I recently started the free permaculture course after years of interest but basically not quite having the bandwidth to step into anything. My kids are older and youngest is right at the end of being home educated and I feel a desperate need for personal growth. I'm currently a full time carer for my elderly mum and it has evoked layers of anxiety and loss of control over my future that I'm trying to sooth with connection with our environment and gardening. I grew up growing with my dad and have always done it at some level but the past few years it's become a core part of my life. I just want to learn more.

Thanks

Jeanette

New or more common birds this year: a tiny bird, likely either a video or ruby-crowned kinglet, more flicker traffic at the birdbath, hummingbirds (likely either Rufus or Anna's hummingbirds) at the red-flowering currant.

Increased raccoon sightings (problematic as they are getting into an unused chimney but I'm still glad to have the wildlife).

New or more common insects & spiders this year (I'm not great at insect and spider identification so a lot of them are unknown species.): Grey hairstreak butterfly, painted lady butterfly, soldier beetles, flame skimmer dragonfly, lots of unidentified spiders, and many, many bees, wasps, and flies of all shapes, sizes, and colors, including at least 3 different bumblebees. [Side note - it's very irritating that bumblebees are so very similar looking; there are two common ones here with a yellow stripe on their back in slightly different spots, otherwise they look identical.]

Still no reptiles or amphibians spotted but that's not surprising, I have small water sources out but no pond or similar wet area.

All in all, lots of progress from just 3 years ago. Not only are there many more species seen, but also they are all over the yard. When we moved in, there were pollinators on the roses, and birds and squirrels in the big apple tree, and the rest was barren grass and shrubs. Now we see wafts of finches come through to harvest seeds from brassicas, spiders in the woodchip, and insects all over the many flowers that now bloom 12 months of the year (thank you borage, lavender, and calendula for covering the winter months). Many goals still to work on but it's so rewarding to see this land coming back to life!

For the first one, I combined "Catch and store energy" with "use and respond to change" because they seem very connected. I have a little windmill, as well as some pictures of rain barrels at the bottom for more traditional interpretations of "catch energy." But I am mainly thinking about this in terms of people. Our society is so frenetic right now, everyone going everywhere all the time. I keep thinking, how do we harness that. People are spending so much energy searching- for happiness, for community, for a sense of safety, I think searching for "more" without really knowing what they want, they just know they don't have it. How can we harness all that energy into ways that are healing the world instead of hurting it? I put the happy joyful statue because she seemed full of energy.

I also put kudzu and callery pear--the absolute enemy of southeaster native plant enthusiasts, because when i think about "catch and store energy" and "use and respond to change", my mind immediately goes to invasives. We keep trying to cut them back and destroy them, but is that use and responding to change efficiently? In a world whose climate is rapidly changing, harnessing plants who are clearly highly adaptable and resilient seems like the way forward. I have been thinking a lot about how I can start harnessing the kudzu running all over the creek in my neighborhood to help provide food, and I've also been thinking about what use the callery pear in my backyard can play other than just mulching it. Seems like it would be a fast growing, low maintenance source of wood considering i could probably chop it down and it would still survivie. I'm sure the topic of invasives will bring some controversy but that's what I'm thinking about.

My second "flashcard" also deals with two principles. It's about the number of meaningful connections, not just the number of component. And each function is supported by may elements. For this, I completed a diagram I had started (but not finished) because I started this PDC course. The three circles are "what brings me joy," "what am i good at," and "what work needs to be done (in order to heal the planet)." Starting this diagram is part of what led me to the PDC course. I think it highlights these concepts well that something is strong and resilient when there are a lot of connections, not just a lot of components. I also resonate with these principles a lot because I used to be a congregation-based community organizer. For years, we would bring together 2000+ people once a year, and at that event we'd ask leaders like the county commission or mayor to implement solutions like affordable housing or green stormwater infrastructure. It was a fulfilling job, but it was also so hard. I have reflected a lot on how those 2000 people were there...and they each had connection to a couple of other people since it was mainly organized through churches. But they really didn't know each other. The work required sooooo much work on the part of the organizers (aka me and my coworkers) because we had a whole lot of components but not a lot of connections.

After sitting there a while, I had the realization that I wasn't even seeing half of the "lives" of all these creatures, I hadn't been thinking about their roots at all. I tried to imagine what their roots looked like underground, how far the roots must go down, what it would feel like to grow in such hard clay, what it must feel like to be a tree root growing down into the darkness. The ground around the trees is noticeably spongier and bouncier than other parts of the yard where it's grass covering clay.

One thing that kept jumping at out me, however, is just how loud all the human-made noise is. I live outside Atlanta (but inside the beltway), on a 1/4 acre lot. The noise from contractors building a house down the street, cars going by, the train tracks a half mile away, random people mowing their lawns, plus an airplane about every 5 minutes. It was so much noise! And specifically noise from things that I know are not great for Earth, which to be honest is distressing and something I wrestle with while outside in my yard all the time with my son. I wonder about how the trees and animals and plants feel about all this noise.

I have a strange excitement in me about what is coming despite all the negative artificial doom and gloom. I look forward to this new journey and getting to know you guys! I also carry a huge vision for community building and training that I might share at some stage...

Warm wintery wishes from the South!!!

I am a certified permaculture designer who has been working with a small team alongside a cooperative incubator program to build a shared-services cooperative for permaculturists around the country. 

With this infrastructure, we're aiming to help permaculture designers better connect with each other and potential clients, with the goal of increasing our industry's access to paid work. 

I'm looking to connect with permaculture designers from all over but, right now, we are specifically interested in connecting with people doing this kind of work from rural Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Feel free to reach out.

Lexi

boundlesssky25@gmail.com

Looking forward to a response,

Thanks!

Susan