This was one of our standard, full, PDC courses and included an emphasis on the growing of food.  
We expect to continue to offer this winter training yearly which is well timed for those folks too busy during the growing season to attend a full PDC course.  Keep an eye on our schedule for this and all other future trainings. 

Our Group Photo with Rocket Stove in Foreground and Midwest Permaculture Homesite to the Rear. Mom (Becky) standing on left... me (Hayden) standing on right...and all of our great students.

Visit to Spence Farm - Fairbury, IL

Wayne and Bev's Thermal Mass Rocket Stove

Making and Working of Cob

Tour of Midwest Permaculture Grounds - Becky Guiding

Hayden Teaching how to use A-frame

Bill using clay model to explain water harvesting techniques such as swales, ponds and keylining.

Visiting one of our Swales. It's soaking in water, even in winter.

Milton Teaching

Students Sharing a Meal with our Community

Students doing Design Work in Teams

Our Party Evening (we do have some great fun)

Winter Walk Through the Orchard (being redesigned into a food forest)

Keep an eye on our schedule for this and other future trainings.  We had a wonderful week together…. Hayden W.

Becky at the Fuelwood Energy Plant, one of the places we'll be touring during the March PDC.

Using Fire to Cool a Building
So, using similar principles and the use of appropriate technology (metals, tubing, vacuums, basic chemicals) Lied Lodge created a system that could cool the entire building. Here is a simple diagram from the Lied Lodge Website: 

What’s the Big Deal?
As we shared in our last post,  with good generational planning and conscientious designing for the future, we can actually create way of living that requires the use of very little coal, oil or natural gas (ancient sunlight) and instead uses current sunlight to harvest the excess CO2 from our atmosphere.  We could create a culture that is sustainable in the long term while leaving the planet in better condition with each successive generation.  We just might be able to stall or even reverse global climate change. We could create a more permanent-culture…a permaculture.

From last weeks post… 

 Arbor Day Farm and Lied Lodge Demonstrating Great Leadership

Quite interestingly, the Arbor Day Foundation has had an on-going hazelnut project for over 15 years.  When one looks out over the valley from the Lodge, the first thing they see is the Arbor Day Farm’s expansive hazelnut plantings.  They are doing trials and research on the most useful and beneficial varieties of hazelnuts while inviting the entire nation to join in on the project.

The Lodge, fuelwood energy plant, the hazelnut plantings and the various biomass-tree-planting trials will all be a part of our upcoming training from March 25-31, 2012.  Join us if you can.  It promises to be a great training in the comfort of this beautiful lodge.

Lied Lodge in Winter - Their Hazelnut Plantings are in the Foreground

The exhaust system of Bev and Wayne's stove before cobbing it over into a bench for heat extraction. More pictures at bottom of this post.

Early this fall, our friends and neighbors, Bev and Wayne, started to build a thermal mass rocket stove in their living room.  Wayne took one of our PDC courses not long ago and was inspired by the rocket stove concept (See the illustration and links below).

Bev and Wayne have been sharing their adventure with us and we are very excited about the possibilities.

Imagine having a wood burning stove in your home that:

1. Burns less than 1/4 the amount of wood you typically burn
    
2. Keeps you as warm or warmer
    
3. Allows you to easily burn sticks, twigs and branches instead of just large chunks of firewood.
    
4. Burns cleaner than any wood stove ever made

The big thing for us, living here on the prairie in Illinois surrounded not by woods or forests but by corn and bean fields, is the very real shortage of easily available firewood.  

What I am talking about are the large hardwood trees with trunks and large branches which are typically chainsawed to length and then split to fit into a wood burning stove.  All of this tonage of wood then needs to be hauled out of the woods, dumped or stacked somewhere, then loaded back into a truck for delivery to be driven to someone’s home (a lot more energy) and then unloaded and stacked again for winter use.

