Aimee Hall

Well done Ashley! I do not believe anyone here thinks of it as bragging, we are all very happy for you. That is quite exciting and I miss being on my farm to do this as I was accustomed to doing every year. You have renewed my inspiration and hope of attaining that here in Aus, thank you so much!

Yes, I am.

I had been knocking a big chunk of for someone from Permies already in my posting, so getting someone pep certified would be great. I have to tell the real estate company who those folk are because it is market listed at a higher rate of course.

The house costs me $1,200 a month (plus all the upkeep expenses that come along, and of course the rental company gets 10% of anything for renting it but as I am abroad they are a definite must. So it has actually averaged out to about $1,500 a month in expenses.) and for someone qualified I would be willing to charge quite a bit less, because I hate to see what I have put SO much work into being torn up.

Thank you Mike, I actually had mine listed under permaculture real estate. I may list it again as it is about to be available but I am now wary. I found a tenant on permies and it will have cost me significantly more to have had them there the last 6 months than if I had left the property empty. They are very nice, but every tiny thing turned into a huge mess unfortunately. I will be paying the bills on that particular experience for another year and a half. Part of why I find the idea of the requiring certain badges, etc. particularly appealing.

Hopefully in the next year or so, I will be able to return to the states and get the property back into really good shape. It looks like I am going to be in Australia for several years and finding the right tenants to care for the property is very important to me. At last report, most of my well established perennial vegetables like air potatoes, leeks (elephant garlic), sea kale, turkish rocket, jerusalem artichokes,  etc are all gone!

Most people who are renting are not so interested in the land and its potential. Most of the messages I got were looking to stay on my property free of charge and that is beyond my means, and I imagine the means of most folk. Even the rental agency is only now starting to appreciate that it is the land and its care which is most important to me, where most people are most worried about the house/out buildings. Though I may be weird in this situation as I am in so many others. Thank you very much for your suggestions, you are always exceptionally helpful and awesome! =)

That is a very good use of raccoons and squirrel carcasses.

My Missouri farm is right off of a twisty turn filled road which generates an unfortunately large amount of road kill but I am phenomenally busy and lazy. So, I kept a piece of old roofing tin that I could put over my outdoor fire pit and I'd just put the unfortunate critters on that after checking them over for any signs of disease. Then I'd give it to the poultry and compost anything left. I'd just hose the tin off after it had cooled, though I'd only do that with fresh roadkill.

It was horrible how often I would hear a crash in the night, go out and find that someone had hit a deer and left it not quite dead in my ditch along with various fragments of their vehicle all over the road but they'd be no where to be found. Possums, coyotes, foxes, and raccoons were other frequent finds but I'd not usually hear that commotion, just find it on my morning/evening walk of the property.

The raccoons I had to live trap going after my poultry went to friends who absolutely love to eat raccoon and preserve the tails/leather. They never seem to run out of uses for the abundance, and I believe that is true for all those who find ways to utilise the things they have instead of waste them. You guys are awesome and are the change we need in the world. Keep it up! =D

What would be the best way to set them in place on a floor or table without adding too much cost/weight?

It is good that overall this is working for you Julia. The stress from Covid is having an astronomically negative effect on people's health from stress alone.

I will be going on a three day fast starting tomorrow. Because of my PCOS my metabolism seems to be so low that I always gain weight slowly even on the healthiest of regimes. While it is very hard for me to watch my friends and family eat (especially since I am the cook even when fasting!) what I often do is make myself a very nice tea or some bone broth to go with those meals. Or if doing water only (as I tend to do mostly now.) then I will sit down with a nice big fancy glass of ice water, usually solid so it gives the appearance that I am feasting in my own way. It was a bit awkward for us all at first but then my family members have become accustomed to it for the most part. They will still hound me to eat, but I have gotten good at changing subjects. =D I can start talking about plants and what all needs done in the garden and they magically come up with other conversation quickly. Please stay safe and best of luck!

I think your list covers the most important basics. However, in the public information, it may also help to have a description/explanation of current developments (Like if they are implementing rotational grazing, or have an established food forest, etc.) and maybe even what developments they want to see come to pass. How much of the development is going to be open to the PEPper and how much to the current land owner? What are their expectations of a PEPper, seeing this could help people tell quickly if they may be a potential match, like if it is expected that they never keep animals on the property for food then it would be something many people would not want to agree to.

Also, is there a way/place to rent out land/property or otherwise test potential PEPpers? I would be highly interested in this myself. I listed my property for rent on permies and thus far have mostly just been flooded with emails from people wanting to get to stay there for free and my property has been treated very unkind by tenants who even had their PDC certificate and years of experience. So I agree very much with the problems of:

We have already learned that when an Otis publicly states "I would will my land to a PEP4 person" they get swamped with people saying "will it to me instead! Aw c'mon!  Why not?  I'm awesome as proven by the fact that I can type and I really want free land!"  

