Permaculture [ pur-muh-kuhl-cher ] verb
A systems design science whereby regenerative actions are taken to build human habitat within a natural context rather than opposed to it.
Peregrination [ per-i-gruh–ney-shuhn ] noun
- travel from one place to another, especially on foot.
- a course of travel; journey.
I found permaculture late in 2013. It had been a challenging couple of years and this one wasn’t much different. There was never enough money, even though I was earning more than I ever had and maintaining a household with horses (my first love). The winter months were always hard. Then came the propane shortage. A tank of propane lasted a little under a month in my drafty mobile home and when the costs hit record highs I knew there had to be another way. I began to research ways to make heat efficiently, without the use of huge amounts of fossil fuels that also didn’t cost my entire paycheck every month.
During the research process I learned about thermal mass, and how heat can be stored, either by fire or sun, in materials that soak up the heat when it is applied over a period of time. Once the heat source is removed the retained heat is slowly released into the air space around the mass to achieve equilibrium or balancing of temperature between the mass and the air temperature. The effect of thermal mass can be felt during or after a very sunny hot day on cement or asphalt surfaces. Once the sun goes down these materials stay warm from absorbing the heat, releasing it slowly overnight. This creates a heat island effect in the paved environment (which is another conversation altogether). In a home it creates comfort on cold winter days.
In my research I found beautiful stoves from Europe that originated during what many refer to as the mini-ice age that spanned from the 1500’s to the 1700’s. These were frequently built to sleep on and used sticks gathered rather than logs. Humans had created a wood fuel shortage that required an adaptation to forestry called coppicing. Many coppiced trees are still in production today and are many hundreds of years old. The wood fuel from these trees are mere twigs when compared to the cordwood we tend to burn today.
I found clay tile stoves that had pieces that were painstakingly numbered and fit together with soft mortars so that they would be able to be disassembled and moved. These were generally smaller than many of the European models from earlier times.
I found rocket mass heaters that can be built by anyone willing to do some heavy lifting and get muddy. Utilizing cob (a mixture of sand, straw and clay) to sculpt around a long run of stovepipe to act as thermal mass, these stoves are quite interesting to behold. The fire in these stoves burns sideways into a convection chamber made with a 55 gallon steel drum where the volatile oils and ash are burned rather than released through the stovepipe and out into the atmosphere. These stoves are so efficient at burning everything that can burn and holding heat that you can touch the exit pipe without getting burned.
I began to wonder if it would be possible, somehow, to use thermal mass to heat my home. The short answer was ultimately no. Objects that have mass are very very heavy and special considerations need to be made when using them in a structure. It was time to move on to the next concept of free fuel/heat—-compost.
In the 1970’s there was a French forester named Jean Pain that needed to do something with all the materials that had been removed from the forest he was responsible for. Rather than burn the woody debris, which was customary, he started experimenting with composting. He eventually achieved 100% of his hot water and gas requirements by using shredded woodchips that surrounded a bio-digestor. The system he made was a huge compost pile comprised of only wood chips and water. Hose was carefully placed in layers in the pile that surrounded a tank full of water and organic material. The heat from the compost warmed the water in the hose that was run into his home to provide hot water and radiant heat. The tank in the middle was kept from freezing by the mass of the wood chips and provided cooking fuel via the activity of the anaerobic bacteria working to decompose the organic matter in the tank. After reading about Jean Pain I found another person doing something somewhat similar and providing all his families heat using compost and an inexpensive hoop house. I thought for sure I had found my answer…… alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but wait, what is this bio-digester thing. I found myself down another rabbit hole of research. I learned that useable gas is made by anaerobic bacteria. It can be used for cooking and fuel for driving as well as power. Why haven’t we done this on a large scale? This method is one that deals with manures as well as other organic matter and produces energy. There are some dairies that have installed biodigesters. All of their energy requirements are being met with biogas from cow manure.
During this time I also came across natural building. I learned that insulation is critical and one of the highest r-value materials to build with is straw. Whole houses are constructed using straw bales as walls. These homes are beautiful and can be built in a way that is efficient, reducing the need for heat inputs.
Eventually, with all this searching, Google made the connection for me. I had an ad put in front of me for this thing called permaculture. It took seeing this ad over and over before I started to look into permaculture. Once I did I felt like the answers to all the questions were wrapped up in this neat package that was just asking to be picked off a shelf and taken home to be unpacked. This was the start of my permaculture peregrination.