Thanks to Eivind, here is a more detailed summary of the podcast.
-------------------------------------
Podcast 219 — Symphonies in Seed and Soil Permaculture Tour Recap Part 1
The 2012 Symphony in Seeds & Soil Tour is over. Paul Wheaton, Jocelyn Campbell and Eivind Bjørkavåg try to remember all the different things that they saw that has not already been covered in previous podcasts.
The last time they did a tour summary was in San Francisco, and a lot happened since then. In San Francisco they met with Carol Steinfeld, the author of the book Liquid Gold. She showed them around and they ate dinner together and recorded podcast 213 & 214.
Next was Glenn Kangiser's cabin - THE most documented Oehler structure. There they made podcast 215. Then they went to see the big
trees in Yosemite National Park.
Eivind adds that it has been hectic, that they have seen a lot, and covered a lot of miles to get to each awesome place. For him the visit to Glenn and Kathy was one of the highlights, an amazing piece of art and one of the most awesome houses he has seen. Paul didn't take so many photos because Glenn have documented it so well, but he did take a video of the amazing uphill patio. "It's really showing an artistic view of what you can do with an uphill patio."
Jocelyn was impressed by the way they used
cob. Eivind describes how this structure was a revelation and changed his ideals of natural building. Then Paul tells about Caleb Larson who joined them to visit Mike Oehler in Idaho. Caleb has a lot of
experience with timber framing and he was very impressed with the techniques used by Mike. Then Paul mentions that he thinks he is the one who introduced Mike Oehler to the idea of mixing borax with the soil when you are packing the posts in.
The next stop on the tour was Santa Barbara.
Paul talks about all the problems they encountered on the road with the land whale: broken steps, sleeping at a truck stop (don't ever do that), narrow roads, broken engine fixed with a hatchet, lost fan belt, blown out tire, dead battery. Lastly, the air conditioning went out in Arizona, the hottest part of the tour. Eivind adds that Paul is like MacGyver.
And speaking of which (the permaculture roadtrip), the next years tour, if there is going to be a next years tour, Eivind reminds listeners to say to Paul "Hello, I want to join the tour, pick me, pick me!".
Eivind continues: "I hope many people will find interest in this, because having been on this tour has been an amazing experience. One thing is to read about it and do a little permaculture by yourself, but in order to really get an overview it's necessary to see different examples and talk to the masters and all the amazing people that can be reached on a trip like this." Paul adds "So now you've learned that there's a lot of stuff that we talk about that does not go into the podcast. And we specifically say 'Btw, make sure this doesn't get said in the podcast' but you are sitting right there, so it's a much richer experience... and then how did what you saw compare to what you saw in the videos?" Eivind then uses the Oehler structures as an example, you can get a pretty good idea of how the
underground houses are by watching the youtube videos. But to really be there, to be inside of them, to se how the light shines and how it feels spacious and comforting... and yeah... how it feels like a really good idea to live like that... that you can't see from a YouTube video.
Then Paul mentions a couple of other reasons why being there is better than watching it from his YouTube channel, one of them is that only 10% of his videos actually gets uploaded. And even more stuff that they see where he doesn't even take the video. And many people they visit don't want to let them do recordings, but when you are there you get to see it.
Eivind then claims it has been utterly fantastic to socialize with all the amazing people they have met. It's a unique experience, and everyone that would like to have this opportunity
should already now sign up for the next years tour in order for it to happen. Paul says that with a band tour rig, it'll be about $2000 a head. Half price off for the 2nd driver & cook, and free of charge for the 1st driver & cook. And then they go more into detail about it, before Jocelyn seconds what Eivind said about socializing. "It's incredibly inspiring to meet people that are passionate about what they are doing, and they're passionate about doing things in innovative ways, and ways that leave a lighter
footprint, lives a cleaner lifestyle... I found that really inspiring, and it made me want to make improvements when I get back home."
After some more details about the next years tour and the importance of people to already now show their interest, Jocelyn says it was really awesome to do this years tour with Paul, Geoff and Eivind. Everybody got along great, we had a great time together, everybody pitched in... despite driving an old rig that continued to break down... we still made it to all our destinations in time... it was great travelling with everybody. Paul adds that he think driving the rig took 2 years off Geoff's life, and that it was very smooth when Eivind did the driving the last few days.
And finally back to Santa Barbara! Paul made 2 great podcasts with Art Ludwig, podcast number 217 & 218. They wanted to make more, but they were out of time, because they were presenting in Santa Barbara. Big crowd, good organising by Wesley Roe and the other guys. The topic was Animals in the Landscape. Then they go into details about the venue and the people and the stuff they have going on down there. And about the good blueberry pie Paul got, and the big box of vegetables from the Surfers without borders.
They spent the night at Art's place and left early in the morning for Los Angeles. Then they talk about Bill Schnieders, and the podcast they did with him with the lollypop cherry tree. Eivind relates to the problem it can be to get family members to buy into the permaculture
project, and says he lost his fiance because of this permaculture. He claims his former fiance is fantastic and awesome in every way except that she can't take any more permaculture talk. They agreed to break up in order to live their life the way they want it. She wants to live a normal life in the
city, and he can't do it. "I mean - the world is burning... we NEED permaculture!" Bill Schnieders is another one of those guys that wants to do permaculture and tries to get his folks to join into it - he is single as well! Then Paul mentions the singles forums at permies.com and that he have got many emails from people saying it worked!
Los Angeles. They checked out the Edendale Farm, an urban permaculture site with Welsh Harlequin ducks, Muscovy ducks, Black Soldier Fly larvae breeding ground next to red wigglers, double chamber cob
oven, a converted portapotty to the kind of composting system with the 5 gallon buckets, aquaponics, a gorgeous tipi... And then Paul describes what the passion fruit reminded him of. After the visit Bill drove them to the In & Out Burger and then to the beach.
They then go into detail about the next place, and talk quite a bit about how nice it was in Fallbrook where another Paul and his Molly was their hosts. The next day they they went on to see several farms in San Diego. Jocelyn thinks the organiser Diego was awesome. The first one wasn't a permaculture farm, but a rare fruit farm where they grew cherimoya and used poison and monoculture. The next farm was pretty much the opposite, where the funny and knowledgable Joey Delia have been there just over a year but it was very permaculture. (Link:
http://youtu.be/n-TD6E_brkc) Then Paul goes into details about how to catch or remove cold air. The rest of the podcast comes in part two, podcast number 220.
![[Thumbnail for logo_permies.png]](/t/18690/a/6858/logo_permies.png "Filename: logo_permies.png
Description:"){kind=logo}
