So I did a ‘crazy’ thing and bought a half acre piece of land. There’s nothing on it and has been sitting unloved for over 40 years.
I know, right?
It’s a long awaited fulfillment of a dream to create an off-grid oasis as well as an opportunity to really deepen my permaculture practice. And yes, I know this is crazy. But I also know that it’s an adventure that started even before I plunked down any money.
“Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and nonmaterial needs in a sustainable way.”
Building Your Permaculture Property
I’m in the midst of taking not one, but two permaculture design classes. One is the more ‘classic’ PDC with both theory and practical application, while the other is more about ‘how to think’ about your land. The quote above is from the primary book that goes with the class.
I’ve made a couple of trips to my land, and each time it’s like peeling back the layers of an onion.
Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process, we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives the outcome, we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
Bruce Mau
I’ve taken some initial pictures and videos to share with my peeps and to have my blog act as a sort of ‘accountability partner’.
When I went there to start my ‘path clearing’ work, I was on the tail end of a road crew cleanup. This is something that the county does regularly (annually?) by means of an excavator type piece of machinery with a GIANT mower mounted on a swing arm. (like the size of a small Fiat) It pretty much butchers anything in its path and if the brush is too big for the mower to get through, well, there’s always the chainsaw. It’s not selective, or kind. It’s simply a quick reduction of a large volume of vegetation. ‘Pruning’ this ain’t. I have very mixed feelings about this, but it’s not something I can control. Vegetation here is vigorous, so recovery is relatively quick.
The stake in the center of the video is my front (NE) corner.
Another thing about this place is the Berm. It’s a thing here, and I think it’s both for privacy and due to the topography of being on the side of a mountain. Most properties on the uphill side of a road seem to have something like this. Mine varies in height from about 6′ to maybe 10′. It’s a challenge to get up it, as it’s steep. Here’s the front berm before I put in some crude steps (old lady has to get up the hill somehow!)
And here’s my crude steps that will let me clamor up the hill.
Once I got the steps in, I could get up into the property. So, machete and pruning saw in hand, I got to work. On the first day, I managed to clear about 20′ of overgrowth. The post you see me touching at the beginning of the video is the North side neighbors hog-wire fence. (yes, there are wild pigs around, but the deer outnumber the pigs) The crunching you hear is all the brush that I’m walking on. Since the stuff I was clearing was pretty much dead & dry, it was more efficient to just do the classic ‘chop and drop’. Followed by stomping. LOTS of stomping. This keeps all the lovely carbon on the property. No need to haul anything to the dump.
After recovering from machete arm, I went back to try to clear along the NE fence-line. It’s over 150 feet, so…probably more ambitious than my current physical stamina will allow. But, why listen to your inner wisdom when you can ignore that and fall on your keister instead?
Which I did. I have the bruises to show for it. At least I wasn’t visible to any other humans, so the embarrassment was kept to a minimum. And yep. Lesson learned. I have to pace my damn self!
Despite my bruised ego (not to mention hiney) I did manage to get all the way to the end to see the other property stake and view from the top of the property.
I was surprised and pleased to see the other neighbors fence along the top edge, and thankfully I had a clear path to the third of the four survey stakes.
While I was catching my breath, I took a video of the view from the top.
Since this post is getting ridiculously long, I’m going to end with my unedited drone footage of the avocado giant and an overhead view of the property. I barely know how to fly this thing, so cinematic it is NOT. It was also windy and cloudy, so the vista is not the best. Once I figure out how to fly the drone better, (and edit the footage), I will include some more. It’s a start though.
I still have yet to get to the fourth and final property stake. It’s currently hidden in dense vegetation. I’m probably going to hire a local land clearing guy to help with that.
