You know you're a permie when...

When you shower with a five gallon bucket to save water, and still try to see how little you can use to completely clean yourself.

Jon La Foy wrote:When you shower with a five gallon bucket to save water, and still try to see how little you can use to completely clean yourself.

I see you, and raise you: When you can wash and rinse 3" of hair with a 20 oz cup of water.

You know you're a permie when... you've put in a 'hard' day's work and the only person you had to answer to was a goat!

Your three-year-old daughter runs away from her five-year-old brother who is chasing her with an earthworm, and your response is, "My daughter is NOT going to scream about bugs!" Therefore you go plant something in the garden and talk about how good worms are, even though you had a baby two weeks ago and will be moving shortly. Bonus: the giggles and chortles when they wriggle now that she likes to pick them up.

When you use one weed (e.g. Himalayan blackberry) to crowd out another (e.g. bindweed), since they take up the same layer in the ecosystem.

When you walk around the block and you see someone ripping up their cement driveway and you ask them if you can have their old cement.

When you have bought a house with a functioning toilet - but don't use it because it wastes too much water.

When you come to a screeching halt because you saw a 5-gallon bucket beside the road.

When you shop Amazon looking for items that will work for what you want to do with it - but have no intentions of using it for its intended purpose.

You know exactly how much water you use per person in your household, and where & how you use it.

You were not aware of the fact there was a power outage.

You can look at a sack of diatomaceous earth & a sack of lime, and you are easily able to tell the difference.

You sniff and taste earth to evaluate it.

You go shopping once a month or less, because you don't need to go more often.

You love it when politicians plant giant campaign signs on your property - you see them as building material.

You brag about how many times you re-use water.

Nancy Troutman wrote:When you come to a screeching halt because you saw a 5-gallon bucket beside the road.

That one gave me a good laugh. Done that soooo many times

same goes for ...
old carpets
cardboard
windows
tires

Tristan Vitali wrote:

Nancy Troutman wrote:When you come to a screeching halt because you saw a 5-gallon bucket beside the road.

That one gave me a good laugh. Done that soooo many times

same goes for ...
old carpets
cardboard
windows
tires

Yep, me too.

(Checks Permie membership for spies)  *cough*   I have been known to drive into town around 2am before the trash men come - and snatch items off the curb.  This is especially lucrative after Christmas.

...when you automatically redesign (in your head) highway medians and unused spaces for food and medicine production, better erosion control and water harvesting. "Swale here, pond there, self-irrigating and fertilizing. Ha!"
...when you say "hey, don't toss that out, I can use it for...something." Of course, this may be my packrat-ism coming out too.

Yep, my kids know to feed the ducks the grasshoppers they catch.

When you plan your day around coolest/warmest times to mulch each side of your berms.

When you jump up and down with glee that the grocer put out a stack of 5 gallon buckets!

When you're doing laundry and saved seeds start falling out of you pocket!

When you have a bucket of food scraps and can't decide if it should be added into your hugel or used to heat your hot water.

Janet Branson wrote:When you have a bucket of food scraps and can't decide if it should be added into your hugel or used to heat your hot water.

Yes! Or black soldier flies, or chickens, or Ruth Stout style garden composting, or greenhouse heating, or...

When 50 Shades of Grey speaks to what your willing to use your water on.  From not quite drinking but you will use to rinse dishes to sludge that might cause your septic tank to explode.

When you do buy can goods, you're on look out for the No. 10 cans, so you can make a new top for your 1G-2can TLUD stove.

...if you buy groceries and choices are driven by what the packaging is for the item (hence we get whole kosher Dill pickles by the gallon jar and I slice and repack into widemouth pints for use at home) and where you can reuse it...

When you try to hold off going to pee in public restroom, because you do not want to waste a precious fertilizer...

When you're sitting inside the school, waiting to pick up your kids and as it starts raining and the water washes right down the driveway you think "what a waste" and start formulating a plan with a ridgeline driveway, water harvesting swales and a whole lot less concrete runoff areas!

Your neighboor brings you fish fillets to apologize for dumping fish guts in your compost bin.  So you thank him…  when he can't hear you thank him again.

...when you figure out that leafcutter bees are putting large round holes in your shrub/tree leaves and think, "I should plant more trees for them."
Pollinators for the win!

When you curse the bindweed a little less because it's providing much needed mulch/biomass.

You go to visit a friend for lunch, they show you their garden and complain/explain/apologize for the weeds, and you take the bottom corner of your shirt as a catcher and pick off a fresh green salad to go with the meal... entirely of their exasperations (weeds).  [teach by example, permaculture is infectious]

When it's 90 degrees outside and you're walking around your un-airconditioned house in a big sweater because you're a badass at passively cooling that shit.

Nancy Troutman wrote:

Tristan Vitali wrote:

Nancy Troutman wrote:When you come to a screeching halt because you saw a 5-gallon bucket beside the road.

That one gave me a good laugh. Done that soooo many times

same goes for ...
old carpets
cardboard
windows
tires

Yep, me too.

(Checks Permie membership for spies)  *cough*   I have been known to drive into town around 2am before the trash men come - and snatch items off the curb.  This is especially lucrative after Christmas.

