental and critical, they are often responding to a piece of themselves that they’re projecting onto you. And there is nothing you can or should do about that.

Link: Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes

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REculture: Exploring the Post-consumption Economy

REculture is a weblog you can turn to for inspiring examples of reuse and repair.

REculture, a study into the ways and means those at the Base of the Pyramid across the developing world earn a living by the repair, reuse, repurposing, resale and recycling of goods

reculture

Highlighting the work of people like repairmen, cobblers, and ragpickers, REculture helps me bring some of my own consumer longings back down to earth.

Link: REculture

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Hoop Houses at the White House

Penny Livingston-Stark posted this to the Permaculture-SF list with the comment, “I think I have to pinch myself. Am I dreaming?”

I agree! It’s so great to see this kind of support for home-grown food at the White House.

Also check out the complete post with lots of interesting links, Using the White House Garden to Promote Year-Round Local Food, from Roots of Change.

Link: Using the White House Garden to Promote Year-Round Local Food

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Aliza Sollins: BaltimoreDIY and Urban Homesteading

I’m not sure how I first noticed Aliza Sollins of BaltimoreDIY online…it might have been through Twitter (she’s @AlizaEss). But I definitely remember meeting her in person. It was at Maker Faire last May, and the only thing crazier than me doing a booth to promote permaculture was Aliza flying all the way from Baltimore to volunteer to help me! Of course, neither one of us is really crazy…we’re just passionate about a lifestyle we find fun and rewarding.

Aliza Sollins at Maker Faire.

Aliza’s enthusiasm is infectious, both in person and through her delightful posts online. It’s been fun watching her post about new urban homesteading skills she’s developed over the past year, and what I like even more is the incredible energy she devotes to being engaged with her community. You can see why I asked Aliza if she’d like to be my first interviewee on Permie.net, and lucky for you, she agreed!

Aliza, how did you get started with urban homesteading? Did you grow up in a family that did these kinds of things, or did something trigger your own interest?

Although I’ve always been a crafter and was involved in political activism in college, my first introduction to the world of permaculture and urban homesteading was through a presentation by Scott Kellogg, who wrote the book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide.

What caught my attention was the way that urban permaculture reminds us that nature is always a part of our lives, even as we are turning on the tap or throwing trash into a dumpster. I am especially excited about the hands-on aspect of urban homesteading, where we actually deal directly with the objects (oil, water, food, air, plants) that affect issues all across the board, from political activism to the health of urban citizens. No more signing petitions to the government, I just want to host classes teaching people how to garden! By doing things like creating community gardens, we can improve the health of our bodies and our cities, use less oil, and rebuild our community structures all through one project, rather than trying to attack multiple issues from many different angles.

As many urban homesteaders know, once you start one small project, you suddenly have resources, tools, or questions that lead you to many related projects. Growing a single plant suddenly led me to other projects like composting, community gardening, learning how to propagate plants, making herbal teas, learning how to forage, eating locally, etc.

Making friends with other people interested in food-making and community gardening resulted in a lot of sharing of ideas and free seeds, plants, sourdough starters, sewing machines, etc. Start small, and everything will blossom from there.

Have you ever had a project go terribly wrong? What did you learn from that?

Sure, I suggest checking out my BaltimoreDIY posts about canning apples, smelly compost, and repeated mushroom kit failures! Lots of broken glass and wasted food, scooping out putrid slop, and a fruit fly invasion are part of the urban homesteading experience.

I try to post the failed projects along with the successful ones so that folks are aware that things can and will go wrong, and you just have to scrape up the pieces, salvage what you can, and learn from the experience. It’s interesting to see what does and does not work according to your lifestyle. I’ve learned that I don’t quite have the time to figure out mushroom farming, so that is a dream deferred for now. Composting was a project that failed, but it was really easy to dump the smelly failure in the woods and start fresh.

Pick a favorite DIY project or skill that you’ve developed; why is it one of your favorites?

