Episode-1650- Bill Wilson on Societal Maturity
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Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture
Bill and his wife/partner Becky are co-founders of Midwest Permaculture. Now in their ninth year, Bill has become one of the respected permaculture teachers and designers in the U.S.. The goal of Midwest Permaculture is to see permaculture (in name or action) become a household term. Bill’s two adults sons are now involved in permaculture as well.
Bill joins us today to discuss among other things “The 4 Fires of Group Work”.
Often, people get together with dreams of starting a permaculture group, a community or a business only to be surprised and disappointed when it falls apart. They have failed to navigate the 4-fires.
With 35 years of small community living experience Bill has hard won insights into what it takes to work with others. When permaculture oriented projects fail it is rarely because of the the design piece — it’s almost always the people piece.
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1650
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- PermaEthos.com
- AgriTrue.com
- GenForward
- Harvest Eating– (sponsor of the day)
- Backwoods Home – (sponsor of the day)
- Midwest Permaculture
- Midwest Permaculture on Youtube
- Free Introduction to Permaculture Series
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Outstanding as a truck driver I team with my wife and can’t wait to sell our 2 acres in town and farmstead out in the county somewhere in TN. While I have learned a lot through you and your guests this one does hit closer to home. I have been in the truck for close to 20 years and only home maybe every 6 weeks so it is hard to do anything in your programs. Thank you for you and your guests educating us.
Excellent interview, Jack. Any plans to partner with Midwestern Permaculture in the future?
Aha, so that’s what happened! Your nephew not only didn’t take care of your animals he threw a giant party too! I was wondering why you sounded so upset every time you talked about how he house-sat for you.
Thank God you got this guy on. My problem is that I’m 46 and feel like, you know because trees take so long to grow, that I’m hosed for permaculture. Real inspiring to listen to this man. Thanks Jack.
David
OK, so about the trompe being useless. I have to say, if you do aquaponics than a trompe IS extremely valuable! I was able to use one to draw bubbles to the bottom of a shallow 12.5′ round pond and grow 600 pounds of tilapia each year and still have a dissolved oxygen content of 9 in 100 degree Texas heat. You can stack fish, IF , you can take the poop out and get the oxygen in!
I don’t think the scope of knowledge should ever be limited in a PDC. It should only evolve by adding to the knowledge bank!!! It’s the legacy of bill. His oxygen isotopes tell how to fix desert with trees to bring rain inland ect…
I don’t think anyone said that they were useless just not practical for construction for most people.
I would really like to see what you did though. In text I don’t quite get it, you should do some videos.
@ Tammi:
Also, I’m intrigued by this comment, “His oxygen isotopes tell how to fix desert with trees to bring rain inland ect…”
I’ve been around permaculture for a few years and I’m not familiar with this idea. Can you elaborate? Thanks!
That is a complicated way to say if you reforest a region it will bring back rain. When one looks at the O2 components of water in rain you can tell whether the rain was created by oceans or trees.
This was confirmed by science in recent years and was big news. Bill said this was the case in the early 80s but had no proof, he was doubted and SCIENCE said this was not possible. Yep the same scientists that we see as Gods of Global Warming today.
In any event water from rain that was generated by trees transpiring humidity into the air is slightly more dense then water from oceanic rain.
Science held until recently that all precipitation was generated by large bodies of water and trees could not create rain. Bill said they could and that they did and said if you look for this in the molecular structure you will find it and they did. No one is quite sure to be blunt how the fuck he knew that.
That song at the end hit me right in the feels. I enjoyed it.
Jack – Shortly after discovering your show I remember a couple of interviews you did with Bill Wilson and how inspiring and informative I found them. And then it seemed like he dropped out of your guest queue. For the past couple of years I was wondering why you hadn’t brought him on again. Well, no matter — this interview was excellent. One of the things I appreciated about it is that it’s obvious at a couple of points that you and Bill start from slightly different perspectives on things — but when you get down to the essentials you end up in pretty much complete agreement. Thanks for another great show!
Great show! Inspirational for sure. My husband and I asked Bill to come out and design our swale system. We had the benefit of his expertise and insight and learned much in the day we spent with him, walking our property.
The swales are beautiful to behold and we’ve enjoyed getting to know the frogs, dragonflies and other creatures we’ve acquired since we put them in.
We leave our back 2 acres in pasture and we’ve noticed a great reduction in thistles since we’ve gotten out of Nature’s way. Now we have all kinds of beautiful prairie grasses. Yellows, whites, blues and reds mixed with all shades of green.
We are extremely pleased with how our property is shaping up!
As always, LOVE the show!