Vision

To help transition Japan to a peace promoting post-carbon country while enjoying every step of the process.
僕のビジョンは、祖国日本で、平和文化を育みポストカーボン(Post-Carbon) 社会を促進してゆく事です。
化石燃料や原子力に頼らず、他国の資源を取らない、
自給自足な国へのトランジションを実現させてゆきたいです。

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Dependencies: Oil 石油と依存


An invitation into thought.
考えてみてください。

What would happen to your life if tomorrow morning gas prices doubled indefinitely?
もし明日の朝、石油の値段が二倍まで半永久的に跳ね上がったら、あなたの生活はどう影響されますか?

Then, eventually became unavailable?
そして、遂に石油が手に入れられなくなったら、あなたの生活はどうなりますか?

What would happen to your community? How will your life change?
Is this a problem for you or an opportunity?
あなたのコミュニティーはどのように影響されますか?あなたの生活はどのようにかわりますか?
これはあなたに取って問題、或は思いがけないチャンス?

Its time for Resilience thinking
レジリアンス思考を始めよう

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Chinampa II  チナンパ(第二)

*See entry below this one for an introduction to chinampas
チナンパ入門の方は「チナンパ」エントリーも見てみてください。

A young chinampa with a visible foundation of branches and twigs. Like a floating cold compost pile.
比較的新しいチナンパ。チナンパの土台となる枝などがむき出しです。水の上に浮いている炭素中心のコンポストみたいですね。
Interns and a guest moving a pile of brush across the marsh from a chinampa island. Brush piles like these become the foundation of chinampas here. As Dave was explaining to me the other day, many of us toil in the soil to increase organic matter. It is fairly common practice to then burn that organic matter (like branches and leaves) or more recently to send it to industrial composting operations instituted by the city. Building chinampas is a way to not only utilize this valuable resource (aka waste) but to also increase biologically productive land. Its also a fun activity that stimulates our mind's sense of wonder.


These are pictures from the chinampa peninsula that extends from Doug and Maria's garden. An example of how the early stage of a chinampa looks like. A coarse fabric of brush with willow plantings and volunteers (aka "weeds") along the edge. This one still feels like a trampoline and the entire chinampa seems to bounce up and down if you get into it.

ダグとマリアさんのガーデンから沼に突き出るチナンパの写真です。これもまた若いチナンパで、絡み合った枝の周囲に柳やボランティア(雑草)が生えています。このチナンパはトランポリンみたいで、頑張ればチナンパ全体が上下に沈んだり浮いたりします。

A mature chinampa peninsula with willow established on the edge for land stabilization.

熟したチナンパの半島。柳がワイルドに育っています。

This is the chinampa that we all entered the marsh from to work on one of the chinampa islands during the PDC. A solid chinampa peninsula with a fire pit and canoe landing at the tip. This peninsula, unless you were told, would be hard to tell that it was permy-made. The edges of this well-established chinampa are lined with an oak, paw paw, hazelnut, edible fruiting hawthorn, basketry willow, polygonum (giant knotweed), aronia, timber henon bamboo (left side of the picture), pear grafted on quince rootstock, highbush cranberry and a few others.

Here is a side-view of the fire-pit chinampa. You can see the Henon bamboo to the right. On the left side of the chinampa you might be able to spot the highbush cranberry and pear on quince.

This chinampa has a wikiup built out of cattails, a replication of what the native peoples' built for a quick dwelling in this region. 100% compostable.
原住民が一時的な宿を必要とした時に作っていた「ウィキアップ」のあるチナンパ。これは、ある研修生が沼のガマで作ったものです。ゴミを出さない、土から生まれ、土に帰る宿。
A bunch of permies crammed into the wikiup during a tour. I remember last year a course participant decided to setup camp inside. An important consideration about thatch roofs and structures such as these, is that they are slowly composting above you. They are also great habitat for insects, mice, rats, etc. Frequent fires inside for heating or cooking will help preserve the natural material and keep creatures away.

