Building an A Frame Level

Ever since we moved here I have wanted to make an A frame level. I learned about this when I took a Permaculture Design Course and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Ok, so maybe not the coolest thing but it is pretty neat. So what do you need an A frame level for? If you want hold water for as long as possible on your property and you want to direct the flow of water, you may consider building a swale. A swale is, at its simplest, a ditch. One big difference between what we think of as a ditch and a swale is that a swale is built on contour. This means that you are following the natural curves of the landscape because this forms the path of least resistance for water. The A frame level lets you find the level places along the area where you want to build a swale so that you are building on contour.

The level is actually pretty easy to make and can cost you nothing if you have some spare building materials lying around. I used two pieces of 1x2x6' pine to make the legs of the frame. You can tie or nail the pieces together but we opted to use screws and wing nuts so we can take it apart for storage.

So here is a pic showing the frame before we put on the crosspiece.

Next we added the cross piece and again used screws and wing nuts. Hubby was checking to make sure everything was level.

Before we added the plumb bob, which you can buy at your local home improvement store, hubby marked the center of the cross piece. When trying to find your center mark you should place your level somewhere that is as level as possible. Mark where the feet of your level are on the ground and then mark where the string is against the wood. Now flip the frame so the feet are in each others footprints. Mark where the string is again if it is in a different place. The center of these two marks are your level.

We were lucky and the string was in the same place both times. Here is a picture of the plum bob hanging in place.

Next we had to test it of course. It can be a little tedious but you can see in this picture how the line begins to curve. If we were preparing to dig a swale, we would continue to measure the length of the swale and then dig along the line we have marked. You want a swale to be slightly uphill from where you want to hold the water. The bottom of the swale should be level so the water will stay for as long as possible. When you dig, the dirt should be placed on the downhill side of the swale to form a berm to help with water retention.

Not many of us will ever need an A frame level but for anyone who has ever wondered how to make one, there it is! Now I just need some heavy earth moving equipment.

Sepp Holtzer

I don't believe I have ever mentioned Sepp Holzer before so I thought I would share a couple of videos with you guys. Sepp is an amazing man. He is a genius at Permaculture and understanding how to create systems that mimic nature. He lives in Austria on the side of mountain and he is able to grow things there that normally would never think of calling a mountain home. I have been listening to a lot of Permaculture podcasts lately and I am convinced that Permaculture is the best chance that we have of creating real sustainable systems that will not only support us but also support the world around us. I'm also convinced that Permaculture is a natural extension of our spiritual lives into the mundane world. So for those of you who are interested in Permaculture, I hope you enjoy these videos! Btw...if the closed caption option is not available at the bottom, you may want to go to You Tube to watch it so you can click for the captions. He doesn't speak English so you will probably find the captions helpful. The title of the videos are Sepp Holzer Permaculture Part 1 and 2.

Spiral Herb Garden

I have finally been able to implement a project that I have wanted to do for some time. I took a Permaculture Design course before we moved here and part of the class was to build a spiral garden. We did this during the class as a group but I have wanted to build my own ever since. When we moved last summer I just didn't have the time or the materials to do it but now that it's getting warmer I have finally been able to build one!

First I placed some hay on the ground to help serve as a weed barrier and it will compost and add to the soil. Then I laid out four bricks in a square that measured one foot square and filled in the rest of the shape to form the spiral.

Once you have the initial shape it is simply a matter of continuing to stack the brick to build the walls. You can start in the middle and build that area up first to get to the height that you want and then finish the walls. As you finish the outside walls, you will want them to taper down allowing sunlight into different areas of the spiral. By doing this you are creating microclimates for various plants.

3 courses of bricks

Getting closer!

It took about 3-4 hours to rake and clear the area and then to build the spiral. I have put some old hay in the spiral that has already begun to compost and will finish it with some fresh straw. Once the new straw is in, all I have to do is move the hay aside to place a couple of good handfuls of soil in a hole and put the plant in place. The idea is that the plants will get the the nutrients that they need from the soil and the roots can spread out into the hay in search of water. As the hay composts I can add more until eventually the entire spiral will be full of soil. I would like to build some more with stone just because I think they look prettier. You also don't have to build them this tall but since I was working with brick I knew this was out it would turn out. Here's a picture of the final product.

If you look on You Tube you can find some videos of various spiral gardens and how they were made. I will put a picture up when I get all of the plants in so you can see how it looks. In the meantime, happy planting!

Permaculture Ethics Lesson #1

If you have been anywhere near a radio or TV in the last few days I am sure you have heard about the oil spill that is happening in the Gulf. I say "is happening" because it is an on going event. To date, they still have not been able to cap this thing and stop the thousands of gallons of oil that is pouring into the ocean every day. To say the least, I am more than a little annoyed at this situation. I am annoyed for more than one reason. Not only is this an environmental disaster but it stands to affect my home state for which I am not very happy.

