Digging Deeper Into Permaculture

Posted on by Paige

Living in the U.S. can be like living with your eyes closed. There is so much possibility in the world and yet it is not easy to see, because of the way we live. Sometimes it takes an change of scenery to reveal to us the true potential of the world.

Paige with a mango

My eyes are more open each time we go to Africa.  And now I’m excited (in a brand new way) for next winter when we hope to return.  The new lens I’ll be looking through is completely invigorating to me, as I’ve recently completed a PDC course through Midwest Permaculture! 

Continue reading →

Chickens for the Orchard (and for Dinner)

Posted on by Bill Wilson

Objective:  
Raise some chickens for food and to also help with insect, grass and weed pressure in our 2-acre community orchard…!!!

As most of you know, in permaculture design we attempt to:

  1. garner the greatest amount or number of yields
  2. from the minimum amount of work 
  3. while creating no waste (at least minimal)
  4. and restoring the environment.

Let’s see what additional benefits we can obtain from this project other than just the insect, grass and weed-removal help from 100 chickens.  This will be our chicken saga as it reveals itself in real time.   We’re always learning too and raising this many chickens at once, and in this way, is stretching us some.  But we will take the bit of experience we do have, plus apply permaculture design principles while adding in good-ole common sense (with help from some great books and the internet) to work creatively and to see what we can come up with.

It all starts with an order of 100 chicks (multi-heritage breeds from McMurry) that Hayden and Cameron (our two work/study intern students) selected. All were delivered through the U.S. mail. All survived. Hayden created a safe and warm habitat from a yard-storage container, a heat lamp and some old boards and fencing. This structure lasted almost 2 weeks before they outgrew it. During this time we work on a more permanent home.

  Continue reading →

Midwest Permaculture Training Applicable in Africa

Posted on by Paige

Permaculture Training Applicable Around the Globe

The brilliance of Bill Mollison’s PDC course is the universality of it.  Students of a Midwest Permaculture PDC Course can take this educational experience and apply it to any location or climate on the planet. The PDC is about learning how to design; learning how to see different situations and the landscape through a permaculture way of seeing the world.  

We have had students from just about every part of the globe take our trainings and all of them leave with the knowledge of how to apply permaculture thinking and design to their own environment and circumstance.

Even though Grant Shadden took his PDC with us in Illinois, his education has allowed him to be of service in Africa.  We are now delighted to have Paige Shadden joining us in an upcoming PDC course.

Bill Wilson – Midwest Permaculture 

 My husband, Grant, and I are gardening nerds.  We both have childhood memories of gardening with our families (his more fond than mine!).  Even more now we enjoy it as adults as we discover the realities of pesticides, the high prices of organic produce and how destructive our industrial agriculture system is. 

Grant and Paige Shadden - Volunteer Permaculture Work in Africa

 

Connect Africa Hub – A Permaculture Design

Posted on by Bill Wilson

Illustration of the Final Design

Permaculture Design Course Graduates - Summer 2011 - Stelle, IL

 Context:

Grant Shadden took his PDC Training with us – summer 2011.  While here, he shared about his upcoming 2-month trip to Africa to support the work of the Connect Africa hub. 

We were all moved by the work of this organization and by Grant’s, and his wife Paige’s, devotion to assist in the work there.  Grant was actually taking this training in order to come up with a design for this organization and a 20-acre site they want to develop.  

As such, we made the decision to assist him by making it one of the final design projects for the PDC Course.  4 other students self-selected themselves to work on this design with Grant. 

Continue reading →

Photos of Winter PDC, Feb.2012, at Midwest Permaculture

Posted on by Hayden

Here are a handful of pictures from this training…

This was one of our standard, full, PDC courses and included an emphasis on the growing of food.  
We expect to continue to offer this winter training yearly which is well timed for those folks too busy during the growing season to attend a full PDC course.  Keep an eye on our schedule for this and all other future trainings. 