Doug mentioned to me that this chinampa is 28 years old.....I think its the oldest one that the Bullocks initiated here. It has a cool structure that hovers above the marsh. The picture above is after we cleared most of the willow along the peninsula recently, and below is a more beautiful presentation of this picturesque setup taken in the summer.
Another thing Dave mentioned to me about Chinampas is that when resources become more seriously limited, for instance if we cannot find a replacement for the solar pump that is essential, and the pumps are no longer functioning, chinampas will become a more essential element for food production here as they are subirrigated. He painted a picture of a series of peninsulas and islands with canals inbetween, much like how the Aztecs did it.

Its also quite beautiful to have a system that is not dependent on plastic pipes, complex materials, and electricity. If you have a site appropriate for chinampa, try it out! Call your friends and have a chinampero party! Orale!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Chinampa! チナンパ!

There is nothing like jumping into a cool marsh on a sunny day after sitting for 2 weeks getting your brain stuff with an abundance of information. This is the annual chinampa fest during the Permaculture Design Course where we all become chinamperos and create regenerative islands that explode with biological activity. When I was younger, I used to dream of creating my own island and building a home on it. And now here I am on a permaculture paradise where we continuously build new islands of abundance.

夏の素敵な日に受講から休んで沼に飛び込むチャンスがやっと現れました。毎年恒例のチナンパ作り!二週間も座り続けてきた受講者達にとっては、心身を爽快させる最高のイベントです。子供の頃は島を作るのが夢でしたが、このパーマカルチャー・パラダイスでその夢が叶いました。
So, whats a chinampa?
Lets start with a quote from Toby Hemenway's book, Gaia's Garden: "The [Bullocks] brothers build garden beds that extended into the marsh, copying an idea from the ancient Aztecs. They had created peninsulas by piling straw and branches that reached out like fingers from the shoreline, covered them with rich bog muck, and planted these self-watering garden beds, called chinampas, with food and wildlife plants."

*英語の部分とは内容が多少違います。
翻訳が進まないので手を抜く事にしました。

チナンパとは(ウィキペディアより)
「チナンパ(農法)は、沼地の表面の厚い水草層を切り取り、敷物のように積み重ねてつくった浮島の上に湖底の泥を盛り上げて作った湖上の畑のようなものを利用する収量の大きい農法である。アステカ時代のテノチティトランの周囲で行われていたことでも知られる。現在でもメキシコ・シティ南方のショチミルコに残っている。チナンパ農法は、たえず灌漑されると同時に、多くの養分を含んだ泥で栽培するので集約的に高い収穫を得ることができたし、あらゆる種類の作物を栽培することができた。」

I'm not quite sure what defines a chinampa, but I've read quite a few definitions stating that they are essentially constructed agricultural fields or islands on a body of freshwater (e.g. lake), originating in Xochimilco, Mexico with credit given to the Aztecs. They are by design sub-irrigated, highly productive, and benefit from a microclimate that increases frost protection. "The word chinampa comes from the Nauhatle words chinamitl (reed basket) and pan (upon), a good description of their building methods (Werner 1992)" (*).

http://www.kikori.org/world/mexico/index.htmより
「アステカ時代の浮き畑で、現在も続いている農法。Chinanpaと書きます。
焼畑によるトウモロコシ栽培だけでは、都市の人口を養いきれなくなり、その生産 方法を常畑による持続ある農業生産に切り替えるため、メキシコシティー他、多くの浅い湖で行われた農法です。

湖を埋め立てるのではなく、水上で枝や草の上に土を乗せて、農業を行うのです。

基本的 に、施肥は行わず、地力が落ちると、湖の底にある土を運ぶという行為を絶えず行い、持続する農法で、現在は、花卉類や野菜を生産しているんです。

湖とチナンパとの境に樹木を植えており、木の根が堤防の代わりを担っている。メキシコシティー郊外のソチミルコにおけるチナンパは、世界遺産に登録されており、都市近郊の行楽の地としての場として提供されている。」


From Aztec-History.com:
"To build the chinampas, plots about 30m by 2.5m were staked out on the lake bed. A fence was woven between the stakes, and the area would be filled in with mud and vegetation. The next rectangle would be parallel to this one, with room for a canal in between, where canoes could pass through. These canals of course offered irrigation, and provided food of their own such as fish and water fowl. Often willows would be planted along the edge of the plot, to provide further stable fencing as well as shade (though they would be carefully pruned to allow enough sunlight into the farm plot).

