Permies Portal - Recently Updated Pages

Book Worms

EarthyToes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:32:14 CST

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College Collages

EarthyToes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:30:17 CST

Permies Portal

EarthyToes — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 07:34:10 CDT

Permies Portal is Closing
Go over to this facebook page started by another Permie :)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/169398336453503/

Care For The Earth
Care For The People
Fair Share
(see e-book attachment at bottom of page)

Permaculture is a design system that works towards harmonious integration of landscape and people to provide food, shelter, energy and other needs in a sustainable way. It takes into account
food production, structures, technologies, energy, natural resources, landscape, animal systems, plant systems, and social and economic structures. It is applicable to urban and rural
conditions and any scale of design. The 10 basic principles of Permculture design are guidelines that you can apply to any project.

1. The Principle of Diversity - Aims to integrate a variety of beneficial species of food, plants and animals into design. This builds a stable interactive polycultural system which provides for human needs and also for the needs of other speices

n2. The Principle of Edge Effect - In general, there is more energy and more diversity of life on the edge where two types of natural systems overlap. On these borders one can access the resources of both sides. Using the edge effect, and other natural patterns that you observe, creates the best effect.

3. The Principle of Energy Planning - Placing the elements of your design in such a way as to minimize the use of energy(including fossil fuels& human labor). Utilizing the energy and resources that you have, first on-site and then from outside the system, as effectively as possible. Onsite energy resources include natural forces such as gravity, windpower , waterpower. This saves time,energy and money.

4. The Principle of Energy Cycling - In a natural system there is no waste or pollution. The output from one natural process becomes the resource for another. Recycle and reuse all of resources as many times as possible.

5. The Principle of Scale - Creating “human-scale” systems.
Choose simple, appropriate technologies for use in designs. Only create systems that are manageable. Start small and take achievable steps towards an ideal goal.

6. The Principle of Biological Resources- Using natural methods and processes to achieve tasks. Find things in nature(plants, animals, microbes)that are supportive of the system design and minimize outside energy input.

7. The Principle of Multiple Elements -Support each vital need and essential function in more than one way, so that a temporary failure in one element will not stop the functioning of others. Also, recognize that there is almost always more than one way to achieve any task.

8. The Principle of Multiple Functions -Most things can be used in a variety of ways and for a variety of functions. One rule of thumb in Permaculture is to try to design three uses for every element of the system. This can save space, time and complication in any particular project.

9. The Principle of Natural Succession -Work with nature and the processes of natural systems. Anticipate future developments through research and observation when necessary.

10. The Principle of Relative Location -Place every element of your design in relationship to others so that they benefit from each other. For example, store tools near where they will be used.

Here's Some Interesting Videos on the subject

Here's a video showing how Permaculture can make an impact even in a desert. These people had never seen mushrooms before,they didn't know what they were, they only survive in moist environments! Watch this video and see what you can do with Permaculture..
hey like I keep saying...
Permaculture rocks ;)

As the course profile from the college website so beautifully puts it

“This innovative and pioneering full time course is about practical sustainability, ideas and skills to enable us to make our lives and our communities more abundant and harmonious with the environment.”

Permaculture Design
Permaculture is the design of sustainable human settlements, covering all aspects of sustainable living, from natural building and gardening to waste water treatment and renewable energy. Practiced around the world, it gives you a tool kit for implementing a more sustainable future.

Sustainable Woodland Management: How can we design woodlands to be productive as well as pleasant places to be, good for wildlife and hosts to a diverse range of livelihoods and activities? This course will transform your ideas about what woodlands can be.

Natural Building
Can we create beautiful homes from natural materials, designed to be energy efficient and in harmony with the landscape? We can, and this practical course will look at why and how you can build with a range of natural materials, as well as looking at building design.

Organic Production Principles & Food Production
These modules compliment permaculture design, offering a very practical approach to organic gardening. These combined modules will deal with: organic standards, soils and fertility, pests and diseases, the organic market, cultivating and manuring, weed control, health and safety, growing vegetables, herbs and fruit.
Natural Nutrition: is designed to provide the learner with knowledge of the composition of food and an understanding of how food affects an individual’s personal well-being. We’ll look at the nutrition we need for health and vitality and we’ll discuss the various options for obtaining this nutrition, while maintaining permaculture ideals.

Start your own business
is designed to provide the skills required to start a business and the knowledge to understand the issues involved in doing so. It will provide the learner with real life experience of investigating and evaluating a business idea.

Community Leadership
is about learning how to be confident in front of other people, as a team member, team leader or group facilitator. This approach to leadership means that it is a role that everybody can temporarily take on, rather than a person in a position of authority. The emphasis is on participatory group processes and decision making. This module leads to a skills demonstration in group facilitation.

Conflict Resolution
raises awareness of how conflicts unfold, how they can escalate and strategies to de-escalate them. Topics include Active Listening, Basic Agreements, Effective Feedback, ‘I’ Statements, Rank Awareness, Non-Violent Communication and Mediation – the art of helping others managing their conflicts. This module leads to a mediation skills demonstration.
These two modules cover the people’s aspect of sustainability. The skills of non-violent conflict resolution, negotiation, team-working and participatory group facilitation are important in every area of life. Sustainability activists need to be particularly well versed in these skills if they want to be agents of positive change in the current times of transition.

This is a link to some photos on the Kinsale FEC website of the various courses including the Permaculture/Sustainability course

The Permaculture Concept
Bill Mollisons Film in 6 easy to watch parts
Bill Mollison explains the history and make up of his way of living for the future; Permaculture.Permaculture is a way of living that can be applied to many different aspects of living from how you grow your veg to how you build your house, it's a natural way of living, that ensures we humans learn to live and learn from nature and in balance with nature.

Part 1

View the Green Building we built at college

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:28:46 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Shedding Some Light on Permaculture

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:25:04 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

2 Years at Kinsale FEC as a Permaculture Student

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:17:18 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

This Permie Loves......

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:15:13 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

This Permie Wonders ...

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:12:03 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Renewable Energy updated

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:11:19 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Transition Town Kinsale - Related Videos and Regular Newsletters

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:05:24 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Calender

EarthyToes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:03:23 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Future Events

EarthyToes — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:08:18 CDT

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Community Garden

EarthyToes — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:32:09 CDT

For current updates on the Community Garden see

http://www.transitiontownkinsale.org/projects/community-garden.html

DOWN AT THE COMMUNITY GARDEN/ November 2008

Work days have started once again with Aimi Pinder and Oliver Pugh taking over as co-ordinators. On 2nd November, the first Sunday back, we had a fantastic turn out and did lots of great work to clear the garden of weeds ready for winter mulching. We have also planted a beautiful new plum tree and our first crop of garlic. Over the winter we intend to improve the garden structure ready for spring sowing. There will be new paths and beds laid and a new sheltered seating area complete with chairs made from recycled pallets! Work days will be every Sunday 1-4pm (weather permitting) all are welcome to come and share the garden and pick up some useful tips. Come spring we hope to be able to run some short courses for those wishing to learn or be inspired about organic veg growing so, if this is you, it would be great to see you down there. Finally, a big thank you to Bandon coop for their kind donation of multi-purpose compost and to all the volunteers for their continued support.

2008
October Diary
Kinsale Community Garden
A new Begining.

We would like to invite you all to the clean up session at the gardens. come along for a chance to get your hands dirty and share

old ideas and new hopes. The session will be on Sunday 2nd November from 1pm 'till 4pm
We look forward to meeting everyone who has helped make the garden a reality and all those who will keep it moving forward.
See you there.

Olly and Aimi

There's a range of nice fresh veg ready for harvest, including new potatoes! Nobody goes home empty handed.

Hope to see you there
Best wishes

As many gardeners will attest one of the greatest pleasures of gardening and growing your own food is the feeling of anticipation it gives you. So much of the joy of growing is found in this gradual unfolding of life as seeds begin to germinate and plants show themselves for the first time above the soil. Before your eyes and indeed when you are not there your garden is changing and growing. Every morning brings a new set of discoveries and a new gift of anticipation for the coming day.

The coming weeks will be full of activities for preparing the garden for the coming spring. There will also be the chance to get advice on growing your own apple tree, as well as tips on using a coldframe for growing salads. See the schedule below for details. So this is a great time to get involved and learn a few things about growing your own food. As always all are welcome.

February 08

Febuary 3rd
– Get your hands dirty Day! A day for garden weeding and clean-up, and doing those little jobs that need doing.

Febuary 10th
– Fruit Day. A talk and demonstration on pruning and planting apple trees and soft fruit bushes. And laying a mulch for them.

