Common Weeds And Wild Edibles Of The World (HD video)
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| [+] paul wheaton's pseudo blog » 200 times more permaculture (Go to) | Rebekah Harmon | |
Hey John, I forgot to add that we have an awesome seed company here in Tucson called Native Seed Search that finds, propagates and sells seeds that are adapted to drylands - especially edibles. With your efforts to bring in more organic matter, the more diverse the mix, the better, so here is a catalog page from NSS for High Desert seeds. - You can also contact them for advice. Lots of smart folks there. https://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/catalog/high-desert There's also High Desert Seeds in Colorado - http://www.highdesertseed.com/ And High Country Gardens - http://www.highcountrygardens.com/perennial-plants Wildflower mixes encourage pollinators, and gosh darn it, they're just plain purty! A lot of their species grow down here too. Here's some resources from Albuquerque Public Library that might be useful - http://abqlibrary.org/seeds/HighDesertGardeningResources If you google "High Desert Seeds" of similar searches, there's some good stuff out there. I've got a lot of stuff on water harvesting, making small dams, and erosion control too if you want any of that - mostly on PDF's. Just let me know if you're interested. Regarding watching expensive nursery plants die, I hear ya. It's a drag, so seeds are the best way to go. There's a good thread on here about seed starting mediums too. I recommend 2/3 sharp sand - free on the inside bends of rivers - and 1/3 locally made compost. I learned that one from Mr Lawton and I like it a lot. For broadcast seed, watering them in with compost tea and some mulch at the time of sowing is a great way to go. Cheers! |
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| [+] paul wheaton's pseudo blog » 200 times more permaculture (Go to) | Rebekah Harmon | |
Hey John, You're on the right track trying to improve the soil first. Keep that as your #1 goal and you can't go wrong. My best recommendation is to immerse yourself in Elaine Ingham's soil health videos and website - soilfoodweb.com as a first step. She has a free micro course there that you can take. Here are a few of her best videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2H60ritjag The Roots of Your Profits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzthQyMaQaQ&t=155s Healthy Soil for Healthy Plants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBIxFAxtlQ Life in the Soil 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s73_elaNP8 Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GatAEMYu__o Grow crops that resist pests - a shorty Also look into her vids on compost and compost tea/extract/humic acid. If you've got compaction, which I'm sure you do with Bentonite, you may also try Daikon radish. Try sowing your desired crops in among the native stuff as shelter plants, we do that a lot in the hot desert. Nitrogen fixers are also huge in arid lands, so lots of support species. I have lists of desert legumes I can send you, so just ask if you want them. One huge benefit is that Bentonite will seal a dam or pond like nothing else, so you have the perfect stuff for lots of farm dams/ponds. Possibly connected with Keyline strips, swales or drainage ditches and tree belts. Look into Darren Doherty for his ideas doing this type of connected system. A video is below. Since you don't want to burn tons of diesel in the process, I recommend using animals to improve your soil. You may be able to run some goats to graze off the undesirable stuff while fertilizing and creating beneficial disturbance patterns and converting that scrub to milk and meat. Look on YouTube for "using goats to clear land" for ideas. For animal grazing systems, I highly recommend Greg Judy's work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GCskgbeSqE Greg runs cattle, sheep, goats and fowl all on the same paddocks, either together or in succession with amazing results. Polyculture first with plants, then with animals. Just like Nature. You can look into Gabe Brown's stuff as well. Like this gem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPjoh9YJMk Here's a series well worth the time investment - Putting Grasslands to Work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMvpop6BdBA Elaine again. Of course, most stuff on Holistic Management and it's developer, Alan Savory, is awesome. Darren Doherty, who uses a full-to-bulging toolbox containing Permaculture, Holistic Management, Keyline Design, Soil Foodweb, Living Machines and just about anything else he can find to regenerate the land. This one is a fave of mine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZfAE-j3wVA and there's lots more of him on the web. Sepp and Mark Sheppard are definitely worthy teachers of course, but you know about them. As for your specific Biome, I'll do some poking around, because there isn't much out there on high desert regenerative farming. I hope this is helpful and not overwhelming for you. Just take your time and enjoy geeking out on all this stuff. Soon you'll be unable to see the world any other way - Regrarian Goggles welded to your noggin! All the Best, Joe |
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| [+] paul wheaton's pseudo blog » 200 times more permaculture (Go to) | Rebekah Harmon | |
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| [+] paul wheaton's pseudo blog » 200 times more permaculture (Go to) | Rebekah Harmon | |
Hi TJ, You mentioned using SketchUp and I just wanted to let you know about this new, free software that is supposed to be much better, called Fusion 360. I just saw it on a video last night and the guy doing the video is offering tutorial in it at a link under the vid. Here's the link if you're interested - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkYoo16MpTc Regarding shooting video - One tip I'd like to give anyone shooting video outdoors if to use a good mic windscreen. I see way to many videos where the wind noise makes it all but unwatchable. A long haired "Fake Fur" sock over the regular foam windscreen is a cheap and effective way to go. The other tip I would offer videographers is "Pan Sloooooooowly" Especially with lower bit rate cameras, the image smear is really bad when panning quickly. The camera cannot resolve moving images like our amazing eyeballs can. Let's represent our work in the best possible way! I also agree with what you said about apprenticing and quality outcomes, I've had the same experience with chiropractors too - some amazing and very effective, some cookie-cutter and not good or even counterproductive. I've also seem a few "permaculture designers" who appear to not really get it and make "Type 1 Errors" consistently. Competence is super important for the Earth, the People and the credibility and thus adoption & spread of Permaculture. I think that quality presentations like SketchUp designs and good Video/Audio are another part of that for sure. I also agree that a decentralized movement is more effective than a more centralized one and is consistent with Permaculture design principles. Nature doesn't centralize, it distributes widely for the most part. Lots of permies doing their work in their own locale is part of the way Permaculture spreads naturally, like a mycelial net. From my experience, modern industrialized humans seem to like to make chains, whereas Nature likes to make webs. Cheers, Joe |
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| [+] paul wheaton's pseudo blog » 200 times more permaculture (Go to) | Rebekah Harmon | |
Hi Tyler, You may find some good information for saving your road on this site - http://www.watershedartisans.com/ Scroll to the bottom and download the free PDF. If you look up the name Craig Sponholtz on YouTube you'll see numerous videos of his erosion control work. This guy is a real expert at his profession, I learned a lot from him for sure. Growing up and living on an organic ranch/farm in the Southwest, I've been keen on trying to stop erosion all my life and this guy definitely has the goods. I hope it's of help to you. Cheers, Joe |
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| [+] cover crops » Magic cover crop carpet? (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Thank you Nicole, I'm glad you're enjoying the videos. They are very much worth your time to watch and totally mind blowing. Soil is the Base Resource of all life on Earth. The complexity of the soil is akin to a coral reef and just as fascinating to me. Some of Elaine's lectures are 2 hours long and even at that, are not giving you the whole picture. If I can spend 2-3 hrs each watching the "director's cut" Lord of The Rings trilogy, I can surely justify watching 8-10 hours of Elaine and other soil scientist's lectures. Jill Clapperton is another soil scientist with some great lectures out there. And don't forget Elaine's free micro soil foodweb course at soilfoodweb.com. You even get a certificate when done.
