Jeffrey Loucks

    As my better half and I have gotten older,  we decided to go with a raised bed garden.  Our garden is now almost 1/2 an acre in size so going to a store and purchasing those little kits wasn't really a great idea if you know what I mean.  
     We dug out the topsoil in our paths until we hit sand. That was about 24 inches in our case.  We went ahead and laid down cardboard (obtained at a local ice cream/butcher shop) in our area next. Then we put down woodchips up to the original depth of the soil. The topsoil that was dug out of the paths was placed to the left (growing area) which started to build up our "raised garden ".  Every third year we have to dig out the paths,  which have pretty much turned into dirt.  
    We did not place sides on the growing area and although the raised areas are now about 3 1/2 foot high everything is working.  We live in the lower SW corner of Michigan so we have a nice sandy loam mix soil.  We were recently upgraded to zone 6B for growing a garden and I'm still trying to get used to the warmer weather.  It is really making a huge difference here.
    This will be about our 11th or 12th year.  Our paths are 24 inches wide, give or take 6 inches. Our growing area is closer to 36 inches wide for the large plants like tomatoes and it goes down to about 24 inches for things like radishes and cut again letttuce.  
    We've tried to keep our paths at the original topsoil level and that means that sometimes we have had to add woodchips every year because of the weather.  We have been fortunate enough to get free chips from companies cutting around our area when we run out.  It hasn't seemed to matter what type of trees are used. The one problem we ran into happened a few years ago. There must have been a bunch of poison oak or poison ivy because I  got it again and again when handling the woodchips.  It didn't affect the food but it made for a long growing season.  
    We no longer have a problem with weeds.  If some do grow then it is very easy to pull them by hand.  Also,  with all the mulching (we also add some compost from our chickens and animals to the growing area each year) we never have to water our garden. The is area acts like a giant sponge.  No matter how much rain we get there is never a puddle.  During the dry season our garden soil stays fairly moist with just the morning dew.  
    I have read that some areas have had problems with snails by using this method.  We have not seen many snails but the local "garter snake " population exploded on our little farm.  Since they are not aggressive or poisonous who am I to complain? In conclusion,  if you end up having too many snails then you just found a way to save money on your duck food bill!

Although I agree with most of what was written so far,  I still like my garden to have very few weeds.  I enjoy being able to walk in it and pick the vegetables without having to brush aside weeds to get what I want.  Since I am inherently lazy,  I put down a lot of mulch.  This year it was woodchips but most of the time it is old hay that has sat around for too many years to be of any value.  If the weed has any value to me then I will let it grow.  

I may be in the minority this time. I am fairly sure that I have almost all of the items offered this time.  However,  I have a few extra dollars and I cannot think of a better place to spend it than here.  
    I don't know how much it costs to run an operation like Paul's.  I only have my small farm and a lot of what I have has been obtained for nothing other than a handshake and a thank you.  For example,  I  received approximately 15 loads of wood chips this summer when a bunch of burr oaks were taken down to widen a road.  Today,  the owner of an excavation company stopped by and inquired about getting 5 small dump truck loads. I told him yes. I said no to him paying for them though.  Now he has offered to come over this fall and do some digging instead.  Here comes my pond!
     Anyways,  my point is, that if everyone who can afford to, would just take advantage of the effort that the permies crew all so often does for us maybe even more would be accomplished.  Don't worry about "What am I getting?" each time. The deal is secondary.  It's the supporting our home team that counts.  
    It reminds me of a small town where the box stores start to move in.  Little by little life as we knew it disappears. It has happened in the small city where we live.  It reminded me of a Hallmark movie with the wrong ending.  Main street is dead, the hardware store is gone,  and it seems like stores are either second hand shops, rental places,  or check cashing places.
    Let's support each other.  That way the site will grow but more importantly,  the right kind of lessons will be taught.  If you made it this far thank you for letting an old guy ramble on. A kind word goes far in making someone's day better and supporting what you believe in are two ways of being a decent person.  Words are free and $35.00 is less than a trip to our local restaurant for my better half and I.  So I will cook one extra meal this month.  
    Thank you to everyone who made this opportunity possible.  It's appreciated.  I know that a lot of work goes into publishing books and in making movies.  So again,  thank you.  For the permies team that put everything together and provided the computer support,  thank you and you are so far out of my league I have no idea what you do. Jeff

Kristine,  A very warm welcome to Permies.  I hope that you enjoy this site as much as I do.  There is a wealth of information about many topics and with your knowledge about water poultry it will be even better. I think the reason I keep coming back to Permies.com when there are so many other sites online now is that the members give their knowledge and experience to others freely with no reserve.  People don't look down on the beginner level person . Instead they seek to elevate and educate the new person. This attitude,  encouraged by Paul and his staff who give away things all the time,  has motivated me to teach others in my area about gardening and permaculture. I sincerely hope your book sales go well.  Jeff

