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designing with evidence in mind

23/11/2013

Farming Research meeting at the Permaculture Association HQ (Hollybush Conservation Centre, Leeds)

Last week I attended a meeting of people from all over the UK who are interested in research relating to using Permaculture Design in farming, with the aim of the day being to generate some real plans for taking research ideas forward. Although I was the only farmer there (other's had been invited but were unable to attend), I gained a vast amount of motivation. knowledge and enthusiasm from the incredibly diverse and expert researchers and academics attending, along with several of the Permaculture Association staff and interns too. I had expected the day to be mainly about 'measuring kinds' of scientific study, but was reassured to find that qualitative subjects (an example I talked to several people about, was about collecting and documenting stories from older hill farmers) was seen to be just as relevant as quantitative ones, (for example, measuring carbon or species diversity with various systems of grazing).

I've been interested in research for a long time, and as a nurse very much valued and enthused about the part it plays in making positive change in all aspects of nursing practice and health care. I was actually all set to commence my own research in palliative care nursing through undertaking a PhD, when I made a the decision to venture down the path of further permaculture related learning instead. (yey!)

So here I am now, actively becoming involved with looking at what research is going to provide the evidence to take Permaculture Design in farming forward. Together with inspiration I took from a workshop run by Chris Warburtun-Brown (research co-ordinator at the Permaculture Association) at last years National Diploma Gathering, reflecting on the meeting last week has very much generated some ideas about trying to link in aspects of evidence recording and disseminating outcomes into most of my Portfolio work, not just the farming related designs. In particular I have been thinking about how I (and others) evaluate my designs (or parts of my design), and how this could be structured to give some meaningful data or feedback which could be used by others.

For anyone else interested in learning more about Permaculture and research, there is a section of the Permaculture Association website dedicated to telling you more. A 'Research Handbook' for those using Permaculture Design in their lives and work is also in the process of being written. More information about this will be available in the above link, when it is finished.

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designing to care

16/11/2013

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I've been thinking of writing about how Permaculture Design can provide solutions and a positive ways forward in providing Care for those who need it for a while now. Yesterday I had a really interesting chat with a friend of mine about how nurses frequently put the needs of their patients before their own self care, this then prompted me to put some of my thoughts down into words.

My partner and I are Carers. By Carers I mean that we provide unpaid physical, medical, emotional, social and spiritual help and support. We've been the main Carers for various family members and friends for over 13 years now, the entire length of our relationship.

For the last few years our Caring role has been central to everything else in our lives as the Elders we currently support have needed increasing amounts of help. The remote and challenging environment of where we (and the Elders) live adds extra elements to our Care work too. The weather conditions in the winter can mean basic needs, (being warm, having enough food, getting medical help if needed), take a lot of extra time, thought and energy. This coupled with the isolation of our homes has meant its impossible to access help in the form of paid carers. Having said that our local District Nursing and Community Rehabilitation (physiotherapy. occupational therapy) teams are excellent and make the long journey here whenever we need them.

So what has this got to do with Permaculture Design?.

Everything. In order to provide good Care for the Elders, manage one of us going out to work full time, run the farm and deal with any unexpected life events/crises, while at the same time looking after our own health and wellbeing, we need a robust and thorough system to achieve this.

Both through the official reports and through personal and professional experience, the evidence shows that unpaid Carers are at a high risk of stress and neglecting their own health needs. The awareness that we can only Care for the Elders here if we are fit and well, is central to aim of having as good a balance of care of ourselves as well as care of others as possible.

To do this we frequently evaluate how our life in all aspects is going. We use a Design Process (usually SADIMET - Survey, Analyse, Decisions, Implement, Maintain, Evaluate, Tweak ) to do this, at least weekly, but more often if things are uncertain and changeable. Spending anything from 10 minutes to a couple of hours, or on some occasions a whole weekend. Working through the process has been invaluable to our lives and to the balance we strive for, in terms of time and inner resources spent promoting the health, dignity and well being of those we Care for and the same for ourselves.

factoring in time to be creative (in this case making felt) has been a really essential part of designing how we Care

In turn, using the Design Process in this way has also had other benefits. We both really value time for self care and supporting each other in all the diverse forms this takes. Had we not had Caring responsibilities we probably would appreciate the meaning that this has on our lives.

Its been an eventful learning journey to get to this point, but using the different elements of Permaculture Design has helped massively. For anyone else interested in applying the Design process to similar situations either now, or in the future, I can recommend reading Looby Macnamara's book 'People and Permaculture', which focuses on using permaculture to design all aspects of our lives, relationships and society. In addition I have recently set up a Facebook Group 'Designing Our Health, Designing Our Care' which aims to provide a space to
share ideas related to using Permaculture Design to guide and enable health and care in their own lives and the lives of others.

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After the first frost

4/11/2013

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Rodger, enjoying the sun...and the hay!

Last night brought the first major frost of the season (amazingly a whole 2 months later than usual)...it was beautifully timed with our dark moon Samhain celebrations and meditations....and perfectly timed for the start of 'winter feeding season' for the cows and sheep too.

Although there is more grass around for the animals to graze then usual this year, (a combination of a great weather summer and hopefully because of the improvements to the soil with my new grazing system), the quality of nutrition of the grass/herbs rapidly decreases at this time of year because of the ground temperature and decreasing daylight. so the sheep and cows are fed haylige each day from now until next April/May, depending on the weather (and when the grass starts to grow) next spring. Some fantastic hay/haylige was made from the Yorkshire Dales meadows this summer with all those days of sunshine, so hopefully the animals will stay very fit and healthy throughout the winter, with such good quality feed, a total opposite situation from last year when many of the local farmers really struggled with the quality and quantity of feed that was available/produced

The Edible Garden has also had an incredibly productive growing season this year again mainly due to the super amount of sunny days, but also because of factors such as created microclimates and species and varieties of plants grown. Now all the frost tender plants have died back, i'll be spending the next couple of weeks, topping up the beds with well rotted manure/straw or garden compost (depending on that will be grown there next year) and then topping with more straw, to add fertility and protect the soil from leaching nutrients through exposure to the elements.

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designing with evidence in mind

designing to care

After the first frost

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