Only by pausing and building tangible skills for observing (what exists around us, what our real impact is, and what the land wants to be) are we able to even humbly be sufficient designers. We express our ethic of earth care by daily and hourly observing the life around us.

We join our ecosystem by the act of eating. We grow plants best-suited to our climate, as perennial as possible, in as small a space, and with the least impact we can manage, because the earth is not just for feeding humans and their desires, but should be left mostly to native ecologies

We design to hold water through multiple strategies, savoring it for the life-giving force it is. We spend a lot of time observing our watershed and creating catchments of soil, structure, and living plants. All of our strategies clean water and share water, which helps create an oasis that is quick to heal from disturbance.

We steward the soil by being cautious with our impact and protecting soil from unnecessary harm. A robust soil food web (fungi, bacteria, nematodes, beetles, roots) swaps nutrients, hold soil, and feeds all of us.

Animal companions are naturally in all ecologies, and our sites should be no different. We feel we are decent stewards if they're homes and days are such that we could imagine swapping places with them and still be comfortable and respected.

Ecological buildings are designed for health, beauty, and appropriateness of resources. A structure acts as a shelter when it's orientation on the land, and use, are easy and seem to emerge from the site as if it belongs.

Tools and technologies can help in earth care or decrease earth care, and so we step back to understand what work needs to be done and how we can do it simply. Renewable energies and fuel use are explored only so long as overall conservation of resources is prioritized.

Just as we all share water and air, every family is connected through innumerable invisible structures to the greater whole. These economic, legal, political, and social structures can make or break access to land and the resources for our overall human family to live on the earth into the future, thus we learn how to work with them for the benefit of us all.

We embrace the art of becoming better designers, which means the cultivation of thoughtful, respectful, creative, exciting, and realistic ideas and processes, for the sites and resources we all share.