As I sit here eating Triscuits in a flat in London, I think about how strange it is that just last night I was in Detroit. It’s strange because Delta felt I should fly two hours in the wrong direction before flying to London. To their credit, my travels were extremely smooth. Flights were on…
We are a society of the here and now. Many decisions we make as individuals and as a nation are short-sighted and focus on immediate gain. The result is that our lives get messed up over the long term, and then we get frustrated wondering how that could’ve happened. I recently experienced this phenomena firsthand.…
After having lived in Sarasota for 8 years, St. Petersburg is now my official home in Florida. Not only that, but I live right in the downtown area in an apartment on Central Avenue. Although a suburbanite in Sarasota, I was on a fabulous bus route and only 3 miles from downtown. I didn’t own…
For those of you who really know me, you’re probably surprised that I’d like to get some backyard chickens. Surprised because, at the moment, I eat neither chicken nor eggs! However, backyard chickens offer a few remedies to the reasons for my food choices. First, the reason I don’t eat chicken is because of the…
I know it’s easy for people to say, “We’ve had tornadoes before in Massachusetts,” and “The Mississippi always floods,” and “Vermont always floods.” But come on, people, I know you see a pattern of bad weather that is not normal. Flooding is one thing, but severe, continued flooding is another. One tornado 60 years ago…
So, what did I really think of this permaculture design course? Well, as you could tell, it was very intensive. Honestly, I would’ve retained more info if it had been 8 hours a day, instead of 13. I was so tired at the end of every day simply from being “on” all day that the…
There was a fair amount of excitement in the air this morning. We were all anxious to be going home but sad to be leaving each other. I woke up at my normal 6:00 a.m. but hit the snooze button so I could sleep in a bit. My night of sleep was not too bad…
About every fourth night or so, I’m so exhausted that I actually get a decent night’s sleep. Last night was that night, and I’m very thankful for that. Today wasn’t too bad because we had field trips. First, we went to SeQuential BioFuels, which is a gas station that sells solely bio-diesel and ethanol fuels. …
Today I did what I needed to do for me… I gave up. I awoke from another night of barely sleeping and aching muscles and said, “That is enough.” I did not come on this trip to punish myself. I came here to learn, and I feel that my capacity to do that effectively has…
The weather here is simply unbearable – it’s dreary and/or raining about 75% of the time. My vitamin D levels must be ridiculously low. We had a session this morning with the owner of the property we’re staying on. He talked about permaculture in general, but I did not find him very engaging and was…
Woke up this morning feeling MUCH better than yesterday and with the comforting knowledge that the course is over in 4 days and I can return to my home. Unfortunately, today is also a cooking day for my team, so I woke up knowing I’d have little free time today. My alarm went off at…
You may notice that I skipped a day… Day 11 was just more of the same with nothing much of interest to report. It was Larry’s last day of teaching, and we will miss him. He’s an incredibly thoughtful individual and has a very “live and let live” attitude. He spent a lot of time…
What can I say about today? Today felt like that day in medical school where they finally bring out the cadavers to see who’s really cut out for a career in medicine. And by that I mean that we were taken to a very unappealing place where people practice permaculture. Out of respect, I won’t…
I am totally exhausted today. The bags under my eyes are a delightful indication of how I will look 10 years from now. Today we broke into the groups in which we will do our projects. My project group is doing a report on starting a permaculture design business. The other group: designing a permaculture…
Well, I did sleep better last night with Shannon’s camp pad… I still ache quite a bit but in an entirely different way! Ibuprofin was my friend this morning. As promised, below is a photo of the women’s sleeping area. What you see is the main area with two futons. On the sides, in the…