Eco-Sense

Busy, busy, busy…but a good kind of busy.  The kind of busy where the days are just not long enough and we are having so much fun.  The first two weeks of our spring sales of perennial edible plants have been busy and fun with such interesting people coming by to visit and purchase plants.  We are open again this Saturday from 10am – 2pm.  Updated plant list here.  (Note, we have sold out of Almonds…but may have more in a week if order arrives).

So who wrote what anyways?  We often get asked who wrote what in our updates and more often than not people assume incorrectly.  We find this quite funny.  So for this update, we will start each paragraph with the author.

Here’s a typical spring day here at Eco-Sense (Sunday March 21st) with an excerpt from a Facebook post:  Our day started at 3:30…we were awake, so we got up and had coffee.  (Note: getting up at 3:30 is NOT normal)
Ann:  Started my day with 2 hours of bookkeeping, cleaned the chicken coop (had to change clothes after…had a bad chicken shit experience), left wellbarrow of chicken shit on pathway up (too heavy for me to push…feared an even worse chicken shit experience), filled up duck food, reminded Gord to take bag of food to chickens, asked Gord to retrieve wheel barrow of shit for me (he wouldn’t hug me at this time and commented on the smears on my clothing), retrieved two duck eggs out of the pond (yes they are laying on the edge of the pond and the eggs roll in), did laundry and hung on line in the sun, made 2.5 doz pickled eggs (Yes, I washed my hands), made breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and washed corresponding dishes – Gord’s band-aids saved him from dishes…see below for why he had so many band-aids), went to neighbours to get goat milk, talked on phone for a while regarding council stuff, watered newly transplanted lettuce under hoop covers, dug out some worm castings from garden wash stand (video of wash stand and worms here), made up a potting mix, and started LOTS of seeds in the newly rat proofed greenhouse.

Typical Local Lunches:

Gord:  Spent the day potting up rootstocks and grafting.  Potted 80 up last night and another 80 up this afternoon. Grafted close to fifty… little slow this morning as the fingers were cold and toes frozen… rootstock was frozen too. Peaches, almonds, apricots, pears. Tomorrow plums and then on to the easy ones… apples are by far the quickest.

Pots ready for rootstocks and then grafting.  This location is where our new simple hoop greenhouse will go.

Gord’s grafting knife is VERY sharp…hence the band-aids.  Spent the evening reading council packages.

Ann:  Today (Thursday) was also an amazing day.  We learned that our old farm truck that died last week is repairable…barely.  Only $2,000.  It died earlier in the week while we were on the Malahat highway…and we don’t own a cell phone.  Ack!    However, a wonderful older gentleman stopped to help us, (Gord: yes older than Ann), as we were waving our hands (but I’m still young enough to stop traffic on the highway).  Woohoo…he had a cell phone…but he didn’t know how to use it.  So here’s us trying to figure it out…neither of us has used a cell phone in the last 10 years.  Gord fared better to me.  I was completely useless without my glasses.  If I was left to my own devices I probably would have walked home…I’m guessing a 10 hour hike.

So, after learning our truck was repairable, Gord continued with grafting, and I finished off and submitted our income taxes.  This afternoon was the highlight of our week…we planted more perennial edible plants.  Here’s our list and the locations we planted them in.  We spent the prior evening making our list and walking around discussing pros and cons of different locations for each plant.  An amazing amount of thought goes into the placement of each plant:

This is where Boo is buried.  Boo’s headstone.

Willow Bay: next to Boo’s headstone

Silverberry: next to grey water surge tank where cottonwood used to be

2 stone pines: 1 in chicken run just inside the door where the dwarf cherry died, and 1 behind Eco-Hut just outside deer fence

Melrose apple: tbd.  Possibly on Chestnut road or by maple above blueberry and tea bed

Persimmon:  In Arbutus Food forest near female sea berry

Frost Peach:  just downhill of Apricot

Pineapple Guava: Beside lower fuzzy kiwi’s near concrete water cistern

Medlar:  just downhill of the paw paw and west of Quince in Arbutus Food Forest

Goumi: across the path from Ar Ri Rang Asian Pear.