Here's one on how bacteria communicate with biochemistry, just like our brains do, that is also mind blowing - and only 18 minutes long. Thanks for the pie too! Make mine Mud Pie. (with mulch sprinkles?)  |
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| [+] cover crops » Magic cover crop carpet? (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Hey Erik,
Regarding mulch on a large scale - This is why you want to do cover cropping - like Nature does. It acts as living mulch and as "soil armor". If you let the crop debris lay where it falls after harvest, you have additional mulch which will degrade within a month or so, if your soil biology is healthy. This returns the nutrients used to grow it back to the soil, just like nature does in a healthy ecosystem. With a super diverse cover crop seed mix, you will always have some species covering your land, no matter what climate changes you have. Check out this video by Elaine Ingham - she lays it out really quickly in this one. Of course, there is much more detail to what she's talking about, but this is a very succinct version that gives a good overview. I would also recommend Elaine's "the roots of your profits" video and any other lectures of hers that you can find on Vimeo and YouTube, as well as her free mini course on soilfoodweb.com. Also check out Gabe Brown and Greg Judy's talks - They're all advocating the same thing from slightly different angles. The principles of putting the soil first and how to do that are the same though. You'll find that Joel Salatin, Geoff Lawton and others are talking about the same process. Who knew that soil science could be so exciting? The soil is as dynamic an ecosystem as a tropical reef once you get into studying it. Thanks soil scientists, permies and farmers who've pioneered these ideas, we actually have the tools to reverse the damage that Totalitarian Agriculture has done over the last 10,000 years...and the humble compost pile is the nexus of that change, because it's the analog of the forest floor where decay happens and soil is created. It's all about mimicking Mother Nature in the end, so why reinvent the wheel that's been around for 4.5 billion years? That's the Fool's Errand that the Big Ag corps want to sell us. |
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| [+] plants » Seed Starting Medium? (Go to) | Hans Quistorff | |
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Geoff Lawton recommends 2/3 sharp sand - available for free on the inside bends of rivers, and 1/3 sifted, highly diverse, local compost, with a little bit of worm castings if available. He starts most of his seeds in this mix that he makes for free. I've had great success with it too. Seeds don't need much except a well drained substrate - sand, and some biology & the nutrient they provide - compost, to get going. Once they sprout, they need more nutrient of course, which is provided mostly by soil critters. If you make your own compost of local materials, then the microorganisms will be the ones that are adapted to your biome, which will help the plants grow better in the native soil, which should be amended with the same local compost. It's the same with worm castings/worm juice. With herbaceous plants, you'll want a more bacteria dominated compost, and for woody plants & trees, a more fungal dominated compost. This is achieved by the ingredients you put into the compost pile - more herbaceous plant matter and less woody material for more bacteria and more woody material for more fungi. Look up Elaine Ingham's YouTube videos on making compost, she explains it in detail. You can also look into the Berkley Method which Geoff teaches - the fastest method known so far -18 days to finished compost -it is more labor intensive however. Worm castings are also bacteria dominated and good for herbaceous plants, and are also always at a perfectly neutral 7 pH. Mother Nature is Damn Good, no? My grandpa, whose family were farmers for generations in England, always said "the compost pile is the heart of every farm" and he was right. It's the nexus where "waste" becomes solid gold for the soil, and it closes many of the loops in any biological system. You really can't have closed loops with out the decomposition cycle, whether it happens naturally or in a man made pile - no life without death, that's Nature's way. Good Luck! |
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| [+] cover crops » Magic cover crop carpet? (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Thanks for the link. It's encouraging to see stuff like cover cropping being mentioned in the mainstream. I noticed that they are referring to large mono crop farming and mono-species cover crops as well. They also talk about "organic farmers" doing MORE tillage than Chem-Ag farmers, but any truly organic farmer is going to know that tillage destroys the soil and not go that route.
