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

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.

Propagelle Project Summary

We began the Propagelle Project in an abandoned 11-acre cotton field in East Texas. Having no existing structures, roads, or power—the property was truly a blank slate. A master site plan was drawn up in 1992, and after studying the soil and natural drainage patterns, we designated appropriate Permaculture zones throughout the property.

With our plans complete, we began the first phase of development in 1993. In approximately 5 years, the family built an 1,800-square foot home, separate office, multiple decks & gardens, greenhouse, tool sheds, passive waste treatment system, rainwater catchment system, and water tower. We have since begun development of other zones- including completion of a second three-bedroom home, larger vegetable garden, planting of fruit trees, windmills, chicken coop/greenhouse, roads, and walking paths.

Each zone is optimized to yield a part of our diet as well as provide for large animals—whose protein and waste are integral to organic food production. Food and garden scraps are used for animal feed and composting. Animal waste & grass clippings provide biomass for a digester that produces methane gas for cooking and fertilizer for the gardens.

At the core, this project is about recognizing available, renewable resources and using them to create a productive, sustainable way of living. We have implemented:
- Efficient building systems, tailored for the humidity and heat of East Texas
- Solar orientation of all structures to enable passive heating, cooling and natural light
- Hybrid power production incorporating solar, wind, and methane gas
- Methane digester, powered by cow manure and grass clippings
- Constructed wetlands to allow passive treatment of human sewage
- Rainwater collection and storage for livestock, irrigation, and fire prevention
- Design of roadbeds and swales for water collection in ponds and landscape
- Organic gardening using on-site materials for mulch and compost
- Soil and pasture development with compost tea and natural amendments

Our goals for the near future include:
-Providing internships and residencies for college students
-Further minimizing of external power usage
-Networking with like-minded families and organizations to share resources and information

We believe in the prime directive of Permaculture, which states:
It is now possible to consciously design and maintain economically productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural systems. It is our duty to harmoniously integrate humans and landscapes where local people meet their needs in a sustainable manner because without a sustainable food source, it is impossible to have a stable social order.

In summary, we hope to model a One Planet lifestyle for our grandchildren who, we believe, will have no choice but to live within those limits.

The propagelle symbolizes our lives. We feel small and not very powerful, but we are collectively in search of an alternative to our contemporary culture. A new way of thinking must spring up. Creative alternatives exist that are both economical and elegant. We are committed to cultivating such alternatives using our own surplus cash and muscles so that others without many resources can believe there is a way out.