Febuary 17th
- Coldframes and planting early salad plants. A demonstration of an ingenious system for making compost and providing heat to the plants at the same time.

Febuary 24th
-Stone Day. Using stone to build low retaining walls for flower and vegetable beds. We will also be planning ahead for the spring planting.

January 2008

Sunday 13th
– Re-laying paths using bark mulch.
Planning the construction of the main path running from the entrance.
We collected a van full of cypress mulch from the college and brought it to the garden. It’s amazing the difference it makes having a well defined path laid out. It also beats walking on mud which is very demoralising. Our soil is already quite acidic as seen by its compaction and the carpet of buttercdup ion various places. The bark mulch won’t help this so we plan to spread ground limestone on the paths too to try and neutralise the effects.

Sunday 20th –
The Great mulching Day. We will be doing a layered mulch on the raised beds.
We collected a trailer full of horse manure from close where I live. Unfortunately the manure was not of the best quality. It was uncovered and the brown pools of water showed that a lot of the nutrients were leaching out. At best I’d say this manure had 30% of fertilit y left. Still it’s better than nothing. We covered three beds in a newspaper-manure-straw layer.

Sunday 27th –
More mulching and hopefully laying of new path.
It was a beautiful day to be out in the garden today. We covered up more beds with a selection of mulches. It created a nice patterned effect. We also laid sone steps inside the square bed and gave the coldframe a bit attention.

November 2007 in the Garden.

The last of the tomatoes have been picked, the spuds dug up, the salads dressed and the garlics tied up. It’s winter in the community garden.

Our vegetable beds are largely empty now, apart from a few brave broccoli plants. All the berries have gone from our soft fruit trees. This is the time of the year where you get to reflect on the growing season just past, but it is also the time to have your beds mulched up so they can rest for the winter and be ready with a new lease of life for the spring. A layer of seaweed has already been laid on the beds but we plan to increase this with an extra layer of manure, more seaweed and straw on top.

November also saw the erection of our very own shed. In true sustainable fashion we salvaged an old shed from a garden that was waiting to be dumped. It only consisted of the walls, which them selves needed repair. And so we had to construct a new floor and roof. We also salvaged some palettes to use as the foundation. The shed is up now. It has helped greatly for storing tools, wellies and giving us shelter when the rains get heavy.

November has also consisted of plenty of weeding. There is a challenge with perennial weeds in the garden. Buttercups and helliborine are rampant. We have managed to keep the veg beds free of these. But a task for the future will be to further clear these weeds from the entire site and thus hold back their invasion. We are dealing with wet, acidic soil, which these weeds thrive in. It is also hoped that we can lay clearer paths and deal with the problem of drainage. The garden is sloped and so water and soil is moving down hill. We have also been doing a general tidy up, which is what this part of the year is for in the garden. All our pots and trays are washed and stored, the cold frame was cleaned out and the compost given a good look over.

Apart from that the garden is in great condition! It has been great to see new faces there from both Kinsale and outside. All are welcome, so hope to see you there soon.

For enquiries or to be put on the email list you can contact me on the address below.
dneavyn@yahoo.co.uk

What Permie Did Next...

EarthyToes — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:01:29 CDT

So much for my punctuality in getting my travel log off by the start of each month. Some of this is actually being typed and written for the third time! Thanks to several technological glitches, exploding cameras, faulty memory sticks and a severe lack of access to Microsoft word in the high mountains. For what it´s worth my phone has also died. But at last it is here! Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I have spent the last 5 weeks in Las Alpujarras, the mystic heart of Granada province. A beautiful mountain range with deep wide valleys sweeping south of the Sierra Nevada, whose peaks are still covered in snow, including Mulhacen, Spain’s highest mountain. But here in the valleys spring has arrived. The almond and cherry blossoms are out, ladybirds are creeping up the plant stems and the days are getting warmer and longer. If Almeria had a sad beauty, Las Alpujarras’s is mystical. The mountain air is wonderfully thin allowing sounds to travel far; the sound of flowing water is almost ever present. The mountainsides have little white villages hanging to the sides of them, each with its own fountain. Within the forests there are natural springs to drink from, including one, the only in Spain, which is naturally fizzy, infused with iron and other minerals. The beauty of this part of Spain owes much to the genius of the Moors. Water, as it was in their days, is still the local gold. It is argued over and discussed in some way every day. The very channels that were dug all those years ago are still in use and thanks to them it has transformed a potentially dry valley into one lush with growth and deciduous forest. They dug and directed an incredible series of irrigation routes bringing water from the high Sierras and thus making life as it is possible here.

It´s not hard to see why this part of Spain is so popular with alternative types looking for a piece of paradise. The landscape is beautiful, the pace easy and the weather sunny. Many foreigners have come over and bought their little piece of land, rebuilt a ruin, started a business, planted a seed. Some have done it along official lines and others not. I´ve chatted to several people around here about such topics as planning permission and land prices. As I´m sure many of you are aware, in Ireland you can build a ‘tool shed’ without permission on your land, which people then secretly live in. Well the same thing happens in Las Alpujarras, only here you can go to even greater extremes. I´ve been told that if you do build a house without permission and are caught all you get is a fine which may only be a few thousand euro. That´s pretty incredible. There´s laws in place but Spaniards after so many years under Franco don´t like being told what to do. Thus there is a refreshing approach from the authorities. They´ll ignore you for as long as possible and when you do have to visit them they will not only ask the questions but give you the right answers too. That said it is hard to get things done. If you are not ´plugged in´ called enchufe here you will wait some time to get the local digger truck driver to arrive. If you are building in anything other than the local style you won´t find much of a support network, nor materials. Thankfully the local style is for the most part aesthetically pleasing. Houses need to be clad in natural stone from the area, un-sawn timber is used in roofs and window lintels. All roofs have to be flat and packed with local clay on top of slate. This though is rather bizarre and causes consternation among many. These roofs need yearly maintenance involving the family jumping on it to repack it and close any gaps.

Now I must cast my mind back to the start of February...

My first week here was supposed to be spent at the local Steiner school in the town of Orgiva but that got cancelled at the last minute. I found out later that there is a lot internal strife going on at the moment within the school body. Pity for the kids really. All told the teachers just want to teach but raging arguments about what to teach and how has meant that nobody is getting taught anything at all. And so it continues. So instead I extended my stay in the city of Granada which was experiencing its wettest week in history. But unlike Santiago which relishes the rain, Granada starts to look like a wet dog after a few days of it. My brother was over from Ireland so I guess he brought the weather with him. I introduced him to the wonders of couch surfing but Rob is a different sort of traveller. After several cold nights wrapped in not much more than a tea towel and lying on a small couch he moved down the street to a 3 star hotel. Granada’s main attraction is of course the Alhambra. The small percent of the original Moorish structure that still remains is outstanding, and the views of the Alhambra from the Plaza San Nicholas are pure romance, but you can’t help wondering how it must have looked before so much was destroyed and built over by the Catholic monarchs. The Albaycin is the Moorish quarter of Granada, it’s a maze of little streets and is a designated UNESCO site. It’s hard to walk through it without stopping off in a tea house and smoking a hookah, or helping yourself to a cheap kebab. But it contains the living lanes of the city, away from the main thoroughfares with their chain stores and fashion outlets. Granada prides itself on its generosity with tapas, a free portion of food that comes with every drink you order. Still I find it is best not to go out with any empty stomach expecting to have your dinner that way. You´d keel over intoxicated before you had your fill. It didn’t take us long to find our way to Hannigans Irish bar. It was never planned, we just stumbled upon it, and sure enough a special Super bowl night with a three hour build up was under way. We were invited back for quiz night and open mic night, and we even got free drinks from the Irish owner, but I didn’t get over my hangover in time to return.

Tell any hippy or alternative type you are going to Las Alpujarras and they are sure to mention one place,

You know you are at an unusual party when a drunken guy wanders out the back to pee but refuses to do so until he finds the compost bin to do it in. Or when a friend turns to you to inquire if the person dancing beside you is a man or a woman. You know you are in an unusual town when you take a visit to the farmers market and find one stall consisting of 4 loaves of bread on a small table surrounded by 4 guys drinking beer, intermittently shouting ´Organic bread!´ All the hardcore hippies, crusties and wanderers of the world seemed to have converged on this town and have brought with them an immensity of dogs and years of experience of squatting, protesting, sitting on their asses and general dislike of a system they will never fit in to. It would be easy to judge but harder to ask why so many turn their back on society and whether maybe they have something to teach us. But that line of communication is never opened. The wanderers in Orgiva stay on their side and the locals stare and frown from the other. One thing I can say for certain is that money can distant you from people and when I visited those places where money was scarce, community spirit was strong.

