Hello from Western NY!

Hello everybody from snowy Western NY State in the USA!

I was introduced to permaculture by fate when I purchased a 36 acre property with a house and a barn in 2003.  It was a fix-er-upper and I had saved up a down payment and it seemed like the thing to do at the time.  I remember being so excited to move in that we had chickens started before we left our rental house.  When the landlord visited as we were getting ready to leave, he said, "Those are going with you, right?"

It started with those chickens, then went to horses, goats, turkeys, and finally pigs and cows.  In the meantime I was also raising a large garden for a vegetable CSA and got interested in bees as well.  

Over a few years, I had also gotten interested in masonry heaters and wood fired ovens and worked on building a company with a neighbor.  I worked on that for a couple years until finances meant I had to go back to work.

Shortly after that, I got married, had a couple of kids and are trying for some more, and now over the past 5 years we're getting rolling again.  

With the kids and family life, I found I haven't had the same amount of time and attention necessary to run the vegetable operation, plus I really like the perennial, low input systems better anyway.  I love the idea of systems that reproduce on their own like perennials, worms, and livestock, where I can automate the daily chores and focus on the family more.  Way better lifestyle than veggie farming for me.

I took a course on soil science and that led to making biochar and raising composting worms.  I also started building up a plant nursery with berries, shrubs, perennials, and some other "permacultury" things like comfrey and sunchokes.  I do a lot of the propagation myself and am in fact in the midst of writing a book about it, for people like me without a ton of money for infrastucture but want to bootstrap a business small and build up a small scale home-based business around their family time.  Or even if you're not interested in selling, getting their property landscape going quickly with plants they produce themselves.  I believe everyone should have a nursery!

Welcome to Permies!

Always good to see another New Yorker. I am over towards the East next to the vermont border and I know of quite a few others that frequent the site that are dotted around upstate.

I highly recommend if you have the chance to check out the Southern Adirondack Homesteading Festival the next time it comes around. You might catch a couple Permies there.

Wow, you've been busy! Welcome to permies, and be sure to share your secrets on how to juggle what seems a very busy life!

Thanks for the welcome, guys and gals!

I'll see if I can get to some homesteading festivals.   I did a presentation on composting worms for a local group and I really enjoyed the company and people.

Hi, I'm new here (this are my first words, lol). I'm currently living in NJ but the land I'll be buying in the next year is in NY, USA, Southern Tier, border of zones 5/6. Nice to see few other NY'ers; see ya around!