Jason Silberschneider wrote:Geoff Lawton has stated in an interview with Paul Wheaton that there is absolutely no requirement to have done a PDC in order to teach permaculture, or use permaculture, or describe what you're doing as permaculture. So there's that.
Are you sure?
I specifically remember him stating his concern that permaculture not be taught in such a way as to be considered "wacky".
It's funny that I've found this thread, as I recently read elsewhere that it helps alcalize your body if added to coffee, so my wife and I have only been adding it to coffee for 3 days, now!
She's Jamaican, so she's been cooking with it forever, but I really like it in my coffee...
I have a fairly challenging property in Maine; USDA zone 4.
The slope faces North, which of course, isn't ideal; but it's what I got, and it's not that bad for sun exposure.
Where I have my largest pond planned, I'd like to put the house just north of, to catch all that reflected sunlight. My reservation is that the pond, and it's feeding swales, would have nicely hydrated the soil; and while good for my plants, isn't so good for the foundation.
Is there any history of building Downhill from a dam? What measures could I employ to keep the foundation dry?
I realize that my question wasn't as clear as I had thought, though.
The crux of my problem is that I don't understand where the individual corners of my land are located on a map.
On the survey map, all of the coordinates printed near the corner points are on some coordinate system that I don't understand. For instance, the top border says, "S 89 00 38 E 801'" --Now I understand the 801' part; but I don't know what to do with those coordinates. GPS reads from North, not South, and I tried figuring what that would be by North-reckoning, but failed.
There's the North-Easternmost corner that looks like the datum point for reference for all the others, since it's all zeros, but I don't know how I can locate just that one point on a map.
My land is almost paid off, and almost a year ahead of what I expected!
I've been researching all this time; and when I bought the land, I didn't even know what permaculture was! I realize now that there are some difficulties with my land; but I'm sure there are for all properties.
I'm in Northern Maine, on a North-facing slope. Yeah, I know.
It DOES get a fairly decent amount of sunlight; but I know that I'll have to be very smart in utilizing that sun if I am to succeed in our food forest/silvo/aqua/pasturing dream to get self-sustaining.
It's 15 acres, in USDA zone 4. I currently live in Philadelphia, PA; about 600 miles South; supporting a family while running the rat race. My big plans must be made on paper, or computer, because it's costly to commute up before the transition.
All I have is the realtor's(?) survey of the land, and I've tried to trace out an approximation of it on Google Earth. I just know it's not accurate, and I really need to start planning the earthworks/function stacking with some accuracy.
My question:
How can I use the plot layout from the realtor to ACCURATELY start my plan of the land? (Or, what SHOULD I be using to start my plan?)
Thanks a lot for your help. This is where things should start really moving! Thank you!