This is a question that has interested me a lot recently. GEN stands for the Global Eco-village Network; it can be accessed at www.ecovillage.org, and has Jonathon Dawson of Findhorn at its helm. He has written a book as part of the Schumacher series on Eco-villages and he lists 5 fundamental attributes of an eco-village.

- That there is a primacy of community.
- That it is a citizens’ initiative.
- Motivated by the desire to rest back control of our own resources.
- There´s a strong body of shared values.
- They are centres of research, demonstration and training.

Just outside Orgiva there is a well-known community called Beneficio and some 40km east towards Almeria there is another called Valle de Sensaciones. I visited both of these recently and found that what defined them most were not their similarities but their differences. The greatest being how to deal with new people coming to stay and live.
Beneficio prides itself first and foremost on its level of freedom. There are no rules written down because there is no governing body to write them. Indeed there is little organisational structure at all. There is just an open door to arrive when you want and if there is space then you can stay. And so Beneficio attracts all types, it can thrill you with its diversity of people or torment you by its chaos. In one way many things are possible here but in another its refusal to self organise closes the door to its own growth. It´s a paradise to some who wouldn´t change a thing but for others the doors are too open.
Valle de Sensaciones seeks a different route. It wants a strong community and is structured around the preservation and protection of that community. The doors are closed in so much as you can´t just arrive. It doesn´t want to attract ‘all types’ but rather it seeks to grow by attracting the ‘right’ people. To make this distinction it is necessary that visitors and volunteers have to pay to be there. Its vision is very clear and its direction feels as solid as a well fired arrow.
My visit to Valle de Sensaciones was never planned. I had an afternoon free so I decided to hitch out to Beneficio again to visit the Skill surfers who are staying there. Soon enough they flew by in their buses and told me they had been invited out to Sensaciones for a full moon party so I came along. What ensued that evening was a clash of two visions regards what an eco-community is. The Skill surfers have found their feet in Beneficio, it is their type of community. They love its freedom and ease of integration. Sensaciones however only occasionally invites groups out like this and has a set way of welcoming and integrating them into their community. Our first mistake was arriving late in the dark. (I won´t go into the details of how a 40km journey took 4hrs, though it was funny at times..) Thus it was too late to do a proper go around of names and a tour of the site. The small party had already begun and our group were given instead a list of options for eating with them that night, involving making a food contribution or giving money. This was not what the Skill surfers expected at all. It was a strange night felt by each group and as the sun arose on the next day there was a whole range of opinions flying around amongst the Skill surfers. Some felt V de S were elitist and unwelcoming, others laid blame on the disorganisation of the skill surfers group. Either way it was unfortunate but also a great lesson for everyone. Eloy, the main man at Sensaciones, visited us at our vans that morning and we had a long discussion about why last night was the way it was. He respects how Beneficio works but in order to achieve the much clearer objectives of Sensaciones it is necessary that money is brought into the equation and that things are more structured.
It seems to be a fundamental choice in building an intentional community.

My god page 5 and I haven’t even started writing about my three Wwoof places! I´m spoiling you all.

The bus to Pitres takes you to the far east of the valley, past all the picturesque touristy villages to an area that is less visited but equally beautiful. There is a wonderful group of authentic villages here called together La Taha, an original Arab term. My 3km walk to the farm I would stay at for the first week was a perfect introduction to the landscape here. I walked a little out of town then descended down a forest path, winding around some valleys and hopping over streams on the way. The views are far reaching all the way, taking in the opposite mountains and distant snowy peaks.
My hosts were Andrew and Claire, a young English couple, who bought the place 3 years ago after wwoofing themselves before falling in love with the area and buying a little plot for themselves. They win hands down so far for location. They like the remote feeling of their spot, and it certainly feels like you are the last little house at the end of the entire valley. The choice to live here also keeps them away from the eyes of the authorities. I had my own little cabin for my stay there with incredible views. On the first night a storm picked up and raged through the valley. Winds rushed up and slammed against the house, shaking the windows, and causing me to dive onto my bed on one occasion. We woke the next morning to solid rain and to find that one large tree had fallen taking a large chunk of sloping land with it. The very slope where Andrews horse fell and broke its neck some months before. They’ve had some bad luck with animals. Their goat was a terrible nuisance so they sent it back and thus plan to try sheep next. They’ve currently got a donkey, two rabbits, four dogs and six cats. When I arrived there were only four cats. There are probably ten by now.

The picture above shows the fruit of my one weeks labour. It is of course a chicken shed. They wanted a rustic looking thing (my favorite design method). I´ve patented the design, being particularly impressed with my Picassoesque oblique angled chicken run. It also features a removable roof, door with open and close function, many ventilation holes and outside nest box access, although in its current location it would involve falling off the terrace to get at the eggs. You may be wondering how it could have taken me all week to build it. Well Claire and Andrew’s house has no road access and the getting of materials means a strenuous walk uphill to retrieve palettes and the like. After that you had to tie the palettes to a wheelbarrow and then let gravity race you into several ditches on the way down. I´d have an easier time trying to direct a bull backwards down that track. A beautiful location comes with a price when there is no easy access to your house. Everything in their house has a number attached to it.

Couch – 2 men/1hrs to get it to the house
Table – 4 men/1.5hrs
Masonry stove – Don´t even ask.

Well that’s why they bought the horse, to transport things to the house. But now they are training in their donkey Morris for that job.

Unlike in Ireland where you have corner boys hanging around and gangs forming, in Spain the equivalent is old ladies and they own the streets. Not happy to stay behind doors and rearrange teacups they march down the streets, arm in arm, six deep, and shoot you stares and disapproving looks that would have Jesus himself shaking at the knees. They storm out of bakeries holding baguettes like baseball bats. They order brandy in their coffee and eat meat lie grown men. But their greatest weapon is the word. They are fountains of knowledge and tradition ever ready to argue a point, roar opinions and plunder conversations. Theirs are the loudest voices in the square. They lecture in the supermarket ques treating the purchase of vegetables like a religious act. But family is their greatest treasure. Tighter than an atom, you wouldn´t want to try split them.

Torviscon is a small village on the south side of the valley. An area where the irrigation channels never reached. Thus it is a drier landscape and is taken over by large plantings of hardy trees such as almond (above) and olives. I spent two weeks here working with Lizzie Wynn, the Straw bale builder of Las Alpujarras. She has a small eco construction business called Eco-casa giving advice and offering practical skills to self-builders. She is also currently building her own 153m/sq straw bale house. Any land bought with a ruin on it here gets instant building permission, so Lizzie is fine in that case. Building with straw is a trickier question. Lizzie´s approach, as seen a lot around here, is to just build the thing and plaster it. As she says ‘Nobody will know what the walls are made of!’

So I spent a very pleasant two weeks breaking the law at Lizzie’s place. It has been some of the most pleasant and rewarding work I have done so far on my travels. I love to work with stone more than any other material. There is something so pure and natural to the work. I once heard this attraction of stonework being explained by how it exercises both mind and body and this is certainly true. After a days’ work you feel invigorated in the mind and a lovely sense of tiredness in your well worked muscles. I´ve mostly done dry stone walling but at Lizzie´s I got to practice mortar work using lime. Lizzie is also a fan of the earth ship building technique and is using recycled car tires packed with gravel in her walls too.

Before…

And after

The work, in a nutshell, involved first choosing the window lintels, getting the correct height and then building them in with stone and mortar. Each line of tires needs to be level, the top level being flush with the roof plate which you can see resting on the straw bale wall on the bottom picture. When building with straw you have a choice between load bearing walls in which the straw bales hold the weight of the roof themselves or you can build a frame to hold the roof and then fill in the walls spaces after. Straw bales are well able to hold the weight of a roof but it does raise the challenge of different compression levels along the walls. Also a soon as the roof goes on you need to wait a month before plastering to allow the walls to compress fully. This is not necessary if you’ve built a frame. The beauty of straw bale building is the all inclusive nature of the work. People that would usually be excluded from the building process such as children and old people can get involved. Lizzie and a few wwoofers with no experience built a very nice straw bale tool shed in just three weeks with tire foundation and bamboo roof for very low cost. The speed of the build can be amazing and is sometimes referred to as ‘bale frenzy’ the excitement that takes over a group as the walls fly up.
So for Lizzie I built up one side of the original wall from the ruin to hold the roof veegers. It was lovely work, wandering in to the fields in the morning to collect stones, making up a big batch of lime mortar mix and then working away in the sun, absorbed in the stones having lost sense of time. Suddenly it would be tea break, lunch and then the day was done.

