I really enjoyed reading Steve Gabriel’s article and viewing and discussing with my family several videos featuring Bill Mollison that we found on YouTube. The article and the videos prompted some fantastic discussions in my family, and it gave us some new perspectives as we all went out to survey our farmland in advance of creating our base map. It is interesting to point out that as we wandered our 60-acre farm (as we do every day!) it was very eye-opening to us to specifically not include on our base map many features (our vegetable garden, our apple trees, 27 rows of four-to-six-foot Christmas trees, our hillside of berry bushes, our pumpkin patch, our walking paths). We did not include these features on our base map because all of these are subject to change based on what we are learning with respect to permaculture philosophies. Here are some of my family’s discussion points from the article and videos:
The takeaway from the readings and the videos from my teenage daughter, Zoë, was that permaculture is part of a harmonious process where there is a lot of letting go of what we typically think of as being “orderly”. I find my daughter’s thoughts to be very interesting, especially as they relate to the concept of “work” being a design flaw that often leads to “pollution”. All of this is making me look at the water systems on our farm very differently; it forces me to look for a more appropriate way to bring water to the young trees on our farm.
From my teenage son, Zach, his afterthoughts following the video viewings reflected his fascination with permaculture’s philosophy and how it embraces the individual impressions and opinions that people create when discovering permaculture for the first time. He particularly loved how everyone can have their own say in the process, and that that creates the unique driving force for it to reach societies “permanently”. My son’s thoughts remind me that permaculture is as much of an attitude as it is an action and that the attitude that I have to take to embrace permaculture is one of commitment to my family and my farm, in addition to the ecosystem. Essentially, they all are one in the same.
My wife, Ande, related to the “multiple functions” aspects of the applied principles, and can see how homeschooling and working from home is a fundamental permaculture principle for us and our family and our farm—by simplifying as many functions as we can, it allows systems to happen naturally. I hear my wife’s thoughts and I am excited to learn how to apply permaculture philosophies to the multiple, interlocking, and interrelated needs of our family. I am inspired to parallel my wife’s philosophies and results of home education by taking permaculture actions with respect to the ecosystem of our farm. It is all about an interdependent ecosystem of people and all the lifeforms that live on the land.
My own reflections can be summarized in the making of permaculture design a priority on our farm and in our family culture. These designs will require a lot of changes to existing systems, and these, in turn, will require time, energy, and money. I believe that our farm needs to be redesigned properly with permaculture philosophies to maximize natural ecosystem performance and to maximize my family’s health, well-being, and our enjoyment of our land. I am making a commitment to a new philosophy of truth and consciousness applied to our human occupation.