I never thought that I had a green thumb, so my newfound gardening skills are definitely my favorite. The first year I started urban gardening I grew tomato plants indoors in buckets which grew over eight feet tall but never fruited, and a stunted eggplant which also never grew anything.

Herbs growing in an old file cabinent drawer in Aliza's apartment.

Instead of being discouraged, I got involved with a community garden, which helped because I wasn’t totally responsible for the plants from start to finish, and I learned from other helpful people. I started over again slowly with easy plants like aloe vera and hot peppers. The more time I spent with plants the more I got to know them, and my skills began to steadily improve. The information I was reading in books made sense because I had hands-on experience.

Growing plants is the most fulfilling skill for me because the end result is usually a food you can eat or an herb that has really interesting properties (antibacterial lavender, for example, which I use in teas and homemade cleaning products). Gardening also led to composting, which is really fascinating in that it completes the healthy cycle of eating locally and seasonally, and you begin to think about waste with a completely different perspective. Water is another issue that directly connects to gardening, and attracting local pollinators is another interesting issue. Plus gardening is great exercise and creates a relaxing environment for everyone in the city! Like all permaculture projects, gardens serve many functions all at the same time.

Aliza distilling essential oils.

If we knocked on a door for a tour of your place, what evidence of urban homesteading would we see today?

I’ll take you on a brief tour of my studio apartment. We’ll start at the concrete pad in the back of my building, where there is worm composting going on in Tupperware bins and a few buckets growing medicinal herbs like lavender, black cohosh, mountain mint, hot peppers, and ginger. Just inside the door you’ll see stacks of books, a crate full of walnuts I foraged from my neighbor’s tree, and drawers of crafting supplies.

The kitchen is where the magic truly happens. I try to keep my materials streamlined, with a kettle, one soup pot, one frying pan, and one very large pot. There are stacks of canned pickles and fruit. A small bookshelf holds paper sacks full of dry herbs foraged from plants around the city, garlic, onions, and herbal tinctures. The essential oil distiller is stored in a cardboard box on top of the fridge. One cabinet is dedicated to materials for making cleaning supplies, and a shelf in the fridge is dedicated to storing root vegetables saved from my summertime CSA share.

Ball jars are pretty much my favorite thing in the whole world.

Some of Aliza's canning projects.

How do you manage to do all of your projects in a small Baltimoreapartment?It seems like storing the equipment, tools, and materials would be quite a challenge!

A place for everything, and everything in its place! I spend many hours cleaning and getting organized. It’s easy to complete a project quickly when you know where all your tools are and you have a clean and open workspace. I actually feel like having a small apartment helps me get more done because everything I need is in such close proximity.

Layering projects also helps, and it helps to think creatively about how to use all elements of an object. For example, red clover is an easy plant to grow over the winter as a cover crop. Not only do the roots hold nitrogen and other vital nutrients in the soil, the flowers attract local pollinators and can be used for tea. I often get multiple uses out of one item! White vinegar is another multi-use favorite for everything from pickling vegetables to making natural cleaning products.

The fact that Baltimore City has a lot of really amazing collectives is also helpful, because they provide additional workspace and tools. See below!

Readers of your blog know that you are very active in your community.Can you tell us a little about some of the projects you’re involved with?

I think I’ve outgrown my five gallon bucket garden, so this coming year I’ll have my very first plot at the Remington Community Garden. My favorite part about the garden is that there are individual plots for rent, but there are also many communal plots. So if you show up and weed or water for a little while, you can walk home with whatever produce is ready for harvest that day, even if you didn’t grow the plant from seed. It’s a great way to get involved with a garden slowly, instead of being overwhelmed by the pressure of starting everything all at once on your own. Watching other gardeners and helping out with their projects is a wonderful way to pick up skills you never even knew were out there.

Another great project is 2640, which is an events space run by volunteers. We host everything from low-cost yoga classes, movie screenings, music shows, etc. to large scale community activism events. The space is affiliated with Red Emma’s, which is a local independent bookstore and coffeeshop where many other events are held. Red Emma’s also recently opened up the Free School, where people can take classes on everything from the peace movement to how to be a clown, or can host a class of their own. To say that Red Emma’s folks are busy is quite the understatement!

