Join the I Help Save the Earth Club! ELY 087

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What’s up I’m Ben Hale and this is the easy living yards podcast creating beautiful yard should be easy let’s jump a and create the Dream Yard you deserve so you can enjoy more time doing what you love negative feeling about it and instead we can have positive feelings about our yard and positive investment of time returned back to us okay really believe is creating your yard to be low maintenance and beautiful return so much time in value to your life so that’s what easy living yards is about today we’re GonNa be diving deep on kind of an introspective why what’s the purpose for being here on this show what’s our purpose big question right and getting into those is I help you create your diy landscape that you love that’s true right but this is important in this is what yard is not that important in the grand scheme of things there are so many more important things we can be doing with our lives and that’s what’s important worry for why I created easy living yards and also what that means for you and what could that mean for you a two okay so I’m sharing today the start of a theme for October so October I’m sharing a theme of care for deeper more meaningful reasons as to why we do what we do every day day in and day out and what it means for us and we’ll tie it of course full circle to what it means podcast guys today is a different show starting off with that we’re going to be switching it up a little bit and Sloan what can you do with your yard can you really make a difference through your yard and also through the time you save working on your yard to do something more it’s that’s why it’s important okay so we’re creating are beautiful you hard so we don’t have to be out there slaving away working on it being on this planet so I’m going to dive a little bit to the negative side I it’s just important for me to really understand you know airmont care for people really important for me here at he’s living yards and I hope it’s important to you too now those are big grandiose terms right and what does it really mean or landscape but I’ve talked about this in previous shows and I’ll talk about it again today it’s very important is the reality is taking care of her down a little bit and instead of talking about practical yard tips which are very important we’re going to be deep dive in deep inside today in talking about or just the massive detrimental impact of development on our planet we just went to a trip through central Quebec me to see a lack of care for environment whether it’s just litter on the side of the road chemical usage widespread throughout everything now you’d think this would be like you know counter to running a landscape consultation business right that’s what I do here at he’s living yards so I wanna dive into that what do I mean when I care for the environment what’s my commitment to the environment and in doing so I’m going to share a little bit of mice waiting for with your life I’m GonNa call each of us out today including myself to say we can all be doing a better job to have a more positive impact while we’re here on the driver free me almost I’m I’m not saying that it’s a negative thing but there is some negativity here I have to share it it really paints for me and I thought maybe you guys would like to understand more about me and why I do what I do here at he’s living yards but also what this means for you driving through the central parts of Quebec and just seeing the massive widespread logging that was going on south of central Quebec like the Middle Line of Quebec is a seventeen hour drive to get there that’s how giant candidate is for those of you who haven’t been doc was really south central it’s crazy so from southern Ohio up to the Saint Lawrence Bay region is still sitting on top of a giant stump I can’t even comprehend the number of rings there are on this tree that I’m looking at it’s at least one hundred rings and in there for any of you Canadians listening hollow I guess I don’t I don’t know how to speak my Kennedy’s or let alone my cabin I’m recording this episode in the woods right now in hereby Park Beautiful Beautiful Park my computer that’s recording this episode is she had this Ted talk that I watched recently and she mentioned that in Canada logging is at three point six percent of land western Canada I can’t remember which I think she’s in British Columbia can’t remember which university so Dr Simard ask per year three point six percent of their land logged every year and she said that’s four times more within sustainable rate it’s also the highest rate of logging in any country in the world that’s crazy assist tree you know it I get it get old some have to be cut down this one looks like it must’ve been diseased so sad though what we what we’ve lost so when I go through my day one of the big questions I asked when I really dive deep inside sharing I teared up while watching the show or this video this talk she was giving because to me that’s just heartbreaking so we need to do it’s up to each of US keep recording I don’t want to lose this train of thought I saw this wonderful wonderful video today by Suzanne Simard that I might be right we all enjoy some level of environmental destruction digital media right most of the parts going up the recording with another episode so I’m going to talk about this next episode to most likely but Suzanne Simard is this Dr in and I hope you can ask the question is how do we live more in harmony with our world we’re all partly responsible of a large oil corporation or steel corporation or or mining company but we can all make you change that make up the phones and computers that were listening on that I’m recording on our mind from our earth the plastics are mined from the earth from but we all reap the benefits from it right so how do we do it in a better way now I know most likely none of you are CEO’s and I get it would is sustainable material but the way we harvest our forests is not sustainable all right I’m getting off on a sidetrack crude oil right so everything comes from the earth everything we have comes from the earth and it can be easy for me to say well that’s bad we should do that I started out with the question of how do I take what I love and care for and make it easy for everyone to make a difference here a little bit but it just it shows you the level of pain I feel I almost teared up when I watched this video I mean if I’m if I’m honest and not overly uncomfortable with it’s an I wanna do it by helping you okay so how do I do that while it doesn’t have to hurt our livelihood that’s the cool thing is to start we don’t have to make these giant sacrifices that most people think about when they think about taking care of her to do the best we can I believe to care for the environment we have for mother Earth for our planet whatever you WanNa call it we need to do a better job let’s hit the rewind button so looking back on my history I’m GonNa share you some some good? GDP cost with our environment.

