Next Steps

Business plan

            The future looks bright for me and I’m excited to be working towards my goal of having a successful permaculture business that incorporates design, education and a market garden.  I will undertake finishing my business plan so I can have a clearer framework to make it successful.  I will also be identifying areas of my business to invest some of the money I made this year.  Possible areas for investing include building a new website, having banners made, building a mushroom cultivation chamber, a produce packing station, a strawberry arbor, water storage tanks, small pond liners, seeds and plants.   

Designing

            I plan to revise my own design for Love Creek Permaculture.  I want to make it a design that I can showcase to promote myself as a designer.  I also have some friends who own their own property that I can get more practice with, so I’ll either do their designs for free or a discounted rate just to get more experience and possibly some word of mouth promotion.  

            Taking each step necessary to achieve my goals, I will continue to utilize the processes I’ve come to learn and know through my Master’s program.  Projects I designed yet, haven’t finished will get more attention to detail so that I can move forward with them. 

Market Garden

            I’ve been developing best practices for the market garden to make it productive and to also minimize labor. The production we’ve gotten to can be overwhelming and slow sometimes due to lack of infrastructure.  To make time spent more efficient I’ll be remodeling my packing station to accommodate quicker washing and packing of produce.

To minimize all the time I spend watering I’ll be getting some timers so it is done automatically.  My seed collection is quite large so I’ll be taking inventory of all of the seeds I’ve grown to make for quick referencing when it comes time to plant. 

Teaching

            Unfortunately, after pursuing a sustainable living workshop series and completing the Output on it, I learned that the site I have intended to use for educational purposes is not zoned as such.  I will now have to spend time learning how to make it so I can do workshops and garden tours here legally.  I’ve held classes with no problem before, but when I tried to incorporate that into my business license they said I couldn’t.  I still intend to use my permaculture site as an educational tool, but I’d prefer it if I didn’t have to do it behind the government’s back.  I’ll be creating a dialogue with the planning department to see what kind of agreement we can work out.  I’m hopeful that we can find the loophole that is necessary.  In the meantime I’ll be hosting two workshops at Sierra Green Day this year.  I've also been asked to bring a seed ball making workhsop to Columbia Community College's Environmental Conservation.  The teacher wants to use this knowledge to help in rehabilitation efforts with the devastating rim fire that burned over 200, 000 acres as of 8/30/2013. 

            I’ll be putting an application in at my local community college to become a teacher in sustainability there.  A professor in natural resources from Columbia Community College told me I should apply so we could begin to develop a sustainability program there.  I told him that I’d finally apply when I was finished with Gaia.  I think a college setting is a great venue for teaching about sustainability, this is how we make it mainstream.  I’m excited to see what may come of it.

Further site development at Love Creek Permaculture

            I’m pretty excited that this continues to be a family endeavor.  With myself leading the charge to turn the site into a permaculture demonstration site, my dad and my brother have been in full support from the start.  They both live on site and know it intimately.    My dad has been the major contributor to creating infrastructure since we first moved there in 1980 and continues to utilize his general contractor skills to upgrade the site.  I’m stoked that my sister and brother in law are getting some great experience caretaking at the Solar Living Institute.  They are excited to bring what they’ve learned in their experience there to Love Creek Permaculture.  My mom is the director of the Solar Living Institute and is in full support of this endeavor.  Her affiliation there creates great networking opportunities for Love Creek Permaculture to bring in other teachers and designers.  I've also had the opportunity to lead workshops at the Solar Living Institute. 

Celebration

            YAY!  I’m finished!  I’m going to enjoy being done with my Gaia program.  For over 2 years I’ve been saving a Barrel-Aged Rasputin’s Imperial Stout aged in a bourbon barrel for a special occasion.  I think I found that special occasion.  My birthday is coming up so I’m going to celebrate a little bit extra this year.  I’ll probably go camping in the high country and just relax and enjoy the scenery.