The Perma Life

Last week I went home for lunch, fixed myself a tuna sandwich and turned on the TV to watch the previous night’s episode of The Daily Show, one of my all-time favorite shows. The interview for that episode was a young man named William Kamkwamba, who at age 14, built a wind generator from parts laying around his village in Malawi. Several things about this story are so extraordinary: 1. this kids was not even in school at the time. His parents didn’t have the money, so he went to the local library funded by some charitable organization. 2. He didn’t really speak or read English, so he learned how to build this windmill by looking at the diagrams. 3. He didn’t seem to think any of this was a big deal.

I can’t wait to get out and but the book. In the meantime, here is a link to his blog and the daily show clip.

Today I googled the words “environmental sustainability” and in .38 seconds, Google gave me 8,950,000 results. In the first page, I see entries on Wikipedia (of course), a funding opportunity from the National Science Foundation to support engineering research, something called the EcoEarth Portal and another site to end poverty by 2015.

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about sustainability…

“Sustainability, is a broad sense, is the capacity to ensure.” As good of a definition as any, I suppose. Although the word endure in its current use seems to me to equate with “suffer through” and creating a sustainable world shouldn’t be something we all have to grit our teeth and endure. If that is the case, then I have a feeling that we won’t be getting there anytime soon, since we Americans are creatures of comfort and convenience.

Can you tell I am feeling disillusioned today?

There is an incredible article in the September issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine that looks at our carbon footprint from a perspective that I have never considered.

Saul Griffith is a PhD.D from MIT and a recipient of the MacArthur Genius grant and he devised a way of quantifying the energy necessary to manufacture and produce the goods we use over the course of our lives…energy that cannot be recovered.

Essentially, what he says is that to buy products made from recycled materials (paper, those little coffee wrap things at Starbucks, etc.) is all well and good, but that the energy required to produce these items is still substantial, making our efforts to reduce our total energy consumption through the use of recycled products negligible at best.

Instead, what he proposes is an amazingly commonsensical approach to consumption as it relates to energy use: if you truly want to reduce our lifetime energy inputs and  greenhouse gas emissions, we need to purchase products that last years and years.

He argues that our society is essentially one based on the non-durability of goods. We get a new dvd player every three years because they are relatively cheap and wear out quickly. Electronic devices like computers and cell phones are especially susceptible to this mentality…how many cell phones have you gone through in the last few years?

For Dr. Griffith, heirloom design is what could eventually reduce our carbon footprint. What does this mean? It means that the things we should be designing, manufacturing and consuming in the future should be so well-designed, so durable, so functional that we will pass on things as mundane as pens, watches and cell phones to our children and grandchildren.

It sounds like a radical concept, but it makes so much sense to me. Be sure to read the article…what are your thoughts on this- do you think it is possible to change our mindset of consumerism from one of disposability to one of longevity?

Please feel free to explain your answer/give your opinion in the comments section.

Here is an amazing editorial  by Thomas Friedman that talks about the necessity of connecting the dots in nature.

In it he brings up several interesting points:

1. Generally speaking, we have lost the knowledge of reading the signs that nature gives us on a daily basis. Because we no longer recognize bird song, or can tell the time based on the position of the sun, we have lost a sense of connection to the environment.

This is especially relevant to me at this time in my life because a good portion of my “day job” is concerned with helping people get connected to the environment by planting trees, paddling rivers and learning about our ecosystem. I believe that if people are going to change their behaviors and their beliefs about what it means to be an environmentalist, then they will have to turn off the TV, go outside and get their hands dirty in the actual outdoors. Feeling the sun warm our faces, the grass tickle our toes, is what is going to make us realize, finally, that we cannot and wouldn’t want to live without those experiences.

2. We can’t tackle the problems that face us as a society one at a time, as if one problem (or solution) isn’t connected to another.  For real change to happen, for our children to enjoy the same resources we did as children, we have to look at the bigger picture.

There is a book that deals specifically with this topic called Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken. He argues that if the environmental movement, the social justice movement, the women’s movement, the animal rights movement and on and on, got together and pushed as one unit for a more just world, that the sheer force of this goodwill would change the world forever. I am intrigued by the concept. What about you?

I have fond memories of going with my dad to pick Mustang grapes growing along the side of the road- we would wear long sleeve shirts and pants to keep from getting scratched up and pick grapes by the bucketfull. Once we were even stopped by some tourists from “up north” who asked to take our picture. I guess we were the “rustic locals” they had heard still existed in Texas. After picking our share, we would take them home to my mom, who would proceed to spend the rest of the day making jelly. I still remember the heat of the kitchen and the sweet tangyness of the grape jelly on my peanut butter sandwhich.

