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Rainwater harvesting notes, prompted by someone’s post in a Florida mainstream gardening group, about the current drought and people’s resulting increases in water bills:

• I use rainwater harvested from my roof. Carrying water all over the yard to the plants every day in this drought has been exhausting and time-consuming, but at least the water is free!!

• I always wonder why rainbarrels are not more popular here in Florida. I would never want to do without them! I have a total of about 500 gallons of rainwater harvesting/storage capacity.

• I have 500 gallons water capacity. I just put the barrels and troughs under my roof line to catch the water. A 1,000sf roof can catch up to about 600gal of water in a 1-inch rain event!!!! (Actually I think the rainwater calculator I use at a website called watercache.com says 623.)

I scoop the water out by hand with a watering can and carry it out to the plants all around the yard.

• Of course, watering needs will vary from place to place, and by type of garden.

The main focus of my yard is shade, water conservation, soil-building, native plants, and biodiversity. I have many wild edible so-called “weeds” growing in my yard that are highly nutritious and need much less water than cultivar veggies. I also have baby fruit trees and a few cultivated veggies.

My existing 500-gal setup easily gets me through the dry season in a normal year. As the “hot dry windows” in fall and spring seem to be expanding, it gets to be more of a challenge. I am planning on adding another 500 gal to my household system. It’s a work in progress.

Another key component of rainwater collection, besides barrels/troughs, is the ground itself. Minimize bare soil; turn the ground itself into a sponge by adding mulch, plants, etc.

Brad Lancaster, rainwater harvesting expert based in Tucson AZ, has great videos and I recommend his book “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands” to everyone in Florida [and everywhere else, for those of you outside Florida who are reading this], since our landscaping and development practices are basically turning Florida into a desert.

Also – not all gardens are created equal. In Florida, the most successful food-gardeners I know are growing food in dappled shade — creating multi-story food forests, rather than unshaded, rectangular plots with veggies in rows. The latter require huge amounts of water and still struggle in the Florida sun.

Suggestion for anyone interested in learning more: check out permaculture / food forests.

Tucson AZ gets 11 inches of rain a year. In most of Florida we historically get over 45. I highly recommend Brad’s book to everyone. And highly recommend Brad’s video “Planting the Rain to Grow Abundance.” This 18-minute video is a great investment of any gardener/homesteader/concerned environmentalist’s time today. He has numerous other videos as well.

Another super resource: Watercache rainwater harvesting calculator

• (In response to someone who said her county is on a total ban, and they can’t even water one day a week): Where I live, there are certain exemptions from the watering ban, such as watering a food-garden or watering by hand (with hose, or watering-can).

Since I furthermore water with rainwater (that I caught off my roof during rainy times), I am not subject to the watering ban and am able to water daily. I water different plants in the yard in rotation. My kumquat tree and lemon tree each got the big 2-gallon watering can yesterday. This morning I watered the plumeria which provides dappled shade for Okinawa spinach and other summer greens (and also provides beauty for the neighbors and people who walk by).

I have been using 15 to 20 gallons of water each day, in rotation, on the plants in my yard to try to patch them through this drought. As the “dry window” times in fall and spring seem to be getting longer each year, I have started dreading what a rainless June might look like in Florida; I hope we don’t have to find out. (Actually we have had a total of almost an inch so far this month, but we are very far behind our normal for the year, as is most of the rest of the state from what I hear.)

A friend and fellow permie posted on his Facebook page that a local restaurant he knows is looking to hire someone to wash dishes. Quoting from his post:

DISHWASHERS NEED A LIVING WAGE AS MOM AND POP DINERS STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET. … Would you take a part time position (@25hr/wk) in a lighthearted friendly atmosphere where you were treated as family for (what is now considered) a meager $10/hr?

Our own favorite micro-eatery … is scratching by in its second year, hammered by the “shut-down” and resultant lost revenues; the proprietors of the (now) three person operation struggle to find a fourth “family” member to sanitize the dishes and flatware.

… This truly IS more like an arranged adoption that I am trying to facilitate. It really is more of a lifestyle and community choice than a job… but there’s about $250 a week in it …

Most people responding to the post essentially said it’s not viable; that $10 an hour is not a living wage. While I fully acknowledge that it’s not possible to live a “typical” USAmerican (living alone; owning a car; etc. etc. etc.) lifestyle on $250 a week, I responded to his post with a somewhat different take on the matter:

Great question … and I will offer a viewpoint from my own experience.