I got on very well with Lizzie. She clearly loves the company of wwoofers and each evening we headed into Torviscon for a few drinks and tapas. Torviscon though is not the liveliest of towns, a one horse town in which the horse has left. There is one hotel serving amazingly bad food. The bar in town is owned by a fusball fanatic, as in the table version. He appears to have bought a fusball table and built his bar around it. You have to wait between games to get a drink and during games the thing is so loud you can´t even speak. Time to move on.

After my two weeks I returned to the area of La Taha where I had been previously for another two weeks wwoofing at Cortijo Opazo. It was nice to be back in the part of the valley where water is abundant and the growth lusher and greener.
Robert and William were my hosts here. An English couple who have set up a very well run rural accommodation business, offering also guided walks of the area. William is also a landscape designer and both have them have done a great job transforming the bare terraces into an extensive garden of ornamentals, fruit trees and veggie a garden. They aim to have it as a nursery in the future selling native plants. Myself and my fellow wwoofer Dan from Australia were very well looked after at Cortijo Opazo. Actually it was like 5 star wwoofing. We had an en-suite room with under floor heating. Both William and Robert are great chefs so lunch and dinner was an event every day. Breakfast was a very English affair with BBC world service on the radio, homemade marmalade and muesli on the table. I loved it.

Of course you don´t get this well treated without having to work for it. The work was certainly hard, especially being at 1250m above sea level. But after the two weeks I felt a strong as on ox. Robert and William are also good in that they worked alongside us in all the tasks.

We built a filtration system for their water storage tank as seen above. This involved using a lot of cement and breeze blocks. Not my favorite materials but undoubtedly quick and useful. I guess it doesn’t hurt to use it in small amounts. During its construction I secretly placed some natural stone within the wall to reduce the amount of cement required. I also vouched for the use of natural stone in some places. Well Robert and William got the idea so they gave me and Dan a pretty enjoyable task of building a paving area in the secret garden, as seen below. We really enjoyed this. We were left to our own devices and added a few designs of our own.

Well that was Las Alpujarras, a great cradle of natural beauty. Some days ago I took a hike high into the Sierras. I´ll never forget the feeling of lying in the grass in a valley having just hiked up for two hours from Spain’s highest village. On that grass with the lovely sound of melt water all around, crystal streams, butterflies and birds and little wisps of cloud in the blue sky above it felt like the door to spring had just been opened. Indeed it felt like the entire world was being given a second chance. It will be a sad day indeed if we are ever denied the chance to relax and soak in the natural balm of silence that only nature can provide.

Right now I´ve returned to Granada city and so has the sun. Everybody is in the streets and there is festival atmosphere all around. It´s such a beautiful place when the sun is shining. I spent 4 pleasant hours writing this this morning, then took an afternoon stroll and have now returned to make the finishing touches. Next stop is Malaga province, back to the mountains and valleys and more volunteering. More tales of that in about one month…

Happy spring 09 everyone.

Lotsa love

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Tis now one month that I have been in Spain and so I write you with some reflections of my travels so far. It´s Stephans Day as I write this
on a laptop in a small village north of Madrid, so I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Mine was spent around the table of a good Spanish
friend of mine and her family. The rythmns of Xmas are a little different here, I was amazed to see nobody crash out on the couch after
dinner to watch some old movie. In fact everyone went to bed for a few hours and woke up later like it was a whole new day. Here they sing at the table, speak like everyone is deaf…i.e. very load, when it´s time to clear the table everyone joins in and starts doing it while shouting ´let me, let me´ but of course in the end everyone does it. So 7 people pile into a small kitchen to clear the plates and I think to myself ´Well surely that´s enough people´ until my friend pops her head around the door and says ´Well, I´m glad to are enjoying your free time!¨and me just having ate a sack of potatoes. When dinner is served everyone explodes into applause, the chef takes a bow, plates fly, conversation erupts and I commence helping Monolo (my friends father) to drink the wine, as we are the only two that do so.

So back to the reflections and to what I call the rythmns of travel. I´m sure you are all aware of this, that sense of travel having its peaks and troughs, the high points and the times when you wanna curl up and take a break from it all. Thankfully my travels have been full of peaks to the point where I start to feel overwhelmed by all the experiences and new people I´m meeting. Within hours you are thrown into a whole new situation and have to start adjusting again. Well that´s the attraction I guess and makes people like us who get restless so easily want to keep moving…

On the first of December I arrived into Spain and the city of Santander, which is situated in the province of Cantabria. It´s a hook of land with long beaches and views south to the beautiful and inviting Picos de Europa mountain range. Unfortunately they were far too covered in snow and wild at this time of year so I resigned myself to some city living. I organised a couch through Couch surfing and a house of three students took me in. My host was Ana a sixth year medical student. Being monday and tuesday that I was there I figured it would be a quiet few days of sight seeing, far from it. So now I ask you to spare a thought for this poor Irishman who is used to Irish times when it comes to going out. Ana was a fantasticly nice and cool person who also happened to be party mad, how she made it to sixth year of medical studies I´ll never know. When she asked would I like to go for a drink and meet her mates I figured why not, we´ll be home by 11 and I´ll be right as rain tomorrow to see all those touristy things I don´t particulary want to see. Well we didn´t even leave the house till 11pm, imagine on a Monday night! 5 hours later we are wandering the streets looking for somewhere open before Ana and her friends resign to going home like they are being lightweights. Needless to say I didn´t do much sight seeing in Santander as the same operation was undertaken the next night and I started to realise the immense importance of taking siestas in Spain. I have since mastered this art, for the sake of my own survival.

And so I continued west along the north of Spain and made my way to Escanda, a collective of some 20 people living communally on a mountainside in Asturius.
When I arrived they were all dancing naked around a fire and chanting… .oh wait there that didn´t happen. In fact Escanda offers a great mix of people from Spain, England, Palestine, Portugal, and Greece, a mixture of hippies, punks, ´normal´ folk and the like but all dedicated to the project and hard working (even the hippies), out on the land, constructing a new house, organising community events, recording music, performing plays, writing articles for internet. And basically promoting small scale community solutions to these global issues we are all concerned about.

After my course in Community leadership and Conflict resolution at Kinsale College of Further Educations' Permaculture course, it was particularly interesting to observe how they organise themselves. On Monday mornings a ´the week ahead´ meeting is held around the breakfast table with one person taking responsibility to write up tasks on the big board. In fact monday is the general meeting/clean-up day, and quickly the board fills with other meetings to be held that day. A page of daily tasks is passed around and everyone signs up for a particular part of the house to clean etc. The house is a hive of activities soon after with everyone cleaning and people shouting that a particular meeting is about start.

All meals are communal in the house and so everyone takes turns cooking. On my day I made pizza, including a rather disastrous corn flour pizza base for a non wheat eater. Apart from that it was good. There´s different groups in the community, for ´construction´, ´the garden´, ´pr´ and energy amongst others. I got invited into the garden meeting at 12pm sharp and we start discussing what needs to done about such things as the whitefly problem and the small river flowing through the veg beds. It turns out I have the most experience regards soft fruits and so I am called for another separate meeting to walk the site and choose the most suitable area for the new fruit area.

All meeting are of course consensus based, with a facilitator and someone taking minutes if required. It seems everyone here is experienced in this and so the meetings flow nicely, everyone speaks and all ideas are discussed. But as ever the common problems of these methods arise, during a house meeting a rather long discussion ensues regards how to organise the purchase and finances of milk seeing as only half the house drinks it. After 20 minutes and still discussing this with the solutions getting more and more complicated I start to wish I was living in a dictatorship.

Escanda is beautifully located in a valley and surrounded by high mountains and many options for long hikes. Unfortunately the new high speed Galicia/Madrid train is passing underground right beside them and so there is major construction going on. Each night and day the house literally shakes as more rock is exploded in the tunnels below. Escanda and locals have being fighting to make sure the work is at least done with care, some houses nearby have already had their foundations badly damaged and there is a risk of collapse. But Escanda ploughs on and they are currently building a new house for themselves. One day was dedicated completely to deciding the room arrangement. Tensions were high that day. But some skillfull facilitation got them through it and on construction day it was great to see each person working with care and dedication in building their new room.