Or when you found the dumpster with the 5 gallon buckets because you know they're sometimes there, and you already have 3 on your bike.  You're not worried about crashing, but about dumping the permaculture books from the library.
John S
PDX OR

You know you're a permie when you get on your favorite forum far less than you'd like in the summer, because you're so busy with the garden!

....when your husband gets you gardening gloves for your anniversary, and you're really happy about it!

When your husband spent three days helping his OTR trucker buddy overhaul his semi and do some parts transplants; so the guy sticks your 200+ firebricks on the back on the return run on his mixed flatbed load and won't let you pay him for it. (Hubby said late anniversary present, I'll gladly take it, means I get my RMH's)

Just had to add.....you know you're a permit when you INVEST $200 in a good pair of farm boots, but you BUY a pair of dress shoes for $30.

You know you're a permie when you emptied the Styrofoam egg carton, wiped it out carefully, and crossed out the date markered on it (pass number 8 ) so it can go back to the gal that supplies you with farm eggs so it can be reused. (Styrofoam doesn't stain)

Exactly, the original phrase was "you might be a redneck if..."   hahaha, brilliant!

You might be a permie if...

...you're texting someone excitedly at 9pm on a Friday...about permaculture.

Brian Jeffrey wrote:If your family member excitedly tells you " I took the grass from where I put the new flower garden, and used it to patch the bare spots in the lawn!", you might be a permie . . . .

You might be a permie if... you espalier a fruit or nut tree to the south side of your house (if you are in the big city) so it will provide a warmer grow season for the tree, the tree will shade your house in the summer, plus give you yummy fruit or nuts. Talk about multitasking your landscaping...

You know your a permie when one of your permie friwnds says she has eggs that might be viable and you get a brooder ready and trade her for geese.

When visiting friends and family you keep catching yourself heading outside when you need to pee, forgetting that is not considered polite.

as well as...

Secretly going outside to pee on plants wile visiting friends and family as you noticed some really needed the extra help as they were looking so sad.

Devin Lavign wrote:When visiting friends and family you keep catching yourself heading outside when you need to pee, forgetting that is not considered polite.

as well as...

Secretly going outside to pee on plants wile visiting friends and family as you noticed some really needed the extra help as they were looking so sad.

Had to give you an apple because you made me laugh so hard!




You know you're a permie when all you want for Christmas is....a bunch of fruit trees!

When it's Christmas Eve and the 'Spirit of Christmas Present' beckons you to the outbuilding where the one older pig is positioned awkwardly in a depression in the stall and can't get up......and you are now covered with manure of the same having somehow pushed it to its feet while sitting on what you thought was dry hay.....

Devin Lavign wrote:You know your a permie when you realize you just spent 3 hrs watching videos on scythes and were planning to watch more still but dragged yourself away, though might sneak back to watch more tomorrow

To add to this one, (and yes it did really happen where I spent 3 hrs watching scythe videos, and I did go back to watch more) I had a conversation with a relative after posting that and it dawned on me

You know your a permie when you don't even question why there is over 3 hrs of scythe videos for you to get sucked into watching. Of course there is hours of scythe videos why wouldn't there be, isn't everyone interested in them? According to relatives, no. Weirdos, don't they know scythes are fascinating.

you know you are a permie when it's December and you are in the dense bush, and you see a stone that is radiating summer heat enough to melt the snow, and you run home to get the camera.  Happened this year.

... when you are pulling carrots and a worm shoots out of the ground and you stop everything and watch for what it's going to do next!

...when you not only mulch, but worry about how long your soil is exposed to sunlight when you have removed the mulch for re-use after harvesting.

...when you get up super early to start gardening, and know the sun's pattern across the landscape so much that you start where the sun will be hottest later in the day, and work there while it's still shaded and are working in the shade even though it's cold in the morning...even though you could be working on a totally different project in the morning sun at a different part of the yard, because you know that if you did it any other way your skin might be dealing with a bit too much sunlight before the day is done because this project is the priority, and you hate wearing clothes when it's hot.

...when you go to search for aquaponics on youtube and end up via some bizarre web surfing looking at some obscure research paper looking at a two person shovel from ancient Bolivia, and it suddenly occurs to you as hilarious and you stop and just try to figure out the chain of amazing places you 'visited' both on the web and in your mind in the last hour to get there.  And you consider all of it quality entertainment.

...when a trip to the dump is a resource gathering expedition.

...when you go all ninja and have to steal stuff from the dump because there are some bizarre laws that trash is now the property of the dump.

...when you see a pile of wood in a neighbors yard and you want to build a hugulkultur but you know the explanation is going to be very complicated.

...when you see grasshoppers and think about frying them in salsa for a snack... and something similar comes to mind when you see gophers.

...when buckets and pallets are commodities

...when you go behind the hardware store on the way home to see about scrap lumber

...when you know dozens of things to do with old bike inner tubes.

...when you hear that one of your neighbors has a root cellar and you want a tour.

...when you feel really sad when old heritage barns fall over because people don't care enough to keep the roof maintained.

...when you contemplate moving a huge barn from down the road... and the only reason you don't go for it is the annoyance of dealing with bureaucrats and the cost of moving the power lines.
 
...when you leave the dirt on your carrots because it's good for your health.

...when you have lots of hummingbird encounters with no humming bird feeders nearby.

...the visual of a tree unloading it's snow reminds you of a Rocket Stove vortex.