Howdy Friends,
Launching a GoFundMe campaign to create a demonstration site for a new way of life or society. Please help
https://www.gofundme.com/g863d6rg
The Plan
The plan is to create a demonstration site. A light on a hill of you will. We have sold our house for seed money to help jump start this endeavor however we still need your help to make it happen. The Term "Permaculture is derived from Permanent Agriculture. However we are taking it further so here it means
"Permanent Culture" http://becauseitstime.com that is sustainable and can endure for a thousand years or more.
Immediate Goals:
1. Help others become happy and positive by giving them the book; The Books of Life Volume I: How to Become Happy"
http://becauseitstime.com
2. Acquire the land to build the demonstration site.
3. Plant lots of trees to production such a fruit and nuts, also from oaks and pines, to Chestnut etc.
4. Acquire equipment such as backhoe, or track-hoe and loader etc. to prepare the land as described below.
5. Acquire alternative energy equipment such as solar, wind, or hydro etc. as applicable for the land.
6. Build and or retrofit housing and facilities such as teaching/community/healing center.
7. Set up an alternate trading/gifting center
8. Build or retrofit a "Rip Rap" Library with 3D printer and other tools for community use.
9. Build an alternative bio fuels plant.
We will acquire a hundred acres or more, or somewhere in that range. We will design the landscape using permaculture techniques. Keyline water management using swales (berms) on contour and dams if needed. This slows the natural water flow on the property from rain fall and any streams or drainage's on the property and pushes it out to the ridges to give it time to soak in. This stores water in the soil and recharges the aquifers and gives life to the soil organisms that build good soil...it prevents flooding as well. It also creates the nutrition we need from our foods we are currently not getting.
We will then plant lots of productive trees and bushes along those swale lines and contour lines. Trees also store water. These will be production trees and bushes. Fruit and nut trees along with Oaks, Chestnuts and Pines and other species, all which produce delicious edible nuts or fruit.
Chestnuts and acorns used to be referred to as corn or grain that grows on trees. And they literally are. Try some chestnut flour. It is the original flour that pasta was made of. The American chestnut tree is making a come back after being nearly wiped out by an Asian blight back near the turn of the twentieth century. Native Americans ate acorns and chestnuts as a staple food and many early settlers did the same. Chestnut flour has a delightful nutty slightly sweet taste.
The larger trees will be the over story and smaller fruit and nut trees the mid story. (This method of planting once established can get up to 4 times the yield per acre then planting annual crops.)
We will then plant bushes like hazel nuts, blue berries, raspberries, black berries and huckleberries etc. for the under story. Did you know that hazel nuts produce three times the oil as soy beans? And you don't have to replant every year! Also their shells burn like coal. So perhaps they could fire an ethanol still, or masonry heaters.
Between the trees we will have pasture and also annual crops can be grown there, but also perennials like asparagus etc. Livestock such as cows, pigs, or sheep, and chickens will be rotated through using a paddock system so it is not over grazed or browsed. This mimics nature in that the animals keep the under growth and insects in check trims the trees and fertilize on their way through and makes for very healthy animals.
I grew up in the construction trades, I have been organic gardening for years and have a Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton. We have done some of this on a small scale already, however this really takes things to the next level in how to build sustainable communities while caring for the environment. Once established this type of system has very little input freeing up your time to do other things.
http://idahopermaculture.com
This system mimics the basic Savannah type landscape that used to cover most of north America. The difference is we are planting it more to production. Check out what Mark Shepard
http://forestag.com is doing.
Community
We will have a community teaching and retreat center there so people can learn these techniques and see first hand how it functions. We will also have a healing center were various healing modalities will be used and taught.
Also a Community pancake breakfast, lunch, or dinner for people to sample the foods grown on the property.
Also a community trading/Gifting and or bartering post to foster helping one another and alternative means of trading and currencies, perhaps flea market style? Perhaps maybe even an old western style town boardwalk with several buildings people can offer their wares out of. Maybe regular stores but we'd like to explore alternatives means of trade.
Also a library type workshop with tools and a 3D printer that can be used by the community.
We will generate our own power and it will be designed into the buildings or retrofitted into any existing buildings. With the hazel nut oil we could make bio diesel, and of course there is wind and solar power, with the potential for hydro electric if there is a year round stream or creek on the property we chose.
There is the potential for ethanol production also and perhaps an ethanol co-op for the community with a filling station. Did you know most modern cars can run ethanol with no modification these days? Modern computers in most cars will adjust the mixture for maximum efficiency adding more power and cleaner engine with no loss in mileage.
Other families will be invited to live on the property also. Others will also be encouraged to acquire property near or next door if possible and design it similarly. Our goal is to set the example and consult and help others do the same on what ever scale they desire.
I have a certificate from Geoff Lawtons Permaculture Design Course for consulting and designing. However I have been doing some of these techniques intuitively for years.
By donating you will be contributing to a bright new future for humanity a seed for the future if you will. As a thank you for your contribution you will receive a copy of the book (How to Become Happy) we wish to get the book out to millions of people. Societal change starts with helping change people!
Why should you contribute? Because it's time!
http://becauseitstime.com It really is folks, its time we start moving forward to a new society. Keeping the good of the past but discarding the bad. For our children and grandchildren. It has to start somewhere. It has been started by a few, however we need lots more seeds planted for this vision to unfold. If not us, who? If not now, when? Thanks for reading and considering this. Thank you for your help. And thank you for your generous contribution!
Probably be easier to just go with a solar pump. Keep it coming my friends.