Louquat: in special tea blueberry bed in front of Eco-Hut by pond.

Chilean Guava: by bay tree where Fennel will be removed…way too many fennel.

Evergreen Huckleberry:  between a rock and a hard place (could be anywhere).  Actually between the big rocks by clothes line and cob oven.

Ann:  Creating a new language:  It’s interesting how over the 11 years we’ve lived on this amazing rocky knoll, how we have created a language of locations that includes all kinds of landmarks.  We use both natural and human created features but also historical landmarks that represent different memories attached to a specific location.

Ann:  Sense of place – home:  We have also learned that we are feeling more and more connected to this land the longer we nurture this land, protect this land, eat from this land, and play on this land.  A huge piece of this connection is to observe the very small details.  Where the wild flowers are, what birds do what where and when, how this land responds to us and what we do here, how the water flows, where the snow melts first, where the wind blows and where it’s protected, where it’s warmer, where the cold air settles, what insects eat what, what happens when we trim trees or even remove a tree to let more light in, what memories happened where and with who, and so on.  It’s only from unplugging, participating, and taking time to think can one truly feel connected to place. What a gift it is to feel like home…to know one’s home…to belong to the land.  One can’t help but to imagine how indigenous cultures feel about the land when they have lived so many generations connected to place.

Gord:  One of those things I think we take for granted here at Eco-Sense is our observation.  Observation of the state of the world and how people navigate it; observation of the land we live on and of the way food “happens”, of the soils, trees, birds, bugs, wildflowers.  It is observation that powers all our decisions.

In my first marriage I always joke that I was pre-trained… that I was broken of my habit of leaving cupboard doors open. I was completely oblivious to this for years.  Well I can say that Ann has trained me to pay much more attention to the details than just the cupboard doors.    For a person that has been refered to as a yard sale, I have developed the skills to look after and maintain my tools much better.  I still break tools… often, but when not in use I have greatly improved my tool stewardship.  I have learned the skill (or perhaps the habit) to be able to stop and look at myself, my actions, and dare say my mess and actually become more responsible in my old age.

The benefits… less disposable stuff, less lost stuff, longer lifespan.  This means less money spent on $60 trowels, $70 pruners, $100 wet stones, and the list goes on.  It also means I have a pre-sharpened hand plane when it is needed.

Then there is Ann, whom I sometimes say is too observant.  Ann has an uncanny eye for detail, both a gift and a curse.  Undoubtedly her observations of the giant blue camas nestled between the wild plum and the raspberry trellis post, chocolate lillies below the seabuckthorn near the ocean spray, and by the oak near the chestnuts, various orchids like the Alaskan rein orchids behind the little den, where the white fawn lily patches are, or the old overgrown road below the chicken coop, or where the Calypso orchids are… she has saved their lives from the footsteps of many and the shovel of Gord.
Ann: This is why we have an Eco-Sense policy to stay on the trails during wild flower season (mid february – end of June).  So, please if you are visiting Eco-Sense, please stay on the trails.

Gord: Our attachment to place has come with observation, and becoming familiar with the inhales and exhales of the seasons over the years, where the dormant plants are unseen landmarks we reference the land by.

Parker (my son, now 19) also shares a keen eye of observation for the natural world.  Several years back during the time when he was spending one week up here and another down in Victoria, he had just arrived home for the week.  We were sitting by the cob oven.  He was studying the scurrying life on the ground and the cob benches.  After 5 minutes, he asked if I had gotten rid of the stair tread in the garden that had the ants nest (20 feet away)?  I asked how he knew… he said that there was different ant activity.  This is a gift.

When we are not observant we also lack the ability to see the art of nature, the natural patterns, the beauty… and hence we are more likely to remove the natural artwork that we see no value in, and create something in its place.  Derek Jenson spoke to this wonderfully in a recent Peak Moment Video, noting that we only see human made items as works of art, yet dismiss the creations which the natural world combines so delicately – the very same things we recreate through painting, drawing, sculpture and photography.  Very ironic.