Up-to-date Picture of Above Stove at Bottom of this Post

So, imagine for all of us prairie or rangeland dwellers that there would be an option to be able to grow and harvest the wood we need to keep warm in the winter within 2-3 years, instead of waiting 10-20 years for a tree to grow large enough to harvest.  These thermal mass rocket stoves can easily burn 1-2 inch diameter branches which can be grown in a short time and harvested with just loppers or pruning shears.

No longer would we need to harvest firewood with a chainsaw, log splitter, gasoline and truck.

Hayden could harvest our annual firewood needs with a pair of loppers and pruning shears.

 This is big…big…big…news…!!!

When the price of fossil fuels and electricity begin to soar, so will the price of firewood.  With an increase in the demand for firewood comes the risk of harvesting more and more of our trees and the potential to disrupt the ecological balance on our planet. Besides, a full size tree takes a couple of decades to grow. Will we really have time to wait?

Quite literally, farmers will be able to convert some of their prime (and not so prime) farmland into the raising of selected firewood brush using the long honored art of coppicing.  For example, a farmer could grow hazelnut bushes for the nuts.  Once every 7-10 years, it’s a good practice to coppice the hazel bush  (cutting it completely off, close to the ground) thus harvesting the perfect firewood for a rocket stove.  The next season the hazel bush springs back to life and will begin producing nuts again in another 2-3 years.

Bill Hogarth, an English expert, Coppicing Hazelnut
Click on Photo for more. 

This is why permaculturalists have such a passion for food forests.  In a food forest we not only grow the foods we need to eat, we can also produce fuel and fiber while simultaneously building topsoil.  Food forests improve the land and water with every successive generation of farmers.  Traditional row-crop farming however does just the opposite.  Half of the topsoil in North American has washed away since we opened these soils with the plow.

So, the implications of the widespread use of this stove and a new firewood harvesting system are substantial:

1. Decreasing our need and use of polluting fossil fuels
2. Harvesting the energy from current sunlight instead
3. Repairing damaged farmland
4. Providing income and right livelihood for farmers and growers
5. Harvesting CO2 out of the atmosphere and storing it into wood and soil
6. Minimizing flooding (woodlands hold much, much more rainwater than farmland)
7. Creating habitat for wildlife
8. Providing greater homeland security

Cheers…. Bill Wilson

P.S. – Our winter 8-day PDC course starts in just a couple of days and at this training we will be looking at all of this in much greater detail.  Our students will be able to see Bev and Wayne’s stove in action because this training is being held in Stelle.  We’re excited to share this and more!

Here is how Bev & Wayne's stove looked during the PDC course. The cob is being built up around the exhaust system. They still have the finishing work to do which I will post here when done.

Here we are looking down into the burn chamber. Notice how the fire is burning "sideways". As the rocket stove heats up, it draws air into itself which keeps smoke out of the room and gives the stove a "rocket" sound.

Helpful YouTube Videos…

Building One…

Operational Benefits of Using One… 

6-day “Hands-on” Training - August 2011
Held at Midwest Permaculture in our Sustainably Oriented Community of Stelle, IL
We expect to be offering a ‘family friendly’ training every summer.  See Here for Details

 This Training is also Stage 2 or our 3-Stage PDC Certificate Course 
6 Students stayed on for the 5-day PDC Completion Training and earned their permaculture certificate.

This was our first training that fully welcomed families with children. Four families joined us along with 12 other individuals. Bottom-line... it worked out really well!

“I so appreciated having families and their children in the course.  It really added to the wonderful dynamic.”  Kate – College Student

Because this was a summer training, we were able to take some of our classroom work outdoors.

Teachers, children and students all participated in co-creating a learning environment that was productive, fun and flexible.

“I really appreciated the atmosphere that the teachers and students created together. “ Grant - Foreign Aid Worker from Africa

Even some of our local pets became part of the fun.

Everyone headed toward our first hands-on project with wheelbarrows and stroller in hand.