Take a look at some of Gabe Brown and Elaine Ingham's videos and you'll see that the key is diversity in both your cover crops and main crops. Unfortunately, the mainstream Ag industry is still thinking in the old paradigm and locked into that mental box. A true Magic Carpet is a diverse one with multiple growth levels, successions and functions. Using a seed drill to pant is the best way to go for sowing most crops into a cover crop, not furrowing or harrowing. (from my perspective, anyway) Here's a classic from Gabe Brown - And a classic by Elaine Ingham Enjoy! |
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| [+] farm income » the broken limbs movie - about apples and business v permaculture business (Go to) | Candace Williams | |
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Thanks for the link, I enjoyed watching the movie and will be sharing it with friends. I saw a related article in the NY Times about an English sheep farmer's view of rural America and the state of economics and Big Ag in the world. He's observed the same issues with small farmers running into Globalist ideology in the markets and not being able to make a living competing with food form the other side of the globe. I think lots of folks at Permies will really resonate with what he says, so please share this around - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/opinion/an-english-sheep-farmers-view-of-rural-america.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0 He's written a memoir called "The Shepperd's Life: Modern Dispatches From and Ancient Landscape" that sounds like a great read. He participates in a "Commons Grazing" system that goes back 4,500 years in England, and sees huge problems with modern Agri-Business. I haven't read it yet, but I suspect that there are probably ideas in this book that could benefit any grazier looking to implement time tested ways of feeding their flocks and stewarding their land. Combined with Holistic Management, this shared grazing idea could be a old way to go forward. Back to the Future Marty! |
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| [+] market garden » non perishable products? (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Strings or bags of dried and /or smoked mushrooms. Great for soups, stews, pizza, salad, stir fry, eggs, etc. All dried food is good for backpackers too. Lightweight and tasty. Niche market. Fruit leather or snacks, dried fruit slices - candied w/ honey or not. Nut, grain and honey/molasses/maple syrup/agave syrup sweet root/Yacon syrup (Diabetic friendly) bars Sweet Root/Yacon syrup (it's cooked though) or sweet root plant starts for diabetics to make a sweetener that actually helps regulate blood sugar. Dried Yacon is also an option. Powdered? Veggie Pemican bars - without the rendered fat or meat - Dried fruit puree with crushed nuts, honey and grains mixed in - energy bars basically. Dried spices - lavender, basil oregano, etc.- lots of applications. Sundried tomatoes, Sundried onion rings maybe. Spiced (dry rub), smoked and dried eggplant slices - about 1/2 inch thick to start with - tastes a lot like meat. In the Southwest, dried Cholla cactus skeleton pieces - rub with ashes to make a silver/grey weathered look, sand for a pink/salmon finish or leave natural. Can make all kinds of crafts from them - LED lamps, flower arrangements, humming bird feeders, bird houses, etc. Dried Saguaro cactus ribs or boots. Dried cactus fruit Dried chilies in braids or not. chiltipenes. Cheesecloth caches of Creosote, bursage and other leaves - spray with water for that desert rain smell - amazing air freshener. Would probably work as a hanging closet cache for moth/bug repellent too. Marketing Ideas - A little B/W flyer with recipes can be a good marketing tool and give folks ideas that may not have thought of for your WEIRD products. LOL In summer, buy a hand pumped bug spray sprayer and fill with ice water and some mint essential oil or crushed mint leaves/lemon peels in a bag and mist your customers - very refreshing and memorable, draws the kids, which draws the parents. I did this working for a mint farm selling essential oils at farmers markets here in Tucson and it worked really well. Makes people feel uplifted and positive which helps sales. I was amazed at the effect. Good Luck at the Market y'all! |
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| [+] lawn » help me break up with my lawnmower (Go to) | Beau M. Davidson | |
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Hey John, I like a Creeping Thyme and White Clover mix as groundcovers and there are lots of wildflower mixes out there that are great for a more meadow-like area. Just search for "wildflower meadow mix" an you'll get plenty of results.
You may especially want to take a look at this site called Stepables.com - https://www.stepables.com/ They have a nice site layout and selection with lots of information and pictures of each plant. They're based in Salem, Oregon, so the climate is probably fairly analogous to yours, except for the coldness of your winters. I wish I could grow a tenth of these groundcovers down here in the desert. It's an ongoing quest with me to find ones that will take the heat and foot traffic, especially in full sun. Any suggestions would be more than welcome! Wink, wink, Nudge, nudge... Cheers, Joe |
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| [+] cover crops » Cover crop for xeriscaped backyard (Go to) | Jerry Walton | |
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Hey Jerry, I live in Tucson and found some good resources for dryland cover crops while researching for a design I was doing for a friend. Some came from the University of Arizona extension program, so you may want to check with your local college Ag extension too for locally adapted plants. But here's some of what I found:
http://articles.extension.org/pages/31141/cover-crops-for-arid-areas Cover Crops https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1519.pdf Cover Crops for use in desert veg growing systems. http://cropsfordrylands.com/wp-content/uploads/Unconventional-Legumes-for-Sustainable-Farming-Systems.pdf Unconventional Legumes http://cropsfordrylands.com/free-pdfs/ Alternative crops for drylands http://www.americanmeadows.com/wildflower-seeds/southwest#ideal_region=southwest&life_span_indi=perennials&mix_species=mixtures&sun_shade=full-sun&zones=9&gan_data=true Wildflower mixes for the Southwest http://www.desertseedstore.com/category/Native-Grasses-68 Desert Seed Store - Grasses http://wc.pima.edu/~bfiero/tucsonecology/plants/trees.htm Desert trees, mostly legumes. Good for shade, N2 fixing, wind breaks, and to act as nuclei for "fertility islands" and nurse trees for smaller plants under their canopies. http://www.aridzonetrees.com/varieties.html Arid zone trees, mostly landscape trees, but plenty of nitrogen fixers. I hope this helps, I spent a lot of time researching these sources and have more if you want, just let me know. Cheers, Joe |
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| [+] cascadia » gonna be in the seattle area this saturday (Go to) | Jay Tee | |
Hey Paul, check out the beautiful Kubota Japanese Gardens in south Seattle/Renton, it makes a great place to meet and there are awesome and inexpensive Asian restaurants in the surrounding neighborhood too. It was started in 1927 and is very mature and beautiful now, a great place for observation and learning new things. It inspired me to think about doing a Japanese style food forest one day. I'm in Tucson now, but used to live down the street from it and it was my sanctuary when things got stoopid. Ohm... I love the place, it's like a botanical Candy Land, especially in Summer. Here's the city link for it - http://www.seattle.gov/tour/kubota.htm here's the garden's main site - http://www.kubotagarden.org/news/ Enjoy! |
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| [+] tiny house » Conex Boxes and Tiny Tree Houses (Go to) | D Nikolls | |
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Another option would be to bury the container in earth and basically make a WOFATI structure of it. You'd still have to cover it with an EPDM liner and some sort of insulation like wool felt under that, and rust from condensation could still be an issue. It may be better in the long run just to build a pole structure WOFATI. That will breathe, unlike steel, and for the $2,000 - $3000 you'd spend on a container, I think you could easily build a complete Wofati.
