TERRA EMBRACIA – The Soil Hugger’s Journey – The Journey Begins

I’ve done a crazy thing…. I’ve left my job.

As of August 1st 2014, I’ve dropped out of the corporate world and am keen to find a very different passion. Being a city kid married to a Permaculture Nut (originally from farming stock), things were bound to rub off eventually and now I’m ready to get my hands dirty.

So I’m setting off on a scary journey (with fabulous support crew, thanks to the Nut!) to seek out work/play which grabs my interest and satisfies my environmental conscience.

I welcome you to join me on this adventure.

I plan to include snippets of Permaculture info for beginners – as I learn them! -, bizarre things occurring in our urban “Plant Ark” and perhaps some new things the Permaculture Nut discovers along the way.  You’ll learn a little about me; see my topic by topic investigation into gardening and sustainability; and gain an insight into our back-to-basics life style.

Regular item ideas include:

• “Pick a Plant” Day (where I look at a wide range of plant properties and uses);
• “Pick a Bug” Day (where I look at a wide range of bugs good or bad);
• “Left Field Items” (Did you know? A “friend of a friend of mine” had no idea! Snippets of quirky/daft city-kid eye openers.);
• “Stuff I am doing” (building structures using non-traditional techniques, course feedback, interesting items in my new “job”);
• “Places I’m going” (plans and personal development paths with the Permaculture flavour);
• “Just something with beauty”;
• “Just something Permie – cultural”;
• or a combo of these.

My aim is to help those who are new to Permaculture – like me! – to get a taste to whet your appetite without things getting too technical, but also to trigger a thought process which makes you consider where your food (or any other plant product) comes from.

Those of you who are more experienced in gardening, I would encourage you to keep an eye on the posts as I’ll throw the net wide on topics covered and hope to have a few snippets which will be new to even you.

In parallel to the fun stuff, I have been dabbling with idea of further study to convert my engineering mind into a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction guru – reducing emissions, alternative energy sources or removal of GHGs from the atmosphere.  The Nut was rude enough to mention Soil Carbon Sequestration some months back as a complement to the family business’ skill set.  Initial investigations and inquiries look promising, further reading has proven the topic to be addictive and hence, with the emergence of the inner Soil Hugger, you might see this research influence my commentary and guide this path of learning too….. but we’ll see how that pans out.

Anyway, enough intro…. let’s get onto the interesting stuff.  Feel free to ask questions, make requests, provide feedback, and add your own stories, but most of all enjoy and encourage others to do the same.