“This training had a relaxed and informal approach yet we learned so much. My husband and son loved it. So did I.”  Carlyn – Mom and School Teacher for 16 years

We do not see overgrown ditches as a 'problem' but rather as a good source of excess biomass for garden mulch and for compost making. Before these students started, the vegetation was over their heads in many places.

There is nothing like a garden cart to move large volumes of material.

Students built a compost pile seeking to obtain the ideal carbon/nitrogen (or brown/green) ratio of 30/1 so that this pile would heat up thus creating usable compost within a few weeks and with fewer weed seeds.

For some moist, and high nitrogen material, we turned to our community pond.

Students gathered up some of the summer algae bloom along with cattail that was growing in an access area.

It was wet and full of nitrogen.

We layered in about 2 inches of woody and grassy material with 2 inches of wet material.

The pile eventually got about chest high. This turned out to be a good learning experience for us as the pile never did heat up much. Because we have had some experience and success making hot compost (getting other piles up to 175 degrees in one day) we are surmizing that that materials in this pile were too coarse and bulky with not enough contact to each other to be able to interact properly. Over time, the pile did break down nicely, only it took months instead of weeks. A good learning experience for us all.

Our community garden coordinator, Peg, met with us to share of the many successes and even the challenges from this year's growing activities. No question about it, community gardening is as much about the people as it is about what, where and how to grow things.

The next day, up in the community (in our yard to be exact) we all dug a below-grade hugelkultur bed so that water will soak fully into the base of the wood pile for maximum and lengthy moisture retention when it rains.

The pit was dug, wood stacked in, child removed, and soil put back on top.

BTW... soil was worked in and around the pieces of wood as it was being stacked in. This insures good contact between soil and wood right off the bat and minimizes 'mound slumping' during the first year.

The bed was top-dressed with finished compost to give our first plantings a good start. Once the roots from these plants get down to the wood however, they will then have everything they need.

Click Here to view a fun Time-Lapse Video of the Making of this Bed.

While parents were working on this and other projects during the week, some excellent childcare activities were provided.

Meghan, our son Hayden's girlfriend, was a great help as the two of them made up our support staff for the week.

This is our rolling chicken coop that our previous students helped to build back in May. This time everyone helped us move the coop and the portable chicken fencing which allow us to move the chickens around the orchard. This way we are using the chickens to helps us keep grass and insects under control.

It usually takes Hayden and me 20-25 minutes to move the fencing and chicken coop by ourselves (we move it once every 7-10 days). But with all of the students helping we got it done in 5 minutes.

While in the community orchard (2 acres - 120 trees) we took time to talk about what it takes to care for this property. Later in the week students learned about grafting and had a chance to try it themselves.

Some parents were fully enrolled in the training while their spouse (or friend) cared for the little ones. The person caring for the child/ren could come and go as they wished so as to meet the needs of the children while still having access to the training. Because of this they only paid half the regular registration price.

“Stelle is a wonderful and welcoming place to hold this training. Great for kids and grown-ups.”  Catherine – Mom and Non-profit Business Administrator

Mother and Daughter Having Quality Time

Our single students were incredibly supportive of the family environment while also making some great friendships themselves, some if which might last for a lifetime.

As part of the standard permaculture design certification course, all students gain experience with use of an A-frame. With this simple tool we can accurately mark level contours on the land where we wish to dig a swale that will hold excess rainwater.

Students also hand the opportunity to learn how to use a sight level or what is known as a transit to make the contours as well.

 “Doing this hands-on training really allowed me to fully understand
the permaculture concepts. “
Gina – (45) College Professor

Everyone who wanted, had the chance to learn to use it.

Up the field from the transit, I show students how to use a measuring pole, called a stadia rod, to mark the exact location of the next contour flag.

Once the contour was marked we got right in to learning how to dig a swale. A swale is a water harvesting ditch that is cut on contour. It slows rainwater down allowing to soak into the ground thus doing a better job supporting plant growth near it.

