Hello Permaculture world! My name is Derek Attema and here is my story. I am 31 years old and have spent the last 10 years living in Aspen, CO. Just over 4 years ago I volunteered one month of my life to building sustainable houses unfortunately named "Earthships" in Taos, NM (I'm sure most permies know what that is, if not youtube.com "Garbage Warrior" for an excellent documentary). While I was there, I learned about how to build an earthship, as well as how not to run a business. Either way, the most important thing I took home from the one month internship was literally the love of my life. Her name is Ryan Ashely Hile. After the internship was over we talked on the phone everyday until she moved from Florida beaches to Colorado snow; so we would be together 6 weeks later. Jumping ahead, her mother told me she wanted to grow a food forest?! She is and always will be a little weird, but when she told me that I thought she was absolutely crazy. Seriously crazy. Then I was introduced to Geoff Lawton's Food Forest DVD. I almost turned it off after the first 10 mins, but thankfully I didn't. I realized that earthships were merely a small branch of what I was searching for and what I was searching for was Permaculture. I immediately signed up for Geoff Lawton's course and absolutely fell in love with permaculture. Greg and Becky (aka mom and dad) talked with Ryan and I every week for 2 years looking for property. We improved our credit and saved as much as we could in the meantime. This month we bought a beautiful property with 42 acres 2/3 cleared land (rolling hills) with 2 creeks, a pond, and two wonderful homes. After this winter ski season we will begin setting up the Permaculture Farm! We are so excited for this adventure and hope to come here to this blog to show what we have done right and share how we have done things not-so right as well as learn with everyone here. If anyone has some advice or comments we openly welcome them. Thank you! Derek Attema
Hi Derek and welcome, Congratulations on your property, great story ... especially re: Ryan! Looking forward to hearing of your further exploits.
New Hi Derek and welcome! Outstanding news and way to make it happen! Although I haven't visited the site, I have known about the Earthships for a long time, being from NM myself. I have a few acres down south by Timberon, NM. I have spent some time in GA and can imagine how pretty that place must be (even before fixing it up) and the excitement that you feel for the future!! Look forward to hearing about it and learning as well. Good luck to you all as you "grow"!
