PermaDesign

From Politics to Permaculture

On the St. John's College website, an article about politics, great books permaculture, and me.

http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/features/2014_02_06_downey.shtml

03/28/2014 | (0) Comments

A Tale of Two Drought Strategies

Here is my latest "Permaculture in Practice" column about some positive water-harvesting legislation being proposed in New Mexico.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/life/home/permaculture-in-practice-a-tale-of-two-drought-strategies/article_ac7ef3d3-59d8-5a93-bb71-2bb49dcbb019.html

12/15/2013 | (0) Comments

A Water Ceremony

by Nate Downey

I was honored to be asked to help lead this year's water ceremony at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe. In the process, I was able to rework a little prayer that I wrote for my book "Harvest the Rain." Below, you'll find what I came up with thanks to the inspiration of UUCSF minister Gail Marriner:

Please......
Breathe..................
Stop… and breathe..........
and have a glass of water..............
Feel it soak into your being....There....
You have just reconfirmed your will to live
and have acted on behalf of the creator
of nature and consciousness. Water
is spirit. Respect, maybe worship,
water in its purest form,
precipitation.

.......

Truth is rain,
love is hail, and
peace is fallen snow.
Lightning flashes happiness;
thunder echoes loud and forever.
Wisdom can be fog, desire lost to sky,
and dew is true, sweet sweat from the soil.
Stop, and breathe. Sip. Taste. Swallow. Feel.
Grow a bit, or just be, while your soul expands.
.....Wonder, breathe, relax, glow, and stretch.
.............Absorb this moment of your life,
............and savor it. Allow it to em-
................power you. Now,
...........smile. Now,
...........smile,
...wider.

A Meditation on Water
Copyright, Nate Downey, Sept. 2013.

http://www.uusantafe.org/

09/08/2013 | (0) Comments

The Permaculture Principle Encouraging Redundancy

by Nate Downey

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/life/home/article_4dbfbfa7-f198-512d-b8e6-d171fcdb0fb7.html

09/01/2013 | (0) Comments

In Praise of Diego

by Nate Downey

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/life/home/article_ba64e69c-e1e8-542f-b553-3455217ddd9e.html

07/06/2013 | (0) Comments

Peace is Patriotic—and Permacultural

by Nate Downey

Here's a "Permaculture in Practice" column I wrote ten years ago. For a permacultural perspective, it demonstrates why the Iraq War was such a terrible idea.

03/31/2013 | (0) Comments

Mulchy Christmas to All

by Nate Downey

In this season of giving, we're happy to announce another free tool at http://www.permadesign.com In ad.dtion to being able to estimate the annual runoff from surfaces on your site, now, you can calculate the mulch you'll need for a given project. Here's a screen shot of the more remote parts of the Marin Center and some neighboring easements in San Rafael, CA. Every year, it's the site of the wild and thoughtful Bioneers conference.

12/17/2012 | (0) Comments

Frozen Eggs? No Problem (at least in NM)!

by Melissa McDonald

The other morning Nate came in from a jaunt to the chicken coop. In his hands, he was cradling a couple of severely cracked eggs, but fortunately no goop was dripping on the floor. The eggs were from the day before, so they had withstood 7-degree F weather overnight.

They'd frozen and cracked, but they remained intact. We'd never heard of anybody thawing out eggs and eating them, but that's just what we did the next day. In fact, we decided to try a little science experiment. We first cracked a normal egg (from the same chickens) and it came out normally. Then we cracked a thawed egg, and the thing fell out of the shell in two distinct globs which you can see in the lower fried egg above.

12/11/2012 | (0) Comments

It’s Lovely Weather for a Hoop House

by Melissa McDonald

Here's a shot of our hoop houses under this afternoon's fresh blanket of snow. Inside, we've got lots of lettuces, kale, chard, cabbage, beats, peas, and any number of herbs. I hope to have a greenhouse someday but for now these cold frames are working well.

The hoops are made of 1/2" diameter PVC (a terrible product if you live downstream from an irresponsible manufacturer) pipe which is a light, strong, flexible, rigid, inexpensive and basically perfect material for making low arches in between rebar stakes. Three hoops and pairs of stakes are set within a 4' x 8' rectangle of 2-by lumber. The hoops are covered in a

The Reality of Eating Animals

by Nate Downey

One of the largest subdivisions in the state of New Mexico, Eldorado, just went through an electoral fight by which it was determined that residents CAN own chickens!!! Here's my current "Permaculture in Practice" column about the issue.