'Amy, what is permaculture?'

A couple of months ago my good friend Shani (from Ecoburbia) revved me up to finally do my Permaculture Design Course. It had been on my bucket list for ages and I felt like I needed some inspiration. It would also be a good chance to binge on exclusive Shani time - we are often busy and when we do catch up there's usually a million other things going on. So we took the plunge and booked our course, booked our AirBnB, kissed the family goodbye and headed over to Sydney for two weeks. Eep! Two weeks away from home! It was the longest I'd ever been away from my boy - flying all that way for all that time was a big deal for me. Was it worth it? Oh my. Yes.

We were just a bit excited on the first day.

The good folks at Milkwood really know their stuff. Our facilitators were Hannah (from Good Life Permaculture) and Brendon (from, well, I don't really know, just the world I think). They were not only fantastic facilitators but they taught us deep from the depths of their experience and generously dished it out for us day after day.

The first few days covered the ethics and principles of permaculture and for that bit we were lucky enough to have David Holmgren (co-founder of permaculture) teach us. When he walked in the room there was a hush and it was a bit like Jesus had just entered to bring us the good news that could save us. It was very exciting. David is just simply a lovely guy - humble, generous, wise and fun.

We went through the design process where we really learned how important observation is. We learnt about different systems to be aware of (climate, water, soil, etc). We then touched on some different elements you could include in a garden/farm system like bees, compost, aquaponics, annual garden (veggies), trees, and more. During all of this we all worked on our individual design projects, then our group project.  I loved it all, especially our group project. We were a great team - hilarious, kind and productive.

After the first few days Shani and I started playing the 'What is permaculture?' game on our walks home from the community centre to our AirBnB. It was to prepare us for questions from our partners and friends when we returned. It goes something like this:

Amy: Shani, what is permaculture?
Shani: Thank you for asking, Amy. Well, it's a design process. Um. And there are ethics and principles you follow to make your place efficient and so it provides what you need. And it's about the function of elements and how you use them. Or something. Augh! Your turn Amy. Amy, what is Permaculture?
Amy: Thank you for asking Shani. Permaculture is... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm. It's a way to design your space with elements that interconnect and are multi-functional so you're more resilient. And it's also about your life and your lifestyle and your community. No, that's not really it either!

This conversation went on for two weeks and we never really nailed the definition. But for the record, here is David Holmgren's definition of permaculture: 'Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs'. I won't go through the ethics and principles. You can google that. But for my own purposes of revision I'll try to remember all the interesting and practical things I learned about and want to implement here at home and in the community:

More perennials - we mostly have natives out the front, but slowly we've been adding food plants like olives, soft fruit trees, and a macadamia. I'd like to add sweet potato, asparagus, ginger, rhubarb to make a lower story, ie more food forest style. If you have space and water, perennials are good because they are low maintenance, deep rooted and give you food.

Community composting - I was so inspired by Hannah's work on her various community projects and the idea of community permaculture I wanted to start community composting at Hilton Harvest. So I've chatted to the local cafe who are happy for us to take their food waste and I've applied for a grant from our Waste Authority for heaps of compost bins. So fingers crossed!

Composting toilets - because it is barbaric to pollute clean water with our poo.

Bees - I had thought this would be a bit of a longer term project, but a friend asked if we could host his hive the other day so maybe we can learn the skills a bit more quickly!

Trenches - to stop water runoff in our front garden. Slow, store and sink the water.

Mulch pits - for fungusy soils between the fruit trees. This one is already done, both at home and at Hilton Harvest.

So, you can see we have heaps of jobs to be getting on with. But the best things I took away from the course were hope, inspiration and wonderful memories of spending two weeks with a beautiful bunch of people who are all on their own exciting journeys. It was a little bit of magic when we all crossed paths and walked together for that two weeks.

Look what I found just around the corner

I went for an amazing and beautiful bushwalk the other day. Even though we are at the start of winter we saw some gorgeous and delicate wildflowers - Calatryix (the pink star flower), Hovias (the purple pea flower), sun dew flowers and more.

 Plus, of course, the robust and unique Mensies Banskias, or Firewood Banksias and this particularly massive Australian Christmas Tree and this awesome Golden Orb Spider. I know the bush is this beautiful but what I didn't know was that this particular bit of bush it was hidden just around the corner from my place. 

