Regenerative Skills is based on the pursuit of a regenerative life. A lifestyle centered on stewardship of the natural world, strong connections to community, and the daily habits that bring us closer to those goals. Each week learn actionable information from experts around the world that you can apply in your own life. Together we can regenerate our planet and our communities.

Since the three part series that Nick and I recorded about the vast array of drought mitigation and recovery solutions for people in different living situations we’ve gotten a lot of follow up questions from listeners who want to go deeper into this subject. 
Luckily one of my friends and mentors who’s had an outsized influence on my educational journey and inspiration to work with farmers and land managers in helping them to make the most of the water resources has just come out with a new book. 
Many of you know Mark Shepard for his seminal book, Restoration Agriculture, I’ve also had him on this show in the past to talk about his previous book Water for Every Farm. Most recently I spoke about Mark a lot with Jake Takiff when he and I went to design and install a water retention landscape in Nicaragua as representatives of Mark’s company Restoration Agriculture Design. 
That brings us up to this point where Mark has just released the field manual to accompany the book Water for Every Farm which is intended to assist any designer or practitioner with the engineering specifications for various water retention features and earthworks. These will not only help you to ensure proper due diligence but also to navigate the jargon and regulations, specifically in the USA, that the USDA and army corps of engineers uses in order to better communicate and perhaps even find support from those entities. 
In this chat Mark and I explore the details of his masterline system and how it can be adapted to the needs of modern farmers at any scale. We also explore the flexibility of the design system to be relevant for diverse and complex topographies. 
For me it was also important to explore the topic of long term maintenance for earthworks and water retention features since so much emphasis is put on the design and installation, and then, due to poor maintenance planning, the project can be quickly degraded or even fall apart. With someone with over 30 years of experience, this is an essential aspect to consider.

Regenerative Skills

Mark Shepard’s field manual for hydrological restoration on any farm

Just checking in while still on a short holiday. I just dropped my mom off at the airport at about 3 yesterday morning after a wonderful week of her visiting us, my sister, and her girls at the farm. It’s been such a blessing to have almost all my favorite women under the same roof for a time. My family is scattered all across the world, so these moments when a number of us can be together is really precious to me, and a big motivation of why Alba and I moved out here to begin with. Though we only moved into this place back in December, it’s already fulfilling the dream of bringing mine and Alba’s families closer together. 
The down time has done me a lot of good as well. Though wrangling a bunch of little kids is anything but relaxing as most of you know, it’s thoroughly fulfilling to watch them discover a few abilities and life lessons while finding their feet and bearings through this gorgeous natural environment. 
They've been learning to take care of the chickens, identify plants that we can eat, and which ones are stingy and pokey. We’ve been playing in the river and making erosion barriers. Yesterday we planted trees for a new hedge, and made some rainwater diversions in the road. 
I also had the time to have some deep conversations with my mom and sister looking ahead for what we want in our lives. My mom and dad are reaching retirement age, and they’re looking at references of my grandparents, all of whom are in their 80s with rapidly declining health. We’ve talked about how we should be taking care of ourselves and one another as we age and change from roles of care receivers to care givers. Things like risk factors, maintenance, and even graceful decline came up, all of which are very relevant to this ongoing topic of holistic health that we continue to explore in this show. 
 
So with that said I’m excited to bring you the second part of this conversation I had a good few years ago with my close friend and nutritionist Crystal Honeycutt. This second part focuses on the topics of supplementation for faster recovery, the nuanced definition of regenerative health and how we can rise above our low standards of health as they currently are to reach our superhuman potential.

A holistic look at physical health and well-being with Crystal Honeycutt part 2

Over the next two weeks I’m going to be taking some much needed recharge time with my family here on the farm. I've got my little sister Emily here and her three little girls Selma, Rawan, and Lujane who came from Kuwait city to spend the summer with us, and my mom who just arrived on Wednesday who will be spending a week with us. We’ve got outdoor education time around the farm (which we call Jungle School), a number of fairs and local festivals in the area we’re going too, and a lot of good food to indulge in made by our neighbors and broader community around the comarca of Osona in central Catalunya that we’re going to explore. 
Going hand in hand with the family time, I’ve been aware of a need to find a better balance in my home life. It goes along with this series on holistic health that I’ve been building, and both my partner Alba and I have been re-examining here at home. 
Alba has been suffering from some acute inflammation in the gut recently which has really impeded on her quality of life. In my case I’ve been flirting with burnout as I juggle between my work, the projects around the farm, and now looking after three little kids. Though I’m not in pain or discomfort, now that I’m in my mid thirties I notice that I can’t abandon my health routines and self care for as long without feeling the consequences as I did a decade ago. As a result, Alba, my sister and I have been asking ourselves questions about the necessary adjustments we need to make in areas of our diet, rest cycles, personal care, and balance of obligations to ensure that this journey is enriching and fulfilling in the long run. 
For this reason I’ve also been thinking a lot about a previous series of talks I had with my good friend Crystal Honeycutt. 
I recorded a two part discussion with her back in the early days of this show when it was still called the Abundat Edge Podcast and I was living in a little shack while I built our bamboo house on our homestead farm in the mountains of Guatemala. We went into a lot of the considerations and personal analysis that I’m now revisiting, but since I recorded a pretty decent introduction to the conversation I’ll let my highly curated podcasting voice from 2018 set us up for the interview.

Oliver Goshey

Regenerative Skills by Oliver Goshey

Episodes