Hard Work?

 

Today, Cindee and I are out putting down pilings for the greenhouse we are building.  A greenhouse has always been a part of our permaculture design for this property.  Alaska has such a short growing season that a greenhouse is a must for anyone, who wishes to enjoy crops like tomatoes, peppers or cucumbers.  Besides, we get so much sun on our southwest-facing slope, it would be a real shame to waste it.

Since our home has always been an experimental home, we decided our greenhouse needed to be an experimental design, as well.  And since our home is now the Alaskan Ecoescape Permaculture Learning Center, we decided the greenhouse needed be built largely according to permaculture design principles.  

The result has been a lot of hard work.  This is especially true, since we will build the walls of locally harvested clay, straw and sand.  We will be offering a class on clay-straw building this weekend (June 1-2) and everything has to be ready for the clay-straw portion by then.  This has required us to cut the terraces this May—the coldest May since the 1920s.  We had four inches of snow and a long freeze, right in the middle of our teracing work.  The dirt moving, by the way, has to be done by shovel and wheelbarrow, because of the steep slope on which we are building.  Doing this work when the ground was still partially frozen has surely helped us rediscover all of our long-unused muscle groups!

Today, we will put in the pilings, and tomorrow we start preparing for walls and roof.  It is a relief to have most of the dirt work done!

Teracing Work Nearly Finished

            One of the false ideas that some get from permaculture is that it is a way of life that requires less effort.  After all, if we are designing systems that are based on integrated relationships, where, for instance, one type of plant actually helps fertilize the soil for another requiring, then the idea is to develop systems that are mostly self-regulating and not as dependent on human management.  Indeed, I just read an article in a permaculture magazine, where a visitor marveled at how much edible food was growing in the woods around a friend’s house--only to realize this was part of her permaculture design for those woods.  Doesn’t all of this point to a life with a whole lot less human effort?

            The downfall of this thinking, of course, is that developing these self-regulating systems so that they are productive for human life (food, shelter, etc.) requires such huge effort up front.  Permaculturists have to be committed to a long view on land and society.  As I have noted in otherblog posts, permaculture often recommends that people develop a thirty-year plan for developing a piece of property, knowing that it takes a lot of observing and interacting—which also includes study and relationships that build knowledge, and a whole lot of elbow grease to move from good ideas to a working system.  Using permaculture principles to design a home site can be amazingly rewarding, but it requires a lot of work and a lot of time.

            For people who view all of life through the lens of Christian spirituality, none of this should come as a surprise.  In fact one of the complaints about Christianity from non-Christians is that the Christian view of God’s way is often such a slow way.  In real life, the transformation and liberation of the individual and of social systems often seem so slow.  In the Bible, God was perfectly happy to thrust God’s people into the wilderness for 40 years, two generations, in order to transform them from passive slaves to rugged adventurers.  God’s way seems to have a lot of time spent doing day to day work, leading up to the time when a watershed point can be reached and big change happens.  Similarly, Jesus withdrew into the wilderness and fasted there for 40 days until he faced down the temptor and became perfectly ready for his ministry and its destiny.

Observing and interacting has a spiritual dimension that Christian faith can help explain.  Many people today are aware that there are forces building that require drastic change.  Human socio-political relationships and environmental relationships have to change if civilization is to continue in any form that we would consider truly good for human life, or for the natural order.  As we see this, we simply must respond.

The response obviously needs to be aimed at a sustainable lifestyle.  But a sustainable lifestyle must flow out of a sustainable worldview, where all of life is known as sacred and valued, and where human beings know themselves as living in relationship with, and in service to, the good of the whole natural order.

The Neighborhood Bull Moose, Observing the Digging

With this kind of appreciative worldview in mind, all the hard work is not only worth it, but becomes a joy.  It is good work, for a good end, in service of God, the creator of all, and to the ultimate benefit of all humankind.

This greenhouse will be a part of that kind of work.  It is an experimental greenhouse, with a unique design.  I’ll explain more about it as the construction progresses.  For now, though, I am glad to be mostly done with shovels and ready to go forward with pilings and walls.  The project progresses!

Psalm 104:1-31

Bless the Lord, O my soul.
    O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
²     wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
³     you set the beams of your^[a] chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your^[b] chariot,
    you ride on the wings of the wind,
⁴ you make the winds your^[c] messengers,
    fire and flame your^[d] ministers.

⁵ You set the earth on its foundations,
    so that it shall never be shaken.
⁶ You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ At your rebuke they flee;
    at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
⁸ They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys
    to the place that you appointed for them.
⁹ You set a boundary that they may not pass,
    so that they might not again cover the earth.

¹⁰ You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
    they flow between the hills,
¹¹ giving drink to every wild animal;
    the wild asses quench their thirst.
¹² By the streams^[e] the birds of the air have their habitation;
    they sing among the branches.
¹³ From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
    the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

¹⁴ You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to use,^[f]
to bring forth food from the earth,
¹⁵     and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
    and bread to strengthen the human heart.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ In them the birds build their nests;
    the stork has its home in the fir trees.
¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats;
    the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
¹⁹ You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
    the sun knows its time for setting.
²⁰ You make darkness, and it is night,
    when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
²¹ The young lions roar for their prey,
    seeking their food from God.
²² When the sun rises, they withdraw
    and lie down in their dens.
²³ People go out to their work
    and to their labor until the evening.

²⁴ O Lord, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom you have made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
    creeping things innumerable are there,
    living things both small and great.
²⁶ There go the ships,
    and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

²⁷ These all look to you
    to give them their food in due season;
²⁸ when you give to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
    when you take away their breath, they die
    and return to their dust.
³⁰ When you send forth your spirit,^[g] they are created;
    and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works.

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[1] Kosuke Koyama discussed this complaint in some detail in his books Water Buffalo Theology, and especially in Three Mile an Hour God.