Fundamentals

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

We began our journey from the background of a Christian worldview. Our faith in a Creator God inspired us to observe and enjoy the natural world He created.

This observation lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the design the Lord set up for His creation. The cyclical nature of life in the wild proved to us that it was a model our Creator had meant for us to work within.

Agriculture today has migrated far away from the intended design. We decided to start moving back to the way things were meant to function.

Foundations

But, where were we to begin? We had very little resources and lived in an apartment at the time. How could we possibly make strides toward sustainability in our situation?
The first few years were spent in earnest study of permaculture and gathering knowledge of the concepts and approaches.

Progress

While we studied, we began to take tangible steps with the simple act of composting our kitchen scraps instead of throwing them away. Pretty soon we had grown a sizable collection of rich soil in a homemade pallet-wood compost bin in the back yard of our very patient land lords.

Soon they had graciously agreed to allow us a small plot to begin growing our own veggies and flowers. What a joy it was to dig in the soil and produce something amazing with what we would always have just tossed in the trash!

After that first year, we began to look into the possibility of finding our own land on which to progress further into sustainability. Once we found our perfect corner of the suburban community with the help of our amazing realtor, we had a beautiful 1-acre property to develop.

Since that time, we dove right into as many aspects of permaculture as we could in the lovely little space we had to work with.

We renovated one of the two sheds on the property into a chicken coop and built an attached pen.

We tilled a small patch on the big lawn to dump our compost gold into and start planting. There are so many wonderful varieties of growable delicacies.

We got our first chicks!

We began clearing the abundant brush and brambles on the rest of the property.

The fall foliage was stunning! We realized very quickly that we were the proud owners of a substantial number of sugar maples!

We had our first litter of bouncing baby bunnies! (Rabbit litter is one of the most potent and quickly useable additions to a compost pile.)

We faced our first New Hampshire winter with livestock.

The maple trees were put to their full use for the first time. Such fun we have sugaring in the spring!

An opportunity to learn to spin our own yarn came up, and we decided to add angora rabbits to the family.

Our precious chooks started producing eggs!!!! A glorious fruit of our labors.

Honestly, the commencement of our first consistent egg production was what made us feel that we had really begun our journey with some success. The stand went up, and the rest became a series of trial and error.

As we grew our vision, we learned that the nature of true permaculture is a progressive line of problem solving. We would face a challenge, suffer some loss, and have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and try it again in a different way. We have had to use the natural defenses and offenses we observe in the wild to battle each challenge as it came.

Permaculture in Practice

Achieving flow in a sustainable agricultural ecosystem is achieved when the inherent difficulties are worked WITH instead of against. We have now had enough time and practice to have faced the many of the typical difficulties and found ways to incorporate them into the cycle of production. So many challenges have had to be overcome and we know there are always more to come.

We quickly learned that there were MANY and various types of predators in our nearby woods and we started to face the truly difficult challenges that these presented.

There have been many losses over the years, and although we learned at the beginning that this is all part of the process, it was hard to face the painful reality of it.

Protecting the livestock is an endless battle, but as the predators usually find a way to still get them, we have learned so much about these beautiful and dangerous creatures in the process.

Problem: Hawks; Solution: Crows!

The local crows are rather naughty and steal eggs occasionally. But it’s worth this small sacrifice for their gift of protection from hawks. So we occasionally toss eggs out onto the lawn to encourage our local “murder” to stick around!

Problem: Squirrels(Eat grain, spread ticks, and kill chicks); Solution: Relocation Though sometimes we catch unintended visitors! This sweet skunk was very patient with me as I set him free.

Problem: Mud; Solution: Ground Cover

Problem: Aphids; Solution: Ladybugs!

Problem: Raccoons; Solution: Timing (Close those chicks in before dark!)

Problem: Mice; Solution: Barn Cat! Snowball, our ironically named and massive Maine Coon mix is one of our greatest stories. I could write an entire blog post on his adoption and integration…you know what, I think I will. Forthcoming…

Problem: Voles (nibble on roots); Solution: Snakes (and Snowball)

Problem: Scant Pollination; Solution: More Pollinators!

Problem: Rats!; Solution: BURN THEM WITH FIRE! But seriously, trapping is effective, and Snowball takes care of the ones that are too smart.

Problem: Fall Leaves EVERYWHERE; Solution: Goat Feed for Months

Problem: Soil Needs Nitrogen; Solution: Fish Water

Problem: Mosquitoes in the water; Solution: Ducks!

And the pattern continues….

We still face new challenges each season, and are always learning new ways to overcome them.

Some of the most enjoyable fruits of our labors over the years:

Sharing the Vision

While we found motivation to return to sustainability from a place of Christian faith, as we progressed in our journey, we developed close bonds with others with the same visions who came from many other faiths, cultures, and backgrounds. We are so excited to find that the goals of permaculture can be shared by those with so many different approaches to life. While much of humanity has drifted away from sustainability, we believe we can learn how to grow back into healthy patterns!

Despite our meager beginnings, many members of our local community began to come to us with questions about what we had learned so far. We quickly realized that a large portion of our neighbors had a strong desire to begin one or more of the small steps toward sustainable living. If they didn’t want to begin themselves, they were ready and willing to support those of us who were. Our egg stand would get swarmed and bought out in a matter of moments.

Pretty soon I had the opportunity to bring some of my accrued knowledge into some local schools. What a beautiful thing to be able to educate the next generation about sustainability!

We hatched out clutches of chicks in the classroom incubator.

The bunnies came into the classroom and we were able to learn about the care of rabbits.

Classes had the opportunity to start seeds for a vegetable garden.

What followed felt like an organic step into a simple consultation organization. This way, the time spent assisting others on their journey would not only grow local understanding of permaculture structures, but also be able to support our farm just enough to keep our momentum.

We hope you are inspired by our humble story, and if there’s any way we can help you along your way, please send us an email and we can set up a consultation.