One of the words that keeps
popping up all through any permaculture book or website you'll dip into is
'resilience'. At first I didn't really appreciate the value of this word, and
what it might mean for our own family, but as the economic downturn packs some
serious punches the term is making a lot more sense. 'Resilience' isn't just a
fashionable permaculture buzzword.
In a nutshell, whenever you
look at your living space (indoors and out) you should always ask yourself the
questions 'how can I utilise this space/item/object for more than one use?','if
this breaks how will I continue ... is there an alternative source of
water/fuel/food/shelter/cooking/travel etc?'. Whenever we add something to our
life, our home or our garden I always ask how I'd cope without it, or what
alternatives we could use instead. I walk around our house and garden and I
look at how we've set things up. I ask all the same questions ... how would I
water this polytunnel if the pump and automatic watering system failed, where
would I source water if our water supply was to be cut off. Water is one of the
first things to ask ourselves about. We are lucky to have a stream at the side
of our property and a lake at the back, plus plenty of roof area to collect
rainwater if needed. Another main area is fuel ... how would we heat our home
if we couldn't afford oil, or travel to buy coal. Again, luckily we have a
woodland plantation which provides us with heating fuel and so we rarely buy
fuel these days. Cooking of food? What if electricity is cut off or we can no
longer afford gas cylinders? One plan for this summer is to build an earth oven
in the garden for such occasions. And as for food, what if the supermarket
supply chain fails and there's no food on the shelves ... sourcing local markets
or growers, and growing your own suddenly becomes much more than just a
fulfilling pleasure.