The story of the Frog and the Basil

Every year we observe the number of flowers on the special Shooting stars on the path to the den

Partners hiding under the logs and pots

appropriate rain capture and storage

So now that spring has finally arrived we get to observe the inhalation of spring, the sounds of the frogs, the arrival of 26+ species of birds and their different dances and sounds, the native bumble bees that will soon become friends to pet in their groggy morning stupor, and the surprises from last season that have reseeded and make “salad happen” in the most unsuspecting places.     From Ann and I, please take the time to observe the wild and detailed art around you… complexity and diversity that boggles the mind.

Thanks for reading.  If anyone is interested in workshops or in our special tour (almost full), check out our link here.

Gord and Ann

Well, it’s March 9.  Ann’s 50th birthday and it’s trying to snow…again.  We’ve had snow off and on all week and needless to say it is becoming frustrating on so many levels.  Ann has always had daffodils on her birthday, and in the last decade or so daffodils have been blooming much earlier.  But not this year…not a single daffodil is anywhere to be seen.  No peas.  No plums in bloom.  No rhubarb.  No spring greens…not even radishes.  Even the sweet potatoes slips are clinging to life in the earth sheltered greenhouse.  Thank goodness we put so much dried and fermented food away last year.

The nursery is almost ready for our first “spring/winter” open house for sales of perennial edible plants.  Plant list Here (All prices INCLUDE GST)

• SATURDAY March 11th from 10am-2pm
• If you are coming to buy plants please drive up to the top of the hill.

It is so odd to start the nursery season when virtually all the plants are still dormant.  Thank goodness for the Cornelian cherries, Black currants, and the fuki.

Lower Garden is getting a make over:  We have been landscaping the lower garden area and have plans for a small pond against the cliff and a simple hoop house greenhouse.  We are propagating more plants rather than bringing them in and need MORE space.  The lower garden has been levelled out and a parking area made on the east side right before the driveway starts going up the hill.  Just yesterday Tayler and Solara along with their three interns also gave the area a great start to a permaculture makeover.  Wow, does it ever look great down there.  (Please note that plants in the lower garden area are NOT FOR SALE).

YAM Magazine:  New article on our home is just out this week in Victoria’s YAM magazine. read online here:  https://issuu.com/page-one/docs/yma17/46

Highlands Community Garden:  The community organized a group to spearhead  the development of a community garden, a garden much different than the one’s you’ll find in the rest of the region.  Why is it different… well they are applying permaculture principles without really knowing it, because it just makes logical sense.  It is also mingled in and amongst some of Highlands finest rocks… so working with an undulating landscape and varying soils depths means biodiversity.  A huge thanks to the team.

Just a quick update to let everyone know, yes, we are open this Saturday (March 11th).   Feel free to come walk in the soggy food forest, in the soggy garden, and look at the wonders of what the Canadian Border Services can do to a perfectly healthy plant order as we nurse $1000 of plants to life.    And come see water in the pond!  Plant list Here

PS.  Bring gumboots!  Bathing suit not required.   Just your birthday suit… right Ann?

The environmental movement, despite Herculean efforts has failed and continues to fail.  The evidence for failure is:

• Populations of vertebrate animals—such as mammals, birds, and fish—have declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. More details at this link  2016 Living Planet Report
• We are on the business as usual scenario for climate change…this means we are headed for the IPCC scenario of a rise in global average temperature of up to 4.5 deg C by 2100.  This is not survivable on many levels and may even be overly optimistic as it does not take into account many of the self reinforcing feedbacks we are starting see in the melting arctic.   Read more here:
• Every mothers breast milk is contaminated with toxic chemicals from industrial civilization.

