Okay, so I ignored this thing for most of last semester. I was swamped with writing work in my classes last semester, so hopefully things are better now. This next semester will be my last one (Yay!), and then I can graduate with my Bachelor’s in Journalism/Professional Writing. This last semester, while fairly tough, was probably the best semester I have had for learning since I started school. I took a class on sustainable communities that was invaluable to my understanding of city planning and building the future. For it, I created a presentation on Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture, and learned more about permaculture than before. I have become taken with this concept and I am using my winter break to learn more about how to live this lifestyle. Bill Mollison is from Tazmania, Australia, and operates from there. Tazmania is full of lush rainforest and many endagered species of plants and animals. The structure of a rainforest and how it grows and cultivates crops is the guiding principle behind much of permaculture. It is a form of agriculture that is more sustainable and more diverse, for those of you unaware. It includes growing many diverse crops instead of monocultures, using feedback loops to create healthy soil, plants, water, and habitats, and reusing everything several times before it becomes waste. It is much more complicated than I have space to get into on my blog, but I suggest researching Bill Mollison on your own. I was very excited to begin reading a book that my friend Andrea got for me called Urban Homesteaders , which covers many of the principles and practices of permaculture also. I will review that book when I finish reading it. Another project I worked on last semester was designing my own sustainable community. While I had fun and turned in an interesting concept, it really got me to thinking. My concept was for a city of 200,000. It involved 80% open space, and 20% building. I designed this by creating towers that held markets, vertical gardens, and apartment-like adaptable buildings. While that sounds great in theory, I started thinking about my own dreams as of late. Would I enjoy living there? If not, what will draw other Americans? I have to admit that part of me has been infected with the very American dream of buying a piece of land and building a house on it. I want to grow my own organic farm, and have goats and chickens. Living out in the country right now, I have noticed a saddening trend, as the city encroaches on us, more and more of the big farms out here are being sold to developers. 2,000+ sq. ft. monstrosities are being built in cookie-cutter form to create housing communities everywhere. It’s turning into the suburbs everywhere, and there’s no stopping it. As much as I dream about buying land and starting a farm, I wouldn’t want to look out and see that scab of humanity next door to my beautiful gardens. But with a growing population of American Dreamers wanting their big house, big cars, and yards (not gardens), how many of these will we install before we realize we have destroyed everything beautiful that we have? So would I live in a community that was similar to apartments? Yes, because in my design, there were garden plots for everyone to work in, public transit out of the town, and a wildlife area that took up 50% of the total land and allowed for hunting and camping. It is an idea I plan to keep tweaking until I get it right.
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