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| [+] toilet alternatives » How do I explain why a composting toilet is necessary? (Go to) | Peter Ingot | |
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Hey Burra, If they want a very easy way to compost humanure and has a little cash they could get one of the Airhead composting toilets. I've just ordered one for the caravan I live in after months of research, this one is hands down the best of it's kind. But it costs $1030.00 USD plus shipping, so it's pricey. It was developed for RV's and boats and is really nice.
Here's the site - http://airheadtoilet.com/us-order/ Here's the Amazon review page, even tough it's not for sale there anymore. The reviews are all 4 or 5 star. http://www.amazon.com/Airhead-Household-Head-Composting-Toilet/product-reviews/B00GXIODVK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eux2Qi8rLEs The Social Aspect of using a Composting Toilet. It works by Mesophilic composting, in other words, not hot, just warm like cheese is cultured in. Most composting is Thermophilic, meaning that it gets hot, like 55C in order to kill the microbes. Below are a few good links for doing thermophilic humanure composting that I found in my research. I was going to do this method, but my situation won't allow it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd4UDTOSm8g Check out this guy, Joe Jenkins' site and youtube channel for more, he's got one of the best systems I've seen yet. He's the author of The Humanure Handbook. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWc-RjuWbs Another with Joe Jenkins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOOUxa4_K1g This is a local guy here in Tucson, AZ who developed a really nice two barrel rotating system that's easy and odorless for the most part. He's endorsed by the Watershed Management Group run by Brad Lancaster the author of "Rainwater Harvesting For Drylands and Beyond and one of the world's authorities on water catchment and sustainable systems. http://www.omick.net/composting_toilets/barrel_toilet.htm Here's another link on the system above. There are a million composting toilet videos on youtube is you search for them. Probably some in Espanol or Portugueso too. I would also see if you can get a copy of "The Humanure Handbook" Good Luck! |
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| [+] paleo » Paleo Diet vs. Permaculture Diet (Go to) | Ulla Bisgaard | |
If you want less milk, you might look into dairy goats instead. I raised goats as a kid/teen and we got way more milk than we could use, so we sold it to friends and health food coops, before that was outlawed at Big Dairy's behest. They're a lot smaller and cheaper to buy, eat less, and can remove brush and convert it to high quality manure and milk. And gosh durn it, they're just fun critters to have around. Our main goat was a Nubian/Alpine mix that gave about 1 to 1.5 Gal per day. She wasn't a pedigree goat, so when she had kids, we could sell the does, but the bucks were not in demand for breeding, so they graced our table at about a year old. Goat meat is also in rising demand primarily due to the number of Middle Eastern folks in the states for whom it's a traditional staple, and the ripple effect on everyone else. You could also rent them out for brush/blackberry removal. So it could be a decent revenue stream for you if you wanted to do that. Cheers, Joe |
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| [+] paleo » Paleo Diet vs. Permaculture Diet (Go to) | Ulla Bisgaard | |
I'm of the same opinion Bradley. Our paleolithic forebears were not all purely nomadic. Many of them were sedentary for at least part of the year, even if they were migratory. I mean, if food was available in an area, why leave? They also "tended the wild", replanting their favorite food items in larger quantities to ensure future supplies. Holisitc Management can be summed up as "raising migratory animals on sedentary landscapes" as Darren Doherty has said. Even crop rotation is a minor form of this if you think about it. If you have a food forest, you have a similar ecosystem to what our ancestors may have found in their travels - planting one is kind of "bringing the mountain to Mohammed" as it were. One diet that I find to be nearly as unnatural as the modern American processed junk diet is veganism. (I think it's actually more of a belief system. From my experience, vegans seem to want everyone to join their faith based diet and claim the moral high ground as it's basis.) The fact is that a paleolithic person couldn't be vegan, because most of the foods vegans eat are the product of monocultures - grains, beans and nuts don't grow in sufficient quantity or regularity in the wild support such a diet, nor were the means to process them available if they did. I highly doubt that Homo Habillis ate tempeh kabobs or tofu-almond-wheatgrass smoothies! Never mind that humans have forward facing eye sockets (indicative of a carnivorous predator VS a herbivorous prey species), an omnivorous tooth set and that our brains would not have become as large as they are without sources of animal protein and fats. Our brains are basically a 3 LB lump of cholesterol, all that animal fat had to come from somewhere. (Wildebeest Bacon, perhaps?) I think a permaculture diet would probably just be a blend of what grows in your climate, whether the emphasis is on meat or veg or a balance of both. Beans and grains are probably going to be a much, much smaller part of it due to the lack of large scale monoculture which is the only efficient way to produce them in quantity. (alas, sweet pasta!) To my mind, it should be fairly simple - an "eat what you grow, grow what you eat" type thing. As Bradley mentioned, sleep is also vastly important to diet and health, as is the lack of continual, low grade stress. If you've ever looked into Robert Sapolski's work on stress, you can see how the two are linked. Nat Geo did a great documentary featuring Sapolski's work called "Stress: Portrait of a Killer" that is very enlightening. Sorry if that's a bit off topic, I'm not trying to troll, just passing on some info. As for adopting any popular, advertised system of eating...meh, what's in it for me? I know what's in it for the people promoting it. Same as every other highly promoted diet. Our ancestors didn't have such nagging questions, because they didn't have mass media marketing machines foisting new fads on them daily. They ate what they found or grew - and our existence is proof that they got enough varied nutrients to carry on and reproduce. (the human method of which is also important to health...do I hear Barry White singing....?) ; )- Bon Apetit! |
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| [+] meaningless drivel » idiocracy (Go to) | Michael Dotson | |
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I love this movie! High Art for sure. I think it's funny that it was created by Mike Judge who gave us that serial cautionary tale called Beavis and Butthead, because to me it seems like it portrays a world where everyone is that dumb. Too bad "American Idiot" from Green Day wasn't out yet. Woulda made a perfect soundtrack song! Uuuuuuh, uh huh, huh, huh huh... he said butt...
