Introspection

Life must be seen as a preparation for succession and renewal rather than a journey to extinction. The divine circle of life is thus described reminding us that we move from life to death to new life. Joy comes to us when we move beyond despair and the fear of death and grasp the notion that the spirit of life persistently manifests itself anew in unexpected form. The spirit will always push up and out, taking the materials at hand to draw attention to its secret power.

The mushroom continues to remind us of this power as it pushes up with the spirit’s energy to announce new life and beauty in the presence of decay.

The land is the key to our inner nature, its beauty and its violence but a mirror of the light and shadow in the human soul. Landscape then is a revelation of the Self and a key to our own moods and inner changes. Each landscape asks the same question, “I am watching myself in you - are you watching yourself in me?”
— A Passion for this Earth, Valerie Andrews

In the presence of one wild bluebell I am humble and joyful. If I were given all the learning and all the methods of my race I could not make one of them or even imagine one. Solomon in all his glory was no arrayed like one of there. It is a privilege and the labor of the apprentice of creation to come with his imagination into the unimaginable, and with his speck into the unspeakable.
— Traveling at Home, Wendell Berry

But God’s own descent into flesh was meant as a demonstration that the supreme merit lay in risking spirit in substantiation.
Spirit enters flesh and for all it’s worth charges into earth in birth after birth ever fresh and fresh.
We take the view that its derring-do thought of in the large is one might charge of our human part of the soul’s ethereal into the material.
—“In the Clearing,” Robert Frost

Propagelle

The propagelle was chosen to symbolize the life our family wants to live because we have come to believe that the present order is not sustainable. A new way must spring up that is perhaps tiny at present but powerful in that it contains that information and hopeful spirit that will prove helpful for many. We have the opportunity to create an alternative that will be elegant yet economically and environmentally sane.

"A propagelle is a tiny, mushroom-like spore which can overwinter and endure dessication as more information than mass. With new light and water, wham! the new mushrooms spring up everywhere to transform the landscape. Letting go, eliminating the unnecessary, is the first part of a larger longer cycle of life."
--Re-imagination of the World, David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson

The Hundredth Monkey

Where do we join the daunting process of transforming a fossil fuel addicted, artificial culture into a solar, sustainable one? Is each of us responsible to make changes or do we wait for the ‘hundredth monkey’ and total system change? Some would say we have to begin by changing our imagination since we cannot share a future we cannot visualize. We do seem to need a vision that can energize us to leave the Egyptian brickyards and lead us into a promised land. But vision alone has never guaranteed a generation won’t get lost in the wilderness. Then there are those who say, ‘just do it’. Do anything rather than wait for the herd mind to move us. Surely we need dreams and actions, but neither is the controlling factor in change. So where do we place our fulcrum and lever to shift the world.

If we find ourselves in one state or condition that we cannot pay for (read, sustain) and want to create another set of conditions, we begin a process known as transformation. In the transformative process, the limiting factor is finding extra accessible energy. Without a surplus, no change can occur at any level. You cannot ask a single mom supporting two kids to build a new house! She is in survival mode as surely as an African villager. But there are always surprising sources of extra energy available even if they are not perceived by those in a survival mode like most of us.

We must begin a transformation of our personal lives with some accounting of energy—its cost, availability, and form. Right now, we are totally dependent on fossil fuels. The end of this supply is drawing to a close and we are prepared to fight wars to ensure the supply. The real problem with our addiction is that our own technology will shortly choke us off. Oil industry analysts have warned that in the near future if will take a barrel of oil to produce a barrel of oil in the U.S. Then there is the expense that is measured in the cost of guarding supply lines, shown in military increases and possibly measuring near $500 a barrel.

We must learn to use new energy sources and save energy by recycling our waste on site. On our farm, we are capable of producing electricity from biogas (using grass clippings and manure in a digester), wind power from a 1 kw wind turbine on top of a 100-ft tower, and solar power from 8 PV panels.
We are by no means there yet, but we are traveling towards having at least one house powered totally by alternative power sources. During this transition, we are experimenting and seeing what works.

As we learn to conserve and cut expenses, however, we will slowly be able to convert to a sustainable compound powered by alternative energy sources


If all the major cities of the U.S. composted their solid waste, ten million acres of farmland could be organically fertilized—saving five tons of oil for every ton of artificial fertilizer. Since 1990, New York City alone puts out over 100 billion pounds of compostable garbage annually.
- Secrets of the Soil, Peter Thompkins and Chris Bird.

