Dc Brown

United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People's (UNDRIP) quite clearly states pharmaceutical companies and other corporate thieves should get their damn hands off of indigenous property. Flora, fauna, folklore, medicine, methodology etc. Basically, stop being colonising pricks. But... you know how that goes down. Theft, LAWYERS, theft, PATENTS...

We have 'Maori Language Week' here in New Zealand, where TV stations run ads on how it's cool to korero (talk in Maori) and white folk like myself fumble out patronizing nonsense for a week. But before Maori language week, we banned the language. We punished children for using it. Maori welcomed us and we slaughtered and burnt and stole the whole length of the country. Then we got the press in, to paint these 'savages'.

Today, as I try to find the Maori name for many plants, I can't. I will consult with scholars but I'm not holding my breath. As traditional living fell away over much of the country, the lore most likely went with it. In a society of orators, banning the language was an inhuman cruelty. A similar crime today would be to burn all our books and libraries and databases.

Traditional Maori gardeners are better at gardening than all the experts I've seen. They underwent starvation, wars, an ice age, and several significant extinctions of local fauna before they developed a system of earthcare known today as Kaitiakitanga. Maori are tasked by the Gods to be stewards of the Earth. Their systems work in space and time with seasonal rahui (restricted access) and Tapu (ban) on collecting from specific species/areas/seasons. Sustainability was hard won via centuries of hardship. Kaitiakitanga was also formed after centuries of observation.

Permaculture, as in sustainable systems of earthcare, also incorporating spiritual, social and economic aspects of life....  is not new.

Permaculture charges people large sums of money to learn a mish-mash of appropriated (largely) indigenous knowledge.

In science they like to say 'I stand on the shoulders of giants' implying that it is not only our own efforts, but the works of those before us that makes our work so effective. I love this saying, I love to acknowledge the myriad of incredible minds I get to pick through in the literature.

But much of this knowledge attributed to science is misappropriated indigenous knowledge.

Let's not be confused about this. White people largely suck at agriculture.

We in Permaculture also stand on the shoulders of giants. Namely, the Earth's Aboriginal tribes.

Education is the way forward in Permaculture. From a comfy old armchair you may learn of thermal mass and season extension.

Maori learned this living through an ice age.

Be grateful. And never forget our Giants.

OK, that sounds pretty good. I'm not actually anti publishing I love books. My pride of joy is my shelves full of Biology, Permaculture and Stamets. I read textbooks I used to love fiction but have gone off it.

I seem to process advice by arguing (with myself mostly) and it may come across as being reticent to suggestions but I have noted, and re-read all ideas in this thread.

Like zones. We don't use them. But the more I think about them, the more useful they seem.

I'm actually trying to format one page of what I'd like a book to look like this morning. I'm pretty terrible visual-art wise, but I'm in powerpoint adding images and text boxes of what I think I will need and I'll shuffle things about try get a general feel for it. I can always ask for help with peers who were good at this stuff.

I'm thinking a key for the book to explain certain icons would give massive amounts of information simply.

Icons e.g. a shaded sun, a partially shaded sun, a full sun. It's easy to guess what's going on. And with a key you'll be following along fairly quickly. A water drop's levels to depict water requirements, cloud blowing wind for wind tolerance, etc. It works for weather presenters...

I appreciate the time you and others have taken and the ideas you've generated. A book to fund a site seems the way to go. If I can state my case well enough kick starter might also be an option to fund said book.

I'm a bit reticent to have an 'open' forum style thing. Or maybe have one but my webmaster bans me from unedited replies haha. I'm both Aspergers and PTSD. On a bad day I bite. I hate it, but still can't seem to put it in a cage long term. Probiotics help tremendously but I still can be a total jerk and I shoot myself in the foot.

I was wondering though, this morning after being a dick, if Aspies are part of evolution, canaries in the coal mine, so to speak, who will state truths rather than dance around on eggshells. In this age of misinformation where every idiot has a browser and an opinion, I may be onto something.

