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  • From: Loren Davidson <loren@farwalker.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] where you from?
  • Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 18:39:09 -0800

I am a resident of the North California districts of Ecotopia. :) At this point, I am doing the somewhat less than fully-sustainable thing of maintaining two residences:

- Glenview Neighborhood, Oakland Hills, North CA, on the edge of the Sausal Creek watershed. My neighborhood here is greatly influenced by the ocean, who sends her moist, cool breath through the Golden Gate to cool our weather and often to cloud our skies. Growing tomatoes here is much more challenging than it was only twenty miles south; growing peppers is impossible. I don't have a very good garden site here; it's sandwiched between two 3-story buildings. I maintain this foothold in the Bay Area because in good times it helps me pay for my other indulgences, including:

- Harmony Hill, South Honcut Creek watershed, 900-1300' elevation, Sierra Nevada foothills, North CA. Extremely hot and dry summers; mild and rainy winters. Average rainfall on-site somewhere between 35-40 inches, almost all of which falls from November - April. Sunset zone 7 or 9 (boundary), USDA zone 8. The soil is relatively poor, and has been requiring vast quantities of amendments. I've begun generating some of those (mostly things like azolla) on-site. Can't do much with animals in the absence of full-time occupants to care for them; would love to have a goat or two and some bees. When the time is right, this is where I'm heading, but I'll want to maintain some connection to the cities in order to help people learn what it's like to be in Nature.

I took my design course in the summer of 97 (?) at Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, with Brock Dolman and Penny Livingston teaching and other folks, including the infamous Keith Johnson, visiting. :) I can't say that was either the beginning or the endpoint of my Pc education, which continues - I really do learn something new all the time. :) My original introduction to Permaculture came through the Bear Tribe and Simon Henderson, as well as through Bill's books and a talk/slide show he gave at Tree People in southern CA, somewhere around 1989.

I've been making some connections with Pc people here in the East Bay, and I have a few connections with similar-minded folks up around the other place. I'm still working out some basics around creating usable surpluses, which I feel I need to get better at before I can properly work out how to turn those surpluses into money to sustain the place. I'm also still pondering how to draw people to help out and eventually live up there, helping create a sustainability-based community. It's easy to get discouraged around this. I'm still pondering how to help create connections around the Bay Area as well. Self-promotion is far from my greatest skill - I run away from it when I can, but I'm afraid I have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into practising it.

Oh, and if I managed to find someone who was both interested in me *and* in living up at the Hill, I'd be a very happy man. :)

Thank you for letting me play. :)

Loren

Loren Davidson Earth steward, healer, singer/songwriter
loren@farwalker.com http://www.earthspring.org/loren/
AIM: loren334 ICQ: 65291610
Loren's album & music info: http://www.lorendavidson.com
"There is no key to the Universe. It was never locked." - www.nancybuttons.com





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