In the end, the garden plot would be no more than a few feet above the level of the lake. They were supported with the Aztec's complex irrigation and waterway systems, which included dams, aqueducts and gates. "

地下潅漑(サブ・イレゲーション)システムなので水やりの必要がなく、池の水により温和なミクロ気候が保たれ作物が霜から守られるそうです。畝はだいたい幅2.5m長さ30m(水面からの)高さ数十センチで、各チナンパの間にはカヌーが通れるだけのスペースが空いていると読みました。畝が池の中に溶けていかない様に、大抵は柳が畝の周囲に植えられているらしいです。


Back to the Permaculture Design Course........
We started by watching an old VHS on chimapas (culture and history). Then we assembled our tools and marched gloriously into the leech-free marsh.....what leeches?
パーマカルチャー・デザイン・コースではまずチナンパの文化と歴史を探るビデオを見てから、道具を集め、みんなで沼に向かいました。

Fearless kids and adults entering the marsh from a developed
chinampa peninsula.
子供も大人もヒルを恐れず沼に突入!

The work begins!
作業の始まり!

The spirited permies collect pond muck by cutting chunks of the marsh floor with shovels and pile them on to boats to transport onto a nearby young chinampa island. Some collect the muck directly on their tool handles.
受講者の皆さんはせっせと泥や水草を集めてカヌーに乗せ、比較的新しいチナンパ島に輸送していきました。シャベルのハンドルで水草を運ぶ人もいました。

Industry, the future of modern permaculture.
Those on the island distribute the pond muck to increase land mass.
Perennial plantings help hold the chinampa together and accelerate the evolution of organismic activity.
やる気満々のパーミィー達。島の上の人達は泥や水草を島の上に広げ、チナンパの質量を増やします。島の周囲に植えられた多年草の根が、泥や有機物を沼の中に消えていかないよう編み込みます。また、多年草(柳やクランベリーなど)があらゆる動物に宿と餌を与え、島の進化を促進させます。鳥の糞から発芽する植物も現れてきます。

Spy shot of the notorious chinampero-killah Don Samuel. Chinampa waters can be dangerous as there are kama-wielding thugs that chinamperos must defend against.
沼の悪役ドン・サムエル。
中米の盗賊みたいな感じがしますね。

The battle begins.
Dave and Michael to the right hurl mud-splattering muck balls as the island chinamperos organize their defense.
そして、最後には水草投げ合戦。右の二人はおもいっきり投げている感じがしますね。

A half-assed pond muck chuck. This is the way mainland, island, and aquatic chinamperos resolve their differences. There is no discrimination in the world of chinamperos. Women, children, and all creatures are encouraged to work on chinampas and become targets of the great splattering.
子供も女性も水草投げに参戦。誰が見方で誰が敵か全然分からない中、みんな夢中で水草を集めて投げていました。

More to come.....
続く。。。

References
-(*): Pacific Lutheran University (http://www.plu.edu/~mayac/what-is/home.html)
-Aztec-History.com (http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-farming.html)
-Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway (2nd Ed., 2009)
-The top two illustrations are from the internet and I think at least the first one is from the book Chinampas: Their Role in Aztec Empire - Building and Expansion

BONUS:)

Take a Virtual field trip into the original chinampas in Mexico, http://www.chinampas.info/
ソチミルコのオリジナル・チナンパバーチャルツアー。お勧め!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Fruit Break:)



















Ripe Shiro ("white" in Japanese) Plum and second flush of raspberries
甘さたっぷりのみずみずしい白プラムとラズベリーの茂み








Desert King Fig, with a deep pinkish purple sugar jam inside, and Nico posing with her breakfast on Waffle wednesday. Cast iron waffles smothered with yogurt Tatton made from creamy local raw milk the night before, sprinkled with fresh blackberries and strawberries, and topped with an over-easy egg oozing with warm yolk. Yup, welcome to waffle wednesday.
デザート・キング(砂漠の王様)と言う名のイチジク。中は深いピンクと紫色の糖分たっぷりイチジクジャムが詰まっています。右はワッフル水曜日を味わう二コ:)直火にのせられる鋳鉄のワッフルメーカーで作ったほくほくワッフルに、前日テートンが作ったクリームたっぷりの生牛乳ヨーグルトとその日に収穫したブラックベリーとイチゴをトッピング。さらに、とろとろ半熟卵の冠。ワッフル水曜日にようこそ。


















