© 2010 Drops in a Bucket Blog, www.HarvestingRainwater.com

When I was little I was terrified of death. I often cried myself to sleep as I thought of the end of life. It seemed so bleak, pointless, and severe.

Mom tried to comfort me with the concept of going to heaven. This did not reassure me at all. “How do you know there is a heaven?” I’d ask. “Have you been there?”

Eventually, I just numbed myself to the fear by burying it in the recesses of my mind and body.

Years later the fear evaporated with an incredible discovery – composting. Yes! Here was tangible proof that there was life after death, that everything did not just end/stop/vanish with death. Instead, things transformed. In the compost pile I saw kitchen scraps, weeds, and a dead chicken decompose into beautiful, rich, fertile soil in which earthworms, mycelia, chiles, and all kinds of new life grew.

Death no longer scared me, now it excited me. My composting dead body could generate myriad life! Don’t get me wrong: I’m in no rush to experience this. But when it eventually does happen – no problem.

Maybe.

My dead body could generate life, or more death depending on how it is disposed of.

The conventional death industry embalms bodies with a toxic brew of formaldehyde, phenol, and menthol, which can contaminate groundwater and generate cancer and other disease in those doing the embalming.¹ According to Grave Matters, today the U.S. funeral industry buries over 3 pounds of the formaldehyde-based “formalin” with every embalmed body (totaling 800,000 gallons [3,028,000 liters] of formaldehyde a year),² while from the Civil War era to 1910, arsenic, zinc, and lead where the preferred toxic embalming compounds.³

Then there are the caskets, turning cemeteries into landfills. Grave Matters states, “Over time the typical ten-acre [4 ha] swath of cemetery ground contains enough coffin wood to construct more than forty houses, nine hundred-plus tons [816,000 kg] of casket steel, and another twenty thousand tons [18,143,000 kg] of vault concrete.”⁴

Cremation avoids embalming toxins, and the body can be burned in a shroud or cardboard container instead of a standard casket to consume less fuel and release fewer pollutants. But the fuel needed to incinerate the body is still substantial. Carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide are typical emissions along with toxic trace metals such as mercury – which comes from dental fillings (a good reason to ask for mercury-free fillings while alive).

All crematories in the U.S. may emit 5,000 pounds [2,267 kg] of mercury a year, while in the United Kingdom four times that amount is emitted due to a higher percent of the population choosing cremation.⁵

Depressing.

Deadening.

Friend and mentor Tim Murphy gave me a different vision. He wants to be buried toxin-free and naked, ass up, in the fetal position, with an acorn up his butt. “Plant me, and plant a tree. Years later you and others can come sit under my shade, harvest some acorns, and celebrate what is possible.”

I sometimes think of Tim as a radical traditionalist, and a small, but growing segment of the death industry is enabling others to take a similar path that encourages the natural decomposition of the dead and regeneration of other life from the process rather than trying to halt or slow what will eventually happen anyway. The website www.GreenBurialCouncil.org is one conduit to this path. And the book Caring for the Dead: A Complete Guide for Those Making Funeral Arrangements with or without a Funeral Director by Lisa Carlson is another conduit if you want to reduce or eliminate your participation in a death industry.

A green burial does not allow toxic embalming, concrete vaults, or elaborate caskets, which can reduce the cost of a burial by $8,000 to $12,000, according to memorial ecologist Joe Whittaker. Young trees or an engraved fieldstone are recommended over tombstones.

I experienced a new green or conservation burial ground for all faiths first hand at Honey Creek Woodlands just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. It is a beautiful place with very caring and dedicated staff, including Joe Whittaker. And it is erupting with new life.

It is located on and beside a section of once-grazed and clear-cut forest in the heart of the 2,100-acre [849-ha] grounds of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. The monastery grounds are bordered by and connected to a state park and the network of footpaths, creeks, and wildlife corridors of the park and encompassing 8,000-acre [2,327-ha] Arabia Mountain Heritage Area. This is a huge strength for a final resting place, since many people already feel connected to this land.

First and foremost, the burial grounds are a nature preserve, with the goal of enhancing a 50-year succession back to a mixed hardwood forest, through such practices as selective weeding of invasive exotics, seeding and planting native plant stock, and adding organic matter to the soil.

