permaculture

[deston denniston <abundancepc@gmail.com>]

Thanks Skeeter, and for anyone else looking to fill modules at a PDC or
offer advanced practicum (or looking for consultation work, but here I
suspect I'd be selling songs to singers ;)  the modules I am best primed to
give are:

  Soils From The Ground Up: Soils weren'tt always here, and as we've learned
in the last century they can be easily destroyed; every year erosion,
salting, contaminants from industry, and desiccation degrade over 100,000
square kilometers of arable land around the world. In this module we explore
the bio-geo-chemistry of how soil grows (ITS ALIVE!), and discuss the site
soil's in particular. After we define what healthy soils are at a given
site, we discuss conservation and cultivation of soil for food and forest
production purposes within the regions soil/ecology family, remediation of
contaminants specific to the site's history, and we do hands on soil quality
assessments for  growing food, forests and for use in construction,
including technical points about swales, hugelbeds, cob construction and
other uses for soils.

Farm Hands Without Hands: Putting Animals to Work for your Permaculture
Design. Chicken tractors are gaining popularity, but did you know pigs will
dig you a pond, wipe out that pernicious blackberry, and remove stones from
your annual beds? Did you know goats can be trained as draft animals, and
that geese will mow your path borders, weed your aquaculture and guard your
tree crops from raccoons? A permaculture design without livestock is like a
forest without wildlife: It's incomplete. Using examples of animal-plant
guild assemblies from Hawaii, Australia, and the mainland USA, we will look
at how to design barns and paddocks as well as rotation schedules to
optimize your handless farm hand's workdays and nights with minimal and
often positive impact on native animals.

Ecological Construction: The Living Building Challenge. The International
Living Building Institute (www.ilbi.org) and the Cascadia chapter of the US
Green Building Council have come up with some pretty remakable ideas,
published as a challenege to builders: Can we build a living building? In
January I will become and an Amabassador of the ILBI and, with 12 years of
natural building experience in earth, natural fibers, and salvage materials,
Ill undertake the Challenege while I design an 'agricultural village' for my
site in SW washington. A livinghome breathes, procures its own energy,
cleans its water, and draws structure from its environment while offering
back the same. We explore what a building must 'do' in order to be ALIVE.

I'm focuing on these three things presently; while i have others, these are
the ones I get most animated about.

Warmly,
-- 
Deston Denniston, M.S., C.P.I.
Principal, Abundance Consulting LLC
www.abundancepermaculture.com
(360) 673-2124