Click Here for Three Short Videos on the Benefits of
Holding Water on the Landscape.

Milton demonstrating how to build and fire a 'rocket stove'.

Camping is made available right inside our community, just 100 feet from the classroom and kitchen area. Showers and bathrooms are this close as well.

Another great use of the sun's energy is for cooking food. With the use of cardboard, aluminum foil, and a template off the internet, students fabricated a solar over.

A manufactured oven is seen on the right with part of our lunch in it. The hand-made unit sitting before our students did not reach as high of temperatures as the manufactured unit (165 vs. 210 degrees F) but it still cooked the food we put into it.

As part of the plant guild exercise, students gathered up surplus specimens that we have around the community. No plants were purchased for assembling a plant guild around one of the young cherry trees near our orchard.

 “I really enjoyed the content of the training, the hospitality,
and the sense of community we created.” 
Talia – College Graduate and First Year Medical School Student 

One evening we talked about food preservation. As a treat, Milton broke out a few bottles of some homemade mead (wine made from honey) he brewed up and everyone had the opportunity to sample it.

Even young Theo wanted a taste.

All of our trainings have full days so to maximize the learning experience, but we do take some nice breaks for meals and relaxing. This piano sits in our community center where the kitchen is and meals are served.

We provide three meals a day, much of the food coming from the local area, and almost all of it organic. For some students, it is the first time they have eaten whole, nutritious food for an entire week.

During some of the meals, student have the opportunity to mingle with many of our friends and community residents. Our students tend to come away from our Stelle trainings with a deeper understanding and appreciation for community.

For us, having children at a training in Stelle is like rolling out of bed. There are quite a few other children in town so our community is already child friendly.

Besides the pond, orchard and creek to play around, we have a small playground...

...and a swimming pool for those caring for children while the parent is in class.

Group photo taken following the building of the hugelkultur bed.

We really enjoyed delivering this family oriented training.
Please consider joining us next summer.

Click Here for full details and/or to register…  or call Becky at 815-256-2215 to discuss in person.

Before

As I am doing my year-end clean-up and organizing of my computer files, I came across these two pictures of our front yard (Midwest Permaculture – Bill and Becky Wilson). Here is how the yard looked the spring following the digging of the rain gardens which we did in late October.

After

And here it is in June after we dug in the paths and covered them and the raised beds (our keyhole gardens) with shredded hardwood bark mulch. The mulch gives the yard a more finished look while also helping to hold in moisture and add organic matter to the soil. Because this is the front yard we felt it was important for it to look more ‘landscaped’ being located in a suburban setting. If we are going to help mainstream to see the value of permaculture, we will have to make it look nice as well as be functional & productive. 

Becky and I are strong advocates of making pathways a priority as well. They not only make it easier to get around the yard but they really help define space which helps the mind to organize what to do where. 

The plants in the foreground are sweet potatoes. The vines grew all the way down into the rain gardens and whenever it rained and they filled with water, the vines would float on the surface like water lilies. It was lovely.

Becky and I would like to wish you all a wonderful holiday season. We look forward to sharing much with you in 2012.

All the best…. Bill Wilson

This is just too cool…!

How many people live near a running creek, but the creek sits low enough on their property that there is no good way to get the water up on to the land for irrigation or for a small pond without running electricity for a pump?  This simple, homemade device will do the trick.

Of note, the water pump wheel will lift water 2 to 8 times higher than the diameter of the wheel.  Basically, the more loops you have in the wheel the higher and farther you can ‘pump’ the water.  However, the more loops in the wheel makes the wheel heaver and harder to turn, so one needs a larger or faster running creek to do the work.  Regardless, there appears to be a happy median, and to move any amount of water uphill on a piece of property gives one a very valuable resource to work with.  

Here is a link to a simple article about how the water wheel pump works and how to build one.

Just had to share this with you…. Bill Wilson