Greetings, long time lurker finally signed up

Hello,

I figured I should give a little intro for folks.

I am hoping to buy land (about 40 acres) in the next year or two and figured it was time to join and get more active in permiculture.

I have had a long casual interest in permiculture, but being fairly nomadic moving all over the country I had not had much time to really dedicate myself to getting seriously involved in growing anything.

I have some experience though not a great deal, working for a landscaping company in WA that installed "natural systems, zero maintenance" landscapes which were fairly permaculture in concept. I also lived and worked at Arcosanti in AZ, and even managed their 15 1/2 acres of edible and medicinal landscaping. Though I would say that I became the landscape coordinator there due to my boss, who was a Master Gardener and very serious about Permicultre, leaving rather than me being qualified.

I have dabbled here and there, elsewhere, but as I mentioned due to being a bit of a nomad I have not had a lot of time or ability to put knowledge into practice.

So finally I felt it was time to settle down, and get land and start putting some things to practice.

I recently went to West Coast Training Heavy Equipment school and am currently searching for a heavy equipment operator job. Once I gain employment I plan to start serious looking for land to buy to start a homestead. Preferably in the North West, and most preferably in the Okanogan or Columbia Highlands of Eastern WA.

Hi Devin -

Welcome to permies! Glad to hear of your plans!

Mariamne

Howdy Devin , welcome to permies! I visited Arcosanti years ago, when the gardens and greenhouse were just a drawing. At the time I thought that I would love to be a part of that, but life had other plans for me. I would love to hear more about that experience!

Miles Flansburg wrote:Howdy Devin , welcome to permies! I visited Arcosanti years ago, when the gardens and greenhouse were just a drawing. At the time I thought that I would love to be a part of that, but life had other plans for me. I would love to hear more about that experience!

Arcosanti was fun I lived there for 4 years. While a great experience and a wonderful place to meet similarly minded people from around the world, there were a lot of issues with the management of the place. I think a lot of it was due to the older crowd who had been there fromthe begining being in power and having not kept up on the newer innovations and ideas. The running joke for a lot of folks was that it was a great example of how not to do things. That said, it was not all bad, like I said I had a lot of fun. The landscape coordinator who I took over landscaping from was great, and she had some wonderful knowledge. However I am pale and have red hair, grew up in the Pac NW, so not really suited for AZ weather. Then I started developing an allergy to the mesquite pollen and the only med that seemed to do anything was benadryl. Which while relieving the allergy also made me nonfunctional. So it was time for me to leave and I moved to Eugene OR.

*edit to add, btw after I left, they finally started work on the prototype energy apron greenhouse. I have not been back to see it, but that was something that really could be an interesting development in using the heat from the greenhouse to heat a large building during winter.

A little late for a welcome but I just noticed that you were the poster of a youtube channel I was watching (before I went off grid and lost my in house internet connection). Congratulations on not freezing through this last unusually cold PNW winter. I had hydro power last winter but this coming will be PV only. Anyways, Welcome!

Chad.