Another nice experience of people working together was on the party night when sacks of grain that needed separating were laid on the ground for people to dance on.There are many positive experiences and lessons to be learned from this type of living. There was a lovely sense of community, acceptance and inequality amonst the group. You have no choice but to learn to speak your mind and to work through problems when required. (Two people who weren´t getting on were given certain hours to work together and a mediator was assigned to help them). When you live so close to people all the time there is no choice but for this. I can´t say myself how long I could live like that. I only stayed a week. Having your space would be essential and everyone had their own room. I felt a little claustrophobic after 5 days but with a hike into the mountains that soon passes.

Escanda came about because the old woman who used to own the land and house wanted it well looked after and used for something ´different´ when she died. The local town council decides this and the Escanda group put in a successful application. The future is uncertain though and nobody is certain the council won´t just kick them out some year soon, hence all the community work they do with passion.Fingers crossed it will long continue, it´s a fantastic place still with great potential to grow further

Ah Santiago, anyone who says this place is ´disappointing´ has the imagination of a newt. First the facts,
I spent 4 nights here couch surfing (of course) with another medical student! go figure. right in the middle of the old town, met her lovely friends, socialised lots and loved it.
At this point I can´t help but come over all poetic and wax lyrical cos that´s the effect Santiago had on me.

The old town is like a playground of stone and alleyways, tiny streets opening into open spaces or new hidden corners. One moment you are on a busy street the next a secluded path as though in the countryside. The site of the cathedral at these times is the only reminder of where you are. They say you have to see Santiago after rain and this is true. The stones seem to relish being wet. One morning we ran out of the house to get to the cathedral on time to see the lighting of the huge incense burner. It had just finished raining, the granite streets were glistening, around one corner the low sun exploded in my eyes and you run through orange light barely seeing ahead of you.

On my first night there we walked through the streets with a full moon above in the clear sky and I made my way to the famous cathedral. Its presence is huge, like the sight of a huge wall inside a deep underground cave. It drips wet, the walls moist and indeed it has green moss growing along it. It looks like it was constructed by nature rather than man. My friend assures me it changes colour almost every night, and I confirm this while there. In the main square I marvel at the full moon illuminating the sky behind the cathedral. As I move to walk I catch sight of the moon shining through the topmost statue of Saint Santiago himself, it´s a dance between the moon and architecture.
Throughout my four days there the cathedral always seemed secretive and elusive. Every view is very partial, either hidden behind buildings, trees or its own great size. Inside I get the chance to witness the famous incense burner being lit. Picture a huge chalice shaped burner hanging from a thick hemp rope and suspended from the top of the copula. Eight men in red robes then take up position, the burner is lit, and they start to swing it till it reaching the very height of the church, stops, and swings down again in a powerful arc right over the church-goers.

There was a lot of music in the street when I was there and a great sense of fun and spontaneity. Turn right or left and you find people gathered and absorbing the life of the city in its myriad of ways. In a white tent a traditional Galegan scene is played out, people swinging glasses, dancing and singing to the sound of bagpipes. Further along the street a marching band starts playing and people are dancing again. In the archway by the cathedral a lone piper plays and the meditative drone behind the melody follows you as you walk away.
At night you step into the streets and join in with the moving people, flowing along like streams down the narrow streets and in and out of bars and cafes. Many bars you would barely notice, one we find only because someone stepped out as we passed by. Many are simple affairs, a few stools and tables and an old woman or man behind the bar, quite often drunk, and selling there own homemade wine or cider. In one they sell little bowls of wine for 40c. It is in Santiago too that I get acquinted with Liquor de Café; it keeps you awake they say. In Café Casino, the oldest in Santiago, all ages mix and I sit back trying to decipher the passionate argument had by 6 old ladies, who nearly kill themselves then get up and are all smiles and kisses as they depart, I think they were discussing poodles…

On the morning I left Santiago the sun was again in the sky with not a cloud to be seen. The kind of morning that lends itself well to thoughts of new adventures. Four days passed like a moment there. Needless to say I recommend it. No doubt it would be even more special if you walked many miles to get there. Otherwise, don´t worry, there´s buses.

Links

EarthyToes — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:25:43 CST

IRISH ENVRONMENTAL RELATED LINKS

The Powerdown Community Project
Powerdown Community

ASPO
http://www.aspo-ireland.org/

Race against Waste
http://www.raceagainstwaste.com/

Freecycle Ireland, you can sign up for Freecycle Cork or to one near you
http://www.freecycle.org/search

Cultivate
http://www.cultivate.ie/

Irish Wildflowers
http://www.wildflowers.ie/

CORK LINKS

Kinsale Fec
Kinsale Further Education College

Cork Environmental Forum

Grahams Strouts website Zone 5
Zone 5

Add your signature to help Free the Old Head of Kinsale
Petition to Owners Old Head Golflinks
Free the Old Head of Kinsale

Our friends at The Hollies
The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability

TRANSITION LINKS

Rob Hopkins' Website
Transition Culture

Transition Town which all began at Kinsale FEC
Transition Town

Transition Town Kinsale is run by a voluntary Committee which has input from local people and
still has some inspiration from Permaculture people too
Transition Town Kinsale

COOL LINKS

Wise Earth

Above is a video introduction to Wise Earth

http://www.permacultureactivist.net

Albert Bates of "The Farm"
came to visit us along with Rob Hopkins, Greg from FIndhorn and Davie from Cultivate
http://www.thefarm.org/lifestyle/albertbates/akb.html

What a fun way to introduce people to green issues and Permaculture
It's Not Easy Being Green

Wisdom of the Elders
http://www.mountainman.com.au/w_elders.html

The Fukuoka Farming Website
Fukuoka wrote One Straw Revolution
http://fukuokafarmingol.info/index.html

Permaculture at Kinsale

EarthyToes — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:47:56 CST

An episode of a national TV programme called Nationwide in which one of the focus' of the episode is Kinsale and our Permaculture course

Below is a video called "Kinsale, Ireland: A Sustainable Community" It shows one of the past students Louise Rooney talking about the Energy Descent Plan that she iniated along with the help of Rob and the other students of that year.In the video are photos taken in and around the college in 2005 and also in 2007 (these recent ones were taken by Graham ,watch out for the class sitting on the steps holding their certs ..thats us 2nd years at the end of our first year) also there's a photo of us on our first week back at college in the gardens something like 60 of us Permies all sat in a circle getting acquainted, first years and second years all together. Another photo of us all when some of the ASPO speakers visited college.. Rob Hopkins, Albert Bates of the Farm Tennesee,Jonathon Dawson of Findhorn and Davie Phillips of Cultivate Ireland.
Here's a link to a photo of them outside the straw bale house on the college grounds (from Grahams site)

ASPO speakers

Permaculture at Kinsale
by Klaus Harvey

This following article was taken fromSustainability Magazine March 2007

When I first contacted Kinsale Further Education College about their Permaculture course, I was told that due to the demand, I should apply before Christmas 2005 to be sure of a place starting in September 2006. I applied in November, was offered a place, took a career break from my teaching job and moved to county Cork in the hot summer of last year. By the end of my first week on the course I had played some ice-breaking games with my classmates, discussed green ethics, planted herbs in a mulched bed, cooked pizzas in an outdoor cob oven, made compost, learned the details of peak oil and been given an assignment to research the life strategy and culinary and medicinal uses of sea beet. I was part of a group of smart, radical, funny, environmentally clu ed-in students, aged 16-44, from all over the country and beyond. This was the best mid-life crisis I’d ever had.

Kinsale College is home to the first two-year full-time Permaculture course in the world. It was set up by Rob Hopkins in 2001 and for me it was the chance to put into practice my ever-evolving green principles, to equip myself with the skills needed for a low energy future and to explore the possibility of a career change. Permaculture is about learning from nature and designing systems that are sustainable, be they your home, garden, farm or community. It is about creating a life that is fulfilling and abundant. Its ethics are summed up as: earth care, people care, fair shares.

The course has an excellent combination of theory, practice and plain get-your-hands-dirty enjoyment. There is always something new and fascinating to be learnt. We have been on numerous field trips to observe and participate in the practice of sustainability as realised through activities such as organic growing or building with cob. We have had visiting speakers to talk about green architecture, renewable energy and wastewater systems. Every week we go on an ecology field trip to look at flora and fauna, and there is always some planting, pruning or other gardening activity taking place in the college grounds. For one of my projects I’m part of a group growing garlic. We have our winter crop well established, and I now know that it’s hardy, easy to grow and useful for keeping pests away from other plants.