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| [+] large farm » Proposals for Large American farms (Go to) | Joseph Lofthouse | |
Wow, that looks a whole lot like my hometown of Tucson, AZ. Is that creosote (greasewood) I see? The terrain around here looks a lot the same, but a tiny bit closer plant spacing and diversity. We have lots of creosote, burro brush, sheep daisies, short grasses, and scattered acacias, mesquites, palo verdes and cacti here. 12 inches of rain a year at about 2500 ft elevation, but being surrounded by mountains really helps the rainfall , water table and biodiversity compared to other parts of the state. I totally get what you're saying about mulch. I've worked for landscaping companies here and it boggles my mind how people want to pay you to remove all the litter (to make it "pretty") and then pay you more to bring back the fertility in the form of mulch, manure and fertilizers. Poor sods don't even realize what's happening to them. I applaud you for not letting your fertility go off the land, I wish more folks had your good sense. Do you seed any extra plants such as cover crops to increase your biomass on the land? When I say chop n drop, I mean growing additional plants on the land and chopping them for mulch. In the past, people have just chopped down the native ecosystem and burned or dropped it and obviously, that's not been a boon to fertility. Also, if you haven't yet looked into it, I'd encourage you to check out some info on Holistic Management. The practice works extremely well at enriching barren land. They do it here in AZ and in New Mexico and Texas quite a lot now and the results have been amazing. They've even used it on mine tailings and completely revegetated them. Just search for it on Youtube and you'll get lots of hits. Geoff Lawton tells a story about how in China, before and for quite a while after Westerners arrived, they had a booming, nationwide nightsoil (humanure) industry that provided all the nutrients they needed and then some. Communities would set up beautifully decorated outhouses on their main roads so people would deposit their nutrients and add to the local economy. America more than once bought whole ship loads (ahem) of nightsoil from China for our farms and they were happy to sell it to us at a good profit. We need to get our shit together and start doing this too. If only the know-nothing bureaucrats would get the hell out of the way... I've also heard that in the Middle East, to this day, if you take a meal with the Bedouin, it's considered extremely rude if you don't make a deposit while still on their land. It's considered as exporting fertility from the land that just fed you, in effect taking without giving back. Makes perfect sense to me. |
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| [+] large farm » Proposals for Large American farms (Go to) | Joseph Lofthouse | |
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| [+] large farm » Proposals for Large American farms (Go to) | Joseph Lofthouse | |
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Hey Landon,
Those are all great ideas and similar to ones I've thought about for broad scale applications. As I was thinking about these kinds of approaches, I started to get the thought in my mind "this just seems like way too much effort to do what mother nature does without so much effort." I started thinking about and researching easier ways to get the same results. Having taken Geoff Lawton's online PDC (my 2nd PDC) last year, I was also haunted by this thought of how to make it easier. Geoff creates amazing systems for sure but there is a lot of what I call "Heroic Effort" (and cost) involved - swales, dams, keyline plowing, raised beds, etc, etc. Well, dammit, I'm lazier than that! I want something easier. Doesn't everyone? I think humans, especially modern ones over think things a lot and thereby miss the simpler and easier answers. What I found first in my research was Holistic Management, and then the big bombshell - Elaine Ingham's Soil Foodweb ideas. Pow! Bang! Ka-Boom! She blew me brain right out me bleedin' ears! I would suggest that you look at everything she has online and on youtube, starting with this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2H60ritjag called "the roots of your profits." She also has a free mini course on her site soilfoodweb.com as well as a full course that sounds like a seriously good deal. With what she's developed, it seems there is little need for bio-char, rip lines, swales, etc. Once the soil is restructured, water isn't a problem because the roots go down so far that water is always available and the soil life is so abundant that bio char becomes kind of obsolete. Check out this one on applying her techniques to broad areas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mErbalPxRxU Holistic Management folks are now using her techniques along with HM and having stellar results. Greg Judy is one of them, so check out his videos on YT too, especially this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqDX5k4Ixc In this video he talks about his system for leasing land and doing custom grazing for people. With his low inputs and high yields, he's making some serious dough. He sells a book on his site laying out the whole system he uses. Here;s the site: http://www.greenpasturesfarm.net/ You could also check out Mark Shepard's stuff. He calls his "system" STUN - Sheer, Total, Utter Neglect and gets great results. Tons of his lectures, etc on YT. I'd be interested to know what you think after viewing this stuff. Even though you aren't doing grazing, the soil foodweb techniques and the leased land ideas both seem like they might be useful to you. You could just do custom growing instead of grazing. Land ownership isn't what it's cracked up to be, with property taxes and all the other crap you have to deal with. Seems like leasing is a great way to both start and continue to farm effectively. Cheers! |
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| [+] rockies » Seeking volunteer help on N Idaho homestead (Go to) | C Dinsmore | |
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Hi Vladimir,
I saw this post and thought I'd send you a useful link. If you're looking for a good tent at a good price, consider a military surplus tent. Check out armytents.com for a great selection of high quality tents. A little rocket mass heater would probably make one liveable all year, similar to Paul's tipi set up. I hope it helps. Cheer, Joe |
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| [+] tinkering with this site » the OFFICIAL poll for the title of Paul's new kickstarter!!!! (Go to) | Marty Funkhauser | |
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I'd like to see something short and punchy. The longer names are fun and descriptive, but from a marketing perspective, short and sweet is usually the ticket, and this is about mass appeal , yeah?
So I'd like to cast my vote for "RMH - The Definitive Guide" -or - "RMH 2.0: The Definitive Guide" which kind of combines two names. May I also suggest: "RMH 2.0: The Definitive Guide to free heat" This kind of combines short and punchy with some descriptive info for those who may not know about RMH. I like the addition of 2.0 (or whatever the edition number is) to show that progress has been made and that this is the newest version. People are used to this terminology from computer speak, so I think it'll be of help in people grasping the concept. The World Domination tag is memorable, but I personally dislike the use of the word "Domination" in reference to something that is definitely going against the Dominator Paradigm that we currently suffer from. But maybe I'm just an old hippie at heart... LOL Props, respect and kudos to Paul, Ernie and Erica, Approvecho, Ianto and all the other RMH pioneers! Thanks for the great work you've all been doing to make everyone's life better! Cheers n Beers, Joe |
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| [+] tinkering with this site » support thread for people trying to download freebies from dailyish email (Go to) | Jeremy Franklin | |
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Hey Cas, Thanks for your help with this. I got the link to work tonight. It was a security setting thing that caused the problem.
