kids and permaculture

We had a blast this week with mud and children. A permie mama and her six wonderful children came over and we made wheelbarrowfuls of soil, leafmould, water and clover seeds (MUD) hand mixed and glopped onto the newest hugelbeet. Such fun. One of the kids confided in me with a smile of wonderment that he had never been so dirty. I love when the weather gets warm enough for the children to do mud work.

I don't have any kids of my own, but I feel very strongly that exposing young folks to this stuff early and often can only do good. I'm assuming, of course, that permaculture isn't rammed down their throats as the one true way.

a couple of friends of mine run a preschool in Portland that they're trying to expand (insert shameless crowdfund plug here). they aren't explicit about it being permaculture, but the garden is a huge and important part of their school. I'm helping out a bit with the new and much larger garden they'll be putting together, and it's shaping up to be pretty rad. if I play my cards right, I think I've got a decent chance of convincing them to let me put a beehive with observation windows at the school. maybe I'll be able to recruit future beekeeping apprentices that way...

anyhow, kids and permaculture: so great.

I've been enjoying this thread. Kids are of course a part of our world and thus are likely to be part of our local systems. Sometimes incorporating them helps in the short term, like directing their play in to something that serves functions within the system (as with the chesnuts). Sometimes it hinders in the short term, but helps in the long term, such as slowing things down to work to teach a child how to do the task you're doing (even if they're going to do it rather imperfectly themselves, at first).

I have to ask Matu, what is a hugelbeet? I have a hugelkultur of my own (yet to introduce it to any kids! unfortunately, many of them wouldn't be able to see to the top of it, much less help me garden there). I've never heard of a hugelbeet before, though.

File this under "catch and store resources"- my twins are getting strong enough to beat their own rug.

This swing thing was from an old wooden bench swing. The swing broke but we use this for various functions. Small hammock, of course, but also beating rugs and hanging heavy wet things that are too heavy for the clothesline.