Two Different Kinds of Healthcare – Part 2

Two Different Kinds of Healthcare - Part 2

Part 2 of 2; Part 1 is here | Approximately a 6 minute read | Originally published 5th February, 2019, on PermacultureNews.org

health relies on a foundation of family and community, natural remedies, real food, and healthy living habits

How did we become dependent on the doctor visit and the prescription? What happened to the ways we cared for our families before modern pharmaceutical medicine?

When the globalized economy replaces local ways of living, people exchange broad skills and community-reliance for specialized career paths. 

Instead of sharing time and resources with family and neighbors to meet everybody's needs, people start to work jobs to pay for basics — and also for new commodities that are assumed essential to living a modern life.

Paying for your needs with money means you need not rely on friends and neighbors, so families and communities are no longer so tightly bound together. Instead of relying on themselves and each other, families now rely on corporate providers and outside experts.

Local knowledge fades away and the understanding of natural remedies grows dim, all but replaced by the profitable kind of medicine that only experts know.

Two Different Kinds of Healthcare – Part 1

Two Different Kinds of Healthcare - Part 1

Part 1 of 2 | Approximately a 6 minute read | Original version published 30/1/19, on PermacultureNews.org

Our culture loves the quick fix.

The quicker it works and the less effort we have to put into it, the better we like it. We have fast food, fast internet, fast aps, and... pharmaceutical medicine.

Pharmaceutical medicine is the medical equivalent of fast food – its fast, its convenient, and it erodes our health over time.

In contrast, at-home healthcare and natural remedies are like home-cooked, real food – they take more time and effort and they work more slowly.

Over time, at-home healthcare and natural remedies build robust health on many levels, individual and collective.

7 Ways to use the Humble Choko Vine

Approximately a 4 minute read
Originally published Nov 6th, 2018, at PermacultureNews.org

Chokos, plentifully displayed in baskets and crates at farmers markets in our area throughout the summer months, are boring, bland, and not very useful.

That's what I used to think, but I've changed my mind.

This short article shares 7 of the ways I use chokos and choko vines since I gained a better appreciation for them.

Real Food does not come from Supermarkets: 6 Steps from Bare Ground to Homegrown Veggies

6 Steps to Homegrown Veggies

Approximately a 6 minute read | Originally published July 1st, 2018, at PermacultureNews.Org

I imagine that when our grandchildren and great grandchildren read in history books about the supermarkets we relied on for food, they’ll wonder what we were thinking.

My goal is to get to where our family can live without the supermarket entirely. There are many things we have yet to learn on this path; one of our major areas of focus right now is learning to grow more of our own vegies. 

Recently, we ate our first ever homegrown cauliflower. This post shares how I got from "I don't think I could grow brassicas," to "Ooh look – a cauliflower!" By the end of the article you’ll appreciate that if we can do it, anyone can.

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things – Part 3

Backyard Chickens & the interconnectedness of everything - Part 3

Part 3 of a Series | Approximately a 6 minute read | Originally published 19th October, 2018, on PermacultureNews.org

This article shares the funny antics of one of our roosters, whose stories include such things as nesting boxes, interested hens, and a falling wheelbarrow.

It concludes on a more serious note, with the question,

"Can good husbandry, regenerative agriculture, and morally right living, be defined in terms of happiness and connection?"

If you are interested only in rooster adventures, this article will be fine to read by itself.

But if you missed the earlier articles in the series, and you’re interested in what backyard chickens have to do with the interconnectedness of all things, you’ll need to go back to the beginning of Part 1. Part 2, if you need it, is here.

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things. Part 2

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things - Part 2

Part 2 of a Series | Approximately a 6 minute read
Originally published 10th October, 2018, on PermacultureNews.org

This article is Part 2 of a Series that is mostly about chickens – not how to care for them, but how to appreciate them as being more complex and interesting than most of us give them credit for.

If you are interested only in chickens, and especially mother hens and chicks, this article will be fine to read by itself. But if you want to know more about where interconnectedness comes into the story, and why it’s important, you’ll need to go back and read the beginning of Part 1.

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things. Part 1

Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things - Part 1

Part 1 of a Series | Approximately a 5 minute read.
Originally published Oct 3rd, 2018, at PermacultureNews.org.

This 3-Part Series starts off with our cultural lack of understanding about our place in the web of life, which is at the root of why our efforts to address ecological destruction aren’t working yet.

If you were mainly interested in chickens, stay with me – I’ll get onto backyard chickens in the second part of Part 1, and then I’ll stick almost entirely to chickens for the rest of the Series.

Please note, though, that this is not a “how to take care of chickens” Series (you can find those everywhere).

This is about how to appreciate chickens as more than just egg-layers and garden-scratchers. And, by extension, how to appreciate any living thing beyond just its immediately apparent functions.

5 Cut and Carry Goat Fodder Plants that Poultry, Pigs, Cattle and People can also eat

5 Cut & Carry Goat Fodder plants that Chickens, Pigs, Cattle and People can also eat

(Approximately a 6 minute read)

Growing our own milk, eggs, and / or meat is a step in the right direction, but relying on the feed store to help us do it means we’re still relying on fossil fuel-based agriculture and supply systems.

Since our goal is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, at the time of writing this article I was growing an increasing amount of our own goat feed, for our two milking goats.

To make it onto the list that you’re about to read, these plants had to be great for goat fodder, AND serve a variety of other functions as well.

(Please note that some of the plants listed here were also listed in “8 Abundant Fodder Forest Plants, and How to Use Them.”)

Re-examining Freedom

(Approximately a 4 minute read)

Up until around the time we became parents, Alain and I never questioned our assumptions about freedom. 

The story of our time says this is normal:

to be chained to debt and to schedules,
to have little or no control over where our food originates,
to be walled off from nature,
and to be more connected to each other via screens than in person.

This post describes how we began to question that story, and to re-examine what freedom means to us.

(This is Part 3 in a Series about our family's journey towards real and green.)

8 Abundant Fodder Forest Plants, & How to Use Them

8 Abundant "Fodder Forest" Plants, and How to Use Them

(Approximately a 5 minute read)

This morning when I went to feed the animals, I thought I’d start with collecting some pigeon pea for the horses, and see what I could find for the pigs in the fodder forest while I was there.

Our fodder forest is a small beginning in my long-term goal to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuel-based agriculture.

This article lists 8 of my favorite multi-purpose fodder-and-food plants, and some of the ways I use them.

Originally published June 14, 2018 at PermacultureNews.org.

1 2 3 Next »

​Two Different Kinds of Healthcare - Part 2

​Two Different Kinds of Healthcare - Part 1

​7 Ways to use the Humble Choko Vine

​​6 Steps to Homegrown Veggies

​Backyard Chickens & the interconnectedness of ​everything - Part 3

​Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things - Part 2

​Backyard Chickens, and the Interconnectedness of All Things - Part 1

​5 Cut & Carry Goat Fodder plants that Chickens, Pigs, Cattle and People can also eat

​Re-examining Freedom

​8 Abundant "Fodder Forest" Plants, and How to Use Them