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PDC Interview, Part 4: Lindsay Dailey

Courses/Workshops, Podcasts — by Harry Schnur July 30, 2010


Lindsay Dailey (right), at Zaytuna Farm

Harry Schnur from Taipei, Taiwan, recently completed his PDC with Geoff Lawton at Zaytuna Farm.

He has two shows on the only English community radio station in the region and did a series of interviews for one of his shows during his time at the farm.

Below is part 4, an interview with Lindsay Dailey, permaculture designer and PRI student, at PRI’s Zaytuna Farm. Click play to listen!

PDC Interview, Part 4 - Lindsay Dailey

 

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From Little Things Big Things Grow

Consumerism, Courses/Workshops, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Land, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Retrofitting, Social Gatherings, Society, Trees, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Matt Lees

Have you ever grown your own food? Studies have shown that people who eat organic produce from their own garden have an increased sense of well being and good health.

In September 2007 I met a group of motivated, hardcore volunteer gardeners. When I say hardcore, some of these guys where involved with the guerrilla gardeners. They turn unused trashy areas and transform them into edible, self-sustaining gardens.


It started like this….

Some groups even go to extremes like dressing up in council uniforms or go out in the middle of the night and load their vans armed with fruit tree seedlings, compost and shovels.

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Looking Back at a PDC in Southern Ethiopia

Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Pierre Theriault July 29, 2010

A personal account from taking the Permaculture Design Course at Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge, Konso, Southern Ethiopia, 9-15 June 2010

Together with three Ethiopians and eight other international participants, I recently attended a 72-hour permaculture design course hosted by Alex McCausland and the Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge in the Konso province of southern Ethiopia.

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Are Eucalypts Weeds?

Conservation, Land, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Trees — by Ecofilms

by Frank Gapinski

For many years they’ve been seen as a symbol of pride in Australia. Expatriate writers in the 50s and 60s would write about returning to Sydney by ship and about being greeted by the smell of wafting gum tree leaves as they waxed lyrical about the nostalgia they felt for home.

Authorities still plant them everywhere. In parks, next to footpaths, street corners, new housing development estates, Eucalypts are as Australian as the Emu and the Kangaroo. They are seen nearly everywhere and nobody seems to take them as a threat in Australia.

But should Eucalypts be re-examined as a noxious weed?

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PermaCooking – Your Goose is Cooked

Animal Processing, Bird Life, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Livestock, Processing & Food Preservation, Recipes — by Marcelo Severo


One of several Zaytuna Farm geese
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh except where credited otherwise

We killed a goose at Zaytuna Farm the other day and by my count we served out 60+ student meals from it, plus two day’s worth of wonderful breakfasts for the staff. Not a bad effort I thought. Pretty good use of a bird. Here’s what we did….

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Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker, Episode 10: Peppi in Malta

Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Podcasts — by Patrick Blampied


Aerial view of Bahrija valley and surrounding cliffs


Peppi Gauci

‘Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker’ is a weekly podcast show from PRI Australia aimed at documenting the experiences of people out in the field and making more information available about what’s happening in the Permaculture world.

This week I’m speaking with Peppi in Malta about his project, Bahrija Oasis, which he setup eight years ago in Rabat, Malta.

Click play to hear all about it!:

Episode 10: Peppi in Malta

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Ring a Mate

Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Social Gatherings — by Bruce Zell

Australian Permaculture Conference, September 2010.


Time to get on the Bat Phone!

Certainly this world class event has attracted a fantastic involvement with extraordinary presenters bringing cutting edge information, not to mention the inspiration that will come with them.

Attending delegates themselves are working in the field on projects at home and abroad and have brilliant tales to tell – success, challenges, stories and experiences that barely leave a stone unturned.

I am encouraged by a holistic view of the Australian Permaculture Convergence, inspired by the ANZAC spirit of being Australian: Mate-ship, A fair Go and Having a Go

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Only Two Months to Go Until the Next Biggest Event in Permaculture

Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, News, Social Gatherings — by Kym Kruse

The 10th Australasian Permaculture Convergence APC10
September 24 – 27, 2010

Do not delay registering for this premier event and promote it throughout your business, training and social networks.

An exciting programme of forums, presentations, workshops, round-table discussions, plenary speakers both skyped in and visiting from around Australia and the world.

Talking about Transition Towns, Indigenous knowledge, urban planning, agriculture, humanitarian & emergency responses, ethics, advocacy, population, gender, business, education & training and so much more.

Plenary speakers and presenters include: Bill Mollison, Daryl Hannah, Maj. Gen. Michael Jeffery, Mark O’Connor, Gunter Pauli, Janet Millington, Sonya Wallace, Russ Grayson, Geoff Lawton, Darren J.Doherty, Andrea Pape, Robin Clayfield, David Holmgren and Costa Georgiadis and many, many more.

An event for newcomers, as well as the traditional Convergence.

All set within the pristine, protected beauty of the tropical Queensland wet tropics rainforest.

www.apc10.org

Read the July Update and the Programme (PDFs).

Do not leave it to the last minute. Do not miss out.

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Morocco Observations, Past, Present and Future – Part II

Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Alex Metcalfe July 28, 2010

Written by Alex Metcalfe. Photo credits to Alex Metcalfe, Asiya Brock, Helen Evans and Houssa Yacoubi. Part II of a Series. Click here for Part I.


