What is Permiculture

I've been using the internet to learn more about gardening for many years now, and permaculture has always been there on the sidelines. Occasionally it would be mentioned in relation to some chickens or composting, but it always seemed to be this kind of vague thing, something for hippies when I tend towards a scientific point of view.

Boy was I wrong. What I have learned is that a scientific mentality is at the core of permaculture, "Knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation", this is your starting point.

OK so that's simple enough, but what comes next? Here is where I would normally start to get lost. On most of the material you can find on the internet there is very little specific information about what you should actually do with this knowledge. There is no consistency in how to do it, only lots of individual examples of people doing their own things. A Google search for permaculture will revile content about building houses from junk, making a fireplace, raising cattle, a composting toilet or growing vegetables.

Meanwhile if you look up a non-permaculture approach to something like maybe a vegetable bed rotation system it can provide you with a clear set of guidelines, plant this here and that there, move this crop to that bed, rest this bed for this long and replant that crop there. Superficially it seems more logical.

I think it's this relative vagueness that can make permaculture seem like a bunch of hippies talking about their love of nature and not much else. This was all cleared up for me when I was watching a DVD from Geoff Lawton about designing with permaculture and he dropped one word that clicked with me big time. EDIT: looking back over this, I'd hate for anyone to get the impression I don't like hippies. I know some great hippies whom I love dearly, in some ways I count myself as one. Its more just that this coming together with science makes me feel more secure about the decisions I'm making. Anyway back to that important word....

Creativity

So permaculture starts with observing the successful (sustainable) relationships, patterns and cycles in nature and then is using them as the basis for your own creativity. Permaculture is like being a painter when mother nature (or science) is literally your paint, brushes and canvas. This is why some tend to be vague about how it is applied, because just like any other piece of creativity there are millions of variations for how it can be done. This is about understanding the tools at your disposal and then coming up with your own design with those tools.

This fits in perfectly with my frame of mind and my ambition. In a way this what I have done in other parts of my life already, I teach animation, but its not about telling the students exactly what they must animate, its about showing them the tools and techniques for animating so that they can then go on to express their own creativity with those tools. When I animate I am observing nature, the way things behave and function in the world and choosing which of these I want to apply to my own expression at any given point.

Permaculture can be applied to any aspect of your life, how you interact with your neighbours, how you get to work, how you get your food, and of course how you garden. It can be small or large, if you compost your kitchen scraps then that is permaculture because it uses a natural process to create energy, or you can set up your entire home so that it produces more than it consumes. Any system that gives back to the world more than it takes is Permaculture.

Permaculture is not a set of rules, it is a framework for decision making, it is a launching pad for your ideas.

Permaculture has the potential to solve every major problem confronting humanity today.
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There are some videos about permaculture featuring Geoff Lawton on my video page, and I highly recommend his DVDs. http://permaculture.org.au/store/geoff_lawton_42ddvd_set.htm
While Permaculture is 1000s of years old, it was first defined as Permaculture by an Australian Bill Millison. http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/?m=bill-mollison-2010

Tipping Point

Hi there!

Just a quick update. Our house went on the market yesterday. (http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-caboolture-107974981).

We have selected a favourite house that's on the market at Benarkin so we are ready to spring into action when we can. Its pretty stressful, the market is sliding, which makes all the numbers involved inaccurate and unpredictable for a novice like myself. There is a lot of tension around the house, but we need to brace ourselves and ride it out, an engaging, challenging and empowering new life awaits us.

I feel like a teenager again, when I first moved out of the safety of home and started to learn about animation, unsure what to do, unsure where it will take me, so much I don't know. I'm a child again, maybe I always was and just didn't realise it. I'm reminded of a Richard Williams quote, "You don't know, what you don't know." Its time to stop playing with toys so much and really start to understand the world around me.

I find my mind racing to arm itself with knowledge to defend against the unknown, I'm a sponge soaking up information about soils, crops, permiculture, animal care and resource management. But it only delays the emptiness because for now I can't put anything into practice. So instead it ends up blurting out of me in impenetrable rants and repetition that would put The Rain Man to shame, it tortures my poor wife. This practice, perhaps combined with my wobbly health of late seems also to push more immediate concerns and information about the logistics of the sale and move out of my mind, leaving me talking rubbish at times or just outright dumbfounded, which in turn creates more tension.

