Category: PermaZ Bod

Permaculture the body with breathing, posture, exercise, DIY body products, etc.

So, What the Heck is This Permaculture Thing?

A Very Brief Overview, as told by an un-trained, much-researched, minimally-practiced newbie…

This permaculture thing is a system of growing food (and doing lots of other stuff!) that takes nature’s lead, rather than fighting it, for the purpose of living more healthy, more sustainable, more vibrant lives that not only leaves something for future generations but actually provides them with more!

Even though the word itself is a mash-up of “permanent” and “agriculture” it needn’t only apply to agriculture/gardening.  Just like the word “culture” means a range of stuff from ’tilling and growing’ to ‘values and practices of an organization’ to ‘arts and wisdom of a society’ permaculture also applies to running a household, conducting business, engaging in relationships, and more.  It’s about seeing things as interconnected parts of a larger whole and finding and using the connections between them to enhance our lives and the lives of others.

Permaculture is a complete system based on 3 guiding Ethics~ Earth Care, People Care, Returning/Sharing Surplus.  When your actions are driven by these 3 Ethics, bammo, you’re permaculturing!

Ok, ok, so how do we get our permaculture on???  Here are some nuts and bolts ways to get going (mostly garden oriented)~

  • OBSERVE and interact with nature and its processes.  How is your site oriented to the sun, is there any slope, how can you catch and store water, what’s around to help create healthy soil, what so-called weeds are food or living mulch?
  • Minimize waste.  Pretty self-explanatory.
  • How is some “waste” a resource?  Some packaging is good for starting seeds or sheltering seedlings.  Meat bones are good for making broth and soil amendment.
  • “Stacking functions”.  Work toward making most things serve at least 2 purposes.
  • Use hand tools.  Saves gas/electricity, reduces pollution, exercises your body, can be meditative.
  • Use polyculture/guilds.  Interplanting different types of crops such as the Native American “three sisters”- corn, beans and squash.
  • Learn this mantra- Problems are Solutions!

And PLEASE, don’t take my word for it!  Go look this stuff up!  Here are a few people to search- Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, Geoff Lawton.

Here are a few great websites-

https://permacultureprinciples.com

http://permaculturenews.org

https://permaculturemag.org

Now go out there and get your permaculture on!

DIY Deo~ Fresh as a Daisy

In an attempt to put less bad s#!t on my body, and grinding it directly into my lymph nodes, I decided to try making my own deodorant.  I have had great success with it!  I don’t have an exact recipe but here is the idea~

Put some gently softened Coconut Oil in a small jar that fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.

Add some pure essential Tea Tree Oil.  (I dunno how much… several drops… give it a day or 2 and see if you stink or not…)

Then I add a few drop of pure essential Sandalwood or Cedar Oil to cut the turpentiney smell of the Tea Tree while complimenting/not clashing with it.  Use whatever seems nice to you or nothing else at all.

Mix well!

Apply with a couple fingers.  Yeah, a little weird at first…

Lastly, I dust with baking soda, not only for added destinkification but to absorb excess oil so it doesn’t get all over my clothes, cuz that would be yucky.  (I stand on the bathmat for this so I don’t get loose powder all over the floor making it a slipping hazard 😆)

Oh, actually, the very last thing I do is frisk some of the loose baking soda back off once it’s had a chance to soak in a sec so I’m not covering my clothes in that either!

None of that aluminum s#!t on my lymph nodes!  And works like a charm!  At least no one has told me otherwise…

Ps. If you travel with this deodorant, keep in mind that coconut oil melts at about 76F so make sure the lid closes very well and maybe even put the jar in a baggie before putting it in your luggage!

Well, That Was a Heckuva Thing…

I’m sure it wasn’t a new thing, but it was definitely a new thing for me.

I was out on my deck, minding my own business, doing some DIY Physical Therapy while taking in a little Solar/Vit D Therapy. All of a sudden this thing crept up on me. I’d been feeling it lurking… And, BAM!

I shall call this thing Breathe, Cry, Laugh Therapy. I was about to perform a second Sun Salutation (it’s a yoga thing) when I decided to take a little break and squatted down sorta like a turtle up on its hind feet to stretch my back (I dunno if this is a yoga thing). And it grabbed me. It went a little something like this…

Breathe… Cry… stream of consciousness thoughts about surgery… and other surgeries and issues in the same region… how awesome my kids are… Laugh… go with it!

I worked my way back up to standing with a few more cycles of Breathing, Crying, streaming thoughts, and Laughing. Just when I reached my throat, RJ the rooster crowed, “How the f*!# are yooooouuuuu???”! (At least that’s what my friend, the Rooster Translator, told me…) That really made me laugh! And realized I should let my voice out too… birth of a blog.

Another round or two of Breathe, Cry, Laugh and the thing ran it’s course, for now. I might have another 2 or 1 of these things…

By the way, I’m glad we don’t live close enough to the neighbors for the thing to have scared them!

How it All Began

Starting behind the 8 ball… This is my big garden out back. Fallow last year, 2014, due to campaign-burnout. Fallow this year due to a 3-4lb ‘watermelon’ growing in my gut, making me feel pretty bad, then watermelon removal on July 2nd. Said removal required a vertical incision bisecting 8-9in of muscle on my abdomen.

Believe it or not, there are many silver linings! The family has managed to keep 2 chickens alive for over a year and enjoyed the eggs of 1 hen. There’s a ton of biomass to add organic material to our still-heavy soil. There’s a ton of weed seeds to create voluntary cover crops next year and more biomass as I pull out the unwanted species. I’ve had more time to learn about permaculture and now realize that I need to make our gardens a little more self sufficient and perennial. I have a golden opportunity to rehab my body and ‘permaculture’ it as well.

All this has got me thinking about doing a blog. Starting with something that looks as bad as my garden and feels as bad as I did and charting the progress of permaculturing it all. Permaculturing life. Topics like, gardening, breathing, moving, eating well, micro biome, diy home and personal care, sunshine, dirt, etc. All with a little resistance-is-fertile spice!