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Grow the Good Life Project (my backyard)

Details

Commenced:	01/05/2010
Submitted:	28/01/2016
Last updated:	28/01/2016
Location:	Wellandport, Ontario, CA
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Grow the Good Life Project (my backyard)

Project Type

Rural, Residential

Project Summary

A family of four learn to applying Permaculture Ethics, Principles, Methods and Practice in their daily life. An ongoing project!

Project Description

Planning to transform our way of living, our home and our one acre backyard into a permaculture oasis in just 5 years sounds like an impossible task. Our 5 year plan is in fact a motivational guideline more than a finish line. A way to keep our focus on our objectives and goal. We will have to adjust along the way as we learn and experiment. Our journey might not come up they way we planned. It is part of the adventure and we are ready to face it! Our 5 years goal: In a 5 years period, achieving 60% to 70% of self-sufficiency. Time frame: May 2011 to May 2016 Objectifs: 1. Food target: Reducing commercial food purchase by 80%. 2. Water target: Reducing of water usage by 30% and Collecting/harvesting 100% of our drinking water. 3. Electricity target: Reducing Hydro usage by 50% and producing 100% of our electricity 4. Gas target: Reducing heating cost by 30% 5. Transportation target: Reducing our dependency to gas by 30% 6. Community living target: Developing community network in order to share knowledge, skills, trade products and make friends. 7. Economic target: Increasing our economic freedom by 40% How we will do it: Every year we will work on each objectives. Every actions associate with every objectives will be evaluated according to its time, cost and labor investment. In order to decide which project to start, we will ask ourselves these questions. 1. How long does it takes to implement this change? 2. How much work does it require? 3. How much will cost to invest in this project? 4. What will be it the impact on our objectives? More expensive, labor and time consuming actions will be done in the first years of our plan in order to recover the cost as fast as possible. Smaller projects will be done along the way as we acquire more experience and knowledge. In moments of doubt, we will always remind ourselves; The quest to reach our goal is the Great Adventure so having fun and learning from our success and failures is all part of the project to become more sustainable.

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