permies.com staff gathering pictures!

obviously not all the staff could come.. but there were a few of us that got to go up to wheaton labs for a few days and gather together with all the other gappers and ants and it was an incredibly beautiful experience to be around so many SUUUPER smart people.. i am so in the learning phase of my life and permaculture journey so i just asked millions of questions and feel so grateful to absorb their knowledge.

(yeah i realize the pictures are not upright, but i don't have time to fix it now.) sorry! enjoy!

all of the permies staff that came (john, julia, paul, burra, jocelyn, and me) in front of the giant hugel berm at base camp.



pork roast the first night (not the greatest pic, from my iphone)



my quarters for the duration of the trip. (it was fabulously luxurious)



wild sunflowers everywhere! (my absolute favorite flower)



john and julia and I went to missoula for the morning and went to the farmers market, the people's market, and then picked up some groceries for people at the good food store.



divvying up the tons of plants that kelly ware brought for wheaton labs



fred teaching us about st johns wort right before we started picking huckleberries!



fred picking huckleberries and teaching me TONS about different plants throughout the whole trip. I learned SO much from him and I am super grateful.



evan the ant in his natural habitat. i think he said he is going to dry his huckleberries and save them for winter.



lived in montana for 21 years and never picked huckleberries and I finally got to do it!! now i know why these things are so expensive.. SOOOO good and time consuming to pick



the ultimate "egg roll"



meet the prairie falcon, sadie



the tiny little mulberry plant I planted. (kelly ware brought it)



apple tree julia and i planted amongst tons of comfrey



carol-anne (jesse the ant's partner) looking like a badass farmer goddess planting stuff in her hugel bed.



the mother three and the smiley one



when painting the posts with slip, stand clear or else you will end up looking like this... had so much fun cobbin up the posts



everyone hard at work on allerton abbey



ernie teaching us about straw bale



alright this is enough for now. these are not in the right order but hope you enjoy!

Howdy Cassie, thanks for the photos.

I am curious what plants Kelly Ware brought up to Wheaton labs, and if there was good rhyme or reason to the plants. Basically, I am interested to know what is being planted in the cold and dry conditions there, as it is very similar to where we are in the rain shadow of the cascades in washington.


If there was no particular rhyme or reason to the plants, then this questions may not be answerable.

Andrew, I don't know what all the plants were, but I remember reading Evan posting about them in his Ant Village Log. He said,

Sedum, sunchokes, maples, poppies, an oak, catnip, comfrey, irises, lilies, and a few more I can't even remember!

https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/280/45960

Hopefully someone else can come along and say the exact varieties and what the ones that he couldn't remember were .

There were also many American persimmon seedlings, a couple of pear trees, Jonagold, crabapples, and lilacs. It will be interesting to see how many survive in a few years. Thanks for not being to harsh on my "painting" Cassie.
John S
PDX OR

Looks like a fun and productive time...such as would bring joy to Paul's and Jocelyn's hearts, I imagine

Andrew, I'd say there was no particular rhyme or reason to the plants. Kelly just showed up with a van full of plants, both obviously dug up out of the soil and bare root things that apparently came from a nursery.

So cool - handling the beautiful prairie falcon. So many wild ones here near Denver. Guess they can all be tamed (as much as you can tame a bird of prey).

Thanks Cassie! What a perfect way to start my morning~ Nothing better than big smiles while working on such cool stuff! Please keep them coming.
M