Chad Pivik

Thanks a million Leo!  I've talked to old local bee keepers about getting bees and in just one day I've not only learned more from you and your videos online, you have inspired me to actually build a hive and attract some bees. I'm going to my neighbors house to tell her the good news on bee keeping. She has a fantastic bio-diverse flower yard.  Maybe bees will be her gateway animal to city permaculture craziness.      

Has anybody used swarm traps in a city? I remember reading that honey bees fly some distance away from the hive before they collect pollen.  So getting your neighbor to get a hive would be beneficial for you and vise versa.

Hello Leo,
Wow! My mother has wanted bees for years and now I'm going to get working building a bee hive with your plans.  She will be so surprised next year.  Thanks.

All that is just potato onions now.  When it stops snowing will plant Hamburg parsley and later than that hopefully some ground cherry.

Pics

Alley driveway v garden.  Used to 2 car driveway now 1 car.  

I like to use 5 gallon buckets, 3 boys, and a wife. We can usually get all the woods chips out of long bed truck (2.5 cubic yards) and spread throughout our yard in about an hour. I will be looking for a 10 tine fork.  We have chickens and they sometimes move more than a cubic yard of chips in places we don't want (the last little patch of grass we have left).

Ok this is just a summary. The first part of earth breathing is just being relaxed and in touch/aware of your body while lying flat on the ground with your knees up and tied together. This helps your lower back to relax.  Elbows are on the ground and hands on your lower belly.  You breath in and on the out breath you imagine yourself sinking into the earth a foot or two.  With every breath out you sink further and further into the earth. Then you just abide.  This also works good for when you are feeling stressed.  You just feel the tension and breath into it and on the out breath you breath the tension into the earth.  It can be very grounding.  Really all you are doing is breathing your awareness into the space and energy of the earth. I'm afraid I haven't given the depth of this practice justice.
For a more thorough guided decent into the earth you can go to dharmaocean.org and click on teachings then click on free audio series.  My curiosity usually get the best of me and eventually I found out that this is a practice in one form or another that many indigenous cultures use.  But they don't really see it as meditation.  It is just something you do naturally.
From the way you write it sounds to me that you are already very somatically grounded. I'm looking forward to getting your book and its just in a nick of time.  I'm doing my first official permaculture design and I'm finding it's a little overwhelming at times.




   

Wow Jasmine! I think you just started a new type of earth psychology. I've never thought of my psychological edges in a permaculture metaphor. I have on one occasion drank too much wine while planting in spring and found myself sleeping on the ground in one of my raised beds. Very restful and productive.  It was after that I started to let the plants grow where they wanted to grow and stopped tilling the beds.  A year or two later I was infected with permaculture and everything started to make so much more sense.  Except for my neighbors who think I have gone wild and like to cultivate chaos.
By the way have you ever heard of earth breathing?

Thanks, you have given me much to feel/ponder.

I find aimlessly walking around works pretty good.  But then I usually forget to write down my observations.