Its time to take a breath.

This land we buy and what lives on it will probably become my main concern for the rest of my able bodied life, it will be my definitive piece of creativity. We are standing on the tipping point. I feel that tingling sensation you get on a roller-coaster just before it takes the first plunge after the long slow drag up the slope.

Hang on!

Video

Added some great new items on the video page about sustainable farming and cost cutting :)

Enter.... PEACE KITTEN!!

Over the past few months I've been tinkering away on the first piece of full traditional (all be it still digital) animation I have done in what must be over 20 years. Its a character I've been playing with for a while called Peace Kitten, he/she (I haven't decided yet) is kind of a cartoon personification of the thinking I explained in my earlier Sick Of Cynicism post, he/she is unashamedly positive, fighting (irony!) for peace, love and harmony.

This activity was inspired by a new trick I learned with Photoshop recently, where you can use blank video layers and animate frame by frame. I've always enjoyed drawing with bitmap programs (like Photoshop) over vector based ones like Flash, so this was a real Eureka moment for me. I've spent some time setting up a custom interface for Photoshop with action buttons for editing the timeline and used in combination with my little cintiq I now have a full traditional animation studio on my desk. Weeeeee!

I know its very short, but this took a long time to do ( for some stupid reason I started at 24 frames per second instead of 12 :P ), every single inbetween is hand drawn from scratch. I REALLY enjoyed doing this and want to do more.

Happy Hooves

Another horse comic :)

Click on images to enlarge.

This House

This post and its subject matter has been stuck in my craw for a long time, months. Looking back I think some of the more recent posts were an attempt to avoid or delay it, I don't intend to make a Blog where I rant about big world issues. While I don't want to lock myself into anything too specific, I'm hoping this space will mostly be about the discovery of my new life style, but much of the process is stalled for now because of this house.

I've moved around quite a bit in my adult life, always around Brisbane or Sydney, but I'd say I've lived in about 11 places over 20 years. So that's an average of less than 2 years per place, I've been here for over 5 now. Viewed objectively its been a great place, sturdy, practical, and a peaceful location.

When looking back over life however, homes inevitably become bookends for phases or events you have been through. My last house is where I lived when I had the best job of my life as the most senior artist in small studio, it was where I became the owner of an animal for the first time. The house before that one was a great one, where I moved in with my wife to be, where I spent evenings dancing to Jane's Addiction  and TMBG until my legs could stand no more with my new 6 year old step daughter, where great backyard party's were held with old friends and new, and where I was when I married the most wonderful woman on the planet.

This house however (for now at least) carries some far less pleasant memories for me, its where my ability to maintain my career fell to pieces, where my first pets life came to a premature end, where my health suffered some serious blows, where I lived while two studios I worked for closed their doors and worse of all where I failed as a parent. This house feels a lot like a ball and chain, Vicki and I want to move west of here into the countryside where we can have our animals close, and move seriously towards self sustainability. With just the two of us here now this house feels ridiculous to me, there are rooms I hardly ever go into.

Its been well over a year since we decided we were going. We made a list of things that we should do before putting the house on the market to make sure we were getting the best price for it and that list has been our main focus since. In some ways the work feels like moving away from my lifestyle goals, I have had to reduce the size of my veggie patch, it used to fill the whole back yard, we bought turf and I hate turf (an expensive water hungry imported weed), but suburban home buyers will have their expectations.


The good news is that the end is in sight, the house is almost ready for sale. The upstairs interior is all painted, the decks restored, kitchen renovated, turf laid, and garden prepared. We just have a little painting and tidying to do in the downstairs living area ( a converted garage ) and we will be ready for action. The housing market is pretty flat so it may take a while to sell, but at the very least it will be a big symbolic step forward.