I would hazard a guess and say that our ducks were obtained a little outside the norm.  We own about 10 acres at the NE corner of Lutz Road ( a very busy thoroughfare) and Fairchild Road (a back country road) in the lower SW corner of Michigan.  Early last spring,  I was cutting up some logs in the pasture that we have when an overloaded pickup truck zipped by on Lutz Road traveling close to 70 m.p.h.  A small box on the top of a bunch of others came flying off and landed in the middle of the road.  Of course the truck never paused and was soon out of sight.
    After a few minutes of watching traffic dodge the box, I wandered over to take the box out of the road.  What a surprise I received when I heard funny little noises coming from the box. Now, you must understand that the box was just a regular box from the supermarket.  (If I recall correctly, it was for mayonnaise type salad dressing. ) Getting back to the story; I placed the box upon a log and opened it up.  I received the surprise of my life when I saw baby ducks. There were 10 of them and they were all only a few days old.  Unfortunately,  4 of them were already dead so I buried them in our pasture.  The other six stayed in the box for the next few hours while I cut wood.  I hoped that the pickup would come back looking for the box but it never showed up.
    When I was finally done cutting I brought the box of ducks up to the farmhouse area with me.  I showed them to my Better Half,  Renee,  and she decided that we should keep them.  We put them into our baby poultry area in the chicken house and proceeded to raise them. After a few weeks it became obvious that we had at least 3 different types of ducks.  Second mystery (The 1st was who lost them.) becomes evident because our local stores only sell 2 types of ducks.  
    Moving forward by about 4 weeks,  the ducks are allowed to move in with the chickens. We put a small pool in the chicken pen and proceeded to watch the show begin!  If you've never seen it before I can't begin to put it into words.  A few baby ducks and a  container with about 5 inches of water in it can a dull moment into a very entertaining day.
     We really enjoyed the ducks until they grew up. Then we had our first problem.  It seemed that we ended up with 4 females and 2 males.  The 2 drakes started to get very rough with the females.  I don't know why this happened.  I do know if it was that the drakes were Pekins and the hens were not caused the difficulties or what.  But 2 of the 4 hens were blinded in one eye each and all 4 were getting tore up. Because of this we decided to put the drakes down and can the meat in half-pint jars for stir fry meals.  
    The 4 hens are still doing fine.  They made it through a Michigan winter and they are laying eggs pretty much every day.  We have found out that baked goods made with duck eggs are superior to ones made with chicken eggs.  All of the hens are friendly and they still get very excited when we use the garden hose around them.
     I would hazard a guess that we will continue to have ducks on the farm for the foreseeable future.  They just seem to make life go smoother.  They're relatively easy to care for and they give us back eggs,  meat,  and humor  - with emphasis on the humor, which is so very important in a world like today.
   
   

To whoever sent me a slice of pie,  Thank you very much for being so considerate.  Sincerely,  Jeff

I received a Happy Permiversary message yesterday.  In it there is a link for a free piece of pie.  The link didn't work.  It sent me to a page that says something went wonky instead. Sincerely,  Jeff

My better half makes a homemade pumpkin pie using sugar pie pumpkins from our garden that I love.  It has a soft rich flavor and texture that let's you know that all is well at that moment in time.  
    A close second would be a steaming hot slice of shepherds ' pie made with vegetables from the garden and spices from the herb spiral.  
   There is something about using just picked produce that allows one to sit back and let the world go by for a while without one worrying about it.  Kind of reminds me of getting a dose of Permies.com when I've been listening to the news.  

Dear Paul Wheaton,
    You are getting the word out.  It may not be overnight like you desire, but you,  along with your team are succeeding.  I had absorbed everything put out by 3 permaculturists in Australia.  I even paid to become certified by one by taking online courses.I had subscribed to numerous homesteading sites that regurgitate the same information as a thousand others. I ended up putting in a larger garden than I had for the last 30 years.  Your advice has helped my wife and I to actually make changes in the way that we live.  Our grandchildren are interested and so are some other younger folks in our area. One of which will soon be one of the largest land farmers in the lower SW corner of Michigan.   (I just gave his wife the 3rd copy of your book you had sent me. )
  So Thank You Paul.  My wife and I (and extended family) are now healthier and happier than we have ever been.  Our grandchildren get excited about coming over to our little farm.  We give away the surplus like eggs and vegetables because it generates discussion on how we accomplish so much considering our age and being on a fixed income.  From there it's easy to work your ideals into the process. So, again.  Thank you.  Sincerely,  Jeff and Renee

Devaka, I appreciate the feedback.  I use the credit functions for paying for things because about 7 months ago my account got hacked.  I had my checking account attached to the PayPal account for making payments and when PayPal got hacked my checking account information was there for the world to see.  It was not fun getting everything back to normal.  That's when I decided to let PayPal make all of my payments and I pay them off once per month.  They immediately approved me for $5,000.00. The most I use each month is approximately $375.00 so I don't think it is an overdrawn problem.  I'll call them again tomorrow and try to solve the problem.  Sincerely,  Jeff