All Blog Posts (344)

Gaiacraft

Permaculture Principles Design Deck

As an offering to the World Community, Gaiacraft presents a unique card deck which explores the Permaculture Principles in a dynamic new way. Featuring 64 principles, directives, strategies, attitudes, and ethics sourced from elders of the Permaculture Movement, this is a collection of foundational concepts that can support any permaculture design process. Mixing art, symbol, photo and text, this creative learning and teaching toolkit…

"Permaculture gives us a toolkit for moving from a culture of fear and scarcity to one of love and abundance" 

- Toby Hemenway

As an offering to the Transition, our visionary permaculture Gaiacraft team has created a Workbook of Permaculture Worksheets. 

Download free printable files 

or purchase hard copy from an on demand printer here :

http://www.gaiacraft.com/gaiacraft-workbook/

Collected at…

StyroFree Challenge (styrofree.com), an initiative that aims at educating the public and restaurant owners about environmental and health impacts of polystyrene packaging and inspiring restaurants to embrace green alternatives, has partnered up with SPEC and the Tiffin Project. We are working on a new project called Green 2 Go and as a first step we’re collecting information on the current take-out container use and practices in Vancouver. Please help us gather the information by…

Sip Lattés and Fix Busted Stuff at the Repair Café

By Katherine Sharpe

It says something about where we’ve come as a society that the simple act of fixing something that’s broken is considered a revolutionary act. Yet here we are. It’s cheaper and easier to buy a new toaster, lamp, printer, or chair than it is to mend the one you have when it breaks — never mind that you may already be jonesing for an…

Updated Feb 21, 2013:

Attached is a 28 pg. sample from the book Small_House_Book_sample.pdf

Attached are about 15 or so house plans …

The home page for the Transition Free Press - all over the UK :-)

Transition Free Press

Monsanto owns 40% of all seed companies - yes, even heirloom seed companies. Here is a list of Monsanto-free seed companies : http://www.occupymonsanto360.org/2012/03/06/monsanto-free-seed-companies/http://www.occupymonsanto360.org/2012/03/06/monsanto-free-seed-companies/

A few weeks ago the seasonal influenza hit my family. And when I say 'hit' I mean that it felt like I'd been hit by a bus. It was awful!

After I got it, it made it's way through my family and took out a few close friends too. Each of us, in turn, was in bed for about a week.

Have you had it?

The aches were the worst I've thing experienced since I actually was hit by a car. The fever lasted for days and with it came incredible chills.…

January and its time to start planning for the growing season. By assessing your space and what you want to eat this year, a good plan can alleviate “gardening anxiety” and can help map out the tasks necessary to get what you want.

Soon it will be time to sow some vegetables seeds indoors so that when we pass the frost free period seedlings can be transplanted into the garden. On the west coast, the frost free time is usually the end of March, but every year can be slightly different.…

“We are stardust, We are golden & We’ve got to get back to the garden” “What you need to know about the coming Maya apocalypse” article with Kathie Wallace interviewed.…

New Approach to Collaborative Problem Solving and Citizen Peacebuilding

(being introduced by two companion websites and four key documents)

The websites, the documents, and the approach

We are in uncharted territory, for there is no culture or association of societies that ever existed on planet Earth which has had to resolve the kind of challenges the next few generations of people will have to resolve [see “A List of Ten Critical Challenges” (also accessible from the…

Talk by Ac Tah from Mexico “Mayan explanation of what will happen on 21st December 2012”

in this YouTube http://ow.ly/fwKGl

(Transcribed by Kathie Wallace)

So now in these times there’s something really bothering me having to do with the planetary alignment happening on Dec. 21 this year… there’s a great experiment that’s going to be fulfilled on that day using the particle accelerators…scientists are looking for the anti-matter…they want…

Source: http://grist.org/food/chicago-urban-ag-farm-district-could-be-the-biggest-in-the-nation/

A rendering of the planned urban farm district, which would run along the Chicago’s New ERA Trail.

Chicago’s Black Belt area, on the historic South Side, was once a hub for jazz, blues, and literature, but today is riddled with vacant lots, poverty, and blight. Now, a new plan…

"In 2012, as never before, the earth as a living being is calling out to us for recognition, for healing, for sacred and sustainable ways of tending her soil, plants, animals, and landscapes..."

Join us on November 14-18, 2012, at the beautiful Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, WI, for an extraordinary event — the 2012 North American Biodynamic Conference. This biennial conference is the foremost event for biodynamic education, networking, and community…

Home Harvest Farms challenge NEWSLETTER November 2012

Energising lights during these dark months

One of the things I like most about growing good food in my home is the full spectrum light from my Home Harvest Farms Planters. I’ve thought:…

Nora Bateson will present her film "An Ecology of Mind"
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012
Room SB 301, Emily Carr University, Vancouver
5:30 - 7:00 pm

An Ecology of Mind - Trailer

TOUR: No Pipelines. No Tankers.

To raise awareness and build community solidarity and support in the fights to stop pipeline expansions in BC, the Council of Canadians is organizing a six-city tour this month to say: “No Pipelines, No Tankers.” The tour will help educate about the devastating environmental impacts of these massive pipeline projects, which will move tar sands crude to BC’s coastline where it will be loaded into supertankers and shipped through precarious waters to new…

Showing off what Vancouver does so well and learning from others far away is a great exchange of gifts. Please respond to this opportunity to connect with a visitor to Vancouver October 19th and 20th (Friday or Saturday). Here is her note:

_________________________________________________

Greetings!

I have a request: I'm trying to identify someone who knows their way around Vancouver pretty well, is into sustainability and Permaculture-ish urban gardening, and would be…

This briefing note introduces some ways of bringing sustainability priorities into action, notably through food policies. Download pdf here:
Enabling Sustainability Policy and Planning at the Local Level: The Example of Food Policy

There will be people coming from all over BC to attend the 2012 Seed Gathering. If you can billet someone for November 9th and 10th (or possibly the 9th, 10th, and 11th), please let us know. Contact Ross at ross@villagevancouver.ca.