The wholistic, long term thinking of permaculture is so essential to nurturing our desert environment. And the practices are different from other biomes, given that water is scarce most of the time, and overwhelmingly abundant for short periods (intense summer monsoons and sometimes winter rains). This class helped me better understand how to “plant the rain” (beneficial terraforming for rain capture and use); design for passive heating and cooling (shade is so so important here); and nurture symbiotic, closed-loop, native food-producing plant systems. It was possibly the most unique and special education experiences of my life.

However, I was left with two bad tastes:

1. I wish there had been a deeper integration and acknowledgement of the indigenous practices that were the source of information for the class. Without that, it felt appropriative and tone deaf.
2. There was a real emphasis on using permaculture knowledge in for-hire client work. Along with the previous issue, at times, the class felt like an exercise in extraction and recuperation. This seems to be a problem with permaculture as a whole though, and likely a topic for further writing in the future.

Feeling a real lack of social interaction after quitting my job in 2022, I jumped into participating in the garden working group at an autonomous community center. After a very sucessful year growing the garden, in 2023 we came to an agreement with a neighbor that our working group would take over a larger, more publicly visible little strip of neglected land next to a road. We dug and seeded five curbside rain basins with native plants, built some raised beds with sheltering from the afternoon sun, and started a massive lasagna compost.

Listen to it here: proyekto.net/jacmb

The community farm block was too far from Tucson for most people, so we started a mutual aid org (Tucson Distributed Farm) to help community members grow enough food for themselves and others. Our goal is to connect those that have access to land with those that do not. We help each other grow on the land and we all share in the abundance. Think mutual aid victory gardens with land-, labor-, skill, and harvest-share. We have four locations running, with several more in various stages of planning or prep, and lots of interest!

Visited friends and family in Memphis, Savannah, and Brooklyn on the way there. Then spent a week with friends in Detroit on the way back. We mostly avoided big cities and found camping spots in parks and pull-offs (the iOverlander app was an invaluable resource). A preferable alternative to the pricey hospitality hopping I’ve done on previous cross-country road trips.

Rad weirdos all over: anti-capitalist puppet shows, reverse-count art auction, cheap art bus, museum of everyday things, bonfires, skinny dipping, queer farmer dinners, and a barn rave. Off grid living: spring-fed water system, diy outdoor shower + cannibal tub, ice block cooler, minimal solar electricity, composting toilets.

Also, beaver ponds, strawberry and blueberry picking, bear scat, forest clearing, aggressive horse flies, a minor tractor accident, hiking through marble boulders, and the best beer and cheese I’ve ever had.

Fifteen steps, two turns, small cabin with very little room for error—incredibly difficult! My computer-pilled brain thought I could design the whole thing down to the 1/8” in software. Thankfully we realized this was wrong early on and redesigned to meet the ever-crookedness of the real world. A math mistake led to another partial tear down and rebuild. But we managed to get it right in the end.

After my DIY electrical learning last year, it only made sense to learn to run pipes for water. I practiced with a dude at the community center-- to get water to a different part of the garden-- then did it later in the summer with my partner to create an outdoor shower.

As soon as we arrived at the cabin we found that the very tippy top of a fallen cherry tree poked a 6” hole in a 9’x4’ metal roof panel. Thankfully the hole didn’t get past the protective barrier under the insulation, so no leaks. But replacing a panel of that size on a roof that’s 15’ off the ground at a ~50+ degree slope proved to be /extremely/ difficult.

It’s a delightful community in an idyllic setting. I highly recommend stopping by if you are ever anywhere close: breadandpuppet.org

Climate change is real. While there were record high temps in AZ-- and all around the globe-- there were record rains in Vermont. The most rain I've ever seen. Days of torrential downpour. Thankfully, our cabin was safely sitting on the side of a large hill (they call them mountains there), but neighbors were not as lucky.

We joined neighbors with immediate** The Red Cross didn't make it for another week and it took FEMA over two weeks, by which time mold had started to take over flooded houses. backing from MADR to help with the awful process of mucking out houses, delivering supplies, and hauling off dumpsters full of people's belongings that had been soaked in toxic flood sludge. Truly heartbreaking, and another example of The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster.

I’m not much of a pot smoker, but ever since realizing the greenness of my thumbs, I have wanted to grow pot. It’s legal to grow up to 6 plants here in AZ, but everyone I spoke to warned against growing it outside due to the heat and lack of moisture in the air. But I wanted to try it out.

A friend gave me 5 seedlings, which I put in the auto-irrigated part of my garden before we left for our 2.5 month road trip. Another friend came by to fertilize them with aquaponics-made furtilizer water every so often, but otherwise they were on their own for one of the hottest summers on record— 15 days over 110º F.

Three of the five barely survived, scorched and stunted. But the other two— which I strategically planted in the afternoon shadow of a tall orange tree— grew to about 5’ and together produced somewhere around a pound of marijuana after drying. Half of that pound I accidentally overdried it due to a humidifier malfunction. It's VERY dry here in the Sonoran Desert. Almost all guidance on growing focuses on the removal of moisture from the air to dry pot, but here we have to add it.

A pound of pot is more than I could smoke in my entire life. Thankfully, most people will accept it as a gift. In the spirit of mutual aid, I was happy to share my abundance.

Deviated septums, sinus obstructions, and narrow nasal pathways run in my family. I've been losing sleep due to these for years but could never find the right time to take a couple weeks off work. Never work at a startup.

While recovering from surgery I picked up a game idea I've been kicking around for a couple years. Here's a teaser:

Saved the best for last ❤️