00:05:42 – 00:11:55

I was just watching an amazing video that a link to in today’s show guests can hear a plane going by probably so starting out as really young I had influences of being out in the woods and luckily my parents were very into it easy living yards is a direct result of my care for the environment this is what I’m doing to make a difference because anyway back on topic right so I was it was just made me feel so sad learning about nature themselves so we’d go hiking a lot they were very outdoorsy people still are and they would teach us and care about the nature around me the animals and so I learned so many little tidbits whether I wanted to or not about the plants around me I’ve forgotten many of them suddenly all those creatures disappeared from that creek and what I learned about from my biologically minded parents this is a eight year old child I think I was at the time was devastating to realize that people wonderful days of walking through neighborhood parks I’m standing in one of those parks I grew up in right how walking through those neighborhood parks that were just research is starting to back up what me and many other people have believed already so I’m so thankful for those times in the woods kid learning about the woods but one crazy thing really impacted me we used to go creaking all the time what’s creaking you might ask well myself my siblings anybody that would was willing to listen or was unfortunately stuck with them on the trail they would teach them about the plants around us or the fauna around us dams all sorts of crazy things getting wet getting her hands messy getting our feet wet it was it was beautiful fund developmental time mm Shell Creek that was the The local creeks bias.

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We’d go catching crawdads salamanders crayfish since and I haven’t found a way to properly express that as to how if this is impactful to me how do I use that but now as a grown older sadly I’m wishing I remembered so many of them and I’m really learning a lot of it now those could difference this feeling has been reinforced throughout my life whether it’s been hiking myself going to new come out that are shown that people that are in contact with nature have more positive psychology they live longer crazy stuff right now the if you want to call him that all these little critters that were in the creeks and streams taking some clay building clay figures stacking up rocks building Little Rock in the woods their nature is a healing place. That’s what I believe there’s so many research studies that Cincinnati region was they had these little nature camps that the local park hosted does were hugely impactful for me as a child Jio with a green mullet it was awesome all right so fast forward to fourth grade you know a ten fifteen minute drive five minute drive from our house there is one park down the street it was a short five minute walk down the street and you could get lost as you put on really junkie shoes and you go you spend couple hours twenty minutes some level of time to get immersed in the limestone sales of my past here that if every any of you meet me in person this these are things that most people don’t know about me so it’s kind of fun I guess natural places and always hearing the sounds of industry close by camping going to nature camp as a kid yeah that was the thing around I I grew up during the age of Captain Planet Captain Planet was my hero I’m not I’m not going as far as saying Captain Planet was the reason for easy working lot at school at the time I thought this was incredibly impactful in for me it was so whether or not it made a chain difference later on I discovered this design process called permaculture you may be familiar with it was that there was development happening upstream and all of the runoff from development killed the wildlife in the creek now I’m surprised I didn’t take that club farther now life you know life happens things change and I moved away from that school after that is to give us an extra five minutes of recess for anybody that joined my club and we picked up we kit that parking lot nice and clean and who knows where it would have gone but we but what I can be certain about is that easy living yards is an extension of my work using this design process being implemented across the globe gives me great hope at the same time this design process has been reapplied the planet is. Let’s just say Whoopi Goldberg in Lavar Burton were both characters on Captain Planet was animated cartoon and Captain Planet was the super on the global scale it made a change for me and the students that join my club now oddly enough most of the students in my class ended up joining this club I was able to convince the teacher and separate in the way of Agriculture and Ecology essentially what permaculture is there’s no one definition of it but it’s a design process that creates resilient systems of low input high yield through the I help save the Earth Club so right now if you’re still listening to this episode I’m going to officially deputize you as an I help save the Earth Club member is designed under these principles as well oddly enough permaculture was so impactful for me when I learned about it welcome to episode eighty seven of the easy living yards maybe not if you’re not you’re going to learn about it now permaculture was a term that was coined in the late nineteen seventies this is a relatively new that I decided I was going to take my love of beautiful landscapes my love of environment and then whatever is abundant surplus gets returned either to other people or back to the earth living yards but I’m also not going to deny whether or not I’ve dressed up as captain planet for Halloween so for those of you who don’t know who boarded the I help save the Earth Club we went around my parking lot it my school and we picked up all the trash and cigarette butts that littered the when I first started easy living yards it was a business business called aesthetic ecosystems I learned after a few nudges in a couple of years it even a fourth grade kid even group of fourth grade kids can make a difference so if a couple fourth graders can make a difference what are you doing to make it until care in my passion for permaculture to turn it into a business that is easy living yards it’s a resilient design process originally designed for agriculture in there’s models of sustainable and regenerative agriculture we’re ever you live and I want to charge you with going out do your part to help save the Earth as well what this taught me is that is that everything in permaculture design first cares for the earth it cares for the people of the Earth early life started to show back up in that creek nature took care of itself but the lesson has stuck with me to design of urban systems to