Needless to say, the idea of pickling and preserving the harvest has always appealed to me on some primitive level. And this summer has afforded me the first opportunity to preserve some of my own harvest. Pickles are my first foray into the world of preservation.

This summer I am growing A&C Pickling Cucumbers…these are wonderfully prolific and mild tasting cukes (although I have to say I have never met a cucumber I didn’t like) Here is the link to Baker Creek Farms, where I buy my seeds.

I don’t really know a lot about preserving, so I searched around on the web looking for simple recipes and found this one for simple refridgerator pickles from The Pickle Preservation Society. They turned out nice and crunchy! p.s. You can make pickles from store bought cucumbers as well.

– Refrigerator Pickles (No canning necessary)
From Mrs. A. (Mary) Lutz

Mildly sweet; stay crunchy up to about 3 weeks in the refigerator.

• 3 large cucumbers (1″ to 1 1/2″ diameter) sliced about 1 1/16″ thick (do not peel)
• 1 medium-sized green pepper (seeds removed)
• 1 medium-sized onion
• 1 tablespoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons celery seed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup white vinnegar

Chop pepper and onion, and place along with sliced cucumbers into a 1 1/2 quart size jar or bowl. Add salt and celery seed. Stir gently and let stand one hour. Combine sugar and vinnegar in separate bowl, stir to dissolve. Pour over vegetables and stir to blend. Cover and refrigerate, pickles are ready to eat in one day. Store covered in refrigerator.
Yield: 5 cups

Ask any gardener the number one thing you can do to enhance your garden and grow giant record breaking plants and they will tell you to start composting…immediately. Some of them get darn right evangelical about it. I have to admit I actually got a little scared by a master gardener who got this wild gleam in her eye as she started telling me about the “right” way to make compost. What I thought was a simple act of throwing your food scraps and grass clippings into a heap until they rotted became a complicated act of social revolution involving precise amounts of water, green and brown matter, worms and voodoo.

Then I tried it for myself and realized that it really could be as simple as throwing your food scraps and grass clippings into a pile and waiting for it to rot.

Why is composting so great? Well, for starters, it is a great way to recycle and reduce waste. It is also full of nutrients that your plants need to grow, it improves the consistency of soil and makes is easier to work with, and it provides a happy home for microorganisms who will break down your bolted lettuce into sweet, crumbly compost so you can grow…even more lettuce!

At first I just piled everything up in a corner of the backyard, but my dog Moby kept getting into it and so I decided to build a bin. Here is my take of a design that I found in Organic Gardening Magazine. Here are the instructions to build one yourself.

A few dos and don’ts of composting:

DON”T put the following in your compost

Meat Products (unless you want the rot to attract maggots, and then by all means, go ahead)
Dairy Products
Dog or cat poo (potential pathogen contamination)
Diseased plants
Paper (except newspaper)

DO put in the following:

Kitchen Scraps like veggies and bread
Chicken Manure
Newspaper
Grass Clippings
Leaves
Weeds, spent garden plants, etc.

Add some water, turn the pile every month or so to aerate it, and voila- in a few months you will have homemade brown gold of your very own.

I will confess. I am a nerd. A giant nerd. I love planning things, I love lists. And I had approximately a month between the time we decided to get chickens and the time that any would be available, so I used that time wisely and developed a chicken spreadsheet to help me pick the best chickens for my needs.

A few questions to ask yourself to help you pick the best breed:

Do you want chickens for meat, eggs or both? Some breeds, like the Leghorn chicken, are bred to be egg laying machines. Others make great meat birds.

Do you live in an extremely hot (or cold) climate? Some birds are better suited to withstand cold temeratures.

Do you want your chickens to be like pets? Some chickens are flightly and nervous creatures that won’t like to be picked up and handled. Others are inquisitive and friendly.

My chicken characteristic wishlist:

Colored eggs (brown, blue or green)

At least one “heirloom variety”

Friendly pets

Decent egg layers

After controlling for the above variables, I settled on the following three breeds:

l-r Easter Egger, Dominique and Wellsummer chicks

Alas, these three beautiful chickens met an untimely end before they started laying. I bought 4 more chickens in February from the local feed store:

Rhode Island Red, Easter Egger, Plymouth Barred Rock, Buff Orpington

Plymouth Barred Rock

Rhode Island Red (front) and Easter Egger

Me and my Buff Orpington

Should you try to raise chickens in the city or burbs? The short answer is…definitely. But in the 7+ months since my chicken raising adventures began, I have learned a few lessons (some of them came the hard way) that I hope you can use as you decide whether or not to raise animals.

1. Do you leave town a lot? Everyone travels from time to time, but if you are out of town on a regular basis, your neighbors might start to get tired of corralling the chickens, no matter how many fresh eggs you send their way.

