permaculture

[Rich Blaha <rich@mossbackfarm.com>]

Hi Johnathan

It sounds like you've got a pretty good setup, and the aerial photo from 
google maps seems like you've got options and infrastructure nearby.....fun!

I can speak somewhat to the mapping options you discussed...I've put our 
farm design into GIS format, available at 
http://www.mossbackfarm.com/archive/000179.html .  GIS is very handy for 
design purposes, allowing different layers to be laid down, giving a 
good sense of landscape, traffic, and infrastructure patterns.  It can 
greatly speed visioning and planning, without lots of erasing or mylar 
sheets.  Especially for those of us lacking in drawing skills.

I use ESRI products, which are expensive, and fortunately for me, paid 
for by my employer.  An open source version is QGIS (http://qgis.org/), 
which uses some of the same file formats, but has fewer analysis and 
cartographic options.  Can't beat the price, though.

Alternatively, you could get in touch with the local university GIS 
department (http://www.du.edu/gis/ for example) and see if any students 
there want to take on your cause as a project.

If you're hoping to serve up the GIS data (eg. 
http://washims.co.washington.or.us/InterMap/InterDetails.cfm?GoNav=1) , 
you're looking at a more complicated and expensive system, called an 
Internet Map Server (IMS).  You'd definitely be needing tech support far 
beyond my expertise in that case.  One step at a time, then....

Good luck

Rich
Mossback Farm
Yamhill, OR
www.mossbackfarm.com/journal

>   1. Introdution (Johnathan Avery Yelenick)
>  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 11:55:04 -0600 (MDT)
> From: "Johnathan Avery Yelenick" <yelenick@riseup.net>
> Subject: [permaculture] Introdution
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <2155.yelenick.1159120504.squirrel@mail.riseup.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> in the landscape of Spring, there is nothing inferior and nothing superior.
> flowering branches grow naturally. some short, some long.
> -Zen saying-
>
>
> I thought I would introduce myself to the people on this list and tell a
> little about the permaculture projects I'm involved in currently. The
> taciturn participation I've played over the last month, or so, while on
> this list has been good for me and a healthy introduction to what this
> list is about. It's very wonderful to see the networking going on here
> with permies worldwide. I'm happy to be a part of it.
>
> My name is Johnathan Yelenick. I recently took the design course with
> Jerome Osentowski and Becky Elder and the advanced design course with
> Peter Bane and Andrew Goodheart Brown at the Central Rocky Mountain
> Permaculture Institute. Before this "official" entrance into the
> permaculture family, I had been studying the theory and engaging the
> praxis of permaculture for a couple of years, beginning the final year of
> my college career. My initial introduction to permaculture began with Toby
> Hemmingway's book "Gaia's Garden" and continued with front to cover
> readings of Mollison's "Designer's Manual", Kourik's "Edible Landscaping",
> Fuyukoya's "One Straw Revolution" and "Theory and Practice of Green
> Farming", beginning to end readings of the back issue "Permaculture
> Activist" magazines, among others. I'm currently in the midst of flowing
> through the thoughts of David Jacke's "Edible Forest Gardens".
>
> I'm 24 and besides a Boulder sojourn, where I studied biochemistry and
> molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, I have lived in the Denver
> area my whole life. My heart in college and to this day, however, has been
> in anarchist studies and philosophemes; gleaning influence from such
> sources as the Situationist texts, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Marx, Lucas,
> Debord, Vanegeim, Nietzsche, Stirner, Zen texts, Lao Tzu, Alan Watts,
> permaculture texts, et. al.  I am a capoeirista as well and have been
> playing capoeira for a little over three years.
>
> As of current, after deciding in college that farming was the way of life
> I wished to pursue, I moved to the old 'family farm' here in Henderson,
> Colorado, just 30 minutes from downtown Denver, in the front range, Platte
> River bioregion. For a map, go to:
> http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=9982+E.+112th+Ave.&city=Henderson&state=co&zipcode=80640
>
> I've lived here for little over a year and will probably continue living
> here for the rest of my life. Already, we've made significant headway in
> implementation of a permaculture design for this land, its buildings, and
> its ecological systems. When I moved here I came with the intention of
> establishing cooperative human enterprises such as cooperative living and
> the establishment of worker cooperatives. Thus far, our living cooperative
> has been a success, having a little trouble with member retention at the
> beginning due to the near derelict state of the farmhouse where the
> cooperative is present. The situation continues to get better as we repair
> and retrofit the house to the permaculture energy guidelines we want. The
> worker cooperatives remain to be formulated, but we hope to get them off
> the ground with market gardening, nursery work, and market niche creation
> soon.
>
> These 38 acres has been in my family for a few decades now being legally
> appropriated by my grandfather. I and my cooperative associates intend to
> collectivize the land through a strategic dual land trust operative,
> similar to the suggestions made by Bill Mollison in the final chapter of
> his "Designer's Manual". The strategy hasn't been articulated to the
> degree it needs to be yet and remains nebulous, as we haven't even set up
> any legal entities. My family is down with the whole
> permaculture/ecovillage thing and has been INCREDIBLY supportive of this
> project. They want to see this succeed almost as much as I do. Hopeful.
>
> The site is in an interesting area. As I mentioned, we are just 30 minutes
> driving from downtown Denver and 2 hours away by bicycle, with which you
> can traverse along the beautiful Platte River Trail. The municipal mass
> transit service stops right at site and makes this place very accessible
> to the inner city urban populations. We are surrounded by the burgeoning
> suburban growth in the area and are one of the final rural enclaves
> around. To our east is a major highway and Union Pacific rail spur (see
> map) on which thousand of commuters pass daily. To our north and south are
> two several hundred house neighborhoods with rich ethnic diversity and
> middle class backgrounds. Our West is a built ten-acre reservoir,
> siphoning water from the Platte River. The view is magnificent and always
> will remain so. One can see Long's Peak and Pike's Peak, Boulder and
> Colorado Springs from here.
>
> Please ALWAYS feel free to come and visit. It would be very nice to have
> traveling permaculturists drop by, help out, and critique. Our house is
> always open for a few nights' stay if needed. Call or email me ahead at
> 303.288.4190 or yelenick@riseup.net.
>
> We are looking for help setting up a website. We would like to integrate
> our mature foodforest overlays to extant and future buildings, waterworks,
> energy flow and other infrastructure overlays in an accessible,
> interactive design we would like to make available online for critique,
> interest, and suggestion. If you've got any leads or would like to help us
> set it up let me know!
>
> Permaculturally,
> Johnathan Yelenick
>
>
>
>