23/08/2024
water is life,
just yesterday i wrote to one of my first permaculture teachers in Perth, Western Australia whom i did my Permaculture Design Course with almost 18 years ago, his name is Ross Mars.
He is a master in greywater systems and rainwater harvesting, creating a business in it and did a PHD connected to this field. Ross was very grounded guy and i learnt alot with him, also working for him in his aquatic nursery as well as helping him in Permaculture gardens. At that time i did work experience with the rainwater and greywater installation team, and almost decided to specialise in water systems at that time, as water is life i was thinking it is foundational, what is more important. It is very much so in dryland meditteranean climates. As time goes on i worked many years in Australia, Israel and now Spain all sharing this common dryland climate and holding water in the landscape is essential to be able to bring life, plants, trees, animals and to also bring water for the house. i wrote to Ross just yesterday, as im in time where my projects get bigger and more complex, as i'm designing an integrated water system for a landscape in Catalonia spain. I'm exploring how to hold large amounts of rainfall both in water dams, ecological pools, rainwater tanks and gullies especially as the property is off grid. I was sad to hear that Ross Mars passed away last year from his son. I wanted to write to say how grateful i am of his teachings of holding water in the landscape and being an inspiration in life for me. I am also really fortunate to have had other experiences like in Melbourne, when Dan Palmer and the Permablitz Melbourne crew had Costa Georgiadis Official come filming for Australian television on Costa's Gardening Odyssey show at our home of Steven Harris where we created a liked permaculture haven. Where i really felt like i embodied this idea of connecting downpipes underground to a rainwater tank further from the house, and i recall laying the pipe with Costa, thinking wow, water goes from high to low, and if so with gravity you have alot of flexibility in design, but its an essential rule to allow it to sink in and apply in the landscape. Then further i was grateful to do some documentary making with my mentor Hamish MacCallum as well David Holmgren about Ferrocement rainwater tanks and fire prevention shelters on the edge of Australian bush. I also had the chance to really learn and practise working together with Hamish in the field on creating swales , hydration in the field. Hamish is still been amazing guiding me more on understanding the relationship of soils Lancaster - Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond has also been a great inspiration for slowing spreading and sinking water in landscapes and really is such a great teacher, making lessons really accessible online. Art Ludwig was my hero, and i wanted to apprentice with him in Santa barbara, but at the time of visiting California he was working on ecohouse project not on water systems, but i learnt about laundry to landscape and mulch basins. In Melbourne i also had to privelege to manage Callum Robinson greywater business, for melbourne houses for a year which also gave me deep understanding of systems thinking. In Israel, i am quite often using all these techniques in design and principles and applying them to landscape. Life is water, is all connected to the Torah of life, that feeds the tree of life. I'm grateful to be in Spain to be expanding my field of knowledge in water systems once again, where i'm working on multiple levels of landscape in the mountains of Catalonia, analysing hardscapes and rainwater harvesting, water audits of the house and reading landscapes of potential design in water gully dams, ecological pools and rainwater tanks. The courses in regenerative agriculture that i took some 15 years ago with masters like Darren Doherty, as i sat with Costa taking notes on all the hydrological formulas etc, is now grounding all that theory in creating the vessel for life is water. I'm grateful to have had great teachers Ross Mars, Hamish Macculum, Dave Holmgren, Darren Doherty, Costa Georgiadis, Callum Robinson that i can draw inspiration from and also reach out to in the field. Grateful to be part of the Permaculture community, the Regenerative agriculture regarian community. Also just want to honour my grandma at this time who's anniversary it is today, and was such a Matriach in holding a great vessel of light in this world.
Life is precious, water is life, bless. Im always navigating around water, swimming in water holes, rivers and surfing the oceans and sailing the seas thanks to brother Jeremy Pesach Dahvid Stadlin. Perhaps because i am an aquarius that i hold a bucket of water on my head, that water is always my mind, water is life, lachaim may we be blessed with flowing pure waters, and may the rains come in good times, and may the dew also bring life.
blessings Mayim Chayim