Bodies are planted just 3 to 3.5 feet [0.9 to 1.06 m] deep because microbial activity and soil life drops tremendously at depths greater than 4 feet [1.21 m]. Above the body the excavated soil is placed in a mound with the topsoil placed back on top for a total initial “depth” of about 5 feet [1.5 m]. This is then covered with a light pine needle mulch and native wildflower seed. The Georgia Native Plant Society ensures only natives are used. Flowers and butterflies soon cover the 2-foot [0.6-m] tall burial mound – over 64 species of butterflies were counted in one day in 2008. The mound settles completely after a few years.

The process is so visible! So beautiful! I visited a day-old burial; fresh flowers still atop the grave. 10 feet [3 m] away, dried and shriveled flowers rested atop a week-old burial. And as I looked about I saw I was surrounded by burials, all in various stages of settling and regeneration. The older they were, the greater the density of vegetation atop them, and the more level the soil.

I saw a family cremation plot circle of fieldstones surrounding a tree. All were again reunited and rooted around their family’s tree.

I felt revived just being in this regenerating forest. I felt…

Alive!

REFERENCES:

1. Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. Scribner, 2007. pp. 40, 41.

2. Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. Scribner, 2007. pp. 40, 56.

3. Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. Scribner, 2007. pp. 30, 39.

4. Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. Scribner, 2007. p. 38.

5. Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. Scribner, 2007. p. 61.

The 15th Annual Permaculture Design Course

Registration for this course opens on September 1, 2009

For complete details, visit: www.sonoranpermaculture.org/courses-and-workshops/

Participants in the 14th Annual Design Course in 2008 pictured below.

Five Weekends in February and March  -
Feb. 6th, 7th;
Feb. 13th, 14th,
Feb. 27th, 28th;
Mar. 13th, 14th;
Mar. 20th, 21st

9:00 AM to 5:30 PM each day.

Cost $650, $595 for early registration (by December 31st). There is also
a class book fee of $39 for a copy of Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison. Also highly recommended is Brad Lancaster’s Rainwater Harvesting for
Drylands and Beyond, Vol 1 and Vol 2.

For the last seven years this course has been full with a waiting list, so early registration is encouraged. To give a high
quality educational experience, we limit the size of the class to eighteen participants. Contact dorsey@dakotacom.net or 624-8030 to register or see the information below for registration info and other FAQs.

This course is one of the longest running annual Permaculture courses in the U.S. and leads to a Permaculture design certificate. It covers all aspects of sustainable design with an emphasis on Southwest dry lands, including a balance of hands on experience, classroom time, and design practicum. Dynamic exercises encourage pattern recognition, noticing the links between plants and animals, climate, and landforms that make up natural ecosystems. These patterns are the basis for the Permaculture system of sustainable design.

The course focuses on dry land communities, addressing individual site and neighborhood “problems” such as storm water flooding. Students learn to read the landscape, to map and analyze energies flowing through a site, and to develop integrated designs for sustainable systems. The weekend format of the course makes it easier for people who hold a week day job to attend and promotes better integration of the course material into daily life.

Course topics include agro forestry, appropriate technology, building design, design principles and patterning, site analysis, dry land gardening principles, ecosystem restoration, philosophy and ethics of Permaculture, regenerative community economics, soils and erosion control, village and community design, water harvesting, and many other topics.

We take field trips to working Permaculture sites around Tucson, and you will have the chance throughout the course to design and begin implementing Permaculture on a site of your choosing. This course is challenging and fun, and it shows the whole big picture of
sustainable design in Southwest Dry lands and how sustainability and integrated design really work!

Site: The classroom will be in the Central Tucson area, and at other Permaculture sites in the Tucson area. Much of the class is held outdoors.

Taught and facilitated by Dan Dorsey, Brad Lancaster, Barbara Rose, and other teachers from the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, as well as professional guest instructors. For teacher profiles see the members link on this website. To register and for more information contact Dan Dorsey, course registrar, at 624 8030 or dorsey@dakotacom.net?.

February 6-17, 2010

This course will be taught by Greg Corman of Gardening Insights and Paul Green and Kendall Kroesen of Tucson Audubon. Other great guest speakers, including Brad Lancaster, will participate as well.

Whether you are a landscape designer or a backyard do-it-yourselfer, you may be interested in Tucson Audubon’s “Landscaping for Wildlife and Sustainability” course. The course provides training to create landscapes that not only meet traditional landscaping goals, but also provide food, shelter and nesting opportunities for birds, and that provide for the needs of other small urban wildlife (arthropods, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals). Information is also provided on how landscapes can reduce use of potable water and energy, capture carbon, reduce pollution and cool our cities.

The course will help link you to native plant nurseries to ensure that we complete the circle between concept and installation.