Cheers! |
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| [+] wheaton laboratories » bread labor and soul labor 2015 (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Hey Paul, that sounds like a pretty good system you have going there. When you mentioned the timing of projects it made me think of the first Willie Smits talk at PV1 that you sent out on the daily-ish. https://vimeo.com/93993847 He had some great ideas about developing a work plan and an economic plan side by side to schedule out his labor and costs. You might try contacting him and seeing if he'd make his system available to you. From the sounds of his set up, you would probably increase your profits dramatically with his techniques. |
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| [+] tinkering with this site » support thread for people trying to download freebies from dailyish email (Go to) | Jeremy Franklin | |
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Hey Permies, First off, thanks for the links! I got the first one to play but the code for the 2nd seems to be wrong. I tried the code for the 1st one on the 2nd one's page too, but it didn't work either. Could you please take a look and let me know what's up? Thanks, Joe |
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| [+] gear » Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever (Indiegogo Campaign) (Go to) | allen lumley | |
I'm sure that that is the idea, CJ but could any of us teach ourselves permaculture then create and implement a design just by reading a book? I'm sure it could happen, but the odds of success and the numbers of people able to do this would be very low. Teachers not only teach the material, but answer the inevitable and innumerable questions that are raised and demonstrate the techniques through metaphors, similes and physical demonstrations as well as building people's excitement for the topic so they dig into it deeper. Then there is the issue of language barriers. A teacher who doesn't speak the student's native language would need to work with a translator ahead of the class to make sure they're translating things right and providing example that the students can understand. An E-book could not provide the same depth and culturally adapted language and examples. Many metaphors and analogues may not translate or be applicable to the local climate or culture and a well prepared teacher could overcome these deficits. So in my view, having a teacher on the ground would still be required for a real depth of understanding, even with the information present. A further benefit is that an education center could and probably would be left behind, which would produce food, fiber, fuel and compost and act as a hub for more people to learn. Nothing proves a point like a working example! This is why Geoff Lawton is trying to start PC education and demonstration sites around the world as part of the PRI Master Plan. It is a great opportunity for PDC students to put their education to practice helping the earth and others and reinvesting the surplus of those efforts into the community - this covers all three ethics quite nicely! My big issue with this is that nobody has investigated the people behind it before rushing to adopt it in a starry eyed frenzy of techno-joy. The worm on the hook looks like a "free lunch" to Mr Fish unless he carefully examines it for the hook coming out the other side. I trust the world bank about as far as I can throw 'em because I've seen what they've done to this planet and it's people and it couldn't be even remotely defined as Caring for them. |
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| [+] gear » Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever (Indiegogo Campaign) (Go to) | allen lumley | |
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Allen Lumley wrote: "However, one of the pillars of wisdom that supports and nurtures our community is everyone working to grow in a positive direction, and not to''Rage against the system'' or hate the haters." I'm not an advocate of "raging against the system" either. What a waste of time. I advocate "Abandoning the System" because this has been the most successful tactic of people in the past. The abandoned cities in the deserts and jungles of our planet attest to this. People got fed up with oppressive hegemonies and walked away, back to the land. I think that embracing technology tied to "the system" is going the opposite direction of walking away from it. Especially when it's promoted with slick advertising and "too good to be true" marketing like "Free Data Forever!!" (...But wait, there's more!) Does it come with free Ginsu knives too, I wonder? LOL As Socrates said: "The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new." So why adopt something that is a part of "the old"? This supposedly new tech is built on and integrated with the techno-industrial base that undergirds all of Industrial Petroleum Civilization, so it's not really new or part of a new way of doing things. It's just the old stuff in a new box. It will require continued resource extraction to maintain into the future too, so "forever" is a foolish boast. The idea of sending information to 3rd world countries to teach them Permaculture and appropriate tech will still need boots on the ground to teach these ideas hands on and help to implement them. If people have to go, they can just take the info with them, making this tech superfluous. Why not finance a Permaculture education and demonstration site via indegogo instead of sending the funds to organizations known to be hostile to the ethics of Permaculture and HOPING (Remember how Hope and Change panned out) that they're benevolent when all evidence to the contrary is present? "If this fails to take off it will be because of the N.S.A. and the other 'spook' agencies fear it ! Even then if the U.S. could shut it down most of the northern 1/3rd of America could just get its signal from Canada ! Move north learn to speak Canadian Ah! , or learn to speak Spanglish and move south !" The other side of this coin is that "if it Does take off, it could be because it's an NSA/Spook coordinated plan to begin with", seeing as how it's being financed by the World Bank-robbers and other related organizations whose track records are quite clear and freely available to anyone who cares to educate themselves about them. Let's not forget that the internet was developed by the military first and is now being used to spy on people by the same military and "intelligence" goons who put it together and offered it "for free" to the people. Nothing is free in this universe, there is cost in everything, whether it's money, time, energy, resources or any combination thereof. Hence, I doubt that an Outernet would be financed and maintained by private philanthropists who want to spend billions putting satellites in space just to give free things to all the good boys and girls without expectation of profit. I would highly recommend reading "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins for some background on the World Bank and IMF's policies and tactics. As for shutting down the inter or outer-net and other electronic communications, the US just revealed that it has an entire fleet of shiny new airplanes that carry electromagnetic weapons for the purpose of taking out any type of electronic equipment, including the electronics in vehicles. They're doing "training exercises" over the US as we speak. ...for your safety and security, of course! It is also quite easy for the military to shoot down satellites with their armed satellites or surface launched missiles, rendering this system null and void in minutes. Solar flares can also disable satellites easily.That money, time and effort would then have been wasted and the dependency on the system that it created would leave people without recourse to a substitute. It's a lot harder to take out a food forest and earthworks! Let's work towards that kind of infrastructure and let the resource intensive and Techno-grandiose ideas that we can keep surfing the web and driving to Walmart forever slip back into the childish imaginations where they came from. This planet will not support that day dream, but it will support and contribute mightily to permaculture installations on the ground because those structures are partnered with nature, unlike a bunch of man made stuff floating in space. Relationships will also be built because people are interacting with other people instead of a screen. That sounds a lot more like Permaculture to me than some whiz-bang gizmo proffered by dubious sources with provably dubious intentions. |
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| [+] gear » Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever (Indiegogo Campaign) (Go to) | allen lumley | |
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The minute I saw the World Bank logo I got suspicious of this project. World Bank may be called a bank, but their real currency is control. I've noticed them and the IMF funding lots of ecologically themed programs around the world and it makes me wonder what they're up to. Organizations like those don't just give millions of dollars away with nor expectation of ROI - return on investment. The narrator kept saying "join us" but never specified who "us" is. I'm not joining anybody's army to be used for some goal I don't know about or approve of. This whole thing smells like a trojan horse to me. There has to be an ulterior motive somewhere in this because money obsessed capitalists always look for a return on investment. I'm a late adopter for a reason, because nothing is what it's touted to be, especially in technology and especially on the US. This is Opposite Land - the Clean Air Act legalizes more gick in the air, the Healthy Waters Act allows for more water pollution, etc. Trust this project if you want, but I'm going to sit back and see what happens before I make any moves toward it. If this gizmo can receive information "from space" can it not also transmit information to space? I don't feel obliged to make the security state's job any easier, thank you very much.