After a few months I realised just how many important life skills I had been lacking. Here I was learning how to build using sustainable materials, how to grow some of my own food, how to build an efficient wood burning ‘rocket’ stove, how to charge a battery using a solar panel, how to coppice hazel and willow, how to identify different plants and trees and know what their culinary, medicinal and other uses are. I found myself asking ‘What have I been doing all these years?’ This is the kind of information everyone should know. It also raises the question: why aren’t there more courses like this all over the country?

The first year comprises modules in Permaculture Design, Organic Production Principles, Sustainable Woodland Management and Field Ecology. In second year there are modules in Conflict Resolution, Community Leadership and Start your own business. The tutors are all extremely knowledgeable and experienced, the atmosphere is relaxed and the work is highly enjoyable. It’s exciting and inspiring, and there is a sense that what we are doing might actually make a difference. Permaculture design is a design for a more sustainable future and with the impending challenges of climate change and peak
oil, it is to be embraced as an important part of the solution.
Klaus's article at sustainability.ie

Wild Food and Seasonal Recipes

EarthyToes — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:32:58 CDT

I thought this page would be a delightful addition to this site as many of us are interested in foraging for wild, free and tasty food, from apples, berries, sea spinach to Allium ursinum also called Ransomes or Wild Garlic. My favourite books on the subject are by Richard Maybeys' "Food For Free" and Denis Cotters' "Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me".

Transition Town Kinsale (T.T.K.) are doing a "wild food walk" once a month.My interest was really piqued when Phillp took us on Ecology field trips last year to wild and wonderful places, he used to point out the wild food edibles...and say "ach but would you want to ??" with a bemused look upon his face. It became like a mantra for Phillip as we used to bombard him with questions about the wild food. Phillip I'm missing your wonderful classes and your great sense of humour and inspiration. :)

Wild Beauty on Summer Solstice

The first time I ever used Ramson or Wild Garlic / Allium ursinum, was at my fav ourite place near my home in Donegal. The ramson could be found near by in a little wood along side a river and i swear to this day, it smelt like some one was cooking with them.The summer heat was warming them and the gentle breeze carried the scent which teased us no end, so it was the natural accompaniment to our simple feast after our long trek up the mountain.

Myself and a friend were out camping on Summer solstice and pitched our tent under a tree laden with flowers,on a peninsula beside a lake . At the tip of the peninsula was a wee spot where we made our camp fire, in which we roasted our spuds in foil and we put our wine chilling in the lake by the raft. When the spuds were ready we topped them with butter,(which melted beautifully) some black pepper and loads of wild ramson. Simple and delicious out in the fresh air and wild beauty. We ate and drank with our feet dangling off the raft …oooh bliss..one of my favourite memories of being out in nature.

Sorrel Pasties

Ingredients

Sorrel

1 onion

Fat

4oz plain flour

Wash leaves. Chopped, mix with onion Mix flour and fat to make dough Add cold water. Roll out thickly Cut into rounds Spoon into centre Drop into hot oil and fry

Nettle Balls
by Lea Miklody

Last autumn a few of us spent a day near Glengeriff with a lovely english woman, collecting various wild foods and cooking them into tasty dishes... This was one of my favourites :) highly recommended!!!!

Enough nettles (washed)
Grated raw onions
1oz butter
1 egg
Oil
Bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese or Feta Cheese

Cook nettles in water.
Chop finely and return to pan with butter, grated onions and cheese.
Put (breadcrumbs) in oven at low heat. (I guess you can do it on the hob as well)
Blend in bread crumbs. Remove from heat and leave to stand for 15 mins allowing breadcrumbs to absorb moisture.
(Put mixture onto a wooden board.)
Form into dumpling size balls, and roll into breadcrumbs.
Beat the egg and dip balls and roll into breadcrumbs.
Fry until golden.

Open Space

EarthyToes — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:31:11 CDT

Hi lads..when entering text press control v,or paste from edit toolbar above (sometimes it doesn't show so this way you have a choice of ways to paste), it works better than right click paste ...

Please sign your names at the bottom and take credit for your work.
Give me a shout if theres any problems
Good on ya all !!
Permies Rock...Jeannie
;)

This page is being developed by the first years and second years who all came together in an Open Space day on the 26th February 2008. Open Space Technology is a revolutionary method of formulating decisions in larger groups of people and it also has the aim of gathering information in a fun dynamic way. Harrison Owen facilitated many group meetings, and found that the most effective work was done and more decisions made during coffee breaks, when people were more at ease.

Photos will be put up of the process and many more contributions are being put up shortly. see open space technology site http://www.openspaceworld.com/

The above video is of Open Space from a Transition Town Lewes event and it features Rob Hopkins presenting the Open Space and an unknown gentleman explaining about Open Space.Richard Heinberg participated also.

Open Space
By Thomas Reidmuller

The facilitator begins with an invitation to do what you've already been doing, looking around the room, seeing who's here, signalling good morning to the people you know and taking notice of any faces new to you. The theme is restated and briefly explained, perhaps a short story of how we got here, with the reminder that everyone you now see in the circle is here because they care about some aspect of this theme -- and have chosen to be here, to learn from and contribute to the work at hand. The facilitator also explains that the big empty wall is, in fact, our agenda. He acknowledges that it is a giant empty space, but reassures us that it will, within the hour, be filled with discussion topics related to the theme. He makes it very clear that all of these breakout session topics will be proposed by us, the people now sitting in the circle. The logistics of this are equally clear.

Four Principles

While the reality of this responsibility sinks in, the Four Principles are explained. What seemed strange when you read the posters earlier, now seems to make a lot of sense. "Whoever comes is the right people" acknowledges that the only people really qualified or able to do great work on any issue are those who really care, and freely choose to be involved. "Whenever it starts is the right time" recognizes that spirit and creativity don't run on the clock, so while we're here, we'll all keep a vigilant watch for great ideas and new insights, which can happen at anytime. "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have" allows everyone to let go of the could haves, would haves and should haves, so that we can give our full attention to the reality of what is happening, is working, and is possible right now. And finally, "When it's over, it's over" acknowledges that you never know just how long it'll take to deal with a given issue, and reminds us that getting the work done is more important than sticking to an arbitrary schedule. Taken together, these principles say "work hard, pay attention, but be prepared to be surprised!"

The Law of Two Feet

The one law is The Law of Two Feet, or in some cases, The Law of Personal Mobility. It says simply that you, and only you, know where you can learn and contribute the most to the work that must take place today. It demands that you use your two feet to go where you need to go and do what you need to do. If at any time today, you find that you are not learning or contributing, you have the right and the responsibility to move... find another breakout session, visit the food table, take a walk in the sunshine, make a phone call -- but DO NOT waste time.

Bumble Bees and Butterflies

This simple rule makes everyone fully responsible for the quality of their own work and work experience. It creates bumblebees who buzz from session to session, cross-pollinating and connecting pieces of the work. It creates butterflies who may not join any formal sessions, choosing instead to float at the edges. They create the space for everyone to appreciate the energies and synergies unfolding in the work of the conference. Sometimes the most amazing solutions seem to come out of nowhere -- so that's where butterflies tend to look for them.

Offerings

After a quick logistical review, the facilitator invites anyone who's ready to come to the centre of the circle, grab a marker and a sheet of paper, and write down their burning question, passionate issue, or great idea. To the surprise of many, a number of people spring from their chairs and are quickly on all fours in the centre of the circle, scribbling their offerings. As each one finishes, they read their issue(s) out loud. These aren't speeches; just simple announcements. "My name is _____, my issue is ______," and we're on to the next one, while they tape their sheet to the wall and assign it a place and a time (from a pre-arranged set of space/time choices). This is how even very large groups can create two or three days of agenda in just one hour. As the wall fills, those who were at first surprised, find words for their issue and grab a marker. And then, as fast as it started, it's done.

Breakout Spaces

Having done the impossible in the first hour, the energy level is pretty high now. The facilitator gives a few more instructions and the whole group moves to the wall and signs up for the sessions they want to attend. Minutes later, the first sessions start without any announcement or instructions, because everybody knows where they need to be. Suddenly the large circle is many small circles, in the corners of the room or in separate breakout spaces, each working on some important part of the main theme. Every session has been proposed by someone who really cares about that item and has taken responsibility for making sure it gets addressed. In longer meetings, the convener is also responsible for recording the main points and conclusions reached in his or her session.

