I have been a self-employed bookkeeper/consultant since 2000. I am gradually passing on that work to my daugher while my husband Gary and I begin to shift the emphasis of the business to ‘accounting for what really counts’ – that is, for measurable things that matter to living communities, but are not accounted for in the GDP and often ignored in the corporate media. For more information please see our website www.gnusystems.ca .

In the summer of 2010 I participated in a weekend Permaculture workshop given by Jusin Tilson. I got started right away by planting several fruit trees and bushes. I have experimented with gardening over the years and found a great deal of difficulty to get the plants to survive on their own. We have a well and there is not a lot of water to go around especially in July and August. In the fall we installed an eavestrough on the barn and Gary set up a raised barrel system to collect the water near where the food forest is located. Permaculture provides ways of using and storing water and planting in such a way that plants provide shade and nutrition to each other.

I have a lot to learn and I will be taking Justin Tilson's 6 Month Permaculture course starting May 2011.