I don't like the idea of (free) information being a task for others to compile. I'm a trained researcher and putting this together is damned hard. My mission is to make this easy for everyone, as it should be we pay for the science already.

But books are something a lot of people love. Off grid a good book is a goldmine. I'm really warming to kicking it all off with a book. And maybe I keep dropping tidbits here and people can 'work for it' hehe.

Just in our little islands I am finding native legumes that live in places from swamps to deserts, from limestone rich organic soils to scree and rocky outcrops. Plants from the coastal dunes to the mountains above the treeline. Where plant life holds on by a tenuous thread, legumes.

C. astoni

The 'stems' of this legume are photosynthetic. They're called cladodes. Leaves growing from a cladode is rather unusual, and pretty cool huh.

Carmichaelia australis

NZ data set nearly ready. Free P methodology also worked out. Can't for the life of me think why I'd want to help the human race today. They've involuntarily committed a local MP who was outlining corrupt Govt practise government. I'm F-ing livid.

Might write it up tomorrow if I can face the world without vomit in my throat.

For you Permies.

Nitrogen A to B or; Above & Below

1. Get the flowering and fruiting seasons of local native legume species.

2. Source and identify species of interest using flower ID and information.

3. Harvest seeds when season arrives.

4. From the same plant, at or just out from the drip line if it is a shrub or tree, uncover and remove a portion of nodulated root matter. Most legumes are hard as nails, but be sparing/careful with rare plants. Younger plants are easier to retrieve nodules from.

5. Check a nodule for colonisation. Slice it in half. Larger helps distinguish between: If you have a cream to brown even tending to orange color in the nodule, it's probably not inoculated. But a purple through to reddish color signifies nitrogen fixation taking place.

6. Shake out excess dirt and put root materials in a plastic bag then on ice. Then in your freezer.

7. Get local instruction concerning growing your local seeds to time next step.

8. Thaw root materials and dissect out nodules with a clean blade, wash nodules thoroughly in water.

9. Grind nodules to paste and dilute with de-chlorinated water, use slurry in process to wet media e.g. soak into some peat, for your seeds.

10. Plant seeds.  

I've not investigated the symbiont coating the seed (9) part of it very well yet. The peat is a mycorrhizal trick I like.

It would be nice if a maker of seed balls chimes in and help inform this part of the process for wild and STUN plantings.


The above will get you both nitrogen fixers and practically guarantees the symbiont, if present, is correct = Free Nitrogen.

If only everyone was as easy to teach as Permies, you folks with your quaint knowledge and such.

May hordes of microbial chemists enrich your landscapes with their bounty. Free nitrogen for all!

Thank you F. Agricola, for so succinctly voicing things I was struggling to express.

Over here in NZ we were in the clutches of ruthless nasty men. A Merryl Lynch banker became our Prime Minister they started selling assets, bashing minorities, stifling dissent etc while basic services plummeted and debt soared. People were getting very antsy, but then we had an election where the other half scraped through via a Coalition Government. The National (Tory scum) Government controls the media but has been unable to dent the tide of information coming out about how badly they did behind closed doors. And now one of their politicians has gone rogue and is exposing their dirty secrets.

This NZ party of globalist dead eyed scum that seemed impossible to shake free of, they are imploding as we speak. Meanwhile, we have a relatively decent government planting trees, banning oil exploration, helping people, raising R&D, almost like the good old days before corruption was in charge. And no, they sure aint perfect. But a work in progress.

Governments are dynamic. Trump will be history soon. Great leaders appear when there is great need. We got one.

The worm can turn. Organise, assemble, vote!

As for your military turning on you. This would divide the military itself, very quickly.

Also, there were a bunch of dudes making home made bombs and driving round in pick ups in the desert and they gave your military a right run around after all that 'shock and awe'. We got a guy here made a cruise missile in his garage for a few thousand bucks... A smart engineer would make short work of your tanks and be nowhere in sight as they did so. You got plenty of smart people and your populace is far more heavily armed. This is fucked up imo but what do I know except statistics.  It's time to stop being scared and start being assertive.

You don't need to be more heavily armed, you need to be more heavily connected.