PermaDesign

Category: Children

The Reality of Eating Animals

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.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/113097177/Santa-Fe-Real-Estate-Guide-November-2012#page=15

A Majesty of Gold and Blue

by Melissa McDonald

We couldn't find any purple aster to go with our chamisa yesterday, but on the way to a client's home in the Cerrillos/Madrid area we found some huge, bold swaths of orange from native cottonwoods along the Galisteo River and its tributaries. These go well with that prolific golden chamisa (rabbitbush, rabbit brush), too, and of course we can usually get our blue-hue fix from our mostly clear blue skies and awesome purple-mountain majesties.

10/26/2012 | Children | (0) Comments

With Book Release on Tuesday, Here’s My Schedule

by Nate Downey

August, 2010

TUESDAY, AUGUST 17 (AFTER MIDNIGHT), HARVEST THE RAIN IS AVAILABLE! Nate releases Harvest the Rain: How to Enrich Your Life by Seeing Every Storm as a Resource.

Greenhouse Bust Backfires on Cops, Us

by Nate Downey

Here is my recent “Permaculture in Practice” column, which is published in the Santa Fe New Mexican’s monthly real estate magazine.

It was a typically permacultural day at Camino de Paz School and Farm. The students had tended the chickens, goats, sheep, and horses. They’d weeded and watered vegetable beds, picked fruit, made cheese, canned tomatoes. They’d taken math, English, Spanish, and history. Two students, Sasha and Sarah, prepared campus-grown potatoes, cheese, applesauce, and a medley of fresh greens. Under the shade of an old apricot, Ben and Reyes set 25 places for lunch.

11/03/2010 | Children | Edibles | Energy Savings | (0) Comments

Bioneers Day 1: An Ultratransformative Conference!

by Nate Downey

I must have been about seven years old when my Gramma Adams got together with some friends and they stopped the construction of an interstate highway that would have run across the west side of Connecticut, through Massachusetts, and all the way up to Burlington, Vermont and beyond. The death of the Super 7 project was a great political victory, and I think I’ve been an avid and positively focused environmentalist ever since.

Little Earth School Planning Next Year’s Garden Now

by Nate Downey

My younger son goes to a cool school called Little Earth. Tonight they had me as the first speaker in their series of practical talks for parents and educators. I called my presentation “Garden Design with Children in Mind,” and I focused on five garden components that students of all ages love.

1) The Bean Tipi, an edible playhouse made out of scarlet runner beans and five-to-ten long sticks, posts, or poles.
2) The Sunflower House, a playhouse (or tunnel) made out of mostly giant sunflowers, that teaches kids of all ages about microclimates and makes for a nice afternoon snack in the fall.
3) Edible Plants, these are very important in a children’s garden for a wide variety of reasons.
4) Sheet Mulch, an easy way to build soil, suppress weeds, and harvest rain in the soil, it uses cardboard, manure, and straw as its main ingredients,
5) Worm making, no kids garden is complete without a compost pile, and no compost pile is complete without worms.

I plan to elaborate on each of these in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned.

Nate’s Book, “Harvest the Rain,” Is Now Available as Iraq War Starts Wrapping Up!

by Nate Downey

The great news is that I finally got the shopping cart to work at www.harvesttherain.com, so you can now buy my book on our totally secure website! I’ll even sign it, inscribe it, date it, bless it, and send it off with a light misting of rainwater if you want me to. (HINT: For the latter, all you have to do is type “Please mist me.” in the little inscription box, and I’ll know the code.)

Catch Our 16 Minutes of Fame on HGTV Today!

by Nate Downey

When I was my kids’ age (5 and 7), every child had goals. Highest among them was being on TV. One time my sister and I got on “Wonderama,” a show where kids were picked out of a large audience to be contestants in a quasi game-show. I wasn’t chosen, but I sure relished the one glimpse of my madly waving arms in an ecstatically joyful sea of madly waving arms.