Tereza Okava

There's a saying about eating an elephant: you do it one bite at a time. One bag a week, one thing at a time, you'll be a tiny bit closer than you were the day before. You can do it!

If I had that much space I would be doing chickens, turkeys, and maybe a pig or two, rotating pastures on grass. (keep in mind, my farm right now is the size of a postage stamp, 10-20 acres seems like an entire continent).
I am a big fan of rabbits, they take up almost no space (even fit in my tiny garden!) and provide excellent fertility, could also provide income streams (meat as well as manure). The thing I like most is that they really cut down my waste, they eat all the garden and kitchen scraps, and I don't need to waste space on composting. Depending on what you're growing, and whether it interests you, I might consider adding a small number of goats that could also eat the waste stream and also provide meat/milk/additional income in a pretty small space.

When we do size up, the one thing I really want is chickens.

Elle, looks like you've got your work cut out for you. If I may give you a few pieces of advice that were useful for me:
- if spouse is not on board, start with your closet and see if he doesn't take interest (if you share a closet, ask him to demarcate his area and leave it alone).
-Anne's advice is how I did it; the maybe box gets taped up and thrown in the attic (on porch, etc) to be looked at in 6 months. I would add another box to this, as I know you have a big family- if there's anything you're saving for kids or someone else to use, that's another box. My daughter and I wear pretty much the same size and that was an excuse for me for a long time, saving pricey clothes for her to wear. But it doesn't need to be in my closet right now, so it went into the storage area too.
- another box, being permies, might be "needs fixing", if you have enough of those things.
- that maybe box, if you haven't looked at it in 6 months it gets donated or repurposed, no need to even open it if you don't want to.
- if you sew, and have clothes you want to save for that, get a basket or something and keep those clothes somewhere else, not in your closet.

- during this process, put on some music, hydrate, and try to keep a good rhythm going. Anything that has tags on it, is not your size, has a spot, just doesn't work for you, be merciless. It's not helping you in that closet.
Good luck and godspeed!!

(when people give you clothes, if for some reason you can't stop it from happening, you can put them directly into your donate stream. If they give it to you and you don't put wear it the very next day [happily, not out of obligation], it's probably not likely you're going to wear it ever.)

Orion, welcome. I assume you're accessing from mobile view, on desktop you can see people's signatures, locations, bumper stickers etc that get cut to fit onto a smaller screen- you're not deficient, the content isn't showing up for you.
His link was this one, there are various threads on water catchment, not sure if this is the one you saw. https://permies.com/t/88043/benefits-rainfall-collection

We've got a few threads out there about kitchen design that might be interesting to you, but this one seems to be the mother of all kitchen discussions, with everything from collective cooking processes to design. https://permies.com/t/38614/permaculture-projects/permaculture-kitchen

this one is interesting too https://permies.com/t/55821/Smart-Kitchen-Permaculture-Kitchen-Design

I want a chicken on every city council. Possibly could also be a goose or a duck. God knows it would make public access TV a lot more fun.
Also mandatory composting, with pig inspectors.

Woot! Looks like you did pretty well against the great spiky beast! I'd love to see what you make with the seeds. In the past I've cooked them and they have been underwhelming.

It looks like you got off pretty lucky in terms of sticky gunk, which is a constant problem when I get jackfruit. I learned through much suffering that generously oiling your hands, the knife, the board, and anything else involved is the only way avoid getting everything stuck to everyone like an accident at the crazy glue factory. And if you get any of that stuff on your clothes, rubbing straight lye soap (or whatever strong soap you have) into the latex can work.

Elle, my explanation is that people are just sort of flailing around in their anxiety and aren't sure what to do- they want to do *something* but it's not clear what.
At least, that's how I'm trying to deal with some of the similar things I'm seeing here- I need to try to see some positive or it gets really depressing.

I know you said that this is not the point, but-- good data recently about schools not being the big super-spreader factor everyone was afraid they would be (so far). It is about time there is some sort of break this year. I'm doing an online conference this week and by the third hour I was ready to go completely nuts, kids, adults, teachers who deal wtih this every day deserve a medal.

I love it!!
I've also been fixing jeans lately, seem to have lost my taste for buying new things (yay) and there is nothing better than coaxing a little more life out of something, is there?

I also just recently got my mung bean sprout game in order!!
Maangchi, the Korean recipe lady extraordinaire, posted a video showing how to do it that was very helpful.
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/sukju-namul

I'm curious to know how often you make them for two people. It takes a good 6-7 days advance planning and then you end up with a pretty serious amount; I have been only making small quantities (not enough) for fear of having way too many sprouts.