I am now a Certified Permaculture Designer!

I have just returned from a very exciting 13 days at Spiral Ridge Permaculture Farm in Summertown, Tennessee; where I have been living, breathing, sleeping, eating, and learning all things permaculture with like minded people. 
                     I Have learned so much and developed some beautiful friendships. 

 

          The best way I know to describe my experience is with lots of pictures.....................

My home for the last 13 days!  It was awesome going to sleep to the sound of crickets every night and waking up to the sun rising.

Drawing the Base plan

 

Composting toilet!  Humanure!
The sawdust keeps the odor down.




   

  Staking Multiple Function Systems!
 This one structure houses the toilet, the shower, the sauna (the
       wood burning stove heats the water for the shower)
   storage for straw bales, tool shed, and butchery area.
       

 
This was our outdoor classroom.  We spent a lot of time under this tent in classes, learning so much, eating amazing meals, drawing our designs and sharing with each other.  But the really cool thing is we had a lot of hands on learning in the field actually doing what we were learning.   
 What a Great way to Learn!

Learning about plants in the edible food forest

 

 

 

Learning to survey the land and create swales.

 

Working with my team on our design plan



 

 

 

 

 

My favorite thing to do!  Working in the Garden.......
Planting comfrey and kale.



The animals were not only adorable, but they were a very important part of the whole system on the farm.  The chickens, pigs and goats work together in a movable fence to prepare the land for planting without tilling the soil.  The chickens scratch and eat bugs and insects.  The pigs root. The goats eat the fodder.  They all fertilize the soil. 
The ducks and guineas and chickens eat unwanted bugs. 
The ducks and chickens supply eggs and meat.
The rabbit hutch is built above the worm composting bin.  The rabbits supply poo for the worms. The worms are incredible work horses and supply excellent composted soil and tea for the plants.
The rabbits provide meat.  The worms provide fishing bait.
Everyone doing their part on the farm. 
Even the adorable little kitten, named tree, will have an important job to do, catch mice!

 

  

                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

We all loaded up and went to do some community work at the local 'Farm' school.  We revived a neglected keyhole garden bed and restored a cob oven.

Cob is a natural building material, made of clay, sand, and straw. 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a nature hike one morning with Matt, a natural craftsman.   He is a very neat guy!  As we hiked through the forest to his work space, he taught us about different plant species throughout the forest, we learned so much and foraged on many wild edibles. 

 

 

 

 

 

Akebia or chocolate vine.  Taste like tapioca pudding!

Maypop, fruit from the beautiful Passion Flower Vine.

Hazelnuts


When we arrived at his place he shared with us how he creates many awesome things out of trees and bamboo.  He also shared blacksmith techniques with us.

 

 

 

Cliff Davis and his wife Jennifer are so knowledgeable.  They were wonderful instructors.  I enjoyed learning from them and getting to know them and their beautiful children.

Raina, Kerin, and Amaiya

 

 

 

Jessie Smith, did a fabulous job coordinating our group, preparing our meals, taking care of all of us and teaching!

 

 

Tyler, a previous Spiral Ridge PDC graduate and now intern also did an awesome job cooking for us, taking care of us and teaching some of our classes.

 

 From the very beginning of the course we were divided into teams.  We chose a section of the farm we wanted to design.  Each day we learned something new and applied it to creating our design.  My team chose zone 1 around the soon to come new home site. 

I had a great team and I think we did a pretty great job! 

 

 

We began everyday with camp coffee around the fire pit which faces the east rising sun.

And we ended everyday gathered around the fire pit with music and sharing stories.

 

 

 

I met some really incredible people and I know I have developed some new lifelong friendships.

We were a really cool group!  We named ourselves the spiralettes!

 

 



 This was an incredible experience!  I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to go and submerge myself into learning more about something I am so passionate about. 

And now I am looking forward to applying all things Permaculture to my life, our family, our homestead, my work at Petals, my design business, and the mission field!