I'm looking forward to posting about livestock, solar panels, crop rotations, building on and working the land. Maybe I should have waited until after I moved before starting my blog. Until then you might have to put up with my undirected ramblings. :)

Sick of Cynicism

Now that heading may seem like an easy thing to say, but I'd ask you to consider that I was born right smack bang in the middle of Gen X. The Simpsons and Southpark were cornerstones of my upbringing. See this guy?

"Pffft Yeah Groovy"

That's me for the first 30 years of my life. But gradually I've been growing away from this kind of thinking, or maybe more accurately, growing tired of it. While Gen X is dwarfed by the numbers in the generations that preceded and follow it I feel this cynicism has to a degree penetrated our culture and is now part of everyday life. Here is a good starting point.

Now I like David Mitchell's comedy a lot, and got a good laugh or two out of this, I would guess he is a fellow Gen Xer and I can relate to his frustrations. But I have to take issue with the underlying idea here that there can't be anything exciting or that improves our lives out what lies ahead. That for the next hundred years or so the human race just needs to bend over and resign its self to a good spanking while we pay the price of climate change.

Do you know what the single ingredient needed to make the challenges ahead of us more about opportunity than oppression is? One thing that can totally change the equation? All we have to do is decide that that's what we are going to make it. Its that frigging simple! Human history is constantly punctuated with occasions where new opportunities and improvement in life have been made out of the need to change, the only reason I can see for anyone thinking it can't happen this time is a lack of imagination and cynicism. Where that comes from I don't really know, laziness maybe, or peer pressure to stay with the mob.

Either way I'm over it and plan to focus on finding ways I can improve my life and help the environment at the same time, I don't accept for a second that they are not there. I have the whole of human history to back me up, what's more I find the prospect of those improvements far more exciting than anything the status quo had to offer me. To relate this back to David Mitchell's video, sure it might be fun for Jeremy Clarkson to drive a truck to the North Pole and sip Martini's, but what he fails to mention is that the old system only offers that kind of activity to the tiniest slither of society while the rest of us work harder for less year after year and look on longingly. That's supposed to be more exciting? Please.

The most unattractive aspect of this entire cynicism thing is the peer pressure. Whether it be Alan Jones/Andrew Bolt cutting down those who are excited or positive about the prospect of changing things via the media, or the kind of criticism anyone trying to get enthused and be proactive is going to face on a more personal level. I've received a few barbs about it, usually in the form of jokes or a tongue in cheek sledge, sometimes from good friends. But even when wrapped in humour this kind of stuff is still designed to change the way you are thinking or acting, to get you back in line. I've grown hyper sensitive to it these days, it is identified (you have to on the lookout, its often camouflaged), critically assessed for any true logical content or home truths that I may need to take on board but are rarely there and then discarded. I'll reserve my use of cynicism for those who vent it in my direction first.

Another important part of this is identifying what needs to change. While the majority still seems determined to be a stick in the mud, I feel we must continue to identify and highlight the things that need changing. On a personal level I must also be willing to put my money where my mouth is, nothing feeds cynicism more that examples of hypocrisy, no matter how isolated and  inconsequential they are.

As I lean towards creative activities and in particular the use of animation, this of course all filters through into my creative aspirations. I've already made stuff inspired by this forming philosophy, I made a whole series for kids in my own time a few years back that was about embracing the new and using your imagination to make the most of it (I can't show it to you because the ABC own it, but it did air in a couple of European countries), but I don't think its out of my system yet. Young kids are easily the most open minded about this sort of thing, cynicism is something they learn from family and the media as they get older. 

I have an idea that's kicking around in my head, I want to say something bold and unapologetically positive. I'm not sure where I'll fit it into my life yet, it might be easier after I make the move to the country (soon I hope). I might elaborate on it in another post.

Monsters!

I thought I'd post some pics of what I've been up to for the indie game. This is the first character I'm working on, a bad guy obviously :) He's all rigged up and ready for animating, has been for a few days now, I just have to get around to it :P I've also had a short freelance job that came and found me thanks to a good friend and ex Krome producer John, it was good timing as I had a month without teaching pay while the students had their mid year break.

Click to enlarge.

On My Mind

Rhonda over at my favourite blog of the moment Down To Earth has this thing every now and then when she asks other bloggers to post and share a photo via their own blog, I thought it might be good to do, to keep me posting.

