A community working bee

Kids being pushed around in wheelbarrows, trying to stop the dogs running across the pond lining, piles of raw materials transformed into raised vegie beds ready for planting, and a new pond planted out with lomandras and vetiver grass just waiting for a good downpour to fill it up... so was our very first community working bee.

One of the outcomes from our relocalisation group the first working bee day was a resounding success.

The group decided to focus on food supply and helping those members out who don't have their own food garden was top of the list.

Everyone had a ball and the shared meal was delicious - as shared meals so often are!

The place was transformed, and in a good way, by the time we left at the end of a tiring day.

It's all part of local solutions to global problems. Community action - practical, positive, co-operative, sharing of skills and knowledge.

When the pinch of peak oil really starts to hit - and it is starting already with food prices and fuel on the rise - we need to band together and get systems in place in our own local areas to support ourselves and our neighbours. The sooner we get these skills and networks in place the easier it will be.

Waiting until the crisis hits is not the time to decide what your plan of action is. That's one thing I learnt after 15 years in crisis management.

Permaculture gives us such a great plan for how to do build networks and get things started. And over the next few posts I'll look at each principle and how that applies directly to peak oil solutions.

I urge you to start your own action group and see how it goes - let it flow and become what it needs to become, avoid nay-sayers and if people just want to turn it into a whinge about council or government, gently point out to them that your all about positive solutions - finding a way forward rather than trying to fix what's already there.

Sonya