There is plenty on the web about permaculture so I won’t endeavor to duplicate what is freely available. What I will share is a brief synopsis of my journey with and into permaculture living.

I stumbled into permaculture at the intro to my BGI MBA while at Channel Rock. All students had a couple hour introduction by Oiver Kellhammer. I had already been moving in the direction of permaculture without actually knowing about it from several years of guerrilla gardening in Vancouver. Oliver likened permaculture to surfing nature and shared many examples of how to work with natural processes to get what humans need while building on nature’s regenerative capacity and ability to support life. The permaculture way stood in stark contrast to the increasingly distopian world that industrial man was creating. Oliver’s brief lecture and walk about the forest struck a chord in my being that awakened a fire and passion for living with grace and cooperation with the natural systems of the planet.

During my first summer break from BGI, I pursued a Permaculture Design Certificate with O.U.R. Ecovillage and Jan Steinman. I followed up that mind and heart opening experience with a week of teacher training the Bullocks’ Homestead. These experiences transferred a huge, positive and abundant vision of what is possible for humanity when enough of us incorporate the ethics and principles that guide ecosystem evolution into our way of being.

Fast forward to today. There is lifetime’s work to really engage with and live permaculture and I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface. My next endeavors are to continue making my family’s homestead more food and energy self-reliant, continue building a permaculture school on the land and finally to use the permaculture ethics and principles as as guide to establish a variety of businesses on Manitoulin that enhance local economic, environmental and social resilience.

If you would like to join the fun, please get in touch.