Jenn Stennett

I stumbled on this forum and my jaws are slathering!  Thankyou all posters for re-affirming my faith in humanity!  *laughing*  The content here is huge, so I started off by reading the mindless drivel.  

But seriously,  I am greatful to be able to post here.  Thanks moderators and maintainers.  

I have no money, I have no land, and no resources.  But I have a dream.  Live off the land.  Keep bees.  Grow mushrooms for the community and hemp for the hurd and barley for malting.  On this parcel I will have an inn.  There will be three things on the menu and micro brews, and wine aged in maple barrels I coopered myself after traveling to france and learning from some masters.  There will be cheese from the goats and cows. A bard every friday night.

On this parcel there will also be a thriving artisan collective.  Outdoor, covered workshops filled with craftsman, artisans and the like, learning and practicing their trades, like glass blowing, blacksmithing, basket weaving, glass making, clay making, baking, throwing, pounding, moulding.  There will be a vintners and brewers, and coopers.  Lace makers, weavers, wool spinners and dyers.  I'm slathering.

There will be limestone on the land and nearby we will have experimental archaeology - a castle building in medieval time.  Oh I dunno, maybe not a castle, but something of ashlar and rubble!  With stone masons and carvers teaching their trade...

I could go on... I want to go on...passive house, sashimono, hempcrete, clay, underground garden...steam hut...yoga meditation studio...adult jungle gym replete with climing wall and giant tire geodome. Absolutely out-of-this-world playground for the kids...tree houses...sigh.  I better stop.  Tomatoes, potatoes, and NOPE.  Im stopping.

I will look to this forum to fuel my fire.  Have a great day permies!

" I ask because if our bigger picture observations are flawed...wouldn't our big picture designing be too?"

This thread is chewy, thankyou!  I loved math guy's response, I'd like to work his numbers into something sacred.  However, I think I get what the permie is trying to put down.  And along the permiculture lines, here is my take:

I observe the patterns of water and see constant movement, even still water shivers.  If I chose that element in nature to use as my inspiration for designing permiculture systems and buildings, I would note how water is effected by gravity. (Lets say I do not understand 'gravity') Then I would see how water always wants to flow to the lowest point.  I would build around this point.  Using the force of nature to dictate my design.  I would spend the four seasons noting the behaviour of the land with the weather at this point.  Then I would know all the ways I could utilise the power of this water pattern there; what work I could not do. This design would use the land at it's peak ability with no waste of energy.

How could I apply this design principle to a "bigger picture" environment?  HRM!  This thread really got me thinking!  Perhaps there is a flaw, or at least, an improvement can be made in how we build our infrastructure, urbanly.  (Is that a word?  Just call me Shakespeare.)

There is a flaw in building large.  If we followed nature, everyone would have clean water, and food to eat.  Smaller communities that maintain their own utilities...what a dream.  Personally, I'd love BC to get some bullet trains and the province to give away deforested plots of land so micro cities could grow like wildfire...instead of wildfire.

So basically, the flaw is: water is not level.