$1,000 a month would be more money than I have consistently made for the whole 11 years I have lived in Florida. And 25 hours a week offers plenty of off time for studying, enjoying family, getting out in nature, etc.

Of course, living alone in a house or apartment would not be an option on such income. A person would need apartment-mates or housemates — which is how I have always managed. And actually, how i prefer to live even if i were a millionaire.

I would not try to own a car on such an income. (Then again I don’t prefer owning a car, even if i were a millionaire.) Instead I would live walking/biking/bus distance to work. Which is in fact what I have always done.

If the job comes with housing (such as a small room in a rooming house etc), that’d be a huge bonus!!

Im not actually looking for a job (have enough between housecleaning gigs, landscaping, speaking gigs, and the modest sales of my book; as well as having housemates to share house expenses). But, if I were looking for work, this would actually sound pretty appealing to me! The “family” aspect and small-business aspect would be a key part of the appeal for me.

Permaculture design principles offer us ways to reduce our need to earn; constructively disengage from consumer society; forge a sweeter greener saner path. This job might not be for everyone but I can see it being an appealing option in many ways.

I would add to my above thoughts, that other than my writing and speaking/consulting work, I have always tended to enjoy work that left my mind free. Pedicabbing, sewing, clearing brush, digging ponds, whatever.

I fully agree that ever-widening income disparities are creating deadly problems in this country and in the world. And, government and corporations need to be part of the solution — if we want to be able to call ourselves a civilized society.

That said, my comment was meant to illustrate that there’s a lot we individuals in the lower-income ranges can do to have a good quality of life even if we don’t earn much money. No need to wait on government or corporations to fix things — and in fact, we can’t afford to wait for them.

Some people assume that getting around by bike, living car-free or car-lite, is too hard.
But it’s actually pretty easy and indeed very rewarding!

To me, owning a car is a huge hassle. Parking, gas, taxes, insurance, repairs and maintenance. According to recent estimates, the annual expense of car ownership in the USA is over $9,000. Ugh!

In the USA, car ownership is not only typically seen as necessary; it’s even viewed as a status symbol; a step up. I especially hate to see people in the lower income range “move up” to owning a car. To me, being able to get around mainly by walking and bicycling is a real move up: a boost in quality of life.

I used to assume that getting around by bike was impossible in cold climates, til I met people who bicycle-commuted to work or school even while living in places like Wyoming and Alaska. In Florida and other warm places, it’s perfectly do-able once you get used to the fact that the human body perspires. (That’s actually a feature, not a bug, of our bodies!)

The most irksome aspect of being car-free, in my experience, is that people somehow think my transportation mode is “less than” their wonderful expensive car. Or they assume I would not be able to get to this or that place, and that I would need a ride. Nope! With the help of buses for longer trips, and Uber or taxis for sudden rough weather, and the occasional rental car or box truck for long trips or heavy hauls, I can get anywhere I really want to. If I don’t get there, it’s because I decided not to spend the time and energy to get there.

And, I can transport pretty much anything I need. (On that note, I’m a huge fan of paying people to deliver large items to me.)

Interested in trying cycling as a mode of transport? In this series of 10 short videos, Daytona Beach area cycling activist Jason Aufdenberg offers some great practical tips to get you started and keep you rolling. Jason covers everything from traffic safety and comfortable clothing, to how to comfortably transport groceries. Thanks to Florida Bicycle Association for this series.

#ActiveTransportation #HumanPoweredTransportation #TransportationFreedom

An acquaintance of mine was talking about a guy she knew who had taken a personal-growth course. I seem to recall she was talking about Landmark (a very popular course that many of my friends have taken and benefited from), but actually it doesn’t matter which course it was, because what I’m about to say applies universally to personal growth, spiritual growth, religion, self-improvement paths, books and coursework of all kinds.

“It [the course] must not have worked,” she said, “because he ended up getting a divorce.”

This illustrates a common misconception about personal-growth work: that if a person’s life is anything less than perfect, then they must not be “doing it right,” or the “program isn’t effective.”

First of all, self-evolvement is not some kind of “Get Out of Jail Free” card. “Yippee, I am ENLIGHTENED and I will never have to struggle or suffer again!” Um, yeah — No. This is the same line of reasoning used by people who say things like, “She must not have been a good Christian, because God didn’t answer our prayers to cure her cancer.” (Yes, I actually DID hear of someone saying this, I am not making this up.)

