Interview with Chris Brockman

Evelyn Hadden interviewed Chris Brockman in July, 2008, in a series of email conversations.

What drew you to permaculture, and when?

I discovered permaculture on a crisp January day in 1993 while strolling through a bookstore in Denver, Colorado. Bill Mollison's large textbook--commonly referred to as 'the design manual'--leapt out at me from the shelves. I don't think I'd ever seen the word 'permaculture'. I curled up in a quiet corner at the store and found myself paging through the book for quite a long time. To tell you the truth, I was really attracted to all of the very detailed and varied illustrations--done as it turns out by Andrew Jeeves. What I really liked about the concepts was how integrated everything was. I definitely imagined myself living in a productive environment with food and fuel close by. I eventually read my way to the end of the manual and its resources section. I remember writing letters (pre-internet, of course) to many of the U.S. based permaculture organizations. I got lots of interesting brochures and newsletters.

To learn more about earthships, see:
The Earthship website
Wikipedia entry on Mike Reynolds
Garbage Warrior, a documentary about Mike Reynolds

How did you move from thinking to doing?

About a year or two prior to my permaculture introduction, I had purchased the latest copy of Mother Earth News magazine. Mother Earth always seemed to have quite fantastic headlines and this issue was no exception: “BUILD A HOUSE FROM OLD TIRES & CANS, Beautiful & energy efficient for $20 per square foot.” The article was about New Mexican architect, Michael Reynolds, who had been pursuing a green building path since the 1970’s. He named his junk + earth structures, Earthships, “independent vessels—to set sail on the seas of tomorrow.”

I was very attracted to Michael’s ideas and hit the road in 1994 to get some hands-on experience with building Earthships in Taos, New Mexico. I was really impressed with what I saw in Taos. Not just with the structures themselves, but with the mindset of the builders and inhabitants and how community could grow around these ideas. It was very complimentary to permaculture and systems thinking too.

I came back to Pine County, Minnesota about a year later, bubbling with ideas about how to meld tires, earth, wood and solar technologies into a home of my own. I found my particular piece of paradise for a homestead in 1996 near Sturgeon Lake. I knew the land was meant for me—it had beautiful tall pines, a pond and a big old pile of used automobile tires (the previous owner had a junkyard here). I felt that I could literally “stack functions,” as we say in permaculture, by cleaning up junk and building a home with the same materials. It’s been a lot of work, but I’m happy I’ve given it a go. I am rewarded every day by this place.

Sounds like you've created a sustainable lifestyle for yourself. Would you describe the various components of your "green life"?

1. Solar orientation---it faces south with lots of big windows to collect the low winter sun.
2. Earth bermed—earth is pushed up to the edge of the roofline on the west and north sides. This helps insulate and moderate temperature extremes.
3. Captures rainwater--- I direct a portion of rain falling on my metal roof to a 2000 gallon poly cistern. This water is used for all household purposes (filtered for drinking). I don’t have a well which saved a lot of money up front. This strategy continues to be an energy saver everyday by the electricity not needed for deep well pumping (quite substantial).
4. Reuses some greywater---I have two built-in planters under my south windows that accept used dishwashing water. Plants include passion flower, banana, pomegranate, lime and fig.
5. Solar electric---I use solar panels to provide electricity for my home. The panels are connected to a bank of batteries and not to the grid. I run a gasoline generator about 3 hours per week during the cloudy short days of winter to keep the batteries charged.
6. Efficient appliances---a small DC refrigerator (36 watts), an LED desk lamp (3 watts), a DC water pump (60 watts) and laptop computer. In the summer I have enough extra electricity to cook with an electric hotplate. I have a cool Solar Oven too that works great.
7. Woodstove---I heat and cook with firewood in the winter. I used 2-3 cords of wood per year—much of it being lower BTU species like pine and aspen. The temperature of the house seems to stay above 50 degrees even when I am gone for extended periods.
8. Dry toilet---I use a home built water-free sawdust toilet to capture my waste for further composting and reuse in the landscape. I also have a urine capture system---lots of good nitrogen to be reused.
9. Food---I produce about 20% of my food from my landscape and garden. I have chickens and enjoy eggs. Last year I shared in a deer harvested from my land.

Solar oven

So you have finished the major part of setting up your home and landscape, and now you are getting a lot of satisfaction from your past efforts. What are you still tweaking?

• My solar electric system is a bit undersized . . . and could be upgraded with a few more photovoltaic panels.
• My house still needs plenty of finishing touches.
• I will forever be improving and enriching my sandy soil for growing.
• There are many opportunities to use more of the rainwater that falls on my roof.
• Window quilts for winter time use would be helpful.
• I still drive too much.

If you're not too exhausted from answering the previous questions, would you share a favorite permaculture-related principle or bit of philosophy?

I can sum up my project’s progress (and find comfort) by quoting David Holmgren’s permaculture principle #9: Use slow and small solutions.