Permaculture, Yurets, Granite Dells

Last Friday was a jam-packed day dedicated to permaculture. For those of you who aren't exactly sure what permaculture is, (like me before Friday), the best way for me to sum it up is -- the movement of designing a space while holistically taking into account all the natural and human elements to most efficiently make use of the nutrients/energy/water in the location before passing it on to the next site. The idea is to mimic the flexible, cyclical relationships found in natural ecosystems. Quite fascinating. We spent the morning in lectures and presentations by Jesse, a lively raven-dreadlocked woman who is part Native American. Then we took a lunch break at the Courthouse.

This my friends, is not what it seems. This woman and her husband were pushing a stroller each, with a PUPPY in each stroller. Ridiculous.

I'm not sure if this is a way to tell your friends you're pregnant (through bubblegum)

AMAZING VEGGIE SANDWICH @ Eddies. Sandwich place by day, night club by night? 

After lunch, we took the afternoon going to three different permaculture sites. Each was very different and had its own feel.

Jesse in front of the first permaculture site, which had an absolutely beautiful and cosy house.

The "atrium" area

Dan Quinn, the owner/builder, used earthen materials for the entire structure

His home was a perfect blend of organic, artistic, and welcoming aspects

In the backyard (chicken coop in the left background)

Our second site was very different, with a focus on community living on a larger piece of land. 

In order to avoid getting building permits for having multiple people living in different buildings, Jesse (a different one) imported Mongolian yurets where his tenants live though they officially reside in the main house.

Jesse's goal is to live completely off the grid and completely on nature. He's devised a water filtration system that removes the arsenic from the ground water. No municipal water for him!

Inside one of the yurets:

Some green corn they grew on site:

The third house was a display of more conventional permaculture, and started as a Prescott College independent study project. Christine now lives in this house. We're in one of the backyard gardens. 

(Love the bike wheels)

LOST anyone? 

We ended our class day by performing a site assessment of the third house. We mapped things like where the sun and storms would be in summer and winter, direction of prevailing winds, water runoff, pleasant views, wildlife, etc. The assessment is a tool to best determine how to design your site. One of the big elements of permaculture is site specificity, for sure. 

It's interesting, back at UGA and in most cities we hear so much about LEED standards. But here in Prescott, LEED is almost never mentioned. The green building movement feels much more holistic, much more progressive. Instead of "sustainable" buildings, there's a focus on "regenerative" buildings that benefit the environment instead of being "less bad". (Which is cool because I've thought the exact same thing, I just didn't know what to call it). All the building materials we've been exposed to here are made from some alternative building material, usually of earthen base. Permaculture is HUGE in Prescott, it seems everybody at Prescott College (PC) has taken permaculture classes. 

That night Dawnielle, Nancy, and I made our first dinner from the CSA produce! In case you haven't been paying attention, CSA means Communities Supporting Agriculture. You pick up a weekly batch of fresh produce from the area. This week we got green tomatoes, cactus (!), kale, squash, grapefruits, spring greens. I made fried green tomatoes for the first time! 

Here's our meal, salad with tomatoes on fried eggs on muenster on toasted kalamata olive rosemary bread:

Saturday we were finally able to sleep in. We had such a hectic and exhausting week we gladly embraced it and spent the day lounging inside. But we emerged out of our apartment to catch the sunrise at the Granite Dells, about 15 min outside of Prescott.

The dells! They seemed photoshopped, they were so beautiful.

LOTR Re-enactment:

Oh, and our last classmate Monica arrived Saturday and joined us at the dells!

We jumped around the rocks like little mountain goats.

In a pit. You know how I do.

We're definitely coming back to explore more. Apparently there are bike trails and a dock to go kayaking!

This is the only sign of snakes I've seen so far in my time here:

A horseshoe court?

What a brilliant idea! Not trying to convince people to buy more gas, but what a brilliant idea!

In an hour and a half I will be catching up with the rest of the East coast and watching THE LOST FINAL FINALE at a friend of Drew's house. Should be interesting to meet Arizonian Losties and OMG LOST


x-posted on loungerats2010.blogspot.com