permaculture

[jknapp@pacific.net (John Knapp)]

At 9:34 PM 3/31/98, eric + michiko wrote:
>Hello, John.
>
>It looks like you are getting lots of advice for your poison oak.
>
>I was wondering if you are the person I think you are.  If you are not,
>please forgive me.  I have miss placed my list of names and addresses from
>last summer's Permaculture Design Course at Tunitas Creek.  Are you the John
>Knapp of Dental,  Safety Group Six and Tunitas Hula fame?  If so, please
>write back to me.  If you are not, again, please forgive me for such a
>strange message.
>
>Sincerely,
>Eric Storm in Sebastopol


Hi Eric,

Yes it's me.  You can tell I'm finally hard at it, trying to think and work
like a permaculturist.

With a very favorable housing market in SF last summer, we decided it was
time to make the move.  So we are now up in north country, renting a small
house on the east side of Ukiah Valley and working on our property in
Redwood Valley.  So far, most of the work has been selecting a house site,
trying to design infrastructure in a way that works with the land(several
compromises already), design a house(about 40% done) and clear the house
and garden sites.  The latter, of course, is what started the thread on
poison oak.  I think I'm only moderately sensitive to it, but my wife,
Laura is highly sensitive.  So I get to do the clearing.

Found a permaculture group up here that meets once or twice a year.
They've been going for over 14 years.  No established activities like
Sonoma Permaculture or Penny Livingston's place.  Is Sonoma still going now
that Keith moved back east?

Haven't seen the other two of our Mendocino classmates since we moved, but
I have bumped into Guy Gray's wife, Linda a couple of times.  And Meca
Wawona was in the local paper.  She is a member of a group who formed a
non-profit trust to try to buy the 100,000+ acres that Louisiana Pacific
has put on the market.  They're mostly depleted, third cut, timber lands
that will take 30-40 years to get healthy and productive again.  Don't know
if they will be able to pull it off, but the plan is to float bonds that
will be paid off through selective, reduced harvest while the forest is
regenerating.  Very exciting concept - essentially a protected commons in
the county.  However, current laws may prevent them from holding more than
30,000 acres.

So, how are your permaculture efforts going?

If you and Michiko get the urge to come up north, please come for a visit.
Day visit or overnight.  We have a trundle bed in our guest room, or you
can camp on the property - though no running water yet.  I guess it would
quailfy as a primitive camp ground.  We also have a small trailer on it,
that we will probably use more this summer.

Good to hear from you.  Talk to you soon.

John