Army National Guard Spc. Linden Kinder placed his camouflage-hatted head firmly against the flank of Sky, a black and white nanny goat, and squeezed a teat. While she stood patiently, the Iraq veteran managed to direct a thin stream of milk into a metal bucket.

Kinder and more than a dozen cohorts from the Oklahoma National Guard recently spent three weeks in Northern New Mexico practicing low-tech farm skills and learning a new way to solve agricultural challenges before deploying to Afghanistan to help farmers. The training was coordinated by the Pojoaque-based Permaculture Institute.

The guardsmen visited farms and studied permaculture, a set of principles developed by Australian Bill Mollison for working with nature and thinking through problems holistically on farms and homesteads. "Rather than imposing our ideas on nature, it is mimicking the way nature does things," said Scott Pittman, founder of Permaculture Institute.

The team spent the first week learning how to think like a permaculture designer. The rest of the time they developed some low-tech skills: how to graft trees with pocketknives, plow fields with a horse team and build a greenhouse out of adobe instead of plastic. "The idea is, how do you create simple solutions that local people already have in their culture and can do themselves with materials on hand," said Irina Pittman, Scott's wife and business partner.

Kinder and the rest of the National Guard agribusiness team spent May 20 at the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm near Española. Students taught the guardsmen how to do the farm chores.

"I've milked cows before," said Kinder, 24, and the team's medic, as he tried to coax milk out of Sky. "This is different."

"Remember to bring your thumb around and squeeze with these two fingers," directed Rachel Ortiz, 13, a student and experienced goat-milker. "You sort of wrap your entire hand around the teat."

After watching Kinder a few minutes and complimenting him, Ortiz took over. In rapid, rhythmic motion, the teen soon had milk flowing full force into a pail. "You're really good," Kinder said admiringly.

Like others on the crew, Kinder grew up on a farm. He and his cohorts volunteered to go on this mission. "I wanted to do some good for the people in Afghanistan," said Kinder, echoing the sentiments of the others.

Patty Pantano, founder and head teacher at the Camino de Paz school, said it is a "powerful experience" for the students to work with the National Guard. "They're able to transfer what they've learned to people who are going across the globe," she said.

Cheryl Baldridge, a veterinary technician who just finished her basic National Guard training, was raking out the goat pen. She grew up on a 2,000-acre farm in Prague, Okla., raising beef cows, hogs, chickens and sheep. Baldridge, 21, said she's learned a different way of farming in New Mexico. She'll take some of those lessons not only to Afghanistan, but back home. "They focus more on the native way, natural way, of farming here," she said.

She joined the Afghanistan-bound team too late for the language and cultural sensitivity training. "I've got a lot of catching up to do. It will be a culture shock, just like it was coming here," Baldridge said.

Others on the team include a specialist in large-animal husbandry, a mechanic and welder, and someone who understands soil health.

Master Sgt. Lorn McKinzie said the National Guard has established several agriculture specialty teams from big farming states such as Texas, Illinois and Missouri. This crew is the second one from Oklahoma, and the first of any to work with the Permaculture Institute.

He said the terrain, elevation and use of gravity flow irrigation ditches in New Mexico are similar to those in the region of Afghanistan where the team is deploying.

Agriculture remains a mainstay of the Afghanistan economy, but farmers have struggled to rebuild cash crops other than poppies used for opium, according to information from the National Guard. The country used to grow wheat, grapes and orchards among other crops decades ago before conflicts with Russia and the Taliban's influence changed farming. Chief Warren Higginbotham said the National Guard wants to promote sustainability, and permaculture does that. "We want them to be proud farmers, independent on their own," he said. "We want to help them improve what they already have."

Higginbotham said other teams have set up demonstration farms where farmers from outlying villages can come and learn. The teams then go to villages as needed to work on specific projects from slaughter facilities to irrigation.

Pittman said he's taught permaculture in 18 countries and around the U.S., but this is the first time he's worked with the military in the U.S. "This has been very enlightening," Pittman said of the Oklahoma National Guard. "These people are very dedicated to their mission."

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.