design of businesses it’s a design process that’s pervasive I hope that my businesses those people didn’t understand how to spell the word aesthetic let alone understand what the term meant aesthetic ecosystems right people wondered if I was an environmental consultant help you create a landscape that’s beautiful right what I’m not always one hundred percent clear on is I use permaculture design Canadian if you’re from Kentucky it might be called Krikken all right or maybe maybe if you’re from the UK it might be called Brooking I don’t know but basically what it means and it’s designed on three ethics care care if people in return of surplus essentially what this means when I was in a way that’s what I am people wondered what the heck is aesthetic ecosystems right so I changed the name something that maybe was a bit more applicable easy living yards I hope you create landscaped as low maintenance in principles to teach what teaching you essentially I’m teaching you low maintenance landscaping that is designed to be resilient to stress his resilient in periods of lack of care where the system takes care of itself court against it go where nobody can see you right now standing uncomfortably close to two hiking trails people are walking behind me always for whatever reason being nature to me speaks to the soul I don’t know how that makes an impact on you there’s another reason that I’m so driven with the Environment I’ve always felt most spiritual in nature what the heck I’m doing here I don’t care because this message is important to me and this is the best spot for me to speak my message maybe you feel the same way maybe you don’t even know I challenge you to go in nature spend time in nature just to be it’s a little odd you think is beautiful to you that also benefits the planet one plant is better than none plants trying to maintain that space until we can convert it to something that I desire do you need all the space you have maybe you live on twenty acres maybe live on ten acres if you live on an acre maybe half Acre maybe a tenth of Acre I challenge you that you don’t need all that space I’m not saying you need to sell it saying why not use that space do something that you enjoy long lasting systems that also support diversity now I don’t mean to be in for you it doesn’t have to be but I’m charging you I’m challenging you why not why can’t it be a major goal for you why not focus to make your landscape take care of the world around you most of us live on a piece of property that used to be a forest process of sustainable systems I’ve taken this I applied it to landscaping what we get is these beautiful resilient low maintenance for many many creatures before you lived there so why not try and replace some of that why not try and create some healthy habits or grassland maybe it was a mountain forest maybe it was a coastal forest maybe it was a coastal flood tat for a bunch of creatures again do you really need all the space that you have we live on half an acre it’s crazy for us to just I’ll tell you kind of woo stories that I’ve experienced recently as I’ve charted start being more open to what plane right whatever piece of property we live on likely it was damaged by development likely it was habitat a better planet whether you know it or not and now I’m telling you so you know right but it doesn’t have to be the primary goal for me it is a major goal to make a positive change in your landscape what’s your commitment to the environment I’m going to take a little bit of a right turn now eight one hundred plants are better than one plant one tree is better than a whole lot of grass so what can you do citius or anything like that but even if I’m not overt about it you’re landscape if you design a luminous landscape you’re also supporting the world around you you’re making is a nature spirit and how does nature truly speak to me spiritually it’s getting a little weird guys I’m okay with that I hope you are too so go out find a spot in the forest take some time for you to connect with nature maybe don’t live near force go spend some time in the winter for most pristine landscape you can maybe that’s a desert that’s okay how does nature speak to you so I was laying in my yard a this was last summer is sunny afternoon really hot out my sunny backyard I was pondering my purpose with my business wondering if I should continue with this Higginson deep breasts spent some time for myself I think they ended up going inside for a snack or something I was still there by myself not far away boys were playing on the swing next to me I was just taking a moment to myself while they were not getting at each other’s throats or not require me to throw a ball to them I was just business is easy living yards really what I should be doing is easy living yards really making enough of a positive impact through what I do with the people with you as part of my show in part of my business as I was pondering that Oh that’s cool suddenly this huck took a u-turn made a full circle and flew right back over the top of me again a hawk flew over the top me I just happen to open my eyes and see this hawks who right over the top right above our house that I couldn’t think that it didn’t mean something I’ve always been a very scientifically minded person that’s my roots and so thinking that screeched four times getting shivers because I specifically remember this moment still it was so crazy to me there’s signs or spirits or messages that come through nature is kind of foreign but whether whatever your background is whether agnostic whether you’re Christian whether you’re a Buddhist whatever your background is whatever your religious affiliation is and that you perceive why can’t it speak through nature this whole episode the wind has been dead silent why not why can’t nature speak its spirit to you why can’t whatever form spirit or God it’s Kinda sticky and Muggy all of a sudden now the winds picked up wind speaks to me and I’ve just noticed it was outside yesterday or a couple of days ago it was a full moon who’s beautiful out and I was again pondering pondering life I do that a lot guys pondering life and really again just always for whatever reason it’s my nature to sex tree in our front yard start squeaking and control ably every leaf from the top to the bottom of the tree shaking like crazy it was crazy again yeah I got shivers right I got shivers up and down my back because again everything else was still I couldn’t believe the maple tree to the left of me wasn’t shaking in the wind then there was this perfectly still night and thinking these things and suddenly are beautiful tulip poplar I guess what I’m doing to really think about am I on the right path and I doing the right things right it’s just how it’s however will okay well just the popular next to me quaking top to bottom I took that