Baltimore Foodmakers is another amazing group that has gotten organized in the last year. We have a monthly potluck that often has a theme to be discussed, such as foraging or fermenting. A lot of times that will translate into a hands-on project, such as gathering wild greens and mushrooms, or sampling various homebrews or kombucha.  We have a website (www.foodmake.org) that we use to plan the potlucks and hold discussions about various foodmaking tips.

Velocipede is a very useful collective bike workshop where people can use tools and get help from volunteer mechanics. Sometimes I go there to learn a few things and fix up my bike.

Baltimore Node is a hacker-space created by one of the Baltimore Foodmaker members and others, and is along the lines of projects created in MAKE magazine. So far I haven’t been able to make it out to one of their events, but I hope to soon.

There is also a plan in the works to start a community kitchen in Mill Valley, which is an amazing garden center where I go to pick up local produce, dairy, eggs, and meat. I hope to get more involved with that project as it develops. It should be a great way to support local foodmaking entrepreneurs and to teach healthy eating habits. We are planning a preserves swap for our first fundraiser next month. I’m sure I’ll be posting about it!

Thank you, Aliza!

Links:
BaltimoreDIY
@AlizaEss on Twitter
BaltimoreDIY Photostream

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Primitive Skills Gathering Planned for Sonoma County

Plans are underway for a Primitive Skills gathering in Sonoma county on May 2-8, 2010. Here’s the text of a mailing that went out from the event’s organizer, Rusty Sparks.

A Primitive Skills Gathering 2010

Hello potential students at next spring’s earth skills gathering! It’s been longer than we anticipated between emails; although there has been a lot of forward momentum, we still are not 100% confirmed on the land to hold the gathering, and had hoped to be able to present that by now. The last several months we have been in the process of getting approval from the Ya-Ka-Ama Indian Educational Center to be on their land near the Russian River between Forestville and Windsor, just Northwest of Santa Rosa, CA. Since the Council meeting was cancelled last week, we have a few more weeks to wait to have our paperwork approved. If it does work out, the land is ideal, a very exciting prospect. The gathering will be May 2-8, 2010 – including the cross-quarter day between the Equinox and Solstice, Cinco de Mayo. Put it on the calendar now and spread the word to interested parties! While camping in our tipis, tents, trailers, and under the stars, there will be five full days of classes, Monday-Friday, along with music and dance, a trader’s marketplace, a possible panel discussion, the chance to make new friends while reconnecting to ancestral practices, and more. Classes cover a range of topics such as friction fire, natural cordage, basketry, pottery, stone tools, nature awareness, wild food and medicine, buckskin, natural fibers, traditional weaponry, and whatever brilliance instructors bring to camp.

Because the seasons are rolling along, we are sending out this note as an update of our progress and call for energy in the early stages. Please spread the word to anyone in Northern California who you can think of that would want to know about this and/or help out! Forward this message and have friends send us an email to get on the mailing list! Please respond if you would like join an organizational meeting in early December in Sebastopol, or if you can’t make it and want to stay abreast of what’s going on on the ground. On the agenda will be: gathering supplies, work parties, division of labor, backup plans for land, website, a name, fund raising, the wonderful intersection of burgeoning movements in these metamorphic times…

Leaves are turning yellow, so it’s time to be gathering and drying acorns. We hope to have a steady stream of acorn processing for collective meals at the gathering, so help us stock up! If the acorns have holes or bumps, leave them for the squirrels and birds. It Will Live Forever as told by Julia Parker is a great book to learn about this, by one of the many stellar instructors who we hope to have teaching next spring.

Email Rusty at califorigin@gmail.com if you’d like to be on his mailing list and if you’re interested in getting on one of the teams to help it happen: work parties, wildharvesting outings, web design, outreach, funding.

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