Christian Permaculture

First Fruits

We have a lot to be thankful for this year! Hacking an existence out of the desert is no easy task, so it makes us appreciate all the more the little wins along the way that add up to something significant. I want to highlight some of the simple things that are paying dividends.

Happy 1st Birthday, Sabbatical Ranch!

After acquiring eight acres in the middle of the San Pedro River Valley, we arrived to start building Sabbatical Ranch one year ago today. It has been an incredible adventure! A cynic could have told us, “You’re just a bunch of starry-eyed dreamers about to get slapped in the face with reality!” Someone did tell …

Happy 1st Birthday, Sabbatical Ranch! Read More »

Building Productive Soil With Animals

The idea of using animals to grow abundant plants is a bit counter-intuitive because almost everyone has probably witnessed the effects of overgrazing. Imagine any kind of fenced-in animals and it doesn’t take very long for the ground to become barren of vegetation and start looking like a desert. There has also been a lot …

Building Productive Soil With Animals Read More »

Plant the Rain, Grow the Soil, Reap the Harvest

We’re looking forward to restarting our Superadobe building projects, but the winter break has allowed us to get a lot of other stuff done. One of the most important is installing many water-harvesting earthworks that will help stop erosion of our topsoil and will help build living soil which will enable abundant food production. Rainwater …

Plant the Rain, Grow the Soil, Reap the Harvest Read More »

Donations From Thunder Mountain Alpaca Ranch

A year ago next week we drove from our winter sabbatical spot in southern Texas to Arizona. We arrived with windy snow and freezing weather at Thunder Mountain Alpaca Ranch, a very hospitable working ranch near Coronado National Memorial. We stayed and helped out for a few months while scoping out properties for Sabbatical Ranch. …

Donations From Thunder Mountain Alpaca Ranch Read More »

Gardens, Gardens, and More Gardens!

Many the projects we work on here at Sabbatical Ranch are experimental as a demonstration site for the benefit of everyone. We’ve been developing a variety of experimental gardens in the last month or so and I suppose it’s about time I report on them. Here’s the list so far:

– Rain garden
– Hugelkultur
– Critter gardens
– Caliche gardens
– Chicken garden
– Greenhouse garden
– Courtyard food forest
– Chicken jungle
– Sunken garden
– Shady place
– And there are more in the works!