Personal/spiritual growth is about learning how to take responsibility for your life, get comfortable in your own skin, enjoy the everyday moments as well as the “special” ones, become the most authentic possible version of yourself, make the difference you want to make in the world, be in service. It is NOT about suddenly having a perfect life. Whatever “perfect” is — which brings me to my second point.

Second of all: What seems like a bad thing to an outside observer, could be the best thing for the person him/herself. Take the example of the divorce mentioned earlier. Maybe it was time for that relationship to end! Maybe it was a really valuable part of that person’s journey. Maybe maybe maybe … ! We are not in a position to assess the efficacy of a person’s self-evolvement path by observing their external circumstances through our own personal filters.

Oh, and speaking of filters, sometimes our own personal filters are actually themselves a problem, and therefore a worthwhile target for personal-growth work. One woman I met as a fellow participant at a self-improvement course was obsessed with her weight. She was (maybe) carrying a couple of extra pounds. She probably noticed those extra pounds more than anyone else. In fact, maybe she wasn’t really even carrying any extra pounds at all! But she was very focused on her weight. (Something I can relate to, as one who for some years struggled with an eating disorder.)

She looked around the room and said, “If this program works, then why are so many people here overweight?” I was stunned because I just didn’t have that filter (anymore); I just saw a bunch of people who looked healthy, enthusiastic, and ALIVE. And I figured that if any of them had weight goals or other physical-body goals, they were surely working toward them and would be able to achieve them.

Ditto for a question I heard from someone who had a lot of worry around money: “If this program works, why doesn’t everyone in the room have a million dollars?” Well for one thing, maybe, strange as it may sound, not everyone WANTS a million dollars. Or maybe they are working on other things first, things that have higher priority for them. Things no amount of money can buy. Healing old family upsets, for instance. Or empowering their kids to live fully. (Anyway, how do you look around a room and know who has a million dollars and who doesn’t? Is there a special forehead tattoo or something?)

All of which is to say: No matter what world-self goals you are working on as you seek to grow in mind and spirit … Keep Evolving and Carry On, everyone! Enjoy your life and respect your own journey, suffering and all. And don’t let anyone discourage you from your self-evolvement path.

My field is permaculture design, the design of sustainable human living environments.

One of the tenets of permaculture design is, is “Turn problems into assets” or “Find the solution in the problem.” Another permaculture design tenet is “Work smart, not hard!”

I applied these ideas this morning to offer a solution to someone experiencing a problem with people trespassing into her garden.

In the Central Florida Fruit & Vegetable Gardening group on Facebook, someone asked for suggestions on plants she might use to keep people from trespassing into her garden.

Because her property is at water’s edge, it is not completely fenced off. Anglers like to creep through the opening to get into her garden area for a better spot to fish. She tried putting up “no trespassing” signs, but the anglers are stealing the signs, and furthermore leaving hooks, lures, and other trash behind.

She originally thought of using barbed wire to block the area off, but then thought to ask the garden group for suggestions on thorny plants such as blackberries that might do well in a shady area at water’s edge.

In response, I wrote this comment:

This will probably sound outrageous to many folks, but this is what I would do.

I would start going to the water’s edge and striking up conversations w the fishers. Make friends. Ask how the fishing is going; what’s tasty.

Create an obvious prominent path for them to walk on, so they don’t step on my veggies or whatever I’ve got growing near where they are walking.

Tell them I need fish guts for my garden, give them a spot where they can clean their fish, and a bucket to put the fish guts in.

When I have extra fruit or veggies from my garden, I would offer them to the visitors.

Tell the fisher-visitors I have been having trouble with some other fisher-visitors leaving lines, hooks, trash, etc.; ask for their help keeping a lookout.

And I would ask my city or county, or neighborhood association, to install one of those monofilament collection containers on the riverbank in a nearby central area.

I braced myself for the response, figuring my comment would elicit hoots of ridicule and get me called all sorts of names like “stupid hippie.” Instead, several people have Liked the comment. And one person even said it made her feel like there is hope for the human race.

There is, indeed, much hope for the human race, if we decide to work with nature (including human nature). Permaculture training and practice helps me do this.

The positive response to my comment (a comment that would be viewed in many mainstream circles as hippie-dippie, unrealistic, even outright communist) gave me increased hope for the human race too!

Someone just now in the Deep Adaptation group (Facebook) posted the question, What should we call the planetary situation? “Climate change” is the most common term in general use but doesn’t really encompass the full enormity of what we’ve wrought. The phrase lacks agency also.

Climate instability is just one symptom of humans’ disconnect from the rest of nature. That disconnect — from the natural world and from our fellow humans — is the root of the crisis.

