Wayne Weiseman (L) one of our lead instructors, arrives at airport and is picked up by Mike Kluk (R), a student of the course and a key local support person for the training.

Vidya Chaitanya (our course host) and Naomi Waters (her daughter from England) arrive at the same time to meet up with us.

Student arriving through the entrance of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm the morning of the training’s start.

Some of the beautiful artwork on the grounds of the Yoga Farm.

The Yoga Barn where our classroom work was held.

Vidya takes students on a tour of the grounds on their first day.  As a former administrator for this Ashram, she is intimately familiar with it’s strengths and challenges.

Vidya took her PDC training with Midwest Permaculture a year earlier and organized the hosting of our training presences.

Much of the Farm’s electricity is supplied by these PV panels.

Vidya was instrumental in the unfolding of the food gardens during her tenure at the farm.

Most of the students camped on the grounds, several electing to share one of the Ashram’s seasonal cabins.

The Ashram is a lovely place to visit and to learn yoga (and permaculture).  It is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about two hours North of Sacramento.

Learning about water catchments and ponds is part of the curriculum.

Yoga classrooms, kitchen and eating areas.

Outdoors yoga training area.

We leave our shoes outside of the classroom and other buildings.

The classroom.

A bit more than half of our time at a training is spent in the classroom.  There is still much of the curriculum to cover and the classroom is ideal for this, but we have also learned that students don’t just learn by sitting and listening.  We get outside every day and take the learning into the field and on the ground.

Wayne teaching.

Two organically prepared meals were provided to students daily.

Students learning to use an A-frame to determine ‘level’ for the marking of swales or other earthworks projects.

Students also learn how to use a surveyors transit to determine slope.

Keith Crabtree, a local pond expert, also took part in the week long training and also taught several sections of the curriculum.

We leave the Sierra Nevada foothills for several site tours in Davis.

On the way we pass through the ‘fertile’ San Joaquin Valley where much of the nations vegetable crops are grown each year.

Although these fields are quite productive at certain times of year, they are heavily dependent upon herbicides, pesticides, artificial fertilizers and large machinery…all made from cheap oil.  So, how fertile are they really?

Without the the above, this soil would mostly produce weeds.  And, the soil is repeated exposed to wind and rain erosion when left bare, as in this photo.  Some call this an agricultural desert.

As we enter our first destination in Davis we are met with tree lined streets at Village Homes.

However, these trees also produce a crop and subsequently, an income, for all of the residents of this community. The crop? Almonds.

Village Homes is an excellent example of how simple planning can end up paying dividends for decades to come.

The streets are narrow and access the back of the homes and their garages.

The front of the homes overlook sidewalks and bountiful gardens.

Not only are the private and common areas beautiful…

…they are loaded with food!

In this case, persimmons are ripe for picking.

All of the homes have one or more energy saving features, most of them very passive in nature, but very effective as well.

Here, skylights let light and heat in during the winter months, but can be easily covered during the summer to block out excess heat.

The interior of the homes are relatively modest in square feet, but spacious feeling and lovely.

Beside the private and public garden areas, there are still expanses of grass for common use.

One very large field is found near the very center of the community.

This rather ordinary hedge has a dual purpose.

It also grows food… pomegranates to be precise.

Several of the homes are backed up into a small hillside. The vegetation all but conceals them from view.

This home is located at the edge of another community feature, the vineyard.

Along side of the home is this small path that leads upwards.

Followed to the top, it brings one to the chimney of the home.

This lovely roof always looks nice but never needs painting or re-shingling.

There is a 20 year old film out there called ‘The Global Gardener’ that show’s permaculture’s founder, Bill Mollison, standing on this exact same room, in the exact same place that Wayne is.

After 30 years, this grape vine has become a foundational member of the front deck pergola.

Overhead, the grape vines shade and cool the deck in the summer, shed their leaves in the winter to let sunlight through, and produce large volumes of grapes for eating or for making preserves and wine.

The greenery cascading over the roof line is from the root-top herb garden. I believe it might be rosemary.

It’s early fall and the deciduous fruit trees have shed their leaves allowing the warming sunlight in.

When we finish our visit at Village Homes we head across town to our next stop, driving right by the University of California campus in Davis.

This average American subdivision looks like thousands of other communities.

But conventional it is not. This is the location of the N-Street Co-op.

Over 25 years ago, a couple of neighbors decided to take down the fences between their two backyards and share the collective space for gardening and socializing.

Not long afterwards the house behind theirs came up for sale. They decided to buy it and add that yard to their cooperative venture, renting the home to college students who were invited to become a part of their extended family.

25 years later, all of the homes in this suburban block are now a part of the N-Street Co-op with everyone sharing the common space like this meeting and dining room…

…this community kitchen area…

…this back deck and patio area…

… and all of the back yard areas, all combined, for gardens…

…open space…

…ponds and waterfalls…

…composting….

One of the local community building projects was this fascinating place called ‘The Bike Church’.

Here, anyone could stop by and help themselves to any of a whole host of free bicycles.

Near the end of their training, students and faculty spent an evening sharing some of their talents with one another.

Here Wayne sang a couple of songs that he wrote.

Others shared stories, skits, jokes, hidden talents and more.

It turns out that one of our students was quite a sketch artist.

By the following spring, the bottom of the swale is clearly visible with the excess straw gathered in it but the clover can hardly been seen on the mound of the swale because of the grasses coming up through it.

The fruit trees were planted about a month before this picture was taken and have yet to leaf out.