Slide show - week 1, Emerging Patterns

1. Week 1
Emerging
Patterns
Cristie Kenney

2. Looking for patterns
As I arranged the cards and began
grouping them I began noticing these
common themes or patterns in the
elements of my desired homestead:
• Food (healthy eating)
• Work (efficiently meeting goals and
creating a family business)
• Protection and care for it’s
inhabitants
• Resource conservation (maximizing
yield while minimizing impact on the
land)

3. Categories and Elements
After sorting the cards into groups several
times, I came up with the following categories:
• Infrastructure
• Animals/Livestock
• Food Production
• Energy
• Conservation and Waste Management
• Transportation/Farm Vehicles

4. Energy
Needed for animals, transportation,
food production, infrastructure
Food Production
Need conservation water, waste for
manure, animals for meat, dairy, and
eggs, infrastructure to extend
growing season
Conservation/waste
Manure, rain and grey water provide
irrigation, compost for nutrient dense
soil
Animals
Need infrastructure, food,
transportation, provide waste
(manure), pollination
Infrastructure
Needed for animals, people, storage
Transportation
Needed for animals, people
Homestead
Connections

5. Categories and Elements
Infrastructure - to provide safe, clean, healthy dwellings and areas for my
family and our livestock. To extend growing season to provide more food.
• Home
• Barn
• Animal Shelters
• Greenhouse
• Chicken Coops
• Sheds (storage)
• Fencing
• Nets and predator deterrents
• Bee Hives
• Farm Stand

6. Categories and Elements
Animals / Livestock
• Goats
• Chickens
• Ducks
• Turkeys
• Guinea Fowl (?)
• Pigs
• Bees
• Horse
• Dog
• Cat

7. Categories and Elements
Food Production
• Vegetable Garden
• Kitchen Herb Garden
• Medicinal Herb Garden
• Orchards
• Berry Patches and Hedges
• Nut Trees
• Maple Trees (for syrup)
• Honey (from bees)
• Milk/Dairy (from goats)
• Hay/Fodder for animals
• Eggs (from chickens and ducks)
• Meat (from chickens, ducks and pigs)

8. Categories and Elements
Energy
• Propane Heat system (currently in place)
• Wood Heat (we have 2 working stoves and a
working fireplace)
• Solar panels (?)
• Generator

9. Categories and Elements
Conservation and Waste Management
• Reducing, reusing, and recycling methods
• Composting
• Making use of rainwater (swales, barrels)
• Greywater reclamation

10. Categories and Elements
Transportation/Farm Vehicles
• Tractor and attachments for moving large and
heavy items, digging holes, cutting hay, and
various other tasks.
• Chicken tractor
• Trailer

11. What we have to work with

12. Goals
• The principles of permaculture in Chapter 3 resonate with me. Care of the Earth, Care of People,
and Fair Distribution of Surplus. All my goals bring me back to these basic concepts.
• To provide a more self reliant household for my family and to live a simpler life.
• To provide opportunities in our homeschool for experimentation, problem solving, and
independence while learning to work together to achieve common goals.
• To become more efficient in our farming processes by utilizing the synergy around us. Livestock
to provide manure, chickens to spread manure, composting waste to improve soil quality, bees to
pollinate, etc…
• To have a family business that will provide a small income and assist in rounding out my
children’s education. Possible ideas I have are a small scale CSA program, goat milk products,
and farm stand.
• To be a part of the “holistic” movement. Looking at the way everything interconnects and works
together to create a healthier end product as shown by Joel Salatin on Polyface Farm.
(mentioned in Chapter 2)

13. Conclusion
Two years ago we moved to a 6 acre farm here in the northern central part of Massachusetts from
a very urban home in southeast Pennsylvania. For the past two years I have been working to turn
our homestead “experiment” into a meaningful way of life for our family. While we were living in
Pennsylvania we participated in a CSA program that really changed my outlook on food and on life
in general. We started buying pastured local meats, farm fresh eggs, organic local vegetables,
and raw milk artisan cheeses. I used to visit Amish country and dream of living a simpler life. This
move gave me a chance to set my dreams in motion.
I didn’t find anything that didn’t fit into my plan while I was organizing my cards and grouping them
but I have been narrowing my vision over the past couple years as we go. My guideline to this
farming adventure is that everything on the farm must have a purpose. We sold our alpacas to a
4-H family because they weren’t really contributing to our vision.
I enjoyed looking for the patterns on our homestead and trying to narrow my vision even more. I
am excited about taking this beautiful, but overgrown property and using the permaculture
principals to turn it into a sustainable sanctuary for my family and friends to enjoy.