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| [+] solar » Off Grid/Grid Tied Solar Design Education (Go to) | Nancy Erickson | |
- How about a rack for the batteries made of pallets raised up on two or three "rockers" underneath? A 2X6 on edge, tapered at both ends of the bottom surface and nailed/screwed to the underside of the flat pallet rack would allow you to just put your foot on the corner and rock the batteries a bit each day or two to keep the plates free of stratified elements. Simple, cheap, and effective I would think. You could also attach a rope to it, up to a pulley mounted on the ceiling and pass the rope through the wall and then just pull the rope to rock it from the outside as you walk by without entering. Heck, you could even set up a little electric motor with a (probably counterweighted) arm attached to a cam on the drive shaft to rock the bateries on a schedule with a timer switch. The longevity gained would probably offset the energy used, but you'd need to analyze that to be sure. |
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| [+] intentional community » being an introvert in community (Go to) | James Dawnung | |
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@ Leila, I think you're dead on with your comments. Even those few people who purport to be living in opposition to or radically differently from the mainstream society are still locked in to the dominant paradigm and don't even see it.
I checked out an IC in Oregon that had gobs of potential to be a really awesome place and community and their terms for "volunteers" were that you would work 40 hrs a week there without pay AND pay for your room and board. I asked them "so let me ge this straight, you want me to work 40 hr a week for free, then travel in a petroleum powered vehicle to the nearest city 40 miles away to work at a job for money that I then turn over to you. So I'd be working 60-70 hrs a week for room and board? How the hell is that sustainable, alternative or different from the slave galley society I'm trying to build an alternative to?" This was very clearly explaoitation of "Trustafarians" (trust fund kids who dress/live like hippies off the wealth of capitalistic exploitation) who lived there thiking they were creating some New Future Society. Sorry, but I call bullshit on that one. It's like this 5 days/week - 40 hrs per week thing came down from some deity on a stone tablet. No, sorry folks, that was what was agreeable to the capital ownership class when the unions and communist party of america was getting all "uppity" back in the 30's and demanded better working conditions, child labor laws and less than 16 hour days in the coal mines. Gee, what a tremendous gift form the elite...please. And now even the "counterculture" thinks it's some paragon of "fairness" and "normality". I used to work with a mentally ill lady whose favorite saying was "normal is a setting on a washing machine...it doesn't apply to humans" and society considers her "crazy" ... go figure. |
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| [+] intentional community » being an introvert in community (Go to) | James Dawnung | |
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Great Thread! I'm a pretty extreme intorvert too (INFP) and I identify with all of the posts here regarding finding space in community. It's also been my big concern with joining a community; that sort of unspoken expectation that everyone wants to be up in each other's grill 24/7 patting backs and high fiveing. Sorry, but I'm just not up for that happy lil plan.
I think we could find some usefull examples by looking at tribal societies. After all, those are the societies we're trying to emulate with sustainable communities. Surely, there are introverts in all societies, and in fact from the movies I've seen of tribal folks, they seem to have a larger percentage of introverts in those groups. I see them sitting either alone or together but being silent or quietly singing to themselves as they work or hunting/gathering alone or together but silently. On top of being an introvert, I'm also a night owl, and always have been. There is definietely an unspoken (and often loudly, self-righteously spoken) expectation to be "up with the sun" early risers who gather for sunrise yoga, breakfast and then work. Well, I'm not down with that, so where do I fit in a community? Some of my musings on tribal life in pre-civiized (read; pre-citified) life are that it was probably the introverted night owls who guarded the flocks and village at night, kept the fires burning, tended slow cooking food, probably developed astronomy/astrology, and thus planting/harvesting cycles and maybe dealt with colicky babies so their early rising parents could get some shut eye. They were the night shift. Introverts were the sheperds, taking the animals to grazing lands far from the main camp and happily being alone with them all day. They were probably some of the trail blazers and scouts, opening up new areas to hunt, gather and tend the wild in. They probably did well at developing things like weaving, pottery, medicine, music, language and other skill sets that required focus, concentration and patience with complex processes. - This is a trait that INFP's have in spades; we're patient with long, complex prosesses, but impatient and irritated by mundane, routine activities and rules that seem like a waste of time. ( I had lots of fun in the one-size-fits-none, cookie cutter school system you can bet!) So my premise is that intorverts are highly valuable, behind the scenes folks. They encompass most of the scientists, engineers, architects, inventors, researchers, computer people, social workers, etc in current society; acting as the quiet backbone of much that we take for granted. In a community setting they need to be respected for thier quiet, un-celebrated contributions and given the space they need. I've lived with roommates for my entire adult life and it's always a struggle to find roomies who respect my space and need for quiet. I play guitar too and it seems that people think I want to be om stage all the time playing for a crowd because I play. Wrong! I play for me and my own enjoyment, I could really care less about entertaining people, but it never fails to draw a crowd. I do appreciate that people find my music enjoyable and worthy of listening to, but my motivation has never been to play for the masses. I think I need that door mat that says "piss off" instead of "welcome" on it! LOL The MBTI could be a very valuable tool in communities and I'd like to see more folks using it to get a grip on what really works for different types. There's so much dissent and confusion in most communities I've visited that we're gonna have to get smarter about dealing with differences and making them work for us instead of against us if we want to succeed in living in sustainable communities. The problem is the solution and diversity is strength. |
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| [+] honey bees » Harvard Study: Neonicotionoids Cause Colony Collapse Disorder (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Hey Permies,