Honey bee pollinating our lemons

Why are we failing?
First off, we define environmentalists as a separate class of people, separate from the average person,  which emboldens the myth that the environment is separate from “us” the human species.  These so called environmentalists fight to preserve habitat, protect species, and reduce harm from being inflicted upon our human habitat, our fellow species and our planet.  One would have to be insane to not see that our human habitat is the same shared habitat as for the rest of the species on earth.  Most people in the “environmental movement” get this basic concept of inter-connection…    It’s called ecology – the earth is a complex living system of relationships; relationships that work together to provide the necessities of life.  So every time you hear about “environmentalists” doing this or standing up for that, simply change the word to “the people”.  This makes a very powerful statement about WE and not THEY.

The danger in the continuation of environmentalists as being “they” or “them” is that “they” become targets.  When you have people speaking out against Site C, “they” are moms, dads, farmers, First Nations, community members, students, scientists, economists, etc. More appropriately, “they”, should be called “the people”.   The term environmentalist is actually a denigration and distraction to the issue at hand.

Secondly, our human civilization, culture and global economic system are profoundly broken.  Even those of us wanting to live in a way to drastically reduce harm can only go so far…we are trapped.  As an example, here at Eco-Sense we literally live in a MUD house and shit in a bucket.  Our award winning home has been called the “world’s greenest modern house” as it achieved petal recognition with the Living Building Challenge.  The home features living roofs, rain water harvesting, solar PV, solar thermal, earthen floors, earthen counters, recycled wood, recycled features, LED lighting, very high energy performance for the full lifecycle of the building, and a low carbon footprint, etc.  However, the biggest thing that makes our home green is our lifestyle.  Our lifestyle directly challenges the paradigm that cradles the economic system. Our lifestyle is not good for the economy.

Our Positives

• We use 90% less energy and water in the home than the average person in BC. We have less STUFF to plug in and and use energy carefully. (Conservation First)
• We grow and process the majority of our food here on site (or source locally) year round.  We eat local ecologically raised meat and wild meat.  (Local Food)
• We choose to earn less money.   Earning less money means that we buy less stuff.  The whole Less Life STUFF…More Life STYLE saying is one we came up with over a decade ago. (We don’t maximize our earning potential – we have better things to do with our life)
• Over this last decade, we have created sufficient diversified employment for ourselves that fits with our values.  (Perennial food systems plant nursery, education, tours, consulting, presentations, rain water harvesting, writing, municipal politics, and more.)  (No specialization… we specialize at being generalists…more fun)
• We don’t fly (Local Living)
• When my parents moved out we paid back their investment not through a bank or credit union, but through an arrangement with friends.  This large chunk of cash coming from friends did not create more debt in the system and therefor did not help to fuel the growth economy.  Our friends were able to then remove their funds that were invested in planet destroying activities and invest in us and our regenerative design initiatives.  (Local Finance)
• We consider natural capital, social capital, human capital, financial capital, and manufactured capital in all our decision making.  We make sure to factor in all forms of currency.  Life is complex and beautiful.
• We have homemade wooden wedding rings (no gold or blood diamonds) as a symbol to each other and to the earth.

350 ppm atmospheric concentration of CO2 is long gone…We are well over 400ppm now and not going back.

BUT sadly, even given everything that we do here, we still consume more than the planet can support.  If everyone lived like us we would still need more than 2 or 3 earths.  We acknowledge that there is only so much individuals can do…the system needs to change.  In order to get to the next stage of living in a fully regenerative way, we need community…we all need to be in this together.  It’s delusional to try and go it alone.  Prepping is not going to cut it.

Our Negatives:

• We still have a car (used smart car), and a farm truck (filthy and old).  (CO2 and mining).  In 2016 we drove less than in all our prior years at Eco-Sense.
• We still buy a few new items like clothes, tools, and some garden items.  We have fleece (micro plastic clothing) and plastic rain gear.  Can’t buy used due to all the toxic fragrances people use.
• Buy coffee (organic and fair trade).  (CO2, habitat losses)
• We each have a laptop computer  (no green fully recyclable computers available)
• We purchased a pond liner (after trying for 5 years to seal the pond with clay).
• We buy pumps, tools, metal products, etc for the farm. (CO2 and mining)
• We use some concrete (BIG CO2 footprint)
• People drive here to buy plants (lots of CO2 and mining)
• We buy some mined products like aluminum, copper, coltan, etc which are in our electronics, solar panels, wiring, solar panel frames, orchard ladders, etc.  (mining is toxic and destroys habitat)
• We produce some plastic garbage. (Toxics, and CO2)
• We buy some misc household stuff…but really try and look after it so it lasts a long time.

