Appreciating Resilience

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.

Apart from being fun it also makes sense to build our resilience. With the global economic downturn I've suddenly felt the welcoming cushioning effect of all these little steps of resilience built into our lives, which up until now, I'd have barely acknowledged their presence. But they are there and we planned it that way, thanks to reading up on permaculture. At the very worst case scenario it boils down to survival, at it's current level it helps keep life on a steady and even keel. There is still food on the table and we know we have many of the resources we need on the doorstep in order to continue living the life we've been enjoying.

Of course we are far from self sufficient, but we've never aimed to be that. It's more about living sustainably, and building resilience into life is one little part of that.

Comments

[Lizz]

Well said.

I too hope to build our cob oven this summer as well as a yurt. We'll see...

[Fiona]

Wonderful post. Building up my resiliance is definitely something to think about.

[Eloise]

You need a big water collecting tank. In Oz I had a friend who spent his life rolling water tanks out of currigated metal for self contained people. Just before the millemium computer bug was a huge demand for these tanks as people were worried that they would not be able to get water. At a country side party I was at in 1999 new years eve I met a local who had built enough tanks for the whole area. As he thought if he had one tank for himself everyone else would want his water so he built enough tanks for everyone on his own land. Very thoughtful I thought.
I expect if you build one on a hill there would be less need for a pump. There is a inventor in Dublin that designs pumps for third world that dont need electric etc to work them. I am sure there is also other ways of moving water the japanese are good with the bamboo thing.

[Aerogarden Grower]

Great post! It was very well researched and I enjoyed it very much. I bookmarked your site and will be back very soon, I look forward to reading some interesting posts! Thanks, Whitney

[Maddy]

I'm with you, we need to use what we have in more ways than one. If I can recycle I do, not just the paper and plastic, I include clothes and books and toys. If we all did our bit and reduced our consumption it would make such a big difference.

[Miriam]

Great post, more and more people will start to consider these things. It could be the beginning of something great... Or at least we can choose to look at it this way. have you looked into ram pumps? If you already have a handy stream it might be a good option for you. We use collected rainwater for everything except cooking and drinking and love it. And of course we don't have to worry about the electricity being cut off - unless the weather stops...

[Cheese]

That's a good post. I particularly like what you allude to near the end - that you strive for sustainability rather than self-sufficiency. I think these two concepts are often confused and that the former is much more important in the current ecological and economic context.

[killerflies]

You must definately update us on how the clay oven goes!

In the small world that is the internet, I saw a review of an instructional book on making clay ovens (name escapes me now) and Ive since bought the same one.
Fantastic information in it.

re: Getting water from te stream or lake, try researching the "Ram pump" it is an energy independant pump that will pump water long distances and up hills!
They used it on "its not easy being green" (BBC prog) You tube has plenty of examples of ones in operation.

[carolyn]

Thought provoking.

[mona]

beautiful blog...
mona & the gaffer girls

[Marlene Affeld]

I am heartened when I find sites that focus on environmental awareness. Thank you for your interesting post on living a green lifestyle in Ireland.
If we all take small steps to use only eco-friendly products, it will make an impact. Together we can make a differrence. Wishing you well.

[Rhonda Olsen]

Excellent! I love that you are conscious of how to make the most of what you have. We could all use a little more of this consciousness. :0)