The Zone Map looks at our property in terms of use and accessibility. Our Master Plan is a flexible, sketchy vision of what we want to do at Thunderbird Disco.

Most permaculture sector maps mark the pathways of natural elements like: wind gusts and flowing water, manmade products like noise or smoke or crime, destructive animals, insects or plants, underground networks of utilities (water, cable, electrical, etc.).

We started this process about a year ago and we’re somewhere around Step 9 here, but this is a basic breakdown of the path we followed, with some links to outside resources as well as more in-depth content on this site. Here’s what we did…

Now that we have our Base Map, the next step is to create a Sun Map. The idea is to figure out the best and worst areas for growing food, and, in our case, siting solar panels.

Map #1 is the "Permaculture Base Map." This is our starting point, a way to get our arms around what currently exists on your property and a baseline upon which to build for the future. Before even attempting this foundational piece it’s important to gather some existing raw materials.

In fiction they like to use the term “world-building” to describe this kind of work. Though every detail won’t and shouldn’t make it onto the page, I think it’s important and useful for a writer to have a sense of the world their fake people live in. It’s equally important for you to understand and envision the world you’re creating on your property.

With new baby Rose on the way, my upstairs office was slated to become her nursery, so Kate informed me that it was time for me and my personal archive of business papers and Phish tapes to GTFO.

In March 2017 we hired our good friends Scott Wilcox and Gabriel Allan (more about these impressive men in a moment) to help transform this villainous outbuilding into a functional lair...