Gord contemplating his carbon footprint after building raised concrete garden beds

And the third reason why the environmental movement has failed is that many “environmentalists”, oops, I mean “people” standing up (safely from their desks) to work on environmental and human rights issues are not actually doing much to reduce their own impact.  Many of the activist people out there are not walking their talk.  They are flying the “flag”… and flying (the single biggest impact item we can do as individuals), and consuming, and spending,  and wasting precious resources and carbon budgets all while preaching what we need to do.  By not taking reasonable steps to curb ones personal contribution as much as possible many have compromised their moral authority.

This is where milk comes from. My friend and Neighbours goats.

Chickens self harvesting their OWN food.

Gord and Dug (Nina behind Gord)

Chicks being raised in JA forest.

Imagine a parent teaching their children to do as I say, not as I do – modelling action is immensely more useful.  Action is the BIGGEST tool we have to effect cultural change.  Walk your talk as best you can and begin starving the beast.  By not standing up to the broken culture, to the consumption economy, many activists give power to the system as they are part of the system.

Now What?  First and foremost, we need to start acting like we really want to see the changes we are working so hard for.  

1. Stop fuelling the system we desire to change by reducing our personal consumption.  Live simpler lives.  Walk our talk as best we can.  When we are unable to walk our talk, we acknowledge this gap between our values and our actions and carry on.  We don’t beat ourself up.  Talking about our consumption/over consumption will go along ways to help change the story.  Change the story : Change the system
2. Work to change the system…pick something that you’re passionate about and go for it:  economic systems, political systems, community building, health and wellbeing,  equality, oil tankers, pipelines, dams, LNG, water, farming methods, old growth forests, invasive species, polar bears, carbon taxes, electric cars, transit, greener buildings, endangered species, butterflies, bees, small homes (tiny too), energy efficiency, local food, fragrance free personal care products, GMO’s, glyphosate and pesticides, oceans, the arctic, palm oil, rain forests, etc. 
3. Create a better system:  The fun part – permaculture principles can be applied to everything from food, to shelter, to community, to governance.  
4. Stop calling people that care “environmentalists”…call them people.  
5. Give up on hope or attachment to outcome.  If you pay attention to the full science, complexity and magnitude of our global predicament it will seem hopeless.  Grieve it,  cry, get over it, and then get busy.  Find others to grieve and get busy with.

So what has inspired our latest rant?  Many things, but primarily the documentary by Leonardo DiCaprio called Before The Flood.  It’s excellent, However Leonardo is one of this earth’s single biggest consumers alive today contributing to climate change and mass extinction. It’s the ultimate in absurd to be an activist and not walk your own talk and this approach will only lead to more failure of the environmental movement.  All activists need to live like they believe in what they are fighting for.   (This is where Ann spews profanities, but Gord edits them out) We are literally toast if we don’t change our way of life – NOW.  It was a stunning moment in the documentary where Leonardo is discussing with Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, where he basically says that the American way of life is not negotiable.  Seriously watch this documentary and then read the analysis by Rob Hopkins.  Both are here on this link.   http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-11-02/leonardo-dicaprio-s-before-the-flood-a-review

So there it is…if we don’t change our way of life now, we are literally changing Life on earth to Hell on earth.  In order to change the system, we need to change ourselves and the external system we live within.  We need to change EVERYTHING.

And for those now depressed, we’re sorry.  Please know that there is still abundant joy out there by living simply.  Here’s what we do to help cope:

1. Spend time with friends
2. Spend time in nature (gardens, hikes, etc)
3. Limit our time online or listening to the news.
4. watch permaculture videos…seriously, they really help
5. Cook and enjoy local whole foods
6. Drink home brew/wine

Thanks for Reading,

Ann and Gord