Today I awoke to all this "news" that Australians NEED to be more productive, which is generally being interpreted as we need to work harder. I feel totally out of step when I see this kind of thing, obviously being more productive means taking more from the world, its a closed system, nothing we produce is new, it all comes from somewhere and at the expense of something else.

So here is what's on my mind, why don't we all worry a little less about work and economy's and devote more time to natural ways of being productive. What if we assign a value to the things we can do in and around our homes that is equal to or greater than the value given to the economy. Devote more time to the garden, put that unused soil to use and grow some food.

Happy Hooves

In an earlier post I said that indie games were now the main creative thread I had going in my life, not the only thread. One of the other things I have been doing is these little comic strips for the the guy who helps us look after our horse's feet. He (Peter) is kind of like the Caesar Millan of horses, he arrives to find people thinking there is a problem with their horse, but time after time its the people who need to change and learn a bit about horse psychology and physiology.

So this deal where I do some strips that he can use on his CDs and web site in return for his help with us learning how to be horse owners fits in perfectly with my new life philosophy. I've also quite enjoyed getting to know Peter, I don't think he'd mind me describing him as a wise old dog. Conversations with him are always intellectually nourishing, he is all about understanding what's around you and working with it instead of jamming our clumsy human ways into every situation. Its how I want to live my whole life.

I'll put some thoughts about the strips at the end of the post.

Click on images to enlarge.

I used to draw this kind of thing all the time when I was younger, before I knew how to animate. I grew up a big fan of comics like Snake and Swamp, so this was/is kind of a fun trip back to some earlier influences.

As far as the process goes I think the main difference here is that it was the relationship between each of these characters that became clearest first, I think I usually try to define a whole bunch of specifics about any ongoing characters. But here it was more who understood who on what level that I was thinking about and from there they almost seem to write themselves. I'm not saying its a better way, just something a bit different for me, and I think I'd have to say its been easier too.

I suppose you could get the impression that I've been very productive, but these were produced over a period of months :P

Design

Here's the thing, I think you can tell the design of something is good when over time its design becomes its brand. Or if the design stands the test of time (Poetry!)

You know all those things on the shelf at the department store, the ones that get re-jigged every few months, new colours, rounded corners, shiny, pointy corners, stainless steal, new colours again, stripes! All rubbish, all temporary, all bad for the environment, all unsatisfying in the long term.

The problem is we get this little hit of endorphins every time we experience something new, its a hangover from a time when new stuff was rare in the life of a human and needed to be grabbed at all costs. But of course we are bombarded with the possibility of new stuff now, and our quest to have more all the time is at the core of most of the worlds problems.

If I am designed to crave new things and my new life isn't going to allow for me to have many then I am determined to crave something that will last, something useful. KitchenAid mixers have looked and worked the same for about 60 years from what I can tell. The look of the mixer has become a symbol of its quality. The design doesn't need updating because it already works so well. People talk of having and using them regularly for decades. Mmmmmmmm decades.

What an achievement, can you think of any other products that still look like they did in the 60's?

This relationship between old tested designs and the human need for the new relates to the game I'm working on too. Its an established format for a game, but I feel the need to squeeze some new ideas in there somewhere. But that's for another post.

I Have Peers!?!

Several friends of mine who also came tumbling out of the games industry in recent months have also started blogs. Its like we are all sprawling out into the countryside after veering off the free-way and using blogs to keep in touch. Both Boon and Iain are perhaps more focused on creative issues with their blogs than I am, I must admit if makes me feel a little self conscious about all the self indulgent things I am including. But for now I will stick to my guns, I'm trying not to meet any criteria with this blog, its just what's on my mind.

I love reading their blogs and find it comforting to know I'm not alone.

http://doomquack.blogspot.com/

http://booncotter.blogspot.com/

The New Economy

So as mentioned earlier I've been exploring ways to save money around the house. I don't want this to be a recipe blog, I'm about the principles and practicalities, but I'll put some links to the best sites I've found for that sort of thing at the end.

