Professional skills and Outcomes

           I’ve been writing for a local paper (Calaveras Chronicle) for the last 4 years and I’d like to say that my Gaia work gave me more to write about and made me a better writer.  I wrote to help people think about what they can do to participate in creating a more sustainable future.  I often get people telling me thanks for writing.   This has impacted several of my readers to be motivated to undertake some of the projects or ideas that I share in my articles.  My workshops have inspired others to also incorporate what they learned into their lifestyles.  The mushroom book I designed is meant to be a unique resource about mushrooms that is currently unavailable.  The subterranean heating and cooling system greenhouses are possibly the first of their kind in the Sierra Nevada in hopes of making it a more common tool for self-reliance and for production systems.  The hydraulic ram pump system has also been built to demonstrate the technology for those that may benefit from its use.  The permaculture design course that I worked on challenges the traditional way the course has been taught since its inception in the early 80’s, you can read more about it in my CAP OP 4. 

 Teaching skills

            I developed and refined skills to teach as a result of working on my Master’s degree.  In my first year I worked on projects to teach about.  I became more competent in understanding specific projects so that I could pass on the knowledge that I have gained with better success.  In my second year I marketed and promoted Love Creek Permaculture as and educational entity.  I held 3 successful workshops at Love Creek Permaculture and will teach 2 more at Sierra Green Day this fall.  Preparing for teaching a PDC I have been learning about teaching through the Socratic method.  The projects and classes that I’ve been doing for the past 4 years are beginning to take root with other people locally.  I’ve seen three of my close friends grow very successful gardens this year.  They have all been inspired by workshops I’ve done and my lifestyle in general.  This positive feedback lets me know that there are people interested in learning and adopting ideas I present to them.  

Management/ Leadership skills

            Most of my management skills that I practiced during my Master’s degree program were of managing a successful market garden.  I plant, grow, harvest, and market produce throughout the spring, summer and fall.  Coordinating enough produce to have at three farmers markets, a 10-15 member CSA, and several restaurants keeps me busy through that time of year.  However, without Gaia I would have continued with many of the projects I’ve done but I wouldn’t have spent so much time documenting my process.  Not that I’ve documented everything I’ve done still but I can see the benefits of doing so through the projects that I did document my process.  I learned considerable knowledge in project management through managing the individual projects I did for my Master’s projects. The processes that I utilized for outputs motivated me to adopt new management strategies for getting projects done.  Through the practice of refining my skills, developing my site and marketing my business I am emerging as a leader of permaculture design in my community.  

Action learning/ design skills

            Through the action learning process I used through my Gaia education I’ve learned how to do, reflect, think, design.  This process allows for increased understanding and refinement of plans to create great results.  Designing my pathway gave me considerable experience in designing and implementing projects. 

IT skills

            Working to fulfill the media requirements for my Master’s degree I spent time learning how to incorporate media within the outputs I created.  Mind mapping through a program called “vue” was practiced in every output and I continue to use if for other purposes.  I learned how to use the Mahara system to build and showcase my portfolio.  I worked with Google sketchup and learned how to use it for mapping and drawing.   

Regenerative skills

            Mostly in the first year of my Gaia program, I learned more and worked on some of the demonstration projects for Love Creek Permaculture.  This allowed for me to create props and refine my best practices for each project. 

Personal Outcomes

Becoming a professional      

During my Master’s program one of the major personal outcomes was to root myself into the purpose of sharing and spreading permaculture.  I’m passionate about it and after developing and implementing my Master’s program I feel confident to be able to create a livelihood around it.

Happy living

I’ve learned that taking time out for myself when I have so much going on is necessary.  Trying to accomplish as much as I can gets old after a while.  I need to take a weekend off, play some disc golf, go snowboarding, ride a bike, go for a hike, take a nap, travel, or go to a festival sometime throughout the year.  The more of those I get to do the better I’ll be recouped and ready to help the process of building a regenerative culture.  I now make sure I schedule many of these leisure activities in my yearly calendar.  Eating seasonal and organic food continues to be my diet that keeps me going.  I grow and store many of my own vegetables and mushrooms to enjoy throughout the seasons.  When I am able to produce more of my ingredients for creating healthy meals it connects me to the earth and where I live.  I do this not only for my own health but also for the health of my community and my planet and it makes me feel good.   

Giving thanks

            I am forever grateful for the path that has led me to where I am today.  Most of what led me to this path was because of decisions I made along the way.  My upbringing started me on my path and I’m definitely grateful for what my family had done for me to get me started and continually support me along my path.  I am grateful for having good health.  I am grateful to have a wonderful spot to live in and a community that is beginning to embrace change towards a regenerative culture.   

             The major learning and unlearning I’ve had this year were due to continued passion and drive to make myself who I am and where I want to go with myself.  Here is a look at my learning and unlearning through the lens of the 3ps (personal, professional and project).