   

The walk was hosted by the lovely Kate Kelly from Save Beeliar Wetlands who is passionate about our local bush and thinks it's rather a mistake to plough a six lane highway through it. Our idyllic one and a half hour walk was the route of the proposed Roe 8 highway, a part of the Perth Freight Link. According to the Rethink the Link mob:

'The Perth Freight Link is a $1.6 billion, 13 km 6-lane heavy vehicle freeway that will divide suburbs and destroy ecologically sensitive land.'

Kate reckons around 96 ha of this kind of bush will be destroyed and will result in keeping about 10% of trucks of our suburban roads. For a while. Until the Fremantle Port reaches its capacity, which it nearly has. The message the Rethink the Link group is putting out is that the freight can go on rail and the Outer Harbour in Kwinana Port, which is planned for, should be built asap. 

Everyone knows that more roads equals more congestion. Roads are not the way of the future. They are from the olden days when we all wanted to hunker down in our individual quarter acre block and drive our gas guzzeling individual death traps of cars around so we didn't have to see, hear or know the existence of our neighbours. We didn't realize the effect this was having on our collective psyche or our health or the health of the planet. We now know cars suck. What we really want is fewer roads so we get to crisis gridlock on the roads then those able bodied among us can get on our bikes, breath clean air, be healthy and connected to community again. That, my friends, is the way of the future. I wrote to Mr Barnett to express my views. Here's my letter:

Dear Mr Barnett,

I'm writing to express my deep concerns about the Perth Freight Link project. The project will not have the effect the government wants, at $1.6 billion it will be expensive and come at the cost of our precious urban wetlands and the connectedness of our community.

This project is poor urban planning and will devastate communities who live beside the the new road. It will slice us in half. Big roads are not conducive to parents walking with prams, kids riding to school or bike riders. No-one wants to live in a city where the only way to get around is by car.

My family enjoy visiting the Beeliar wetlands often on weekends. We ride our bikes around the lake and enjoy spotting swans, snakes and even occasionally long neck turtles. PLEASE don't destroy this. It's a rare and beautiful piece of wilderness right by our back door. The same is true of the corridor of bush that had been set aside for the road. When Roe 8 was planned decades ago I'm sure we didn't know how precious our remnants of bush would be amongst our current landscape of urban sprawl. Don't squander it for the sake of a road, the world does not need more roads, it needs trees and bush. Every remnant is precious.

I am also concerned about the effect of more trucks on the roads and the pollution they will bring us. Research shows that more roads only means more traffic. Thankfully there is a solution which is to rebuild and incentivise the use of rail for cargo to and from the port of Fremantle.

I suspect the government is severely underestimating the community opposition to the Perth Freight Link. People have been working on this campaign for decades and there is no sign their determination is dwindling. Please do not be arrogant. Listen to us. We don't want it. We don't need it. We can't afford it. The last thing this world needs is a new road.

Yours etc

It was satisfying to write.

Kale chips (this post is not about wellness)

I don't believe in wellness or health and well being. As a population, humans are pretty healthy. Especially us white ones. I don't think we need to deprive South American countries of  their staple foods so we can purchase them as over packaged, organic, fair trade super foods at our gourmet shops just for some over researched vitamin or anti oxidant I could get from an egg my girls lay me or a bit of kale. Based on food waste stats we'd just throw half I'd it away anyway. I think all we really need to  be well is to not eat junk, work less, spend more time with our loved ones, exercise incidentally by riding a bike, dancing or kid wrangling. And always garden. Okay I'm sound a bit like a cat poster but just think all this wellness stuff is a bit narcissistic. We are the most overpopulated species on the planet. We are well. The planet, sadly, is not.

So this post is about kale chips for the planet, and they also happen to be good for you.

Kale grows so well. Is doesn't need heaps of water and is pretty disease resistant.  Often you can keep them going over summer too. In Perth that's really saying something!

This is the link to the recipe I used. I found it worked well to use the sun oven too. It took much longer for them to crisp up but they did eventually.

They will be great for Quin's waste free lunchbox which his school is starting this term. However, I suspect the chips won't last long because they are soooo delish! I'll definately make them again!

Downshifting: it ain't that hard

So, what is downshifting? Well firstly it has nothing to do with changing gears in a car. Downshifting is when someone voluntarily decides to either work less or work in a lower stress job. Amy and I have been attempting to downshift for years now and I think we've got a good balance now. Amy has gone from full time to 0.6 and then 0.5 and I've gone from full time to 0.9 and just this week started to work 0.7. This means I work 3 days one week and then 4 days the next. Sure, we get paid less but we'd rather be time rich and ok money wise than time poor and rich. It makes a lot of sense for us since we have secure jobs and we live in the richest city in one of the richest countries in the world. At work people have been saying how lucky I am and how I'm living the dream and it made me think why don't more people do it?