I want to stress that there is a trade for all this stuff, its time. I find that time is the commodity I have most of at the moment so all this stuff suits me, I totally understand that if you're full time working it might not be practical for you. There is nothing revolutionary here, you can pick and choose, or slowly build them up, I certainly didn't do all this in one fell swoop and I'm not finished yet. :)

Ok so here are the main areas where I'm saving the most money:

• Make some of your own cleaning and personal hygiene products.
  
  Vinegar, Bicarb Soda, Borax and Soda Crystals are amazing and cost bugger all. At the moment they are used around my house in various combinations to replace kitchen bench cleaner, floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner, dishwasher powder, dog shampoo, my shampoo, deodorant, liquid hand wash, laundry liquid and fabric softener. This is by far the biggest money saver I've discovered, I'd estimate I've cut our spending in this area back to less than 10% of what it once was. Its weird going to the shops now and seeing all that stuff on the shelves that irrelevant to my life. :P
  
  In most cases using these products won't require a compromise in quality. Vinegar for example is a natural disinfectant, but it can sometimes take a while to find the right combination or mean getting used to a slight difference. Vinegar smells when you first spray it around, but 15 mins later its clean and the smell is gone.
  
  In some cases there is an improvement, 3 table spoons of bicarb dissolved in a saucepan of water brought up to the boil, then placed in a spray bottle makes for an amazing deodorant, I can work hard and get covered in sweat in the garden and still not smell, plus it cost about 20 cents!
  
  I avoid recipes with ammonia, it may be cheep but can do nasty things when mixed with other chemicals.
  
  
• Stock up on non perishable stuff.
  
  A simple principle, if you see a canned food, toilet paper or cooking ingredients that will keep a long time on special (a good special) then buy a lot of it. I mean lots. Then when you get half way or more through the stock ad the item to your 'if on special' shopping list. The ideal is that you reach a point where you have so much stocked up that you only ever buy these kinds of products when they are on special, effectively achieving a permanent reduction in price. Look for bulk purchases too, often the big bag of rice is still cheaper than the small bag on special. If you have a good freezer then bulk meat can work the same way, most butchers are willing negotiate a better price if you buy more.
  
  Oh and one little tip, don't stock up on things you can't resist, if you just end up consuming it faster then it defeats the purpose. :)
  
  
• Second hand can be better, if not then find a speciality store.
  
  They just don't make stuff like they used to, almost anything bought from the big department stores is made cheaply and wont last (and often in environmentaly irresponsible or unethical ways). I say 'almost' just to cover my ass, but really I'm not aware of a single thing they sell that actually represents good value in the long term. Clothing, bedding and kitchen utensils that have stood the test of time can often come from places like Vinies and the Salvos, my parents are great at finding stuff for me at garage sales (a practice I plan to start after we move), and if you can't find what you need then find a shop or industry stockist that specialises, where you can talk to someone who knows the product and will get you something to last. I have a 2 year old fry pan that looks as good as the day I bought it, it cost more but should last me well over a decade, my favourite jacket at the moment cost me 8 bucks at Vinies.
  
  
• Baking and cooking.
  
  This is my new passion, I bake snacks, sweets, deserts and best of all bread. I buy 10kg bags of flour and we haven't bought bread in months, pulling a fresh loaf of bread out of the oven is 100% guaranteed to put a big smile on my face, there is something primal about it, its a truly wonderful feeling. Getting back to the finances, I can make a huge bowl of cheese crackers (about 3 supermarket boxes worth I'd guess) for less than 2 dollars, or for the same cost make the equivalent of about 6 boxes of muesli bars. Bread and butter pudding made with home made bread is sublime and cost you a couple of eggs and some milk on top of a few bread slices. That's another couple of aisles in the supermarket I can ignore :P
  
  
• Still to come.
  I'm a bit restricted in the garden here because we are slowly getting this house ready for selling, but after we move I have plans for a grand vegie patch and some small livestock. The aim is self sufficiency for fruit and veg, eggs and maybe even milk and cheese. There will also be more preserving and drying of foods too.

So that's about it so far, its hard to capture the impact of the saving we have made without getting into specifics. I guess the proof is in the pudding. Vicki and I work one day a week each, and at the moment we are actually managing to save a little every week. Its probably worth noting that we don't pay rent or a mortgage and there are a few fancy electrical doodads I'm doing without. But I still think its mighty impressive.