Some of the terms people suggested: ecological collapse; systemic collapse; planetary murder; civilization collapse; The Great Betrayal; biosphere collapse; planetary overshoot.

Another one that comes to my mind is “human-induced systemic collapse.” (Kind of a mouthful though.) I favor “systemic” as a term because it encompasses the social and economic, as well as ecological, nature of the crisis.

“Life-support system” is a term that’s come to my attention. As in, we are destroying our planetary life-support system.

Terminology is a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, if it’s too nakedly alarming, people are tempted to tune out, hide, go into denial. On the other hand, if the terminology is not appropriate to the urgency of the situation, or if it fails to convey a sense of our agency, people tend to fall into either complacency or finger-pointing.

Further Exploration:

• “How To Enjoy the End of the World” (YouTube, 1 hour): Talk by Sid Smith for the Greens of Virginia Tech, 2019. Good explanation of Energy Return On Investment; Jevons Paradox; why renewables are not the savior. And how we face the existential challenge; move into new ways of being. Very deep, powerful talk.

• Sid Smith: Post-Doom with Michael Dowd (YouTube, 53 min), 2019.

• “All the Bunnies in the Meadow Die” (Sid Smith essay on overshoot). “Far too many people are still asking how we can avoid the consequences of overshoot. This is like someone who is already falling asking how to avoid hitting the ground. The right question is, how can we best cope with and mitigate the consequences? How do we shape our lives to fit the future we have made for ourselves? Or rather, not our lives, for that die is cast. What can we do now so that our children’s children’s children may have a world to live in, in freedom, dignity, and peace?”

It’s a popular thing among some New Agers and neo-Pagans to use aromatic plant material in purification rituals. Lighting up a bundle of dried sage and waving it around the house to cleanse away bad energy, etc. But I never knew this had become so popular that it’s actually depleting the sage plants to an unsustainable degree. Same with Palo Santo, a resiny aromatic wood from Central and South America that’s become popular in the USA and other countries outside its place of origin.

I can see why people love these aromatic materials from nature. I myself have used them in rituals and enjoyed them. A friend gave me a couple small sticks of Palo Santo about 20 years ago, and I still haven’t used them up; a little goes a long way. (Not long ago I was taken aback to see thick bundles of Palo Santo sticks for sale at a new-age/Pagan shop. I hadn’t known it was even available commercially, let alone in such large quantities. When I read recently — in the article linked below — that it had become endangered, I was not surprised.)

I’m more of one to burn aromatic materials for the smell than as a cleansing ritual per se. Either way, in recent times I’ve been using locally gathered materials for this purpose. Resinous aromatic twigs from cedar or pine trees, bundles of local sweet-smelling dried grass, that kind of thing. Of course they don’t smell the same as sage or Palo Santo, but I get two advantages: 1) I stop putting undue pressure on ecosystems; and 2) I avoid cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation is something I’ve tried to become more sensitive about. The respectful thing to do regarding other cultures is to enjoy and appreciate them without stealing from them. The cultural dimension is as important an aspect of sustainability as the eco dimension.

Besides using local materials gathered in small quantities, another suggestion I have is: Draw on your own ancestry for rituals, and ritual materials. If you’re of Eastern European descent, for example (that’s half of my ancestry), you could research what, if anything, people in that part of the world did/do in terms of using aromatic plant materials for ritual or enjoyment.

If you choose to purchase materials, the article below from Anti-Racism Daily offers some good tips for ethically doing so. And it’s an eye-opening read about the harms caused by cultural appropriation.

Further Exploration:

• “While the practice of smudging began with Native ceremonies and traditions passed down from generation to generation, companies are now using the practice as a way to spread ideas of yoga and wellness. Back in 2018, fragrance brand, Pinrose pulled back their ‘Starter Witch Kit’ from Sephora after receiving backlash from activists about the appropriation of Indigenous medicinal practice in commerce. Urban Outfitters sold smudge sticks and marketed the product on social media with the caption ‘cleansing your Insta of negativity’. These instances of major retailers profiting off of smudging perfectly demonstrate the definition of cultural appropriation. And, while some Indigenous people believe that selling smudging products is fine, they’re still concerned about whether mainstream consumption will erase its significance. … The demand for white sage and Palo Santo also contributes to a growing environmental issue. As beauty and wellness brands continue to gentrify the practice, these endangered plants are being overharvested.” (“Preserve Palo Santo and White Sage”; Isiah Magsino in Anti-Racism Daily.)