• Work with Nature. Nature operates in cycles as seen in a spiral.

• Each cyclic event increases the opportunity for yield.
• Work to feed one another verses feeding only one's self.
• Fundamental Principles of Nature: circle and repetition - yet movement and growth.

• The Problem is the solution:

"These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our mother earth, from whom all life comes. In order to do this, we must recognize the enemy - the one within us. We must begin within ourselves." Leon Shenandoah (a native American)

As an Orthodox Christian, I do not want to deify the earth which you sometimes see among those more ecologically minded. Yet, I totally agree with this quote in that we have a responsibility to be a steward of what God has given us. We are dependent on the wellbeing of the planet we live on. And our worst enemy is most definitely our own sinful passionate self-serving selves. Only through Christ, can we become free, and only through Christ, can we find the harmony and connectedness that we each desperately yearn for (whether knowingly or unknowingly), with God, with one another, and with the natural environment around us. Put in the proper context, I think this quote is excellent and well worth remembering.

• Make the least change for the greatest possible effect. Balance through elegance.
• The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited.
  • Nature operates with a principle of abundance.
  • The sunlight that intersects the earth in 24 hours is more energy than all the conventional oil that has been...or ever will be extracted.
• Everything Gardens
  • The Permaculture Designer talks and thinks about solutions rather than problems.
  • What we think or feel patterns our environment. (referred to a scientific experiment studying the effect of human emotion on the freezing of ice crystals.

They Recommended Bill Mullison's books: "Designer Manual for the Certification Course" and "Introduction to Permaculture." BTW, the person here that will be teaching the certification course is the only one in the US that has been qualified by Bill Mullison. I guess he must be the original person who came up with the permaculture term and developed the philosophy.

They also recommended "Gaia's Garden" which I do have. It is an excellent book. I also do have the "Introduction to Permaculture" book by Bill Mullison.

Permaculture Principles:

1. Observation - Design for specific sites, climates, client.
2. Connect - create useful plant relationships, time-saving connections and healthy, diverse ecosystem.
3. Catchment systems: water, sun, shade - creating micro-climates - saving and reinvesting resources. We maintain the system and capture more resources.
4. Each element performs multiple functions. Choose and place each element to compliment and cover one another.

Zone and Sector Method of Land Use:

Zone 0 - home (in our case guest cottages, main retreat and church buildings).
Zone 1 - most visited (prayer shrines, children play areas, social and park-like areas).
Zone 2 - semi intensive care (small food production areas, small aquaculture areas, any small livestock on property).
Zone 3 - Farm (we do plan to have some orchards, vinyards and berries as well as a main garden).
Zone 4 - Minimal Care (our forest trails and forest garden)
Zone 5 - Unmanaged Wilderness (where ever the poison oak grows!)

Site Analysis Plan

Sectors: wind, sun, water, earth (sounds like Nader Khalili and Calearth!)

Make least change for greatest effect.

Each function supported by multiple elements - create synergies and redundant back-up.

Keep intensive systems small scale.

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A note I made to myself regarding the overall eco-dome placement plan:

Use keyhole design for eco-dome placement with tree and circular walkway in center and pathway to each of the entrances.

Satisfy social, physical and spiritual needs through proper placement.

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Other planting notes:

Use swells as planting foundation. Planting on swells: trees and vegetation on high part, water accumulation (and possible aquaculture), on low part.

Create kehole guilds around fruit trees.

Catch water from every structure and plant guild nearby.