One of the greatest challenges we, as a culture, face is transitioning to sustainable practices and making those practices mainstream rather than fringe activities. In some parts of the country, even access to local foods is not possible; in others, …
Living in Harmony
Story of the Ancient Maple: From Loved Seedling to Forest Guardian
On this Samhuinn eve, I would like to share a story. This was a story that was given to me. Behind our sacred grove, about 50′ feet into the forest to the north west, is an ancient maple. She grows …
Shaping the Land and Shaping Ourselves
When you are flying* across the country, as I happened to do this week, it gives you a chance to observe the landscape in ways that we cannot otherwise see. When we are on the ground, we are able to …
Druidry and the Art of Sustainable, Meaningful Offerings
In druidry and in other earth-centered religions, its customary to make offerings to spirits, the ancestors, guides, outsiders, etc. We usually do this as part of ritual or solitary practice. Recently, the issue of what to use as offerings came …
Natural Building II: Rocket Stoves!
Earlier this week, I blogged about my visit to the Strawbale Studio. In this second Natural Building post, I’m going to talk about the rocket stove workshop itself. I’m quite excited about rocket stoves, because they use simple materials to …
Natural Building I: The Strawbale Studio
Yesterday, I attended a rocket stove building workshop at the Strawbale Studio and the sustainability-focused work of Deanne Bednar. In this post, I want to spend time highlighting the Strawbale Studio and Deanne Bandar’s work as an excellent example of …
Chickens and Sustainability
Chickens as part of a sustainable system. Raising chickens has become an activity of growing importance within permaculture/sustainability movements. Most backyard chicken owners raise their birds for eggs, meat, companionship, manure, happiness, and natural pest control. Chickens can form one …
Sustainability, Climate Change, and Inaction: A Stasis Theory / Rhetorical Analysis
One of the most frustrating issues in the sustainability and environmental movements today is the lack of serious discussion or action of any kind on the part of world governments and leaders. While we have stunning examples of people enacting …
Building Outdoor Sacred Spaces, Part III: Other Small Projects
Welcome to my 3rd blog post about building outdoor sacred spaces. In my first post, I discussed stacking stones or stone cairn building. In my second post, I discussed building larger spaces, like stone circles and spirals. In this post, …
Raised Garden Beds from Salvaged/Found Materials
A lot of gardeners today use the raised bed method to grow plants. I have been doing pseudo-raised beds in the garden for two years now. The raised beds are higher than the ground (since my local dirt is deficient …
Know Your History to Save Your Future
I attended a talk, titled “Local Food Starts at Home” and sponsored by two knowledgeable friends of mine, that focused on increasing awareness of local foods and building a sustainable foodshed in the future for our area. At the beginning …
Making Berry Inks (Huckleberry, Raspberry, Blackberry, Pokeberry, etc.)
Ink making is a wonderful way to use up some of the fabulous berries that you can forage for outdoors or grow in your garden. With berry ink, you can do wonderful water washes, use a dip pen and write …
Earth for Sale: Exploitation, Shared Resources, and the Future
Are there limits on what can be sold in our world? A life? A habitat? A community? A forest? An ecosystem? A home? The rivers? The oceans? A sacred site? Clean air? Unfortunately, in our culture everything is for sale–including …
Six Principles for Local Eating
Our eating practices can be incredibly environmentally and personally destructive. In the typical food system in America, we ship food from all corners of the earth burning fossil fuels, we exploit workers and growers, we depend upon multinational corporate food …
The Environmentally Conscious Consumer = Oxymoron
We live in a capitalist culture, and that capitalist, consumerist culture would have you believe that “buying green” products is an environmentally conscious practice. I was with a group of friends the other day, and we began talking about environmentalism …
Building Outdoor Sacred Spaces, Part 2: Stone Circles, Stone Spirals, and Permanent Outdoor Spaces
In permaculture gardening, one of the key principles is to mimic patterns found in nature in designing garden and outdoor spaces. I believe this principle is critical to creating outdoor sacred spaces–look around you, and when you are designing a …
Mushroom Gardens
If there is one thing that’s pretty difficult to find locally, I’ve found it to be mushrooms. Once when I was at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s market (which is about an hour and 15 min drive for me, so I …
Building Sacred Outdoor Spaces, Part 1: Stone Carin Building / Stone Balancing / Stone Stacking
I think its important that, as druids, we work to build sacred spaces within the landscape. Yes, many would say that all land is sacred, and I’ll not disagree. But at the same time, there’s quite a difference between a …
On Being Connected and the Toxicity of Technology
In today’s modern world, the idea of being connected is tied to technology and to ourselves rather than the living, breathing world around us. If you are “connected,” you have the latest smart phone or other 4G device, and you …
Seed Saving, Heirloom Seeds, and Sustainability
When I started patio gardening some years ago, I didn’t really know a lot about seeds. Like most Americans, I had simply gone to the store, bought a packet of seeds (or a group of plants already started from a …
Sheet Mulching / Lasagnia Gardening – Instructions and Experiences
Last year, I reported that I started my garden beds using a Sheet Mulching (aka Lasagnia Gardening) approach that I found in Gaia’s Garden and select places online, such as here, here and here. A year later, and I’d like …