I think all of this is a wonderful idea and you guys are doing a great job trying to find ways around the obstacles. I do wish I had been at my farm to have gotten badges myself now that the program exists!

Dan Boone wrote:
And that's what Halloween is -- a community ritual.  Happy children dressed in costume, knocking at your door begging for candy.

They're not begging for fruit leather, worms, pumpkin seeds, wool socks, toothbrushes, religious tracts, or no-bake cookies made with sorghum molasses and organic oats and carob chips.  (Something that I was actually given as a trick-or-treater in my childhood.)

Your community may forgive you if you decline to participate in the ritual by turning off illumination at your house and not answering the door.  People of good will, will assume you are not home.  The rest will figure you are grumpy-grinches, but will probably give you a pass.

But if you illuminate your door and put up decorations and answer the doorbell with a bowl in your hand, the ritual expectation is that the bowl will contain what the little ghoulies want (candy) or something better.  

I greatly agree with most of what Dan said, and much of what others here have said. Growing up, when my siblings and I were very young we had a very similar opinion. My parents were young when they had us and afraid to break out of the norm. They were scared of the habits we were learning though, and of the lack of community as a whole. As we got older though, they got braver and braver in asserting their beliefs that opposed the now accepted commercialised norm. And by the time I was 8 (I am the oldest) we started setting new holiday traditions ourselves. The candy was kicked to the curb, as was the excess in most cases. I'd love to go into detail about our various holiday traditions but I also do not wish to bore people.

For Hall-o-Ween (One of our favourites since our last name is Hall) we would run month long specials at our small town health food store as well as dress up in costumes, usually home made for the customers and decorate. My mother would make home made treats that while still not healthy, were super tasty and healthier than the packaged candy we were used to. Being a small town, and everyone knowing us we were fortunate that home made was of no concern. At home, we made a massive haunted house for trick-or-treaters to explore, with volunteers to play parts in the haunted house. We took polaroid pictures of the trick-or-treaters as they came in, and we had a caramel apple making table where they could make their own caramel apple and it would be ready to go by the time they were done with the haunted house. And my mother was very vigilant in helping kids make their caramel apples, ensuring hands were properly washed before hand and that fingers didn't make it into the topping trays, etc. Our home became a huge destination on Hall-o-ween and it built more community than anyone ever imagined.

After a few years, most kids skipped the regular trick or treating in the main part of town and talked their parents into coming out to our place instead. Sure, they were still eating an often candy laden caramel apple but I feel that is much better than a big bag of packaged candies. And many would go through the haunted house over and over again. People started helping more and more in the haunted house and it got better every year, and of course we made sure to change it up. And us kids, we didn't even miss the big bags of candy, we were too focused on helping plan the next haunted house and making sure everyone had a great time.

I still miss that, and look forward to doing it again when I can. Thank you so much for bringing up these good memories. I just spent a few weeks in the hospital and I am still recovering and I haven't felt this good in a while, just remembering all the fun we had as kids and in a way that wasn't eating gobs of candy. I personally still struggle with cutting sugar out of my diet but most of the time I can go without processed sugar for years at a time. It is insidious the way it can sneak into our diets and addict us. And the worst part is it is perfect for downward spirals. Typically I make everything myself from scratch because sugar and preservatives get put into everything. But when I get sick and cannot, you wind up with take out, or packaged foods and next thing you know you are craving more and more of the sugar. It makes you feel good short term before making you feel much much worse. Rinse, repeat. =(

Good luck all on establishing your new Hall-O-Ween traditions. And if I thought I could dress up and come for a seed/scion swap I would be all over that!!! I too love to dress up fun. Heck, I wear a cat eared headband at nearly all times because people cannot help but smile. And that is something we need a lot more of in the world is smiling. =) So anything I can do to promote it, I will. Even if that makes me a weirdo.

I have gotten to help beta test these recipes and there are many great options. I particularly like all the basic food preservation skills which are great for homesteaders whether on or off the grid! Cooking with the seasons is extremely important because we often tend to get a glut of the same food all at once and keeping it fresh, interesting, or preserved is absolutely critical!

No worries! Keep us up to date on how your new veggies do and share any you find that work well.

Here in Melbourne it is Spring and I just got my potato onions for the year in as well as many new strawberries, passion fruit vines, and the like. It was a beautiful day here for us! Cleaning up my perennials is probably one of my favourite parts of every Spring no matter where I live. lol!