Our Group Photo with Rocket Stove in Foreground and Midwest Permaculture Homesite to the Rear. Mom (Becky) standing on left... me (Hayden) standing on right...and all of our great students.
  Continue reading →

Burning Wood to “Cool” an Entire Lodge

Posted on by Bill Wilson

Arbor Day’s Lied Lodge:
It is Air Conditioned with Current Sunlight (i.e. Scrap Wood)

Becky at the Fuelwood Energy Plant, one of the places we'll be touring during the March PDC.

 

In our last post we talked about thermal mass rocket stoves and the great benefit they held by being able to heat our homes using current sunlight in the form of firewood.  (The sunlight energy stored in coal, oil and natural gas is millions of years old.) With these stoves we consume as little as 1/4 the amount of firewood it would take to heat the same amount of space with a traditional wood stove.  This is a huge savings in energy consumed for the same results.

Last February, Becky and I visited Lied Lodge and were surprised to discover that they not only heated their water and the Lodge with scrap-chipped wood, but they also air-condition the entire Lodge using the same fires…!!!   How can this be? Continue reading →

Thermal Mass Rocket Stoves on our Minds…

Posted on by Bill Wilson

The exhaust system of Bev and Wayne's stove before cobbing it over into a bench for heat extraction. More pictures at bottom of this post.

Early this fall, our friends and neighbors, Bev and Wayne, started to build a thermal mass rocket stove in their living room.  Wayne took one of our PDC courses not long ago and was inspired by the rocket stove concept (See the illustration and links below).

Bev and Wayne have been sharing their adventure with us and we are very excited about the possibilities.

Imagine having a wood burning stove in your home that:

  1. Burns less than 1/4 the amount of wood you typically burn
     
  2. Keeps you as warm or warmer
     
  3. Allows you to easily burn sticks, twigs and branches instead of just large chunks of firewood.
     
  4. Burns cleaner than any wood stove ever made

The big thing for us, living here on the prairie in Illinois surrounded not by woods or forests but by corn and bean fields, is the very real shortage of easily available firewood.  

What I am talking about are the large hardwood trees with trunks and large branches which are typically chainsawed to length and then split to fit into a wood burning stove.  All of this tonage of wood then needs to be hauled out of the woods, dumped or stacked somewhere, then loaded back into a truck for delivery to be driven to someone’s home (a lot more energy) and then unloaded and stacked again for winter use.

Continue reading →

6-Day Family Friendly Training

Posted on by Bill Wilson

6-day “Hands-on” Training - August 2011
Held at Midwest Permaculture in our Sustainably Oriented Community of Stelle, IL
We expect to be offering a ‘family friendly’ training every summer.  See Here for Details

 This Training is also Stage 2 or our 3-Stage PDC Certificate Course 
6 Students stayed on for the 5-day PDC Completion Training and earned their permaculture certificate.

This was our first training that fully welcomed families with children. Four families joined us along with 12 other individuals. Bottom-line... it worked out really well!

 

 “I so appreciated having families and their children in the course. 
It really added to the wonderful dynamic.” 
Kate – College Student 

 

Continue reading →

What A Difference A Path Makes – Before & After

Posted on by Bill Wilson


Before

As I am doing my year-end clean-up and organizing of my computer files, I came across these two pictures of our front yard (Midwest Permaculture – Bill and Becky Wilson). Here is how the yard looked the spring following the digging of the rain gardens which we did in late October.

 

After

And here it is in June after we dug in the paths and covered them and the raised beds (our keyhole gardens) with shredded hardwood bark mulch. The mulch gives the yard a more finished look while also helping to hold in moisture and add organic matter to the soil. Because this is the front yard we felt it was important for it to look more ‘landscaped’ being located in a suburban setting. If we are going to help mainstream to see the value of permaculture, we will have to make it look nice as well as be functional & productive. 

Becky and I are strong advocates of making pathways a priority as well. They not only make it easier to get around the yard but they really help define space which helps the mind to organize what to do where. 

The plants in the foreground are sweet potatoes. The vines grew all the way down into the rain gardens and whenever it rained and they filled with water, the vines would float on the surface like water lilies. It was lovely.

Becky and I would like to wish you all a wonderful holiday season. We look forward to sharing much with you in 2012.

All the best…. Bill Wilson