Project preview
The background story of this project is my lovely cooperative mother, that supported my permaculture path before i even knew my self what it was. She was very supportive, when i knew what i was doing, and also when i didn't, which was when i needed support the most.
Since i left my previous marketing profession, and started volunteering in all these random organic farms, wwoofing along my experience, learning new skills, opening my self to this hole new world of opportunities, discovering that life can be much fuller then it was before. And the most exiting fact, that to make it fuller, i actually needed less then i had.
I was getting more knowledge and some experience, but i needed a platform to get even more experienced.
I started to think about my mothers house as a projetc while i was doing my first PDC in kibbutz Lotan, as a 'personal project' to work on.
My mother, already 'bought' my new storeys about this new wonderful way of life style, and was exited to see me so engaged about this, and this is how her home became, and still is my little experimental play ground. A place i can monitor my success and my failures.
My mother and i have a deep connection of friendship and support for many years, we often complete each other with original ideas, both of us have changed our perception about materialism, consumption, recycling, up cycling, reusing and other permaculture ways of thinking
Arava st. Kfar Vradim
Designing process
The first plan of the house as i wrote, started in my first PDC, using my teachers and student friends for help and feedback. I did it 'by the book'; Client interview of my mother and my sister, adding my own observation. Thinking about available resources, defining the limits and priorities of what and how to do. Then designing, drowing a base map, elevation, the works...
Resources was an interesting matter, as we were adjusting to our new permaculture reality, we tried to use only available materials and not run to the shop 10 different times for every little thing we remembered.
The best use of resource we had, to my opinion was man power.
In my personal PDC presentation, i finished by inviting every body from the course to my mothers house for a 'permablitz'. After two intensive months in 'kibbutz lotan' in a 'green apprenticeship program', every body was hungry for serious implementation.
A day the course ended, 6 fresh GA graduates came to Arava 6 st. and blitzed!!
In terms of boundaries, we had the back yard to play with, but that is mostly trees, so quite a lot of shade. After a few weeks, shade wasn't our biggest problem in the garden, as we met the cheeky Rock Hyrax family, tribe, community that is living all over our area...
Until we met them, we made a beautiful little classic permaculture garden, layers, mulch, a verity of herbs and veggies. It was a great nutritious meal for the Rock hyrax for about a month, nipping and nibbling all the 'new dishs' that we planted especially for them...Not!
this is the plan for an inclined flower bed in the terrace, far from the reach of the Rock hyrax
Evaluation was according to primery design. Priorities, time table, and courage we had to try all the new things we learned.
Since that little blitz finished, i had the pleasure to see many mistakes, and celebrate them, i guess this is my oldest 'on going' project, so there is a lot of self regulation and time for feedback coming from little 'experiments' around the house.
The first design was more in the spirit of a PDC, basically i suggested things and showed the residents links and pictures from the the Internet. A geodesic dome, rocket oven, pizza oven, gardens, turning compost, we tried the hole 'shbang' as you can see in the pictures.
But time, reality and result had focused us on the working stuff. And so the project as a design project wasn't fulfilled completely, but as a life style project, i think all the members of the house are much more awear and cooperative towards ecology. We have Implemented still many elements such as
-3 Recycling bins for paper, glass and plastic (there is no metal recycling in our area)
-3 Compost bins, one vermycompost.
-A rocket stove (the 'beatle pocket' version) is now our main source of heating.
-A productive 'urban terrace garden' with a full automatic irrigation system, providing us herbs all year around and season fruit and veggies in the summer.
-Two old and beaten sofas, one became a beautiful mud bench, and the other became a flower bed..
-Low tech gray water systems filling the toilet tanks from shower water
-some rain water harvest (about 1m3 a year) for irrigation
Other then these phisical elements, the bigger process is defiantly showing on my self and a big important part of my family. In about two years we have changed our diet in ways we wouldn't have dream before, almost completely vegetarian, avoiding milk, making 'the 5 tibetien' exercise with fresh lemon juice almost every morning, giving much more importance to what food we buy, which company made it, is it local, or which type of cosmetics. increased awareness in how much we drive the car, trying to add missions and reasons to take the car out.
Basically trying to stay in an ecological awareness as much as possible.
Of course there is still a long way, and i still have other family members that are not seeing all this 'Eco freako' nonsense as me.
I try to work where it counts, if some one is willing to make a change, i am willing to show them A way. Being an example is something very powerful and honest to me, and for others to learn. Its a much easier way to except then to be patronisingly told, ordered or lectured.