            Personal- One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that creating a clear intentions and pathway design for the year is a major part of balancing work, play and rejuvenation.  There are a few times throughout the year where I’m fully involved with work and have little time to play or rejuvenate myself.  I feel like I’m working too much sometimes.  Creating a timeline helps me anticipate those busy times and try to adjust my schedule to be more balanced between work, play, and rejuvenation.  If I can set some goals for myself for the year, create timelines to achieve those goals and develop strategies to achieve those goals I can be more successful in finding the balance I need.  It doesn’t always work out and intentions can change, yet, when I follow through on goals I’ve set for myself I feel accomplished, I can rest and then I can play.  

            Professional

            What I’ve been learning about owning a business is that it isn’t as easy as working for someone else.  I’ve learned that I can’t just be a specialist in regenerative design I also have to be a businessman.  I have to set my own goals, design my own strategies, and make things happen.  Carving my own pathway hasn’t always been easy but it has paid the bills so far and allowed me to reinvest money into further development of my business.  I’ve had to learn much more about business operations to make my business successful.  At one point of my Master’s program I had begun working on a business plan for a mushroom business for part of my program work.  I postponed working on it and went back to my original plan.  However when I was engaged in that project I learned about some necessary elements in planning a successful business.  A mission statement, market analysis, and a company description are three elements I began wrapping my head around. 

            Projects

            I’ve learned not to be daunted by the scope of a project.  If it seems too large for me to handle I can start somewhere and work towards the goal.  If I don’t even try it’s definitely not possible.  If I put my mind to the task I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. 

            Learning Intentions

            With my learning intentions for both my first year and my capstone year I learned how important it is to set project goals for the year and do my best to stick to task.  The opportunity I got in Gaia to build my own educational pathway gave me experience that I will continue to utilize in designing the pathway of projects I plan to do.  One thing I have to unlearn is to be more thorough with actual timelines of getting things done, by paying more attention to detail in my planning.  Some of the details may not be foreseeable before they arrive, but I’m learning how to look deeper as a planner so that I can identify as much of the process that I’ll need to do before I do it.  Now that I’m graduating I’ve learned some best practices for setting realistic goals and designing a way to get there.  One part of that is trying not to be so busy at certain times of the year.  I’m usually the busiest from April through June with planting a market garden and getting into the rhythm of marketing the produce from it.  I’m still pretty busy until the end of farmers markets in early autumn.  So I’m learning how to adjust my schedule and projects around my busiest times.  I’ve been learning that I need to schedule projects that can be done at other times of year at times when I don’t have a very busy schedule.  The thing is, I’m still learning how to identify things that may arise unexpectedly and schedule projects as situations or needs arise suddenly.  Weather patterns are always a part of it so I’m learning to take advantage of fair weather when it is around.  Aha, I need to schedule in some unexpected things when I create my next LIPD. 

            Branding my business

            When working on the design for branding my own business I learned that it’s only possible to take it so far by myself.  I can hire a professional to take care of it all for me, I can work on it myself, or perhaps somewhere in between.  I realize that there are many elements to branding my business that I can hire someone else to do or I can choose to do on my own.  Part of me tells me I have the intellect to accomplish anything I want on my own.  The truth is that there is only so much time in a day.  I learned that hiring someone else to do work that I don’t specialize in is probably a better idea than trying to tackle every aspect on my own.  For developing a main website, I realized I would probably get a better result by hiring a professional.  A professional built website will definitely help the appearance of my business.  I did hire a professional to do the art for my new logo and I feel pleased with the results.  I’ve learned that it is better to incorporate other professionals into the marketing of my business.

Sustainable Living Workshop Series

            I learned that there are people ready and eager to learn.  Only two weeks after advertising for my first workshop of the year we had 17 attendees.  I learned that more people come out to workshops they are familiar with the idea of.  There are some workshops that will bring in lots of students and there are some that will bring in less.  I learned that getting the word out early can help, but also some workshops are more familiar and exciting to people.  Fruit Grafting and Mushroom Cultivation were pretty successful.  While Subterranean Heating and Cooling for greenhouses wasn’t as well attended, yet still successful as far as I’m concerned.  Overall, through the workshops I’ve led in the past and this year, I learned that the goals of my workshops is not about me at all, it’s about inspiring students to make their own achievements with the subject matter. 

Permaculture Design Certification Course (PDC)

            For my final project in my capstone phase I learned about how difficult the project I chose really is.  A Permaculture Design Certification course is based upon the book, ‘Permaculture:  A Designer’s Manual’ by Bill Mollison.  It has been handed down through a lineage of teachers using the 72-hour curriculum that is based upon that book.  I took Permaculture Teacher Training from some very prominent teachers from North America, yet I wanted to see something different when I was part of a PDC.  I’ve learned that it may not sit right within the lineage of teachers or even the permaculture community at large.  I learned that feedback and most likely collaboration with other permaculture teachers is most likely the best way to give life to this idea beyond myself.  I learned that I’m not trying to change the way everyone hosts a PDC, but I’m adding to the diversity of courses that are offered all over the globe.  The major learning I had with this project is actually organizing the PDC into a framework of basic assumption(s), primary themes, concepts, and natural processes.  So I have begun learning how the best way to inspire students own discoveries within the material that is covered in the traditional PDC.