I just got this breaking news about a new study from Harvard indicating that Neonicotionoids are highly likely to be the cause of Colony Collapse D/O and I wanted to get it out you you all ASAP. Here's the article" http://www.policymic.com/articles/89557/harvard-study-reveals-how-dying-bees-hold-disastrous-consequences-for-humans Greenpeace has a campaign going to demand a nationwide ban on these toxins following in the EU's footsteps. You can sign the petition at this site: http://sos-bees.org/ Watchdog.net is also running a campaign and you can sign their petition here: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4667?n=74904028.yDCz4o Here's an article about it in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/09/honeybees-dying-insecticide-harvard-study Paul, If you see this, would you please promote these websites and campaigns? Humankind would have about 4 years to live if we lost the bees, so this is one of the most important and impactful things we can be involved in right now. All the brilliant PC designs in the world won't mean diddly squat if the pollinators take a dirt nap. Many Thanks, Joe |
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| [+] plants » Huge Non-GMO Resource (Go to) | Joe DiMeglio | |
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Hey Permies,
I just found a great website that I want to share with all of you. It's run by a gentleman named Jeffrey Smith who has been studying GMO's and pesticides exclusively for 18 years. The site offers tons of info for "consumers" (l hate that label) and activists, as well as training to teach people how to speak about GMO's and ChemAg to inform people of the actual risks of both. Look under the "Events" tab for the GMO Speaker Training Course which is only $20. This looks like a great resource to get training to be able to defeat any argument for GMO's with hard facts and science. I heard Jeff on the radio tonight on Coast To Coast AM with George Noori and he is a very well informed, well spoken guy with very strong scientific studies and legal evidence from countries all over the world. (most of which have banned the nasty stuff.) Here's the site: http://www.responsibletechnology.org Paul, if you would be so kind, could you please promote this link on the dailyish email er something? (I'll even declare you to be "High Commander of Organic Loveliness with Bacon, Cheese and Sparkles") I think that getting training to speak well in favor of organic -vs- GMO is an important resource that many communities could use. The good folks in the Rogue River Valley of Southern Oregon just won a big battle against GMO's in their area and I sent this link out to everyone on the SPRG (Siskiou Permaculture Resource Group) list to help with the future battles that will surely come. The Astroturf group "Oregonians for Food and Shelter" that the Chemikill companies created is already asking for the GMO ban to be overruled claiming it violates the Right-To-Farm law there. That's like someone wanting to grow poppies and coca and saying the right to farm law protects them. Total Lamesauce. He does lectures and is involved in the Tipping Point Network and there's even a group in Kalispell if you want to get connected with them. Thanks for all you guys do, Joe |
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| [+] bicycle » ELF - an electric assist commuter tricycle vehicle (Go to) | Topher Belknap | |
Hi Topher, There are open source plans online for 3D printers, and I believe that you can scale them up to suit your needs. They print whole house wall sections with them now from what I've heard, so a car panel should be no problemo. You might check out Open Source Ecology and if they don't have the info listed, email them and ask about it. They're usually on the forefront of open source tech. It probably wouldn't be economical unless you were producing several of them though, due to the start up cost of the machine and materials. But this would be a good candidate for a kickstarter for sure. Cheers, Joe |
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| [+] geoff lawton's online pdc » Permies In Geoff Lawton's 2014 online PDC (Go to) | AndrĂ© Troylilas | |
Hi Sam, I'm taking the course too and really loving it. It's my 2nd PDC but I'm learning new things and expanding my understanding of things I already knew. I've been too busy with work and everything to chime in here yet but I finally got a day off. In regards to your post, I agree that making the PDC free would create a lot of half-hearted students. For a grand, you really can't beat the education and resources you receive. Especially when you look at college tuition in the US. It's highway robbery for a substandard, in the box, one size fits none "edumacation". Regarding getting the word out, I think that if each of us taught at least one other person we could have a big effect. If we taught a hundred or a thousand each we would really be getting the word out. I've thought about making up business cards with geofflawton.com permies.com and other permie websites to hand out to people if I hear them talking about ecology, conservation and the like. It might be a simple, low cost tool to spark more interest. We need more schools and demonstration sites, which is the reason for the PRI Master Plan which I hope to be a part of. Speaking of the PRI Master Plan, has anyone seen the Xavier Hawk keynote from PC Voices about Permacredits? If this flies, it could be the ticket to funding a ton of new working ecovillages that are PC demo sites and education centers. I'm wondering if Paul knows anything about the validity of the whole Bitcoin platform since he's a computer savvy guy. I'd love to invest in them when the initial offering happens next month. Anybody else here in on this one? Maybe we could start a new thread on this and evaluate it there? |
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| [+] bicycle » ELF - an electric assist commuter tricycle vehicle (Go to) | Topher Belknap | |
The doors should be easy and light if you used thick, clear plastic like the stuff they use for convertible car top rear windows. Just velcro, zip or snap them on and have a zipper or other way to get in and out. What would be super cool is if somebody came up with a 3D printer program that would print the plastic side pieces, tail light covers, dash and other plastic bits n bobs. Maybe using a honeycomb design on the inside of the shell for strength. Then you could make most of it yourself and save crazy money. A little larger electric motor and more solar panel area would be cool too. Another big savings with these little buggers is no insurance, license, registration, title, emissions testing, and parking/ traffic tickets. |
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| [+] cascadia » Root stock and seed sources in OR and WA (NW Coast USA) (Go to) | Jocelyn Campbell | |
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Hi Mark,
I know this is an old post but if you're still looking, my permaculture teacher in Ashland runs an organic, permaculture specific seed company and ships seeds all over the world. His name is Chuck Burr and here is his site: http://www.restorationseeds.com/ Tell him Joe DiMeglio sent you, he's a great guy and very knowledgeable. Cheers, Joe |
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and the list goes on.