I think one of the reasons is that bosses are too inflexible and employees are afraid to ask or are afraid they'll slip down the career ladder or won't earn enough to afford the nice things in life. There's a great book called Affluenza: When too much is never enough, by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. They define Affluenza as "1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth". Sound familiar? It's a great book and I recommend you read it. The thrust of the book is that people are working longer hours, with more stress and that is impacting on their health, relationships and general quality of life.

A 2009 survey of 450,000 Americans found that the optimum income for happiness was $75,000 a year. "As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness" (see this blog post for more info). Earning more could even make you less happy. To get that promotion do you need to work longer hours or miss out on some leave? Do you need to deal with more stress and take work home with you? Is it really worth it if it doesn't increase your well being?

Where did the 40 hour work week even come from? I read an article by David Cain recently which said it originates in the mid 1900's as a way to stop exploitation of workers doing 14-16 hour days. So why hasn't it changed in the last 150 years? Cain's theory is that it's because it's good for the capitalist economy. People who are tired, time poor, cash rich and unfulfilled need to have a release and the way they do that is by buying stuff they don't really need but that fills a whole in their lives. It may be a jet ski, a new 4WD or a quick trip to Bali and it keeps the wheels of industry turning. But we're not hamsters so you can jump off the wheel if you want!

So here's my to call out to employers and bosses. The next time someone asks you if they can work part time please say yes instead of the default no. Yes Jill, why don't we give it a try and see how it goes? Jill will be over the moon and work harder for you. You might even find that she does the same amount of work in less time (the average office worker does 3 hours productive work in 8 hours). Jill will be happier because she has more time for reading, yoga, etc. Husband Jack will be happier because the kids are happier (more attention), the dog's happier (more walkies) and because his wife's happier. Jack's thinking "She's less stressed, more relaxed, she's lost weight. In fact she looks pretty fit at the moment!" Now that can't be bad for a relationship can it? It's a win win situation, Jill's happier and her boss is saving the business money. She might even stay with the business longer and save them heaps more by avoiding recruitment and training of new people.

There's a chance that things slip at work and the boss says you need to go back to full time, but it was worth a try. How about this radical solution though, the boss says to Jill how about we hire a new part timer? Bob is an environmental scientist who's been unemployed for a year and gets the job. He's been depressed and stressed working 40 hours a week applying for non existent jobs for heaven's sake.He's over the moon to get a new job and realises he never liked full time work that much.  His partner Jim's happy too, but enough of that...

Now isn't that cool, making many people happy for the price of one!

Here's my call to employees. Ask your boss if you can go part time if you want to. If he says no, just nag him until he says yes. Tell him to read this post, tell him about Jack and Jill for Pete's sake, he'll get it. Don't be afraid about money, you'll probably be ok and you won't regret it.

But wait a minute say the naysayers. There's a catch, it's bad for the economy.  The economy is the most important thing in the world ever as our politicians like to preach. Well I'm not an economist but it seems we're always going on about productivity. How is it good for productivity for someone to get paid for 8 hours work and do 3? Isn't it more efficient to work less but better? Sure, there may be a drop off in jet ski sales, but big deal. Maybe we'll get the next GFC a bit sooner this way but I kinda think we need it for the planet's sake. Most consumerism drives climate change, creates waste and pollution and we or following generations will be hit with the bill sooner or later. Why not give Mother Earth a break and bring it on. So I say nay to the naysayers!

I plan to do more of the stuff I enjoy, like gardening, walking the dog, blogging (I wrote this post on my first day off!) and spending time with my son and heir (his inheritance may be smaller but he'll be happier). Have you ever had a weekend and on Monday thought, gee i need a weekend to get over the weekend? Well I don't get that feeling anymore. 

Haven't we lost sight of what's important in life? Isn't it more important to be there for a child's first steps rather than earning another dollar? Happiness is not measured by the amount of superannuation you have. Don't defer happiness until it's too late, live it now.Time is more precious than money I say. Go on, whether you're a boss or a worker give it a go. Work less, live more. Enrich your life not your bank account.

Happiness is contagious, go make some ripples...