Jackie Frobese

It’s finally flowered...

It looks like it’s ready to flower very soon. I’m just waiting for that so I can share some more pictures. I have put out a lot of wild flower seeds so it’s very likely something I introduced.

Here are some pictures...I’ll try to get more showing the more recent growth.

I have a very abundant unknown plant in my gardens. I’d love some help identifying it.

Here is the YouTube link: not sure the best way to insert a video...sorry.

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to start a thread for people living and homesteading in southern New Hampshire and southern Maine so we can all connect and build community. I know there are already a number of groups available in these areas for permaculturists, but this thread will allow for more communication about regional specific challenges and opportunities outside of the gatherings that other groups organize.

Maybe we can start by sharing some of the groups we are familiar with that are permaculture focused! (on a side note, my computer just marked permaculture as a misspelled word, meaning my computer didn't recognize the word! That should be a whole other thread)

The group I'm mostly involved with locally is Seacoast NH Permaculture Meetup which can be found at meetup.com

I hope to hear from a whole bunch of my neighbors about anything and everything local to us!

I’m surprised at how many people reported having trouble with ground nut. I put some in a small garden on the northwest corner of a building. The soil was terrible so I dug in about 2 gallons of my partially finished compost before putting the ground nuts in. They came up happily every year. I will say they seem to have a later season than many other perennials in my region. I loved seeing the beautiful almost pine cone looking flower. I just had to dig all the tubers up as the landlord decided they didn’t want anything climbing near the building. I’ve moved them to the west side of my house and look forward to seeing how hey do in this new location.

I haven’t yet tried eating any. If they do well this year I will probably try eating some. I’ll try to remember to take a picture of them when they are flowering which is usually late summer possibly even into autumn.

Stacy Witscher wrote:Mike - While I generally agree with you, consumer debt is only stressful if you let it be. Most of the time, the only consequence of not repaying credit card or other unsecured debt is a lower credit score. If you don't care about that, why worry? One of the things that I find so freeing about not having debt and not using credit, is that I don't have to care about my credit score. So if I feel like a bill is unreasonable, and I don't need to continue doing business with a certain company, I just don't pay it. It's such a relief. I never understand people who feel like paying an unreasonable bill is a moral duty, so bizarre.

As far as education, I encourage young people to look around. If you are open to different options, you can often get through college, undergraduate and graduate, without going into debt, and without joining the military. I think a lifetime of PTSD is a very high price to pay for a college education. There are better ways.

Stacy,  I agree that for anything stress is a matter of your state of mind. I remember hearing a quote once, something to the effect of “if stress is real than please show me by filling a cup with it.” I’m sure I didn’t get that quite right, but you get the idea.

I am a bit concerned about your statement of not paying a bill if you feel it’s unreasonable. All bills are something you take on voluntarily. Perhaps your choices are limited such as in the case of a medical emergency, but it is your choice to undergo treatment at that facility. Bills are a commitment you chose to agree to at the time of purchase. So to change your mind and decide not to pay, after committing, just seems a bit unethical to me. As much as I may be mad about a bill, its really my past self I have to be mad at, not the company I owe.

I appreciate hearing everyone’s stories of how they have achieved financial freedom. My husband and I only have a mortgage and student loans and have our plans to paying them off. We too are debt averse.

One last point I want to make: just imagine how much we could change the world if all of us were putting the money we spend on interest, even just the interest from our mortgages, into doing good I our own communities. When we pay rent there is a chance that the money is going to someone in our own community rather than to a big bank. That alone is worth the years it takes to save to buy a house in cash. The banks don’t need anymore of our money, our community does.

Nick Mason wrote:Here is a much too simple fix for remedying this problem. Perhaps we should start lobbying the manufacturers to stop using labels which are impossible or very difficult to remove? It is pertinent to note that a lot of these labels are plastic based. Why do the labels need to be plastic which requires an adhesive which is probably petroleum based? Having to shred these labels to remove them must be contributing to plastic contamination of the water used in the process. Let alone the use of alcoholic solvents to deal with the adhesive residues. Much better to use a paper label with an appropriate adhesive which allows easy removal by the hot water soaking method. Am I being too simplistic?

You are right Nick! I’m not much of an activist so I’d would love a step by step explanation of how we would go about this. It may be small beans in the scheme of things but look at the list of chemicals people have posted for removing these labels. So not only is there the toxic gick put into making the ‘fancy’ hard to remove labels, but then there is more used to remove them later on. I’m sure if enough of us put some effort in we could get some more consciously minded companies to change this.

I don't know about you, but I don't always have an easy go of it when trying to get my family to eat more greens.

A trick that I have found is that greens in the form of a powder seem to be less visible and less strong in flavor and therefore I can get way with putting them into a wide variety of meals.

The problem; show me a greens powder with wild edibles, and the wide variety of greens that I can grow in my own yard. So here is my solution: Make your own greens powder! Not only does this make greens easier to get into my families bellies, it also is a super compact way to store greens through the winter. As you will see once the greens are dried and powdered they are a fraction of their original size!

I hope this helps some others to live more healthy!

PART 1


PART 2

Staci Kopcha wrote: finalize cob mix recipe.
   
1:4:4 dirt: clay:sand,  not strong, crumbles apart.

Stacie, in the pictures it looks like the crumbled brick has written on its paper 1:4:4 clay:dirt:sand

I only ask because I'm trying to better understand cob. I was inspired by your post and wanted to try making a few bricks with my property's dirt to see how they come out, and knowing how the wrong mixes act can be useful in troubleshooting.

I also wanted to say I'm so very impressed with your dedication and willingness! Its very inspiring to myself and hopefully to many others. Its great how the thread has become literally a step by step walk through a RMH build!