Ebb and flow

As the first sessions finish, at roughly the scheduled time, the second sessions begin. If the work isn't finished, it continues or a sequel is scheduled. Some people have spent the entire 1 1/2-hour session on one topic; others have bumblebeed or butterflied around, connecting different issues. Everything is moving -- people, ideas, resources, beliefs, relationships -- but it all revolves and relates to the intention stated in the invitation. This motion ebbs and flows, but the work continues, session after session. In multi-day meetings, everyone also assembles in the morning and evening for short "news" sessions, where things like new sessions, major breakthroughs, and dinner plans can be announced easily.

Rule of Thumb

In some events, especially longer events, the proceedings are captured by computer. The person who convenes a session also takes responsibility for capturing the notes and typing them into the computer. The rule-of-thumb is that one day in Open Space will get you a lot of great discussion, two days will give you time to capture what happens in a typed proceedings document, and a third day (usually a half-day) will allow a more formal convergence to specific plans for immediate action.

From website www.openspacetechnology.com

Topic 1

The "pressure" of responsibility as a Permaculturalist

1. How to use/relieve “pressure” to become positive actions
2. What areas are feeling the pressure specifically
3. Where does the “pressure” come from?
4. What is our RESPONSIBILITY?

· People expect you to be out educating others, feeling judgement from people thinking it’s your duty to go out and spread the word
· Concept of personal responsibility – one person should only be responsible for themselves, empower others to be responsible for themselves –

YOU CAN’T CHANGE OR BE RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHERS

Firstly use the course to skill up for life
positive options are plentiful.
Beginning on the ground with projects and skills
Sharing using your duty as a positive opportunity

· Without realising it you are automatically being a positive influence, even if it is not always obvious

-LIVING BY EXAMPLE

· TEACHERS TO EXPLAIN-SOMETIMES LIVING IT IS ENOUGH

Different ways of dealing with “pressure”:
Go all out and canvas it or LIVE IT – this is me
Teachers with agenda to recruit you for the front line?
Permaculture-a new topic,
Relatively unknown
Few people educated in, everybody needed to spread this information
Duty to educate.

· “EVOLUTION TAKES THE PATH OF LEAST EFFORT”

Nothing works if you have to force it from yourself, you can’t try to be something you’re not
It’s hard to define “what is permaculture?” when people ask you,
Suggest a half day media brainstorm with Graham on “what is Permaculture to me?”
The strength of permaculture is it’s flexibility, as a concept is open to any individual’s interpretation
Give people an opportunity to talk through what it means to them
Skills for positive interaction with public.
Under the torch feeling being put on the spot,
Expected to have something to say…emotional maturity,
Being able to name/acknowledge your feelings, makes you closer to understanding, compassion, closer to moving mental blocks
Somehow gaining the emotional/confidence skills to be able to deal with expectations
Your own and others.
Thomas’s class helps with these issues as you have the opportunity to get used to public speaking and other useful related skills

· GIVING YOURSELF TIME TO DIGEST PERMACULTURE

It’s not an immediate thing
Not expected to have a vast knowledge but a deep relationship with principles of permaculture and using them in your life
There is a tension between doing whatever suits you and a sense of urgency based in reality/fact that you need to act, but if you’re not comfortable in your role you may do more harm
People creating examples by living and other more dynamic people out there on front line
David Holmgren-

PERMACULTURE FOR A BETTER WAY OF LIFE

NOT TO CHANGE THE WORLD –
People are naturally empowered into change
EACH ONE TEACH ONE
GUILT/BLAME/FEAR from culture and mainstream in reaction to Permaculture and environmental concerns
FEAR as an evolutionary motivator?
Climate change asking people to change for the good of the planet, altruistic reasons for Peakoil applying to peoples selfish needs
Is FEAR the most useful/positive motivator/key to necessary changes?

Emma Burgess

Topic 2

Setting up a Sustainability Resource Centre

As Davie Philip from Cultivate recently said, 'Every town should have one', and at Transition Town Kinsale, we have been discussing this topic for over a year now. It is a key point in the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan, so for these reasons I suggested it for the Open Space day.

Potential uses:

Transition Town Kinsale
Other community groups e.g. Youth café, Active Retirement group, Arts Week etc.
Meetings
Film screenings
Coop
Shop – books, organic/health/Fair Trade food
Sustainable/environmentally sensitive produce
Rehearsal/gig space
Coffee mornings
Community gardens
Fundraising
Information hub
Courses
Training
Workshops
Professional development
Cyber café

Venue/location:

Need to research old and new properties in Kinsale
Old Mill, Kinsale

Possibly rename: Kinsale Community Resource Centre:

To connect with other community groups
To be more inclusive

Funding:

Department of Environment – John Gormley
West Cork Leader
FAS
Community Employment Scheme
ENFO
Local Agenda 21

Next Steps:

Create vision documents
Business plan
Conduct a survey locally – what do other groups want?

After the discussion when we all came to the feedback session, I said I was keen to see the practical application of some of these ideas. Two of us will take the discussion further and talk with Thomas Riedmuller who has recently been working with a community resource center in Dunmanway, West Cork.

Klaus Harvey

FEEDBACK FROM THE DAY

The following are bullet points from the students and teachers after the Open Space day.

- There was a great sense of purpose to every group. Every participant in each group was there for a definite reason and felt well listened to and actively listened themselves.
- Great way to generate many ideas.
- People enjoyed the freedom of choice, you can walk away at any time or sit outside by yourself.
- Everybody had input. With smaller groups everyone gets heard.
- Time went by fast. No boredom arose as can happen in many meetings. The process would ideally run for a full day.
- It was possible to make different connections with a greater number of people.
- Great that notes were taken so that people joining in at different times could get up to date quickly on what had been said previously.
- Graham noted that he really enjoyed the conversations which he thought were great. He also enjoyed speaking to us outside of the teacher role.
- People felt that the individual discussions should lead to further research and action.
-It was noted how fun and rewarding it was to have this integration between first and second years. Some people would like to see more of that. Thomas pointed out that this is an objective of the course but tat there are limits to the amount of activities we can do together as time is a restraint.
-Graham would like to continue the discussion of the ‘pressure’ of responsibility felt by permaculture students, which he said brought up many interesting issues. This could happen in school or as an evening after college. Other topics that generated a desire for further discussion were;
- Alternative government
- Community resource centre. People discussed what resources were already there and how we could make links with those groups. Maybe we could have another open space in which they are invited. Thomas pointed out that government funding overlaps between sustainability and environment so there is potential for funding. It was noted that the first step is to write a vision plan for the Sustainability Centre and to do a survey within the community as to what their needs are. Jeannie spoke of how much she enjoyed the discussion about cultural and racial integration within the community. There is potential to have events together such as music or food nights. Overall the feedback was very positive.

A great day so well done to everyone involved.
David Neavyn

Open Space Day @ KFEC Permaculture and Community
– Opportunities for graduates after the course
Work group: Strategies for working with mainstream groups
– Bringing in PC under the radar.

Problems for Permaculturists include:

- our own jargon (words like peak oil, permaculture, sustainability etc. don’t have the same or any meaning for many mainstream people)
- if we preach (anything) we get branded – it is then easy for other people
not to listen to us
- we are way ahead in our type of awareness about sustainability and related problems (whilst possibly being far back in other topics without knowing it)…other people need to get to insights in their own time (much against our own urges and impatience); people in general tend to resist change; each soul wants to be recognised in its independence and freedom, therefore preachers of anything are viewed with suspicion. People often defend their beliefs, habits or life-style by saying things like “but if everybody …it wouldn’t work”

Promising strategies the workgroup discussed included:

- avoid preaching, instead: invite someone to give a talk or workshop
- telling people a personal story about a relevant incident or problem and as others for their opinion or advice
- try to pull people into sympathising over a shared problem
- practice translating our jargon into everyday language
- sample explanations of PC: - ‘a simpler way of life where all needs are met closer to home’
- ‘a method of designing systems that can be
- applied to all walks of life to increase efficiency and save resources.
- Tell the story of one example you are using, for instance about mulching.
- ask particularly older people for advice and possibly remind them of the merits of older methods (say of farming, transport, etc.)
- follow trends (of what is happening anyway in the group or in society at large, for example growing awareness around food, organics, energy etc.) and link into that.
- Present people with “a problem” and trust that their own thinking will lead to useful solutions
- Let them discover new insights and make it look like it’s their own ideas
- Don’t force anything down ‘their’ throats
- Listen carefully to people’s stories, concerns, frustrations and only after that offer what has worked for you in connection with a similar problem
- Help to make ideas reality
- Try to get results with people, something doable, small projects to get a sense of achievement, confidence and for building community
- Break big plans down into small steps
- Start with ourselves, walk our talk
- Look for allies
- Work with mainstream media, write articles, offer to be PR officer of local development groups and promote their work
- Use common aims such as health, saving money, having more fun, higher quality of life, services, products etc.
- Keep linking up
- Wait for the right moment to talk about Permaculture ideas

