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On Saturday we took a tour organized by the great folks at Daily Acts. The tour was called “Water-Savvy Stars” and featured sites with interesting and smart water usage, as well as a stop at our beloved Laguna. Update: Steve also has a good post related to the day.

The day started at the lovely Catchtail Gardens, where Djubaya and Deborah Grace showed us the amazing transformation of their property, which was just a grassy field and buildings six years ago. Today, with the smart application of swales and catch­ments, they put and estimated 12,000 gallons of water back into the aquifier AND harvest about fifty cubic feet of topsoil that’s run off from properties up-slope, keeping it out of critical salmon habitat. It was fascinating to see all that they’ve done here.

From there, we had a lunch break and then a walk in the Laguna preserve with a great discussion of the watershed lead by one of our favorite bipedal sacks of saline and member of the Junior Darwin Over-achiever’s club, Brock Dolman.

We finished the day at the Energy Farm of the Post Carbon Institute, also the home of Julian Darley and Celine Rich Darley. There we saw examples of a lovely urban graywater system that is almost finished (pending permits to turn it on). They’re growing both food and energy crops in this garden, and it was great to see examples of both, as well as honest discussion over what works and doesn’t work. This is an amazing resource to have here in Sebastopol!

Speaking of Sebastopol, the day made me feel really fortunate, again, to be living here. The permaculture work happening in our town amazing. And, as residents of the city, Steve and I got to take this tour for free, courtesy of the city government. If this keeps up, I may have to trade in my Point-Reyes-wannabe hat for one that’s embroidered with “Sebastopol” instead!

Here’s some photos from the day; browse them here or view the set on Flickr: