Who I AM....now
Organic, Diverse, Messy, Innocent, Disturbing, Reverent, non linear and ever changing experience of WHO I AM... I AM ALWAYS Chasing LIFE!!! Where is that "Living Edge"? Where is the uncomfortable and uncertain EDGE of what seems impossible or unthinkable...in this moment and what is beyond? What else is there to discover about the world and by proxy, My SELF?
Mandy Sandbach
I AM an Ally, student and Lover of SOIL
I AM the Teeming with LIFE, Rich, Moist, decomposing, fertility found in your COMPOST pile
I AM a living expression of Gaia (mother earth)
I AM a SOUL who thrives on the Living Edge of a changing time
I AM a WILD fungal midwife of the biodiversity required for a New human Story
I AM Innocence that disturbs
My passion and gift is tending to SOIL. SOIL as Sacred Organic Interconnected Life.
This page is to capture my ongoing adventure of SOUL fully SOIL. I spent many years without a sense of how to best express permaculture as I "express" it. I have experienced all kinds of permaculture design methods, practices and philosophies and none have felt fully ME. they haven't felt WHOLE.
SOUL fully SOIL is more than a typical Permaculture service. It is a reflection of the gifts and abilities that I AM as an awakened visionary who knows herself to be an aspect of Gaia (mother earth). I look to her as the "expert" and Elder Carrying wisdom I could only hope to know
My "business" model is based solely on who I AM and what I am lit up in doing. My passion and gift is growing SOIL and thus community. SOIL as Sacred Organic Interconnected Life.All LIFE on this planet is dependent upon the diversity and nonseparation of each part of an eco system. The more connections/relationships in the community, the stronger the eco system is. The more diverse and varied the kin of the eco system are, the more resilient and anti fragile the system is.
SOIL is the most beautiful metaphor for how I see my world. All species living, thriving and depending closely on one another. These SOIL communities are Weaving an abundance, growth, and resiliency for each member when they embrace, foster and share their own unique gifts. An earth worm acts and does as an earthworm does. A Nematode act and does as a Nematode does. A butterfly, bacteria, fungi etc...When are you most lit up? What is your unique gift?
I AM inviting you to look at the resiliency, growth, re-generation, and collaboration, with our original "mother", Gaia (Planet earth), thru a connected and sacred lens. When we see Gaia through a connected and non separate lens, we start to see patterns, behaviors, and strategies that become our gateways for transformation during these troubling times of disconnection and polarization.
Everything that the "earth" is and does is perfect. There are NO exceptions to this. It is my belief that when I embrace SOIL as it is part of my own BEING, I act and create in alignment with my larger “role” or “purpose”. I am in my own authentic FLOW.
I am here to experience and foster beautiful collaborative designs/communities/reciprocity that CONNECT both the land and the communities of people, trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, insects, birds, fungi, and animals who live on her. I hear the call to my personal WILD and to CONNECT the experience of GENERATIVE food systems, perpetual growth of SOIL, and the blossoming of the new biodiversity.
I choose to act with her best interests at heart and those of my children's great great grandchildren. What kind of an ancestor will I be?
Day to Day the "business" model for SOULfully SOIL will look different. I may plan and execute the building of a community garden, co-create a herb spiral/ yoga workshop, plant a food forest, upkeep a local food bank garden, travel to Hawaii to engage is sacred water ceremony, partake in a sweat lodge, host women's gatherings, collaborate with the Eco System of Evolution, or choose to teach at the local food bank. Regardless of the task, the intention and underlying gift is SOUL fully SOIL. I am deeply present, mindful and engaging with others who are called to create a New World thru the expansion of SOIL (Sacred Organic Interconnected Life).Fuzzy "money" and "hours of operation" details..
If you are called to collaborate or would like just a bit more clarity about what I will or won't "do", please feel free to connect with me at the bottom of the page. I understand that this may seem a little unclear and a-typical of other "business's" but I am willing to create, co-create, host, hold space for, engage in, consult with....anything that moves me.
You will not find direct fees and a clear time table for hours of operation here... A moving changing force creates her own schedule and prices based on reciprocity. There will always be those who wish to "write a cheque" and that is wonderful, but I believe strongly in a gift economy and am looking for a deeper and more meaningful experience of "money". So, prices and fees will always vary depending on each individual experience and are ALWAYS open for honest and connected conversation.
Some of what I have created in the past looks like this: Herb Spiral building, compost, mulching, water saving techniques, tea drying/blending workshops, permaculture as a way of BEing conversation, Becoming Gaia gatherings, Regeneration of SOUL and SOIL experience, full and New Moon Red Tents, Gluten and Dairy Free cooking classes, Fermenting, Clean eating and cleansing cooking classes, Canning and food preservation classes and community work B's
So..Call me, email me, message me, Instagram me a picture, come to my home.....whatever....just connect soon.
Mahalo and a deep thanks
Mandy Sandbach
a mother, partner, permaculturist, Student and lover of SOIL, colon hydro therapist, reflexologist, gardener, farmer, knowledge sharer, WILDER, supporter of community gardens, lcoal generative food systems and community
Lands Acknowledgement for where I lay My head:
I currently Live and Homestead with Mi'kmak'i, the unceded and ancestroal territory of the Mi'kmag people.
I am new to these territories and find myself in a most humble space of listening, learning and respecting what is before me. These lands have been tended to and cared for, as the blackfoot confederacy lands, for eons. My goal is to live in reciprocity and seek to know and learn and unlearn as required to be in alignment with the long time caretakers of these lands.
Lands Where I was raised and where I raised my children:
The Blackfoot peoples of these lands are the Original Caretakers. I owe a great debt to their sharing of land care, knowledge keeping, and language. My life is and will forever BE more richer and humble because of my relationships on and with the land and its original peoples.
OKI (Okhee)
I Live on Traditional Blackfoot Land
Original Peoples of this Land: Kainai, Piikani and Siksika
The Siksikaitsitapi otherwise known as the Blackfoot Confederacy
These lands are now known as Treaty 7 Territory or "Southern Alberta" This land has been gracious enough to allow my play and curiosity to be sustained and infused with LIFE and more REVERENCE.
2025
12 Month Permaculture and Food Security Mentorship
Raina and Mandy
Holistic and Eco System focussed Permaculture Consultation
Offering
In collaboration with Raina McDonald, I (Mandy) am now offering small scale permaculture consultations. Raina and I are passionate about supporting you on your journey to greater food sovereignty and sacred relationship to the land in a changing climate. We guide you as you move towards the creation of a resilient system that feeds the Earth, your family and your soul.
Our consultations typically consist of a phone conversation before a 1-1.5hr site visit, followed by a list of action items and links/connections to resources that will support your unique needs for your property and vision. Ideas are generated and further steps discussed. You take this initial assessment with ideas as guidance for your own work and we can suggest or connect you with local landscapers, to help you implement your project.
While hand drawn designs can be part of this consult service, our focus is on inspiring our clients to observe and interact with their surroundings, encouraging a creative and ever-evolving process, rather than delivering a specific design to impose on the land. Special attention is given to native species and learning about what is already growing within an ecosystem.
We specialize in supporting non profits, schools and small businesses ready to dive into the creation and fostering of resilient food systems and pollinator gardens.
Our rate begins at $300 with additional mileage rates applied for site visits outside of our region. This base rate includes conversation, site visit and follow up which results in 5 hours of our time dedicated to your project.
To find out if this process is for you or to book your consultation with Raina and I, email soulfullysoil@protonmail.com
Mandy Sandbach of SoulFULLY SOIL is a LOVER of SOIL and devout student of the Earth. Growing up in a "homesteading" family in Northern BC, Mandy was rooted into the world with a deep love and relationship with all the other than human beings. Trees, SOIL, Birds, Insects, Worms and the water. A practitioner and Designer of Permaculture Inspired resilient food Systems, Mandy finds herself immersed in supporting others in their journey to grow food security where they live. Community knowledge sharing has been a practiced passion for Mandy for 10 years + and as a newcomer to Nova Scotia, is creating opportunity to learn together as community wherever possible. Relationships tended to, cherished and valued produce Community resiliency and thriving.
Raina McDonald is an artist, yoga instructor and grower practicing permaculture design, land stewardship and seed saving. She owns and operates R&R Handmade with her husband Ruben Irons, providing quality hand forged home and garden ware. Guided by ancestral ways of being with each other and the land, Raina's work spans regenerative approaches to community building, placemaking and cultivating food sovereignty. Her passions are at play in her role as the coordinator of the Scotsburn Community Food Forest project, an edible, medicinal hub of intergenerational knowledge sharing and resiliency. She and her family steward 150 acres of Wabanaki Forest, wild blueberries and edible forest gardens in Mi'kmaw'ki/Brookland, Nova Scotia.
Mandy & Raina have partnered on several offerings over the years where their unique experiences and passions complement one another's. From a recent participant in their online Backyard Food Forest Series:
" Amazing session you two! You each collaborate brilliantly and bring so much integrated knowledge and wisdom and experience! I am left inspired, more confident and passionate to make all this tangible on my land!"
Herb Spiral Build Oahu Hawaii
Kahumana Farms community Herb Spiral build and Yoga
Village Buzz
Locally and Globally hosted Events, workshops, gatherings, tours, perma BLITZ's, webinars and general PLAY can be found here...
Learn how to make your own Kombucha
Stellarton Library Thursday January 9th 630 pm
Trenton Library January 15th 130 pm
Join Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL and learn the basics of fermenting your own probiotic rich kombucha. Mandy will walk you thru the process of caring for, creating and storing your own fermented kombucha. This long held tradition is simple, easy and cost effective to add to your fermenting journey.
Registration is required as there is limited seating. You can register by calling the Stellarton Library or email them at stellarton@parl.ns.ca
DIY Home Sprouting workshop
Saturday January 18th River John Library 11 am
Come and Join Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL to learn the basic and simple skill of home sprouting. This very nutritious and nutrient dense home skill will net yummy budget friendly home grown greens in the dead of winter.
You can register by calling River John Library or by emailing riverjohn@parl.ns.ca
The Basics of Sourdough
River John Library Saturday January 11th 11 am
Ever wondered how to make your own delicious sourdough bread? Join Mandy Sandbach at the library for a breadmaking workshop, and learn about the ins & outs (or ups & downs!) of raising your own bread. Seating is limited, and registration is required.*
to register, call the River John Library or email at riverjohn@parl.ns.ca
This program is supported by the Government of Nova Scotia Food Security Initiatives Funding, the Department of Community Services, and the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage.
Backyard Food Forestry Series
Winter 2025 dates TBA... If you are interested in joining Mandy and Raina on this journey, please feel free to reach out to be added to the notification list
Are you interested in growing your own food? Creating more resiliency in a changing world? Are you wanting simple, easy to understand and bite sized opportunities to learn? Are you wanting to learn in community and be supported by other” like minded” folks on a similar journey? Then LET’S DO IT!!!!!
This learning opportunity is being offered in partnership with Scotsburn Community Food Forest, our local grassroots initiative that aims to contribute to long-term food security through growing and sharing food in regenerative ways in Scotsburn Trailhead Park while raising awareness through education. SCFF is heading into its 5th year of a long range vision to create and nurture an edible, medicinal gathering place/permaculture demonstration site for our current and future generations. As we go, we are creating a model that can be applied in other communities.
The classroom portion of this series is designed to be shared in 1.5-hour bites, once a week for 6 weeks. There is an option to do all 6 classes or jump in where you want to - knowledge shared in each class stands alone and also builds upon each of the classes within the series. There will be weekly handouts and email link follow-ups. Where applicable and weather permitting, the class will tour the Scotsburn Community Food Forest for a hands-on experience of the techniques, skills and strategies discussed in this series (participants will be notified of these dates and times in advance).
Part 1 What is Food Forestry?
Part 2 Elements in design and planning
Part 3 Guild Building and Companion Planting
Part 4 SOIL and WATER
Part 5 Weeds and Pests
Part 6 Permaculture Techniques Expanded and Caring for your food forest and communityReciprocity for the 6 Part Series is $150 if paid in full at time of registration or $30 per class. The knowledge shared in this series is important for a food secure community. If there are financial hardships that you wish to discuss further, please feel free to reach out.
Payment can be made by e-transfers to soulfullysoil@protonmail.com or by making arrangements for cash directly with Mandy.
If there are weather conditions that dictate an unsafe travel day, or lack of power, Mandy will announce these changes the morning of the class on the FB event and via email, so please be sure to check those areas for updated information. Mandy will pivot to an online format or reschedule depending on what makes sense at the time and what the participants would prefer. If you pay for the class and cannot make it, you are permitted to send someone else in your place. Or take a future class with Mandy.
SOULfully SOIL and 100 Folk Farm Present...
Preserving the Harvest Fall 2025
Will Be updated for fall in the summer of 2025!
Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL and Annie Ferguson of 100 Folk Farm present a collaboration with the Scotsburn Community Food Forest with Preserving the Harvest 2024... In this comprehensive learning series Mandy and Annie will be taking you on a journey in skill building as it relates to methods of preserving your food in season to increase your food security. Making use of the abundance of local and in season foods.
these traditional skills have been in decline in recent decades and are paramount for how we move forward with resilience. The knowledge shares will be designed that you can take one or all but they will play off of and expand your overall knowledge as we move along from week to week.
These classes will be held in Scotsburn at the Firehall located at 4179 Scotsburn Road. Parking will be across the street or in the adjacent parking lot .
The cost for these classes are as follows:
$75 each per day for Non Scotsburn Community Food Forest member
$60 each per day for members of the Scotsburn Community Food Forest
There is limited seats available and you must register for the classes by contacting Mandy at soulfullysoil@protonmail.com. Payment is made at time of registration via cash or e transfer. The classes are non refundable but can be transferred to another person.
Each class will offer some kind of sampling. We are mindful of allergies so please send us a note if you have specific needs.
The classes are as follows:
Stay tuned for updates in summer of 2025
New Moon Gathering
Dates to be updated
** Photo credit to Mark Sander Photography
Your invitation from Nancy Hanlon
My intention for these New Moon gatherings is an honoring and celebration of Life, Water, the Moon, Community and the many cycles of BEING. The invitation for these Gatherings is to show up, rest and be in the emergence of your own discoveries in the good company of others doing the same.
Suggested donation of $10 per gathering.
Upcoming Gatherings
6pm EST, 7pm Atlantic
Most inspiring Words that dance as a tribute to Gaia
This is a running log of those videos and pictures I experience, create and that inspire me.
" I welcome it as a transformation of magnitude. I welcome the spewing of myself into every aspect and corner of the life I am creating. I want the juicy, fertile bits of me to land and seed EVERYWHERE. This is my medicine. My contribution to Gaia and humankind."
Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL
The joy of Decay Podcast
Part 2 Feedback and Decentralizing power
Moving and meandering through physical, scientific and spiritual terrains of thought, Tessa and Mandy dive into meaningful and relevant questions around feedback and de-centralized power as modelled to us by Gaia’s organic cycles and communicative mycelial networks. While Tessa weaves her experiences as a dance artist into the conversation, Mandy shares the wisdom she has gained through her practices of permaculture and colon hydrotherapy. Mandy speaks eloquently to what it means to live a life that actively acknowledges our deep entanglement with Earth as well as what else might be possible if our willingness to step into a deep-time, multi-generational mindset is encouraged and nurtured by our environments.
“How can we de-centralize power to create multiple webs of connection? So that if a corner of our web gets chewed up, the rest of it is completely stabilized, completely abundant, completely thriving.” ~Mandy Sandbach
The Poetry of Predicament with Dean Spillane-Walker and Mandy Sandbach
Mandy is back (having spoken with us just a month ago) to share her experience of bringing transformative and internally referent life-skills to her to her home life and her parenting. This interview is a perfect fit here, in the Poetry of Predicament... and, just as valuable in our special-focus sister podcast, Take My Hand: Conscious Parenting in a time of stolen dreams. This is a special offering in our Living Resilience programs page, Deep Academy
Dean Spillane - Walker safecircle@gmail.com https://livingresilience.net Podcast: The Poetry of Predicament (YouTube channel) Deep Academy Online Learning Safe Circle Support Dean’s Coaching / Guidance Practice as described in his Deep Adaptation Forum listing. https://guidance.deepadaptation.info/...
The Poetry of Predicament with Dean Spillane-Walker and Mandy Sandbach
Strong transformative practices - Deeper Presence in the Face of Stress.
Another in our ongoing series of talks with advanced practitioners in transformative methods of: Self Regulation, Co-Regulation, Resilience and embodied discernment of moment by moment of truth, integrity and radical aliveness.
Dean Spillane - Walker safecircle@gmail.com https://livingresilience.net Podcast: The Poetry of Predicament (YouTube channel) Deep Academy Online Learning Safe Circle Support Dean’s Coaching / Guidance Practice as described in his Deep Adaptation Forum listing. https://guidance.deepadaptation.info/...
Tyson Yunkaporta on Pattern, Kinship, and Story in a World of Decontextualized Minds
The Emerald
In his book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, author, teacher, artist and Apalech clan member Tyson Yunkaporta presents a model of five minds — kinship mind, story mind, ancestor mind, pattern mind, and dreaming mind — that together form a way of seeing, knowing, and interacting with the world in a relational context. This episode looks at the rampant fragmentation in the modern world — which impacts everything from spiritual movements to transhumanist science to conspiratorial worldviews to progressive discourse — through the lens of these five minds. From Aboriginal rain rituals to QAnon pattern-seekers, from sorcery and curses to alternative communication models, this vibrant and polytropic discussion between Tyson and Josh explores what context means in a fragmented world, and how to truly find it requires seeing beyond obvious dichotomies into deeper layers of connectivity.
Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/theemeraldpodcast)
Connect With me
Here are a few of the places you can find me. Please note that I have made the leap off of the traditional Social Media. The legacy of the last 20 months has been for me a recognition of a long dormant desire to practice more in the moment and in person. In my attempt to create the " New world", I am letting go of a need to be seen in all platforms virtually. Please feel free to email, call, or add yourself to my newsletter below.
So.....What do I do and who do I play with?
These are Some of the folks you may find me in collaboration and creating LIFE with.
Scotsburn Community Food Forest
Scotsburn Trailhead Park Nova Scotia
Scotsburn Community Food Forest is a grassroots, volunteer-based initiative focused on nurturing an edible, medicinal gathering & learning space for current & future generations.
Visit our permaculture demonstration site in Scotsburn Trailhead Park, Pictou Co, Nova Scotia, join our permablitz work parties and/or participate in inspiring programming. Become a Friend of the Food Forest, contributing to the resiliency of our community.
We encourage intergenerational community engagement & welcome conversations about collaborations, research & media as we explore what’s possible with an interconnected web moving forward together!
SCFF is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral & unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. We acknowledge with gratitude that permaculture owes the foundation of its principles & practices to indigenous knowledge & ways of being in relation with the land and all life.Edible Gathering place in Mi'kma'ki "Scotsburn"
Knowledge sharing, collaboration, regeneneration, food security, monarch waystation.
scotsburnfooforest@gmail.com
IG and FB
Eco System of Evolution
Our framework for living is simple: We create meaning in our lives by becoming deeply familiar with our inner states of being, and we often turn to Gaia as a role model for evolving, loving, embracing and letting go. Breathing is a key component of our framework, as are powerful conversations held in sacred sisterhood with the intention of exploring greater self-intimacy.
Many women who have spent time exploring their inner landscapes are familiar with the phenomenon of falling back into old patterns — of living habitually rather than intentionally, especially when life gets busy and the external world seems impossible.
The Ecosystem of Evolution offers a different way of living, one that is grounded in the notion that our bodies are exquisite expressions of life, and that we can source inspiration and personal transformation from other expressions of life on earth — from Gaia.
If you have gone as far as you can within your human story — excavated it, recycled it, raged against it, become complicit within it, all of it in hopes of finding the more majestic expression of yourself that you sense inside — then this ecosystem is for you.
If you’ve found pieces of your majesty trapped deep in the underbelly of your human story but never found the space to fully become and live it — then this ecosystem is for you.
If you are ready to leap like your life depends on it, to enter the naturally expansive story of Gaia — welcome to the Ecosystem of Evolution.
R&R handmade
Raina Mcdonald and Ruben Irons, Collaboration as a way of being
We are Raina + Ruben. We met as deckhands on a tall ship bound for Antarctica, returned to Canadian soil after our high sea adventure and began weaving together a life and family in the backwoods of Nova Scotia. Here we share our journey of creative, intentional living – connected to the land, our food, our art and a vibrant, evolving community. Thanks for stopping in. A warm welcome to you!
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Gallery
Images of SOUL-fully SOIL in motion