If you plan to raise your flock from day old chicks, don’t make any plans to be away from home for at least the first few weeks after the chicks hatch. They will need your constant care and attention to grow big and healthy. Food, fresh water, a clean brooder box and a consistent supply of warmth are all things that you will need to check several times per day.

2. Do you have other pets who might regard chickens as lunch? I have heard horror stories of the beloved family dog who turns into a vicious chicken killer after meeting the new chickens. I was very worried about this prospect with my dog, and took extra care to introduce the chicks to him everyday, even going so far as to putting them on his back, etc. Now, he pretty much ignores the chickens, unless he is competing with them to get bread crumbs or some other tasty morsel (and yes, i think he knows that’s pathetic). Bottom line- don’t assume that your dog will be fine with your new feathered friends and leave them alone to get to know each other better.

3. Are your neighbors ok with your barnyard aspirations and is it legal to have chickens within the city limits of where you live? Some folks are wary of the idea of having chickens, but this is mostly due to a fear of being woken up at the crack of dawn by a rooster crow. Assure your neighbors that you will only be keeping hens (who only make fun squaks and clucks) and most of them will be fine with your new hobby. My neighbor was so excited that he told me I needed to get at least 15 chickens so I could keep the entire street in eggs.

As for legal regulations, more and more cities are allowing poultry within the city limits. Check to see what your local ordinances say about keeping poultry here. Click on your state and then your city to view the municipal codes.

4. Are you (or your kids) prepared to deal with loss? To quote my sympathetic friend after I lost my first batch of chickens to some intruder…”sometimes that’s what happens when you have pets who are dumb and vulnerable”. Chickens die. Sometimes they get sick and sometimes a predator gets to them despite your best efforts. My first 3 chickens were all killed one afternoon by some animal. We searched the yard and found a small gap in the fence behind the shed, and that was all it took. We have since battened down the hatches and I have recovered from the carnage, but be prepared all the same. Chickens are wonderful, fun and quirky creatures but they are also, well, dumb and vulnerable.

Here is a fun article from the New York Times about keeping city chickens.

Still interested in keeping chickens? Stay tuned for Part 2: Choosing the Right Breeds for Your Backyard.

Over the past couple of years, I have become interested in living a life that is somewhat off the grid. I recognize that in our modern times electricity, running water from a utility provider, pipes to flush our waste, etc. are necessities that most of us cannot dream of going without. All the same, as our society becomes ever more dependent on mass agriculture and mass consumerism to function, I find myself longing for a life that is a little simpler, a little more homemade, a little more independent of commercialism and marketing…

But before we delve into the reasons for this new blogging adventure, allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Bethany- nice to meet you! I live in Alabama, but hail originally from the (used to be) small town of New Braunfels, TX. I am a full time environmentalist- I run a small environmental nonprofit in Alabama that focuses on environmental education and habitat restoration projects. Apart from my day job, which I love, I am a novice gardener, amateur photographer, voracious reader, sometimes triathlete and a new addition to the blogosphere!

So why start the Permalife Blog? Well, I have always been interested in what qualities make for a good life. Is it money? Where you live? Your family? Your job? Every time I would try to pick out the most important aspect of a life well lived, I would end up right back where I started, which is to say, slightly frustrated. Then one day the inkling of a thought dawned on me…what if the reason I couldn’t pick just one piece of life to work on in order to make my time here on this planet pass pleasantly is because every aspect of our lives is tied inexorably together?

Obviously this isn’t a new concept. We can’t just compartmentalize our lives into separate spheres, everyone knows that. But we sure do try, even if we do it unconsciously. We hate our job so we turn that part of ourselves off after 5 pm. We are against animal suffering, but we never stop to think about how the steak got to our plate. We want to tread lighter on the earth, but we would be too inconvenienced if we had to take the bus everywhere.

Nowhere is this disconnect between how we live and how we’d like to live more apparent than in Middle America. Not because people here don’t care, but because it is often really hard to live a sustainable life when you don’t have access to reliable public transportation and the nearest Whole Foods is over 300 miles away.

Which brings me to my purpose…The Permalife is my little experiment in learning about and practicing a life lived to the fullest. A life that is easy on the earth and one that is satisfying for me and my family.

The idea for the name comes from a growing trend among people endeavoring to live a sustainable lifestyle…permaculture.

From the Permaculture Activist:

The word “permaculture” was coined and popularized in the mid 70’s by David Holmgren, a young Australian ecologist, and his associate / professor, Bill Mollison. It is a contraction of “permanent agriculture” or “permanent culture.” Permaculture is about designing ecological human habitats and food production systems. It is a land use and community building movement which strives for the harmonious integration of human dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way we place them in the landscape. This synergy is further enhanced by mimicking patterns found in nature.

Basically, its an everything but the kitchen sink approach to sustainability.  Who knows where it will take me?