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Shauna Teare Puts Permaculture to Work in the Slocan Valley (British Columbia, Canada)

by Rob Avis

Nestled deep in the forested mountains of the Slocan Valley in British Columbia, ex-urbanite Shawna Teare and her family have applied skills from their former lives in business and carpentry, along with gifted and innovative craftmanship to create a leading edge permaculture homestead complete with chickens, rabbits, interns and more! See how they have up-cycled materials en masse, created a diverse and plentiful organic garden, put their on-site resources to productive use, and networked within their community to create a truly resilient, sustainable, and enjoyable lifestyle.

6 Comments

  1. One thing I wish we’d talk more about in permaculture projects is money. My family has jumped into a property too, and we didn’t have any idea how much ongoing costs there would be. Sure you can trade and recycle, but there’s plenty left that takes money. Insurance, machine hire, lime, petrol, internet access, etc.

    With two kids and few frills, we go through $3500/month, and we haven’t even set up any enterprises with that. Even if we were completely self-sufficient in food (is that possible? Flour?) that’d leave about $2800/month we’re spending. Getting that takes off-farm work, and off-farm work means less time setting up enterprises, growing food, etc. You could call that a vicious cycle, but if we stopped the off-farm work and focused on production, we’d be hard pressed to hit that $2800/month. Most farms have off-farm income.

    I know other families spend less, but my point is that projects like the above, even living cheaply, take money, and where does that come from on a sustainable basis?

  2. Greg, that’s the wall most firstworlders hit. The old, how do I get off the money/work roundabout. If you work it out let us all know!
    All I have worked out so far is to make off farm work as ethically sound as I can and not to aim for self sufficiency, but self-reliance.
    Almost everyone I know has to have a foot in each camp.
    Work on what you do well, make some money from it ethically and enrich your system out from that.
    I think permaculture ethics applied to regular business can help improve and modify many destructive situations.
    I spend all my time on permaculture based activity, I make very little money, only grow a little food, and probably make such a tiny difference to the world that it doesn’t even count.
    You are right, we definitely need to talk about money, the funny thing is as soon as someone acts entrepreneurial or business like or works to make a profit, they get jumped on, as I have been on this forum, and just ask Nick Huggins, he has copped a bit too.

  3. Love the idea of a yurat, can you use it in the winter. I am looking for a weaving studio and that looks like a viable obtion.

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