The choice of technology for cleaning up our environment is one place we can demonstrate the efficiency of natural systems over mechanical ones. What does it cost to plant and maintain a tree compared to a machine that has to work twenty-four hours a day for thirty years and cannot clean up after itself?
An acre of trees will
*Remove 2.6 tons of carbon from the air a year
*Trap and hold particulate pollutants like smoke and ask
*Produce enough oxygen in the process for eighteen people every day
*Absorb enough carbon dioxide each year to equal the amount an individual produces by driving 26,000 miles.
*Cut your electric bill by as much as 15% if you have large trees around the house.
- taken from an article by C.I, Baker in The Growing Edge Vol. 4 #4

Below is a set of plans for Meinel cusp, four power solar concentrator (click on the picture to enlarge it). It's a pre-heater for a hot water system. It should not be installed as the primary source of hot water.

Will it help you?
Check the solar band zone map to determine what percent of your water can be heated by the sun.
Can you build it?
Well, it took about 2 days of fooling around. You may write me for more detailed plans.
Why this kind of heater?
There are many types of solar heaters, but not many concentrators. Because of the shape of the arcs, you get four times the heat, and this one has the advantage of collecting rays from 180 degress as soon as the sun rises until sunset.
What's the downside to this thing?
It is heavy and bulky--not as clean looking as the plate collectors like the $1500 Copper Cricket, but for a backyard system, I don't think it can be beat.
How much does it cost?
We has a custom stainless steel tank made fora bout $160. The rest of the materials came to about $100 with stuff like R-19 insulation blanket in a double-walled box. The mylar reflector was only $5...an emergency blanket from K-Mart.

Windmill Pictures and Upcoming Topics

Spring is starting to 'spring' around here, so it has started us thinking about finishing up projects and starting new ones like gardening again, and milking the cow. Our Dexter recently calved, so we would like to milk her, but she has little insterest in cooperating and we haven't the proper physical setup to ensure safe handling and processing of milk. Safe milk is extremely important to us because of the 4 year old in residence. :D

Here are a couple of shots of lowering the 100-ft windmill tower prior to a large storm. The winter sky was amazing that day.


Spring also has us thinking about the larger topics that we would like to address in the future. We want this blog to be informative and to share the lessons that we are learning.
We hope to discuss at minimum these topics, mixed in with our thoughts and other topics (so if there is something that would interest you, just drop us a note).
- alternative energy selection and installation (wind, solar, and biogas)
- organic gardening planning and installation
- milking cows
- broadscale planning (contouring of property, water collection) and regnerative design
- fish pond planning and installation

Out, Out Damned Waste

Tied into our living in wonderland metaphor, our family moved to rural East Texas to make simpler living possible and to build some diversity; we are in search of something healthier than weak tea with cream. We had a dream to build a new homestead system that will thrive by utilizing waste products (what the poor have left) while restoring eroded soil and polluted water. Ultimately, sustainability will mean reenacting the great cycles of life on our land and in this region. The more loops we close, the more yield we can expect from natural systems so there will be enough for all without degrading the environment.

But we were right away brought down to earth by another kind of waste problem. With no curbside pickup, the garage filled quickly with daily trash and garbage. Our city lifestyle would not work here. The nearest sanitary landfill was 50 miles away and charged $5 a bag. Burning or making our own landfill were not options for us at first. We also discovered that the two septic tanks needed work. In a month, we were a metaphor for many municipalities and even our whole nation—overwhelmed by our own waste!
A few of the adaptations we made to transform waste into well-being included building a burn pit that provided ashes for soil amendments, recycling of plastic and glass, building constructed wetlands (passive sewage treatment) and reusing paper and food waste in the gardening process. The constructed wetlands will be discussed in detail later.
Instead of adding to the garbage bin, we create a pile of fresh vegetable and fruit wastes to be fed to the chickens. Paper from boxes and mail is saved to be used in the garden. Our organic garden (to be discussed in detail later) includes 8 raised beds in a fenced area. To reduce weeding on paths, we paper and mulch with hay to stop grass from spreading. A current gardening plan will also be included later.
In earlier years, we instead used this paper to create a mulched garden. The sketch below shows one such garden variation.

Much of what we have done is small scale and largely symbolic, but such changes represent the hopeful adaptations we may all make so more families can join the global search for new patterns of sustainable living.

Living in Wonderland

Today, all humans in the world will add 15 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere, destroy 115 square miles of rainforest, create 72 square miles of desert, eliminate between 40 and 100 species, erode 71 million tons of topsoil, and add 2,700 tons of CFCs to the stratosphere, and increase the population by one quarter of a million.

The world’s environmental crisis is rooted in s a social and ethical crisis. We live in a nation where the wealthiest 1% own more than the bottom 90%. We in America are less than 10% of the global population yet we consume almost half of all the nonrenewable resources each year. The American Dream has become a nightmare for the rest of the world. It is futile to offer modernity to them. We wouldn’t allow such a blatant maldistribution in our own families, how have we come to support it among nations?

