Talking Permaculture at Art Outside

It's official, I'm giving two workshops at Art Outside!

The first, slated for Saturday October 24th, is Food for Everyone.

Some for me, some for you!

It's centered around public food: public food forests, public orchards, front-yard food gardens and wicking beds, mapping public food trees and perennials, even the growing popularity of guerrilla gardening.

The second will be on Sunday October 25th: Designing Like Mother Nature

Mother Nature has abundance in mind

If we design like those who toil and labor away their whole lives in fields and gardens each season for very little return, this is how we will live. If we design so that Mother Nature can step in and provide the abundance that is her forte, we will live in abundance.

Both talks will be in the Eco Zone. Food for Everyone is at 5:30pm on Saturday. Designing Like Mother Nature is at 12 noon on Sunday. 

We're really looking forward to reconnecting with the larger permaculture community!

-Samantha Kuykendall

p.s. We should still be offering free samples of the Lucid Light hypnagogic experience during those times since we have someone to help, but either way there's the entire rest of the 4-day Art Outside experience to catch a sample meditation light session!

Sustainability & Hypnagogic Lights at Art Outside 2015

Well that was an unexpected hiatus! But despite a few setbacks we're designing again and helping our community with sustainable and beyond sustainable permaculture and food forest projects.

Speaking of going beyond sustainability! We're jumping the final hurdles to give a workshop at Art Outside this year. Cross your fingers, wish us luck, and drop us a line if we'll be seeing you there!

Art Outside night shot, Photo by Kevin Bradbury.

We'll be giving sustainability talks--more info on the schedule as we get it! I'll be focusing on prominent permaculture themes and ideas, primarily that the common idea of "sustainable" won't be enough to get our environment and ourselves out of this mess; we need to proactively heal the environment and socio-economical food systems we're in. And, of course, I'll be giving out helpful information and taking questions. 

We'll also be providing sessions with an amazing technology known by a number of names: Lucid Light, Lucia No. 3, Lucia Light, and the Lucia N3 hypnagogic light. 

In a nutshell, it's a light-based meditation appliance that drops you into the kind of meditative brainwave state that people meditate decades to achieve -- in about minute or two.       ...And the internal light show and opportunity to peek into your own consciousness will be something you'll always remember.  

 Another blog post about our attendance at Art Outside can be found here... More info, video testimonials, scheduling sessions, and information regarding purchasing a Lucia N3 can be found at the Lucid Light LLC website.

Can't wait to see you all there!

Samhain Stare

Bonita gives us her best "Samhain Stare".

(Photo by Erik Kuykendall)

Happy Samhain and Happy Halloween.

Free-Range Baby

(Photo Courtesy of Erik Kuykendall)

Standing in the Garden Last Night

Standing in the garden last night, 

I was inspired to photograph the beauty before me.

The words that came to me were not my own, 

But those of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

May you see and appreciate what is right before you.

Our Chicken Coop Awaits Artistic Inspiration

We scoured blogs and free chicken coop designs for months and had friends bring over old pallets and break them down in an attempt to provide us with materials to create one.  Due to time and resource constraints, it seemed wiser to buy a pre-fabricated coop to get rolling.

We have assembled our chosen coop and the the run and will connect the two after we get it painted and sealed.  The coop is well designed, but we had to throw out all of the original hardware and screws due to quality issues. 

Our plan is to get four Black Australorp chicks this next week and we plan on adding an elongated run as the chicks mature.

This week, we are collecting brooding supplies, looking for an appropriate predator barrier for the bottom, and hoping for artistic inspiration for the coop.

Some paper resources on starting up this important component of permaculture: 

The Chicken Whisperer's Guide to Keeping Chickens
The Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens

Keeping Chickens

Chicken Coops - 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock

And you can't forget the Old Farmer's Almanac any time you are doing something with permaculture, farming, or ranching.

My Friend the Dragonfly

I really enjoyed working in one of the gardens today as my friend would survey my work and come sit by my side.  I look forward to more time together.  

Photo of Brown Dragonfly on Tomato Cage