SATURDAY !

Today like a billion and twelve exciting things happened. First of all, have you ever heard a goat sneeze? well I have. It's adorable. And a pig getting sun block applied? almost as good.
Today was surprise permaculture workshop day! If you don't know what that is, you should cause it's pretty friggen awesome. Pretty much when applied to agriculture, the idea is to mimic naturally existing mutualisms within an ecosystem and set the garden up so that the pieces support each other. For example, legumes (like peanuts and soybeans) foster Rhizobium bacteria which fix nitrogen for other plants (thank you APES). By careful planning and observation, in a perfectly working permaculture garden there would be no need for inputs, such as fertilizer (which can run off and be extremely harmful to aquatic ecosystems, causing eutrophication. High levels of nitrogen in ground water is also potentially toxic to infants), and no waste.
So when I found out that the farm sanctuary is starting their own permaculture garden I was super excited! and I was invited to sit in on their discussion today. We first talked about the basic principals of the practice (earth care, people care, fair share ect...), and then started plotting the space. Alice Lo, Monica Ibacache and Gary Tuttle were the people in charge of the planning and are all extremely nice. Also, there was a guy taking the workshop that was, I swear, Ryan the temp from the office... just with nose piercings.
A lot of the people at the farm remind me of other people I've noticed.
Anyway, we used this thing called a solar pathfinder to figure out what portions of the space will be in shade at what times of the year/day. It was all very confusing math and reminded me of this time I went to a planetarium and was shown one of those star charts that you turn depending of the season. Anyway, very cool stuff. Another tool we used was an A frame, which is a simple contraption which helps determine where the slopes of the area are. This is helpful when planning irrigation, because you want the garden to be able to naturally store rain water within the soil, so it doesn't have to be watered. We started with the first stages of that, plotting tiers of levels, and Alice recorded all of the points.
Other factors need to be taken into account as well- sunlight and drainage are important, of course, but also wind and noise and future factors, like trees that will grow bigger and give more shade, and things like where the beds should go and what shape they should be and a thousand other details. And that's all before you can even start thinking about the plants and how they're all going to interact. So, as Ryan and his girlfriend said, sometimes it's better to just get the basics planned out and then just start and learn along the way. It's impossible to foresee everything, but permaculture is an exact science. Yes, there's an underbelly of respect for life and the idea that humans need to start acting like a part of nature instead of the rulers of it. But it's not all spiritual and vegan hippie talk with nothing to back it up. People need to accept that modern day agriculture cannot go on as it is. It is simply not sustainable. The fossil fuel and water used, the soil erosion and pesticides, the deforestation- the main huge problems involved in trying to feed seven billion people are avoidable. All of these problems can all be hugely minimalized if not completely stopped with permaculture. Especially vegan permaculture; if all the space and energy used to grow food to feed cattle alone was instead used to feed people directly, there would be an overabundance. world hunger? say what? And permaculture is specifically designed to take up less space, less inputs and put out zero pesticides. It's organic, it's super interesting, it's possible (prefered!) on a small scale, it's the future and I love it.
Anyway, here are some pictures!

The blue tube thing is a home made water level. Everyone's hands got stained blue. Anyway, I was given lots of suggestions for readings and websites and stuff from them so I hope to learn more about it in the near future. and I hope that the Sanctuary's garden is awesome! I'm so excited and happy about it!

So that took up a great deal of the afternoon. After that I ate the most fantastic bagel with tofuti better than cream cheese and oh my goodness I could spread that stuff on a couch and eat the whole couch and it would be delicious. I did the usual chores around the farm, I refilled all the waters and checked up on everybody and then I and some other volunteers (I meet new people everyday here!) picked up all the rocks from the pig pen (my arms hurt just from typing this) and I brought in and fed all the roosters all by myself! And that's a huge deal, even if you don't realize it. Only this one was a real jerk and totally bit me. and it hurt a lot. but I feel like I can cut him some slack considering.
I met Nellie, Rebecca's favorite chicken. He follows her around and has feathers like a poodle but can't be around the other chickens because his feet are deformed and they pick on him. Anyway, they are adorable together! she loves him so much. Sophie and Peter the pig are also pretty much to die for. He can walk further every day!
Today was also a big one for the cows. There are four cows at the farm, all rescued, all huge. If they hadn't been saved they would have been veal, which, I probably don't have to explain, involves taking baby cows and putting them into stalls where they can't move and can't see the sun until they are fourteen weeks old when they're slaughtered. The cows here are the most gentle things but you also have to be careful because three of them have horns and don't know their own strength.
Spending time with the boys here makes me very excited to get home and help acclimate our own rescued cows! yay!!! oh my god. I'm so excited. They're just babies. and it's amazing that we're able to do this. They would also just be sold to make veal if it weren't for the fact that we have some space and a barn and a fence and care about them. It makes me feel really good to be a part of this. I hope we can take care of them and make them happy. Sophie gave me a book that I'm going to real about raising cattel, but this is all just a sort of new science for everyone. Animals rescued were not genetically bred to live long and happy lives. They were bread to get really fat really fast and it doesn't matter if they die before they're a year old. So a lot of the farm animals have problems here, but vets and people like the ones at the sanctuary are getting better and better and dealing with these unexpected issues.
I almost forgot! today people flooded the sanctuary! tours and children and talking and everything else still having to get done! it was very fun and the day went by really fast. It was beautiful and sunny and I helped put a tarp up so that Pete could have some outside shade after he knocked the tent over and I got bit by a rooster and had my face scratched by a cat with just a stub of a tail (we made up afterwards) and even though I'm having a lot of fun here and I'm learning a lot (especially after helping on one of the tours today and really hearing indepth about the animals) I'm kinda starting to get a little tired out from these ten hour days. and I miss my house and my kitties and the people that I love. So I think it'll be nice to go home for a few days next week. but not before I hit up the indie cenema here in Woodstock. Oh man. So excited.
I'm out,
Sarah