Luckenbach

We took possession of the land today. We have arranged for one of the neighbours to graze 13 cattle for a while. That should leave me with plenty of grass for haymaking. We’ll need the hay for mulch around the fruit trees when we get started on that.

Our own livestock number already in the thousands - I took a beehive nuc box onto the property yesterday. I will transfer the frames and bees to the actual hive in the morning - hopefully before the bees have started their day’s foraging.

We chose to start keeping bees for a number of reasons: the honey, the pollen, and the pollination. Bees are one of those permaculture staples.

Last year I participated in a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) facilitated by these two Permaculture heavyweights. I have had a chance to see other PDC’s in action and my course was a different beast entirely.

• My course appeared to be geared toward people who had already had some Permaculture experience. The basic information was glossed over. ‘Some’ experience would include having read the design manual a couple of times prior.
• The other courses included more practical components. This is a good thing if you wish to practice Permaculture in the same region. Not such a good thing if the practical components just happen to be the facilitator’s hobby horse. Nor if they don’t impart more information that a good discussion would. Practical sessions also take a lot of time, especially travel to and from the sites.
• My course attracted people from every corner of the world. And they brought their photos and slides with them. Every night we would meet, off-site, at around 7, and someone would lead a presentation/question time until midnight or beyond. There was several times more information presented at these sessions than during the core curriculum. Evenings were optional.
• Bill Mollison is a story teller. And he spent a lot of the course time telling stories. It was clear that some of these stories had a clear point. It is possible that they all did. Or if they didn’t, they could have been pointing in a direction for more personal research. This tended to slow things down somewhat. Geoff would use the first part of his sessions catching up and clarifying. This, particularly, was the time it was useful to have spent time digesting the basic material.
• My course had a very clear ‘teacher’ bent. Bill and Geoff wanted us to go out and present the PDC to others. The local courses had a ‘practical’ bent. Go out and do.
• My course was very broad. The local courses tended towards information about the local climate and bio-region.
• The local courses usually included accomodation and food. My course excluded both, but was the same price.
• My course spent a good amount of time being directed by the class questions. At least an hour a day was allocated to this. Once again, the information presented here was a huge amount and rivalled the core.

These two teachers are presenting another course next January in Melbourne. If you’ve read the design manual and want to know more, then you’ve done enough to really get a great deal from this course. If you are just starting out on a piece of land and haven’t made a point of studying Permaculture at all, then go local.