From my base of operations on our 80 acres at Hananiah's Rest Ranch (see assoc project) I am starting consulting services to implement permaculture practices in the American Southwest

I am a father of five and husband of one with degrees in religious studies and healthcare. I spent most of my professional life in equipment sales to the whole foods and agriculture industries but switched careers late in life and am now an RN on the Navajo Reservation in NE Arizona.

I operate a Permaculture demonstration site and lodge in the high desert of SW Colorado with views of The Sleeping Ute Mountain, Mesa Verde National Park and the San Juan Range of the Colorado Rockies.

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania I was an avid student of Euell Gibbons in the late 60's and early 70's and expected to pursue a career in Forestry until, when my father died during my freshman year in college, I switched my major to Religious Studies to try and figure out The Universe.

Now that I have the Universe completely figured out I have no affiliation with any religion but have studied The Torah more than anything else other than Permaculture. Perhaps my greatest passion for Permacutlure comes from the profound link I see between it and The Torah. While I understand Geoff Lawton's concerns about associating anything "Woo Woo" with Permaculture, I feel strongly that everyone, even atheists, agnostics and humanists, come to Permaculture informed deeply by their prevailing belief systems. This being the case, I think these belief systems are critical to understand and evaluate.

I have been studying Permaculture for many years but have only recently been able to purchase land to be able to implement these ideas in any but a virtual fashion. I will be trying to document my efforts in order to be able to connect with others and advance interest in Permaculture in a high desert environment that sorely needs its benefits.

I have put in a 3800 foot mainframe swale and the hardy subcanopy of a food forest in the spring of 2014 and have followed this with mob grazing of chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks and goats in the summer. Additional swales, ponds, hugel mounds and the remainder of the food forest should be started in 2015. We are completely off the grid and are using solar powered drip irrigation to establish a self sustaining and perpetuating food forest to feed family, friends and introduce the Four Corners region to an abundance of fruit, nut and vegetable riches not currently grown here.

I look forward to meeting lots more practitioners "in the garden"!