record keeping

I'm in the process of starting a permaculture development and I'm trying to find a program that will allow me to keep and review really comprehensively all my observation.
eg. this year the cherrys started to flower on... the first frost this year... the rains started on..
i could keep it all in paper form but it feels like that will get very clunky when it come to looking back over the last 10, 15, 20 years 

does any one have any suggestion? how do you keep records 
   

i keep diaries and journals..clunky yes.

you might take a diary that has a lot of room to right for every day of the week..that isn't dated but has the weeks and months on it and write what happened on that week of that month each year..and then do the same on the same diary the next year..etc.

I have a journal that had 2 pages per week, and it works out well, as you turn to the same week/month each year and it has all your notes on it from previous years.

I note things like, weather, what is blooming, what I planted and when, etc.

You could make one up out of a nice spiral notebook too and just allow yourself so many pages per week..you can take the number of pages in the notebook and divide them by 52 weeks, so you know how many pages you can count per week...but in the winter if you live in snow country you might not need as many pages as in the summer..so say it has 150 pages..allow two pages per week and then in the spring summer and fall add in the extra pages to 3 per week..

i used to try to keep it all on the computer in google docs/calendars, etc.  I can't do it.  I just keep a notebook.  it's all very disorganized but at least it's all there... somewhere... i think.  ugh.

A database program might also be worth using. You might want to borrow a book from the library about database design: it's straightforward once you know the principles, but a poorly-designed database is so much more work to use & maintain.

at the moment my mum who is living on the land is using those circular solar calendars with the middle cut out and a sheet of paper behind it. she write radially in but there is not allot of room. the good thing is you can look at the whole year with out doing any page flicking.
maybe i just need to learn how to right programs and then make a permaculture specific data base system.     

You wouldn't really need to do programming, unless you wanted to share information with other users online. Open Office has a database program included in its office suite.

But I recommend reading up on database design, either way.

Why don't you start a blog ?

You can use a free one from blogger or wordpress and load up photos, moon phases, text, seed suppliers and so on and you have the choice whether keep it private or publish it on line.

I have a public blog but several private ones which I use for recording stuff that I'd consider boring for the general public on subjects like our building progress and techniques - useful for reminding us where we put pipes and what size wires we've used for our solar system and so on. I have another for gardening, another for paperwork and so on.

You can also download your complete blog to your computer so that you always have a copy. 

You can also buy Five-year diaries (at least, you used to be able to!).  My former father-in-law kept one of those pretty faithfully, and it was interesting to be able to look back to previous years on the same date and see what was going on.  I suppose you could make your own, too, as his didn't have a lot of space to write for each day.

Kathleen

i also buy hardbound diaries from the same company every year, mine are from My Country Diary, Michael Design Works, 41 Katonah Av, Katonah, NY 10536 this years model #CD10

I have used the same co and same books for about 20 years and have them all lined up on a bookshelf..so I can access them...but I also keep the journals in spiral books too..

I use the same style Moleskine book. Small enough to fit in my pocket and as one is filled up I just begin in another.