Spicer and Asiya Brock shop for supplies in Marrakesh Medina

Consistent with Global Warming trends, Observation from Morocco’s National Meteorological Directorate show rising temperatures, less precipitation, and an increase in drought, widening the gap between water supply and demand. Average temperatures are expected to rise between 2 and 5 degree Celsius by the end of the century, while rainfall is predicted to decline 20 to 30%. – Moroccan Coastal Management: Building Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change through Sustainable Policies and Planning

Deforestation, water management and erosion are all evidently interlinked and inseparable issues faced by rural Imazighen, particularly those living amongst the unique and ever changing weather systems of the high Atlas Mountains.

After my first memorable visit I searched for a project in Morocco I could contribute to. I wanted to have a good reason for returning, something other than purely for pleasure. Morocco is a country where everyone can have a passport, but only those with enough cash in their bank account can get a visa to travel to places like Europe or the U.S. I had a much smaller sum in my account when I went to Morocco the first time and yet I was free to do so. That fact set me apart in some sense from the people I had the pleasure to meet and although they did not appear overly occupied with it, it was something I was keenly aware of. I felt that if I could work with Moroccans I would receive a more intimate education on life in their country than I would as a tourist and hopefully earn their respect by doing so. Like many, many other people who volunteer or work for positive change abroad I wanted, if possible, to side step what can sometimes turn into a series of purely economic interactions. I wanted to meet people’s families, work with them, to eat at their table and to digest their way of life literally instead of just intellectually.

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Weekly Linkfest – Edition 008

News — by Patrick Blampied

Welcome to round eight of our Weekly Linkfest, where we share the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain interesting from what we’ve seen this week.

I would greatly appreciate readers getting involved in this weekly linkfest. Please email editor (at) permaculture.org.au with links (and ideally a summary sentence outlining the key point of each link) to noteworthy articles and news reports on the internet.

Off we go:

Good News (coz we all need it):

  • The best use of a backyard pool that I’ve ever seen! It feeds a whole family – a very clever little permaculture design. See more on this topic here.

Click for more…

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Property Rights and Public Accommodations

Alternatives to Political Systems, Economics, People Systems, Society — by Ernest Partridge

Copyright 2010 by Ernest Partridge. Published here with permission of the author.

In the early sixties, the young black students in the South had had enough.

Enough separate drinking fountains, enough all-night drives because no motel would provide a room, and enough refusal of service at restaurants and lunch counters.

“Screw this,” they said, and so they sat at Woolworth’s lunch counters anyway, where they were taunted, spat upon, beaten, and arrested.

The white restaurant owners resisted, most notably one Lester Maddox in Atlanta who stood at the door of his Pickrick restaurant, axe handle in hand, threatening to use it on any black citizen who might attempt to enter. Enough white Georgia citizens were sufficiently delighted by Maddox’ act of defiance that they elected him Governor of the state.

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Why Permaculture Design?

Courses/Workshops, Deforestation, Soil Erosion & Contamination — by Rob Avis

Peak Oil, loss of diversity, species extinction, conspiracy, oil spills, food insecurity…. The problems that we face seem to increase both in size and complexity every day. However we can simplify all of these global issues and emphasize three primary concerns. In order of increasing priority, the three biggest issues are:

  • Pollution
  • Deforestation
  • Soil destruction and erosion


Old growth forest we visited in Tasmania

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What (and not) About that Natural Pool Conversion on the Gold Coast?

Aquaculture, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Plant Systems, Swales, Terraces, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Justin Sharman


April 2008

It’s been about a year now since I had the pleasure of Craig at my house to do the story on the Natural Swimming Pool conversion I am attempting. It was an interesting year for me on the home garden front and the personal front with lots of new surprises and projects. I thought I would do a follow up because we had a lot of enquiries about the pool after the story.

I am lucky to have a wonderful partner Vanessa who, because of her Permaculture training with Bill (PDC) and Geoff (PDC & Internship) and also at Northey Street Farm, is able to accept why I would want to have a go at producing food in our own home and also why I was getting rid of a swimming pool in favour of a pond and some fish.

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Permaculture Design Multimedia Course

Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Julie Pagliaro


Photo credit: Tagari Publications 2010

Kamiah Permaculture is excited to introduce a new kind of Permaculture course, the Permaculture Design Multimedia Design Course. As graduates of a Bill Mollison/Geoff Lawton design course ourselves, we were thrilled to hear about the release of the Tagari Publications DVD set, the entire footage of a Permaculture Design Certificate course taught by Bill and Geoff in Melbourne in 2005, very similar to the course we graduated from.

As a teaching team, no one can claim more knowledge and experience worldwide than Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. Our experience at our PDC in Melbourne has forever changed our lives. We have often wished that more people could experience a PDC from these two fine teachers. A short time after becoming PDC graduates we moved to Idaho to live a life using permaculture design principles and established our farm as a permaculture demonstration site. Now we have devised a way to share the Bill and Geoff experience as part of our permaculture design course without the added expense of traveling to Australia.

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BP Target of “Irresponsible Act”

Comedy Break, Economics, peak oil — by Marc Roberts July 27, 2010


Click for full view
Courtesy: Marc Roberts

Greenpeace shut down 50 BP flagged petrol station franchises in London in order to apply pressure on the incoming CEO, Bo Diddley, er… I mean Bob Dudley, as his predecessor heads for Siberia. I can’t see him giving a tuppenny shite, personally. He’s got a whole planet to fry and his paradigms ain’t for shifting.

Nice try though.

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