Course Format

The next course will consist of four meetings: Saturday February 6, Wednesday February 10, Saturday February 13 and Wednesday February 17. Saturday meetings are 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. (lunch provided). Wednesday meetings are 7 -9 p.m. The first meeting will be held at the Tucson Audubon Society Mason Center, and other meetings will be the Tucson Audubon office in the Historic YWCA, 738 N. 5th Ave., or at other locations.

A plant list, an optional reading list, and other useful materials will be provided as part of the cost of the course. The course will need a minimum of 8 students, but will be limited to a maximum of about 20.

Cost: $250

To sign up, please send a deposit of $50 by January 20, 2010 to hold your place. A considerable number of people have expressed an interest in the course. Please send deposits or full payment to Tucson Audubon, Attn. Jean Barchman, 300 E University Blvd, #120, Tucson, AZ 85705.

For more information about signing up, or to pay with a credit card, contact Jean Barchman at 622-5622. Call for an email address to prevent spam.

For more information about the class, contact Kendall Kroesen at (520) 206-9900 or (520) 971-2385 cell. Call for an email address to prevent spam.

Course Topics

What ecological issues can we address through landscaping? Which birds are in Tucson and what are their habitat needs? How do we go beyond just using native plants to provide habitat for birds? Tucson Audubon’s landscaping course will consider these issues and many others, including:

Problems of current Tucson landscapes and solutions
Local bird diversity and what birds need
Principles of sustainable design
The role of insects/arthropods
Rainwater harvesting and other hardscape issues
Native plant diversity, structure and density for wildlife
Native plant availability in the nursery trade
Irrigation strategies for plant establishment
Desert garden aesthetics
Tucson Audubon’s landscape recognition program

Please note: this weekend greywater workshop is not open to the public. It is part of an 8-weekend course hosted by Watershed Management Group.

Participants must apply through and be accepted by Watershed Management Group.

Application deadline is February 5, 2010.

Visit www.watershedmg.org/certification and scroll down to the Phoenix section for a full course description, schedule, and application.

Water Harvesting Certification Program

Watershed Management Group (WMG) is pleased to announce the first Water Harvesting Certification course to be held in Phoenix starting in March 2010.

WMG’s Water Harvesting Certification is the only such program in the nation. The Certification program is a hands-on training course in water harvesting design and implementation, and certification is earned by passing an exam at the end of the program.

Our goal is to effectively transfer water-harvesting knowledge to those who can teach these practices and utilize them in their professions. The aim of the certification program is to provide the highest quality training in integrative water harvesting offered in the nation as well as create a standard benchmark to measure proficiency in these topics.

WMG is partnering with Phoenix-based non-profit Arizona Home Grown Solutions to help plan and promote the Phoenix Level 1 Certification course.

The Phoenix-based Level 1 Certification Program will take place via 8 weekend intensive trainings beginning March 19 and finishing May 8, 2010.

For the full course announcement and application, please visit www.watershedmg.org/certification and scroll down to the Phoenix section.

Brad will be working with the students of Sandia Prep throughout the day on Monday, February 22.

Curriculum to include an introduction to water harvesting; the lessons of Mr Phiri, the African water farmer; and a hands-on campus water-budget project with the students and faculty of the Sustainability Committee.

For more information about Sandia Prep, please visit them online at www.sandiaprep.org.

Planting the Rain to Grow Food and Abundance

A free public talk by Brad Lancaster

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Simms Auditorium on the campus of Albuquerque Academy

Time: 6:30 – 7:45 pm

Description:
Integrated water harvesting makes the most of our local water resources, by enhancing them instead of depleting them. Simultaneously, we can use that harvested water to grow food and passive-cooling shade, control erosion and floods, and create wildlife habitat and jobs. Water can be harvested at home, in the neighborhood, on farms and ranches, and community-wide. Brad’s dynamic talk will show you how, with numerous case studies from around the world, including creating oases out of wastelands in Africa and Arizona, and brewing rain beer in Atlanta.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact:
Joni Barabé (barabe@aa.edu, or  (505) 828-3281), or Sue Rzendzian (rzendzian@aa.edu).

Times are tentative.

Location TBA.

More details to come….

Date: May 11, 2010

Time: 6 pm

Location:
The Ecology Center
32701 Alipaz St
San Juan Capistrano, CA

Phone: (949) 443-4223

info@theecologycenter.org

The Ecology Center’s mission is to inspire and involve people in the stewardship of Southern California’s environment, providing education in sustainable agriculture, ecological design and the heritage of San Juan Capistrano.

More details to come…

Times listed are approximate.

Stay tuned for more details…