I feel so privileged to be able to share what I have learned with my community. I spent a weekend last month working with 18 Eco-Apprentices from the Ecology Center on Watersheds, Water Harvesting Principles, Greywater, and Rainwater Basics. It is vital for everyone to have access to this information! We all win and feel connected every time sharing happens. Inevitably, I learn quite a bit myself! This weekend was no exception, with opportunities for fresh eyes to offer alternative solutions to mine. It’s a good reminder that there are many approaches to each solution. The more I open myself to learning from my students, my crew, my friends, my mentors, my colleagues, the more tools I have in my belt for future work! I hope we can all learn from our experiences with each other.
Before
Moving a 1500 gallon tank over a fence doesn’t always take a crew this big. But it sure felt good to have so many helpers!
It takes a village!
This was a great case of “stacking functions”, a key water harvesting and permaculture principle.
- We have an experiential learning opportunity by putting this 1500 gallon tank in,
- We put in a 1500 gallon tank which will create opportunities for these homeowners to grow more veggies and have emergency water storage on hand (they caught at least 400 gallons in that last little surprise storm event),
- Doing this as a workshop saved the homeowners money so that they could maximize their potential with the dollars they had (1500 gallons as opposed to 1000, still only 1/10 of their annual potential),
- Because the homeowners themselves are amazing contributors in their community, running a nonprofit to offer children opportunities to connect with nature in deep and profound ways, there will be pathways for continued education with this tank as an example to the families that come onsite as part of the organization’s events.