Abraham Palma

Well, after trying Inkscape for a while, I've settled with Krita, a painting software like the Windows Paint. It turns out that drawing with brushes is easier than getting pictures of the plants.

Hi.

Upon a commentary from Nichole, I've decide to put all my old seeds in the ground.
It may happen that this Automn it does not rain again, and all those little seeds will pass to oblivion, but they will have more chances in the soil than inside the bag!

Here I am mixing them all in a bucket with compost. They have been sprout all over the garden beds. Good luck, little ones!

Hi, Joshua.
I'd say that another approach to all this is... seeking happiness.

Just doing something and asking yourself: is this making me happy? Can I do this for long? Maybe you never get tired of feeding your animals, maybe you like the smell of fresh watered plants in the morning, maybe you enjoy helping friedns weekly.

Mind you, happiness is not joy. Joy is the rejoice of gaining or winning something. Happiness is the feeling of being doing the right things you are meant to do, not the things you think you have to do. Maybe you think you 'must have' a forest garden, but if by working on it you don't get afterwards the sense of happiness it is probably because you are not meant to do that. In this sense, it is as if happiness is the moral guidance of our place in the system of all things.

When you find you path to happiness, suddenly the stars align themselves, you flow with them, the obstacles erase by themselves or with little effort. Doubts come and go. When you don't know if you are in the right path, look into yourself, try more things, see how you are feeling and be honest with yourself. Also, we are not on the same path for the whole life, so we need to be prepared to change.

The universe is so big that we all have the option to be happy and still the 'systems' will keep running. We don't need to feel forced to do things. We all need food and stuff and friends, and someone must care for them, but it doesn't have to be 'us' (though it could be us). We all live in communities, we do not need intentional settlements (but you live in one if that makes you happy). The communities where most of us live are based on greed and capitalism, but we can change that, grain by grain, as long as we understand that nothing is perfect, and where there is evolution there can be adaptation.

Let diversity happen, let everyone find its place. Nothing is done in vain.


Maybe I've poured too many ideas into very few lines, and it comes as obscure. I apologize if that's the case.

Let me introduce to you a typical christmas sweet of ours:
Fig Bread!

An online DIY recipe says:
200g shredded dry figs.
50g whole almonds.
Flavorings:
15ml sweet wine.
5g aniseed.
3g cinnamon powder.
Orange zest.

(You may use other flavorings if these are hard to find in your location).

Mix everything and compact it into a cake shape. Keep it in a container that prevents drying and wait until Xmas. Pretty energetic stuff good for cold season.

EDIT: I forgot. Figs have to be cooked first, removed the hard sticks, dried again in the oven, then shredded into a paste.

Hi, Helen.
I'm in Malaga. I won't post pictures of our garden since I don't want to bring you to tears. Even fig trees are falling.

Instead, I will talk about what is thriving with no irrigation at all.

* Carobs.
* Olive trees (but few olives this year)
* Moringa oleifera
* Plecthrantus barbatus (boldo brasilheiro). This one seems to take humidity from the air. It suffers on dry air days.
* Plumbs (prunus domestica). Just one of them, the one with more mulch.
* Vitis vinifera. They had their grapes in early summer.
* Ziziphus jujuba. The one with good mulching is faring better.
* Rhamnus alaternus. Good for under-canopy shade.

I agree with everything Maarten said.

In addition, I think that you are not supposed to completely neglect your first grex; you are aiming at a 30-50% survival rate. This may mean watering a little bit, if rains are really low, or protecting against animals, if these are problematic.
Crop after crop, you will collect traits that increase their survivability, then you will be able to care less and less.

If your survival rate is 100% that's also bad, because you are not selecting for survival traits, but you can still select for other desirable traits.

Hi.
There's an online guide about all this.
Short story: acidic food can be treated with lower temperatures, pressure-canning is really only needed for low-acid food. In this case, you need to be sure that you've killed any trace of the butolitic bacteria, that's why the recipes: they say the minimum cooking time for safety. You can cook for more time, but it will decrease the quality.
So, if you don't happen to have the recipes, and you absolutely need to can, and the food is low-acid, then, you can treat it for 4 hours and error on the safe side.

Jacqueline Bashta wrote:Hello Abraham,

Thanks alot :)
Yes please, I live in Germany, and willing to re-allocate to Spain and rent/buy a land with a small house. I believe starting in a community is the best option for me.

Abraham Palma wrote:Hello Jacqueline.
Welcome to permies.

They are catholic, I think, but I don't have their contact. I could ask, if you are really interested.

Hello. I was trying to find information about the other community, without luck. It seems it is no longer a community but a rural lodgement. Communities like these do not last long.

Another option that has been suggested to me is to volonteer with some friends who have a permaculture farm.
Here it is their website: https://bosquehumano.org/permaculture-practise-in-malaga/
It is located in Coin, a small city not far from the beach, featuring a mangoes orchard.

The other community is found here:
https://semillamontealegre.es/news/iki-gaia-ecovillage-model-axarquia-malaga/
It is located near the village of Almayate.

Both are in province of Malaga. I don't know about Northern Spain more than you can find yourself searching the web.


Choosing where to locate is a matter of taste. I favor the south because there are more tourists living here and people are more accustomed to foreigners, but the climate is dryier and hotter, which makes farming a bit more difficult. The Eastern Coast is similar to the Southern one, but features more rain. Land prices might be cheaper in the center of the peninsula, but that's very very rural, if you know what I mean.

Yeah, one big issue with these bots is that they are mandatory in so many cases. I don't mind to speak with a machine if that makes it easier for me to get an answer in time, but I want it to be optional.

Also, people love to learn just for the pleasure of learning. You could say that, since no human person is able to beat the machine playing chess, then interest for chess should have diminished. However, with so many chess bot teachers, children are playing more than ever and learning at a faster pace. My kid is playing regularly in chess.com, where he can find opponents of his same level, which is more fun than playing in the chess club where he is consistently beaten, or with his classmates where he always win.