Thanks to Thomas Reidmuller our Community skills Teacher (Conflict Resolution and Consensus Decision Makiing & Facillitation) for helping us put out this information

Hierarchy and Permaculture and Alternative Government/Alternatives to Government

-Anarchy: without authority, with personal responsibility to your community. -Peak Oil means end to big systems so also end to big government.
-Do things have to reach crisis point before we do anything. -Democracy has to localise. Decisions should be made from the ground up.
-Community can't be too exclusive v community has to be somewhat exclusive.
-Feelings of lack of control over the decisions that effect our lives.
-Noam Chomsky is an Anarchist.
-Anarchist usually not violent but media portrays them so.
-We're used to blaming institutions.
-Rotating positions of leadership or authority.
-Examples of Anarchy: Mandragon Co-ops in North Spain, (most co-op are an example of anarchy); the Zapatista autonomous zones in Chiapas, Mexico; civil war Spain; Argentina's occupied factories, 700 still up an running, see film "The Take".
-Permaculture pioneer David Holgram refers to Anarchists in his writings.
-Radical co-ops can often become money focused.
-Can't have anarchy in an oil rich society?
-How do you deal with crime.
-"Anarchist" word sounds scary, "libertarian socialist" similar meaning.
-Western society numbed by TV.
-Will anarchism deliver soap operas and cheap energy.
-It'll start small.
-Conspicuous consumption is a hungry monster.
-"The left hand of darkness", sci-fi book about anarchism.

Cathal Larkin

TTK Transition Town Kinsale Spring Fair

EarthyToes — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:21:36 CDT

Alan & Liz at the Fair Trade Cafe Temperance Hall	Maria marvelling at Funky TTV also in Temperance Hall
.Funky Transition TV	Clara Mc Carthy winner of TTK Spring Fair Poster Competition gets congratulated by Mayor Mary Evans, Trevor Sargent and Kathy Sinnot
Here's the exhibiton of the kids posters entered into thecompetition.to be on the Spring Fair Poster	Tada .... and the winner is Clara Mc Carthy, she won a prize presented to her by the Mayor, got congratulated by MEP Cathy Sinnot and Trevor Sergent, and got to have her winning poster on this years Poster for TTK Spring Fair ....Well Done Clara !!
This guy's having great fun peddliing himself a delicious smoothy at the Eco Market at the Spring Fair :)	Tara O'Donohue one of the members of the newly formed "Kinsale Food Co-op" manning the stall , at the Eco Market at the Spring Fair.

Nice photo of Cathy singing on Ampitheatre stage	Will, Klaus & Lea (yep it's Lea who is welcomes every one on Discusion board) make up the Amber Cord Collective
Add photo caption or credit here.	Add photo caption or credit here.
Add photo caption or credit here.	Add photo caption or credit here.
Add photo caption or credit here.	Add photo caption or credit here.

Working today for a sustainable tomorrow

Kinsale Spring Fair
On Saturday 29th March Transition Town Kinsale and Kinsale Tidy Towns joined forces and held TTK’s second Spring Fair. Whereas last year’s event was located at the College of Further Education, it was decided that this year the fun should be shared with everyone in the town, so public liability insurance obtained, we moved the bulk of the Fair to Short Quay, the Temperance Hall with some events still taking place at the College. The day began with heavy clouds and hard rain, but by the time the first stalls were being set up for the market, the sun had broken through and spirits were lifted.

Spring and sustainability were the main themes, so the eco-market offered a range of stalls selling seeds, books, hemp products, organic and local produce, a bicycle powered smoothie maker and a bicycle powered juke box. At one point during the day a group of people appeared to suddenly start cleaning Short Quay, using dusters, cloths and sweeping brushes. This was a Spring Clean ‘flash mob’, an entertaining way of raising awareness of the themes of the day as well as raising a few eyebrows in the process.

Inside the Temperance Hall was a Fair Trade café, a Powerdown exhibition of posters displaying images and messages about key topics such as transport, food, energy, housing, climate change and peak oil. Transition TV showed film clips about the same issues, with experts giving good advice and words of wisdom on the subjects. Display boards were covered in wonderful posters by the children from St. John’s and St. Joseph’s Primary Schools illustrating the importance of looking after our environment and not throwing our rubbish where it doesn’t belong.

The main event at this venue was the launch of Kinsale & DistrictCommunity Powerdown by Trevor Sargent, Minister for Food and Horticulture, aided and abetted by the Mayor, Mary Evans and Kathy Sinnott MEP. This TTK initiative is about engaging the community in energy reduction in their homes and businesses over a year. A set of targets will be outlined which the community can undertake, or participants can choose to measure the reduction in their carbon footprint over a year. TTK hope that each participant will actively encourage others to get involved so that the Powerdown will become a community effort. Workshops will be run throughout the year so that the community can learn more about saving energy and reducing emissions that bring about global warming. Watch this space and see Above Klaus Introduces the Speakers
below for more information.

A packed Temperance Hall listened to Minister Sargent say how happy he was to be in Kinsale and how he often speaks both nationally and internationally of Kinsale being a forerunner of the Transition process. He went on to praise many of the TTK initiatives, particularly the importance of developing local food production. He gave an interesting statistic that for every 10 units of energy that go into food production we only get 1 unit I return, this being due to fertiliser and pesticide dependent agriculture, transport, processing, packaging, refrigeration etc. Now there’s food for thought (ouch!).

Kathy Sinnott also praised the group’s work and its involvement in trying to find community solutions to the global issues of climate change
Trevor Sargent TD, Mayor Mary Evans, Kathy Sinnott MEP
were presented with Rob Hopkins new book
"Transition Handbook"

and energy uncertainty and said that if there was any way she could help, not to hesitate to get in touch. Don’t worry, we will.

The Mayor then presented a book token to Clara McCarthy, whose picture showed how different people dispose of their waste and which had been judged to be the most suitable for the poster for the whole event. Finally, the guest speakers were presented with copies of ‘The Transition Handbook’ by Rob Hopkins and thanked for their time and contribution to the event.

Other events of the day included the Tidy Town’s Car Boot Sale at the College carpark which was a huge success. A number of workshops took place on seed sowing, building with hemp, cob and cordwood building and there was a talk by Tricia Kenny from Carbon Action Ireland on ‘How to measure your carbon footprint’. Later in the evening, a concert was held at the magical amphitheatre at the College with a host of local talent playing music and doing comedy improvisations.

The inevitable raffle resulted in prizes galore and the following must be thanked for their generosity in contribution of prizes and support: Bandon and Mahon Tae Kwon-Do Schools of Excellence, Acton’s Leisure Centre, The Hemp Shop, C&C, Kinsale Bookshop, Franceen's Antiques, Muddy Mahers, Fishy Fishy, Dragon Lin, Armada Bar, Thai Cottage, Kinsale Crystal, Barrett's Butchers, Kist, Nouvelle, Kinsale Sports Shop, Shop of Linen, Marina Gallery, Granny’s Bottom Drawer, Pretty Things, Linda's Antiques, Cooleez, All Day Dog Grooming, Heather Mountain, Salvi's Den, Paperworks, Computer Services, Fintan Lynch Salon, New Image, Satin and Lace, Marion's Beauty Salon, House Of Hair, Moloney's Pharmacy, Cobra Tandoori, John Cohalane, Kinsale Lock and Key Services, Foley's, Dal Germeney, Mikeo and the Guy, Hamish and Crawford, Giles Norman, Cork Community Bikes.

A large number of people spent many weeks organising this event, too many to list here (and there’s always that risk of leaving someone out), but we’d like to thank all of you, you know who you are. Roll on next year.

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Shedding Some Light on Permaculture

2 Years at Kinsale FEC as a Permaculture Student

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Calender

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Community Garden

The last of the tomatoes have been picked, the spuds dug up, the salads dressed and the garlics tied up. It’s winter in the community garden.

Apart from that the garden is in great condition! It has been great to see new faces there from both Kinsale and outside. All are welcome, so hope to see you there soon.

For enquiries or to be put on the email list you can contact me on the address below.dneavyn@yahoo.co.uk

What Permie Did Next...

Links

Permaculture at Kinsale

Wild Food and Seasonal Recipes

Sorrel Pasties

Open Space

TTK Transition Town Kinsale Spring Fair

For enquiries or to be put on the email list you can contact me on the address below.
dneavyn@yahoo.co.uk