Jeff Rabkin's Farm Near Mondovi, Wisconsin

I am on my way up to Menominie, WI to do a consultation. On my way up I have stopped at former student Jeff Rabkin’s farm near Mondovi. It is an old Amish place. Jeff and company are rehabbing buildings, planting gardens and food forests, running sheep and chickens, etc. It is a spectacularly beautiful [...]

Permaculture and the Three Epochs Curriculum

Water Cycles and Management Run-off Factors Depend On: • Absolute catchment size: “small” catchments (stream orders 1-3) discharge a greater proportion of water and have greater flood flow than “large” catchment (stream orders 4-6). E.g. foothills will peak to flood more rapidly than plains, and may discharge 30-40% of rain. On plains only 8- 20% [...]

King Corn

In this article from the NY Times the author discusses the origins of corn as we know and consume it. I find it quite revealing that the domestication of corn took, perhaps, thousands of years. These changes do not happen overnight. In retrospect, our take on history is compressed into a few short paragraphs of [...]

Midwest Renewable Energy Association Fair and the Three Epochs Course

The largest energy fair in the world will be taking place in Custer, Wisconsin in the middle of June. The fair is in its twenty-first year. I will be doing three lectures there, including one on Permaculture and architecture. We have run several Permaculture courses there and our students designed their eighteen site. You can [...]

The Suburban Homestead: Overflow, Shaving Horse, Mulberries

The overflow for the water tank is ready. Waiting for rain this week. Built a shaving horse this morning. Used for planing wood. It acts as a clamp. Excellent for building bows. Went for a bike ride with the family and we stopped at all our favorite mulberry trees and stuffed ourselves. Nothing like it. [...]