The waffle wednesday setup. A decadent display of cut up peaches, apples, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries all picked in the morning, butter, maple syrup, and tahini. A breakfast that ends past noon. To the right is my favorite snack tomato, Sun Gold, burst of sweet golden goodness.
ワッフル水曜日の準備。その日の収穫:数種類の桃、林檎、ラズベリー、ブラックベリー、苺。そして定番のバター、メープルシロップ、タヒーニ。豪華絢爛。お昼過ぎに終わる朝ご飯祭り。隣の写真は、大好きなお菓子代わりの甘さ満点のプチトマト、サンゴールド。

A nice sunday potluck, sushi, summer rolls, watermelons, salad, and a bunch of other stuff. The basket of fruits is what Tatton and I harvested in the rain for breakfast. We made a simple coconut milk konji (soupy rice) with fresh fruit and hazelnuts.
日曜日の持ち寄りパーティー。ゆりこさんのすしに、夏巻き、すいか、サラダ、などなど。フルーツバスケットはテートンと一緒に雨の中、朝ご飯用に収穫した果物です。その日はシンプルにココナッツミルクのお粥に新鮮フルーツとローストしたヘーゼルナッツにしました。




勿論、全部手間のかからない無農薬の有機栽培です。
良いデザインの実。


Food is still what we do best.
食の道

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Energy Tour

Energy. So much of life is about energy.........from electricity, fossil fuels, heat, food, hybrid, to vibrations, Qi, exercise, ecstasy, good health, etc. Its one of those things that we use a lot of without really knowing what it is, where it comes from, and what happens to it.

What is energy for you?
How do you engage with "energy"?
When you design for energy, what are key considerations?

I like the approach taken by my Tai Chi teacher in England. As we flow through the movements he questioned us, "what can we do less of?" We would explore how we can use less energy to do the same moves. Similarly in tea ceremony practice, the movements are about beauty and efficiency with as little waste as possible. Then there is aikido where I learned about how to redirect violent energy toward a constructive compassionate direction. I think these are important lessons for me, as I bring awareness of my daily movements and how I design my physical environment.

Below are some pictures and simple explanations from the energy tour that Doug and Sam Bullock ran during the PDC. I did not include our solar showers and various PV systems in this entry. Enjoy:)

The energy tour started with our beloved solar (boom) cart. I think this was a previous Pc (permaculture) Design Course project to give participants a basic understanding of the home solar electrical system. Free energy is captured on the solar panels and flows through a charge controller, volts/amps meter, a car-battery that runs a car stereo and speakers. All you need to do is plug your mp3 player or computer and bump that music.

We use the boom cart when we work in the gardens, in the kitchen, in the Aloha lodge for dance parties and movie nights. We are hoping to make a smaller and lighter version.....what else can we stack onto a solar boom cart? Maybe a mini fridge with beers and ice-cream? Switch that into a tea-water boiler for the winter. And some moving laser lights for late-nite dance parties.

Next on the tour is the solar dehydrator made of an old fridge painted black with a home-made solar heat collector. Air is sucked into the solar heat collector through vents on the bottom, then heated in a box painted black with a sealed glass lid. The hot air continues to rise to the bottom of the fridge unit and moves up until it exits through the chimney. It is essential to have the solar heat collector to be lower than the dehydrator in this type of design. There is a lot of resources online for you.

Our greenhouse is an excellent space for examples of energy use. Heat is an essential element in a green house and winter is the challenge/design opportunity in the Pacific North West. The gravel on the floor of the greenhouse acts as thermal mass that will absorb heat when the sun is out and radiate heat as the greenhouse cools. For the winter, we move our kitchen back into the greenhouse, so we are able to generate heat from our bodies, propane stove, and on-demand water heater for the sink. The sauna annexed to the greenhouse and the rocket stove water heater Doug is standing next to (for heating shower water), both release quite a bit of heat into the greenhouse. We are also making dehydrator racks for the sauna, so in the Fall when we have abundance of produce and much desire for the sauna, we can sauna then with the excess heat dry food.