Here are some great links for more info:

• http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ (this is my favourite, I use her bread recipe and cleaning suggestions)
• http://sue-brown.blogspot.com/
• http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts/
• http://www.easy-aromatherapy-recipes.com/homemade-bathroom-cleaner.html

That's just a start, there is heaps out there so you might have to do some googling :)

Also if any readers (if I have any readers :P) have ideas on saving money I'd love to hear em :)

Clinging to the thread.

To get by these days I am teaching animation again, its something I did for a while earlier in my career so its kind of been like coming back home. Its only one day a week which makes the money tight, but at the same time I am actually not sure I could do much more anyway. The course I teach is run by two other awesome teachers, they are a delight to work with and I'm really lucky to have this to fall back on.

Teachers give out advice in spades, and most have a few extra special pearls of wisdom they keep for special occasions. This time around I've found one of my best pieces having relevance for myself, just with a slightly different context.

One of the hard facts animation students have to come to terms with is that no matter how good they are there might just not be a job around in Brisbane that is a good fit for them right away. So I often say that if there is going to be a time with no further study or paid creative work there is one thing they must do.... Keep Producing.

Once you stop, if there is a period of time where being creative stops being part of your routine then there is a good chance its over. People who manage to go on with it always seem to find something creative to keep working on.

Now I find this applies to me, if I stop now it might just be for good. The main little thread I am keeping alive, just enough to prevent that is some art for indie games I make with a coder friend. We have made two games together so far and now we are working on a dungeon based RPG. The art to create the world is all broken up into panels, its perfect for my current state of mind, I can take it one tile at a time and thanks to my understanding partner I can set my own pace. I thought I'd share a few of my favourite tiles so far, they may not be much to look at yet, but you have to imagine a whole world you can walk around in made up of this stuff :) Also some of these are animated, but I've only shown one frame here.

Somethin ain't quite right

Its been an eventful year, two companies I've worked for are no more, my family has been rearranged, I've had two operations, and my first adult pet ( a beautiful golden retriever named Dougal ) had to be put down. Some of these events might be worth revisiting for the sake a story at some later point, but generally speaking that's it for that, no point in a blog for self pity. For now I'll just say it left me seriously rethinking what I'm trying to achieve in my life.

But what's up now? It should be all over but there is something lingering, its like being sick, but not quite. Its worse after a busy day, physical or mental exertion. I've mentioned it to several doctors but its so vague they are reluctant to pin it down, I've consulted doctor Wikipedia (a dubious practice at best) and the closest thing I can find is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Its insanely frustrating, I'm sitting on the couch bursting out of my skin with plans and ideas to get my life back on track (a different track, but I'll get to that) but my body and mind just won't co-operate. I've been a highly motivated guy most my life and this is driving me nuts, but if it is CFS it could be here forever.

So in the middle of all this recent unpleasantness I found myself with no income for a few months. My beautiful supportive wife works one day a week, that was all we had. But here is the thing, it wasn't that bad. I had heaps of time at home to research ways of living on less, I was amazed how little you could actually live comfortably on, and I got to spend more time at home (or had to at that point). This combined with what I had seen in my work as an animator recently (where hard working artists were chewed up and spat out left right and centre) left my wife and I seriously questioning what we were trying to achieve with our careers.

So now everything is up for grabs. Working? A House? Commercial Art? Income? Just what do I aspire to? Physically I feel crap, my career has smashed to a near stand still, but is it a tragedy or an opportunity?

How things are to be rearranged is yet to be completely fleshed out and is in part why I've started writing things down.

This thing I know, I find myself believing I can and will be happier with less.

Elo!

Is it a mid life crisis? Well Who knows, I've had enough, I'll be checking out as much as I can manage and writing stuff about it here. Its for me more than anything, but you are welcome to read if it tickles your fancy.

Themes may include art (animation mostly), gardening, cooking, farming for two, animals, frugal living, the environment, indie computer games I may be working on, and maybe some politics (sorry).