Permaculture is not only an organic farming method, it is first and foremost a radically different approach to designing human activity on our good old earth and a perfect way to recreate the links that we once had with it, but that we slowly lost over the centuries. Permaculture gives us a glimpse today of …
One day a few years back I personally embarked on a journey. One which has been the undertone of my entire existence since. It all started with a decision and a vision. The decision was to be a leader – and the vision was crafted by an elaborate purpose I personally refer to as the …
Avant d’avoir expérimenté la vie en communauté à Valhalla, nous avions une idée très claire de ce que devrait vouloir dire vivre en communauté, et nous avions beaucoup d’attentes à l’égard de cette expérience. Étant donné que nous partagions tous des valeurs et objectifs similaires, nous ne nous attendions pas à vivre beaucoup de conflits …
Today, it can seem like finding a job that you enjoy is a privilege reserved for a lucky few, and that living a life you love is a phenomenon even more rare. However, collective wisdom and countless studies show that if you do what you love you will live a happier, longer life. So, how …
Big Problem Historically, monopolies are opposed to competition. In search for ever increasing profits, corporations sometimes become so large that entire industries depend on their very existence. In many cases the corporation in question will actively seek to worsen the dependency to their products, until they have total control. Today that is happening with Monsanto. …
We all know that there are “people” looking to maintain the status quo. Heck chances are your parents are the type to not want people to stir the pot in the neighborhood. However what we can no longer ignore is that things aren’t what they use to be. With access to the internet and a …
Lake Natron in Tanzania is one of the haunting lakes in the world. Located in Africa it’s the source of some of the most phantasmagorical photographs ever captured — images that look as though living animals had instantly turned to stone. The lake is fed by the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River and also by mineral-rich …
Sirius Community is among the oldest ecovillages still thriving in North America. Timber-framed buildings, permaculture gardens, and sustainability activists have nestled themselves into this woodland oasis in western Massachusetts for over thirty-five years. Although humans have been living in community since before becoming Homo sapiens, the word “ecovillage” is a recent term. According to the …
Last fall we spent three months building our Earthship-inspired greenhouse. It was messy, unnecessarily long, cold, and fraught with unpredictable challenges. We thought that the integrity of our mission plus the enthusiasm of our team and our supporters would be enough to get the local municipality on our side. We thought that our plans would …
Twin Oaks is a 40 + year old intentional community in Virginia, United States, with around 100 residents. They have managed to figure out a system in which everyone lives there without money, and where everyone and no one is in charge. They would define themselves as a confederation of anarchists and an egalitarian village. …
BIG BUSINESS A wise man once said “more money, more problems”. This seems to be an understatement when it comes to Corporations like Monsanto. An inextinguishable urge to dominate industry and a feverish sense of competition, fueled Monsanto’s rise to the top. Their expansion into a diversity of markets , along with their willingness to …
Durant la dernière année, j’ai vécu en communauté avec les membres de Valhalla, ou dans différents écovillages que j’ai visités lors de mes voyages. Vivre en communauté peut signifier de partager une maison, un quartier, ou un village entier. Peu importe le genre de communauté où vous vivez, vous êtes assuré d’avoir une expérience folle …
For the past year, I’ve lived in community either with the gang at Valhalla or at the various Ecovillages I’ve visited on my travels. Living in community can mean sharing a house, a neighborhood or an entire village. No matter what kind of community you live in, you’re guaranteed to have a crazy experience and …
Suspended Beauty They’re called air plants, simply because they require good air to thrive. But contrary to what their name implies, they still need a good watering. They need to be completely soaked in water for about 45minutes to an hour every week or so and then completely dried. An epiphyte is a plant that …
Hiding In Plain Sight Most of what we own, consume, and purchase, is made with products from the Monsanto corporation. Whether it is the packaging around your fruits, the fruits themselves, the acrylic floor tiles in your kitchen, anything and everything plastic, processing assembly lines, pharmaceuticals; a world of products just wanting to be marketed …
A Man Made Desert When i first set my eyes on Valhalla’s land, I was not impressed, to say the least. The over working of the soil had driven it to the brink of exhaustion. Not an insect in sight, as I combed the fallout looking for survivors; all I could find were degenerate soya …
Valhalla’s Earthship Inspired Greenhouse This year I had the privilege to be part of Valhalla’s Earthship Inspired Greenhouse. It truly lived up to its name, and it was indeed a greenhouse made up of Earthship elements, but more importantly, IT WAS INSPIRING. So many problems seem to plaguing our world, and yet the solutions remain …
Why is the Valhalla Movement visiting the southern tip of Argentina? We humans are a curious folk, and when we are inspired to learn more, nothing can stand in our way. Michael Reynolds’s Earthship is of tremendous interest to the world at large, but one question stills burn to this day. Can this idea work …
With lots of things happening around the Valhalla Movement the main goal is still the same: to build an Education Centre for Sustainability out of an Earthship inspired model. There are many wheels turning on this front – from the planning of the building with local Montreal Architects to the setting up Solar Panels. We …
Billions of people around the world drink coffee every single day. Agriculture and Agri-food Canada estimates that 14 BILLION cups of coffee are consumed each year in Canada! Assuming that each cup takes about 25 grams (1 heaping tablespoon) of ground coffee to make, it takes 350 million kilos of coffee to fuel our days …