The rocket stove above consists of two cylinders with water between (aka water jacket). The black color helps to heat water when the sun is out too. The silver object to the top left of the rocket stove is a hot water tank (with silver bubble wrap insulation). Its critical to locate the hot water tank above the rocket stove for the thermosiphon to work effectively.

Here is a brief description of rocket stoves,
"a rocket stove achieves efficient combustion of the fuel at a high temperature by ensuring that there is a good air draft into the fire, controlled use of fuel, complete combustion of volatiles, and efficient use of the resultant heat. It has been used for cooking purposes in many third-world locales (notably Rwandan refugee camps) as well as for space and water heating." (wikipedia) See below for a cob rocket stove for cooking.


Here is a demonstration of a thermosiphon, "a method of passive heat exchange based on natural convection which circulates liquid without the necessity of a mechanical pump." (wikipedia). The sun heats the water inside the black pipe (not covered by the tarp) that then flows into the top of the water tank as cool water exits the bottom of the water tank and travels down the slope to heat and recirculate. This is the mechanism for our 3 passive solar heated showers, rocket stove water heater, and solar dehydrator.

Think about how much these simple systems can save you on energy bills, and more importantly our consumption of fossil fuels that keep us dependent on some of the worst human rights abusing democracy-subverting organizations of the world.....energy corporations. Particularly the 6 oil supermajors: ExxonMobil (US), Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands/UK), BP (UK), Chevron Corp.(US), Total SA (France), ConocoPhillips (US).

Large-scale energy independence is not only an essential step to restoring our life support system (the ecosystem), it would also be a great leap for building true democracy in a political system that continues to be manipulated by financially and politically wealthy corporations.

Yeah, thermosiphoning passive solar water heaters for democracy!
.......anybody?

One of the books that heavily influenced my perspective and direction in life is "The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies" by Richard Heinberg. He writes very simply but with extensive research on extremely pertinent issues related to energy and ecology. From understanding the basics of what energy is, what electricity is, what the laws of thermodynamics are and why they matter in our everyday life, to how our energy use and production has evolved through human history. I really enjoyed his brief exploration of Western history looking at the rise and fall of empires through the lens of energy. He also does a sobering examination of alternative energies in context of our modern society and industry attempts to maintain control through centralized systems. It makes so much sense that by consuming less energy we would solve so many problems that plague us today, but then again consuming substantially less in a consumer culture is a big leap for many.

Energy independence is a revolutionary act.

Here's a demo of how much electricity this set of PV panels are producing. There are several sets of PV systems on the homestead that either keep our water pumps going or run our electricity demanding appliances, power tools, and charge batteries . I might go more in depth of the PV systems later but my understanding right now is quite basic.

For anybody wanting a project to learn about PV systems, you might start with an all DC solar music unit.

BONUS: a few more energy related technologies we use.

Cob rocket stove made from clay harvested from the site. Cob is basically a mix of clay, sand, straw, and water. We have 2 rockets stoves, a pizza/bread oven, and a bath shell made of cob on-site. Rocket stoves are easy to make, materials are cheap or free, you can use small-diameter fuel (e.g. twigs and wood scraps), and it produces efficient concentrated heat. There are lots of variations of this and its up to your imagination what you can do. For example, http://small-scale.net/yearofmud/2009/04/27/building-a-rocket-stove-part-2-cob-bed-and-bench/

The hay (Yeah!) box. This is an amazing technology that can be easily made. Its basically an insulated box that utilizes the heat of the food that is being cooked to continue the cooking process. Like grains and beans. Just bring to a boil and throw it in the box overnight and if you did it right, you will have hot cooked food by morning. We also make yogurt in the hay box.

This one looks like a plywood shell, a cardboard inner box, with random pieces of wool stuffed in between. The lid (top left) is heavy and is probably insulated in a similar fashion. We stuff an old wool sweater around the pot or yogurt jars and put a cotton cushion on top before closing the lid. The more insulation the longer the heat will be retained. As an added bonus, pressure cookers can also save energy by cooking food much faster.

More about energy in the future. On a final note for today, it is important to be aware of embodied energy, the energy consumed to produce, transport the product, and the energy costs to retire them. Basically accounting for energy needed for the entire life cycle of a product.

E=MC2