Fortunately, there are growing numbers who suspect that our culture is not sustainable. Our response to global crises cannot be simplistic insistence on more conservation alone. We must also have wiser use of all our resources and a greatly reduced waste-stream. We are caught in a double bind, however, because we know we must change yet we cannot imagine living any other way. Lewis Carroll illustrates our situation with his bread-and-butterfly in Alice’s wonderland. Its wings are thin slices of bread, its body a crust, and head a lump of sugar.
“What does it live on?” Alice asked.
“Weak tea with cream,” replied her guide, the gnat.
And a difficulty came to Alice’s head: “Supposing it couldn’t find anything else?”
“Then it would die, of course!”
“But that must happen very often,” Alice remarked, pondering.
“It always happens,” said the gnat.

The double bind, painful as it is, may be just what we need at this critical time in history. We are challenged not to just tinker with the system, but to transform it. We must do something completely new. History offers little guidance here. We have never been at this juncture before. I suggest we keep our “sugar heads” and find ways to nurture (culture) our lives and to allow other nations to do so, each within our own borders.

Site Plan and Layout - Past and Present

Below are the original plan created in 1994 (in sketch form) and a more updated version drawn in 2005 (also a sketch).
As evidenced, plans evolve over time with changes in family, income, and time.

ORIGINAL PLAN (drawn in 1994)


UPDATED PLAN (drawn in 2005)


In sum, the property now has the following structures and resources established or in progress.
Shelter:
Two residences
Office
Chicken Palace/Greenhouse by gardens
Barn under construction
Tool sheds/Storage
Power shed for batteries
Animal sheds

Food:
Organic gardens/Berries
In progress orchard and vineyard
Chickens (meat and eggs)
Cows (beef and in progress milking)
Tilapia ponds under construction, nearing completion

Waste Treatment:
Constructed wetlands

Energy:
Solar arrays (8 panels)
Wind turbines (2)
Biogas digester

Water:
Rain catchment through a swale system to harvest water
Town-supplied water
Future 600-ft. well

Just as a reminder, the propagelle symbolizes our lives because we are small and not very powerful, but we are in search of an alternative to our contemporary culture that we hope will inform and encourage many others who want to change. A new way must spring up to demonstrate an alternative that lies within reach of many and that will be both economical and elegant. We are committed to finding such an alternative using our own surplus cash and muscles so that others without many resources can believe there is way out.

Reason for Starting

Ever since we returned from Africa (to the U.S.) as community development missionaries, our family has been looking for a way to live many of the values we came to appreciate in Africa—strong community, no split between body and spirit, man and nature, and an enjoyment of the goodness and bounty of life and people.

Our family is determined to live a life that reflects our growing understanding that there are enough resources for us all when we cooperate with nature, not try to control it. We need not accumulate to survive or be successful. In true community with others and the land, our needs will be met with sustainable bounty and beauty.


We’ve learned a lot together in the process of trying to express a lifestyle that is neither excessive nor a crude retreat from nature. One of the key objectives of our design is to allow us to retrofit many different technologies since this property must function as a research system as well as our homes.

Our house and accompanying system have been designed with a living systems approach, loosely based on Permaculture, an integration of the words permanent agriculture, developed by Bill Mollison.

In Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, Mollison says:

Great changes are taking place these days…it is now possible to consciously design and maintain economically productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural systems. It is now our duty to harmoniously integrate man and landscape where local people meet their needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture it is impossible to have stable social order.

Ian McHarg, the landscape designer, expresses our new worldview so well in Design with Nature:

The world is a glorious bounty. There is more food than can be eaten if we would limit our numbers to those who can be cherished, there are more beautiful girls than can be dreamed of, more children that we can love, more laughter than can be absorbed. Canvas and pigments lie in wait, stone and wood and metal are ready for sculpture, random noise is latent for symphonies, sites are gravid for cities, institutions lie in the wings ready to solve our most intractable problems, parables of moving power remain unformulated and yet, the world is finally unknowable.

Our eyes need no longer divide us from the world, but unite us with it. We can now abandon the simplicity of separation and give unity its due. Let us abandon the self-mutilation that has been our American way and give expression to the potential harmony of man and nature.

We desire to live this truth even though we are extremely conscious of how much we have been conditioned to think in terms of scarcity and competition—survival of the fittest. The violence of our culture is a tribute to the power of the organizing myth of scarcity. It’s time, however, to give cooperation a chance.

We can, I believe, heal the earth and ourselves. But we can only heal what we love, and we can love only what we know. And we know only what we touch! It feels wonderful to be in touch with the earth on this farm every day.

Pictures of Propagelle

This is a complilation of some shots from around the property. As we go along, we will share the details of our physical plans and what is currently going on at Propagelle Project.