As irritating as all of this is, it is not the core of what I wanted to talk about today. As we make our preparations for creating a simpler life and I focus on using Permaculture to create a harmonious living environment, recent events have made me think about the ethics behind Permaculture. For those who are not familiar with Permaculture I thought I would discuss the three ethics that lie at the heart of Permaculture and how these ethics translate into our everyday lives.

Care of the Earth

This is the first ethic in Permaculture. It is a fairly obvious statement, but it means our first priority is to take care of the planet and not damage the systems that we depend on. So what does this mean? Does it mean we should recycle, compost, and conserve water? Of course, but we have to go a little deeper to find the true value of this ethic.  

For a person to have a deep concern for the Earth, we must have a relationship with it. This relationship must be developed over time and it also needs to have a healthy dose of respect thrown in. We develop this relationship by spending time in nature. Listening to its rhythms and watching the changing of the seasons. Unfortunately, the majority of people in our society have become disconnected from the world around us. I am no exception but I am slowly correcting this problem and working on my own relationship with nature.

Because of this disconnect, many people do not respect the world around them and have trouble fully comprehending the damage we do to our environment and what this means for us. As we gain an understanding of how the world around us functions, then we can understand how we fit within the grand scheme of things. We cannot count on some government agency or our children's schools to take us by the hand and show us how to have this relationship with nature either. This is something personal that we all must take the time to explore and discover. Then, we can teach our children so that this pattern of consumerism and abuse is broken. 

So the next time you spend some time outside, think about our connection to the earth and the ethic of Care for the Earth. What does it mean to you and how you interact with the world around you?

The best laid plans

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Earth Day last week and is looking at new ways to enhance your lives by being greener and living more simply. Unfortunately, I was not able to post Thursday or Friday like I had hoped and like so many other things, our best laid plans often do not work out like we had hoped.

Well, first for the bad news. This weekend we paid another visit to our future homestead and discovered that while we were gone someone else apparently enjoyed our home site as well. The last time we were there we had bought a small storage unit to leave our camping gear in so wouldn't have to haul it back and forth every time. So what did we find we got there? Nothing. The storage unit and all of our stuff was gone. To say the least we were not very happy. We filed a report with the Sheriff's department but I would say it's a safe bet that we will never see any of that stuff again. Because of this event we felt we had to change our plans yet again.

Originally we had planned on building our temporary house on the weekends until time for us to move. However, with this theft we did not feel safe in leaving any construction work unattended for a couple of weeks at a time. Now, we plan on buying a storage building that we can live in while we build the house. This was not what I had wanted to do but compromises have to be made.

We still had an enjoyable weekend camping out and meeting some of our neighbors. We were also able to put the Permaculture principle of observation into action by putting up the prerequisite hammock. As you can see, my husband and son did very well at putting this principle into action.

The kids also picked some pretty wild flowers for me that we found growing at the back of our property. I have no idea what they are so if anyone knows please let me know!

So in a way we are back to square one but we are more anxious than ever to make the move and really get things going. The process is slow but we will get there eventually. Anything worth having is worth working for and this will definitely be a lot of work!

On the upside

Ok, so now that you have had your world view rattled a little by the thoughts of Peak Oil, let's look at what's going on out there to help us come off of our addiction to oil. Believe it or not, not all is lost. If we truly believe that we can live in tune with nature, then it is time to walk the talk.

There are two movements that I am aware of that I will put out there as food for thought. The first is the Transition Town movement. This started as a grass roots movement in the UK where small towns began looking at what they could do to re-localize and prepare for a world with less abundant oil. It has spread beyond the borders of our cousins across the sea to become a practical and viable way of helping our communities learn how to be more self reliant and prepare for the inevitable decline. There have actually been several towns that have adopted suggestions from their local Transition Town committees into their long term city plans.

Another trend that is gaining in recognition is the use of permaculture. Permaculture is a system for designing sustainable living spaces. This system lends itself very well to the Transition Town movement because it can serve as a framework for designing our own personal living space to the entire community as a self sufficient and sustainable environment. Permaculture looks at using redundant systems, mimicking nature, and finding multiple uses for different elements. As we develop our homestead we will be putting Permaculture principles into use so hopefully we can show how this system works in action. If you have never heard of Permaculture I strongly urge you to read about it for yourself. It is a great system and fits in well with the Pagan way of thinking.

                                         *Living roof on a bus shelter*

Of course there are many other elements that fit in with living lighter on the planet and dealing with the future reality of Peak Oil. There is alternative energy, alternative building techniques, organic gardening, living with less chemicals in our lives, living roofs and many others. I simply encourage everyone to explore what's out there. It's going to take a lot of creativity and ingenuity to deal with the challenges in our future but if we start taking steps now we can have a significant impact on how that future looks.