Steven Richards

Looks great to me. Thank you very much Paul, you're the best!

I made the mistake of not logging into my existing account before purchasing the 177hr PDC and ATC course. Now I have two accounts, both with paid content. The new account I do not know my username or password for. Hopefully this post will help prevent some people from doing this in the future, and make easier for Paul, or someone on the staff to fix this, by combining my accounts or getting me my new username and password.

Sorry for creating more work. I really appreciate all the work put into the forum, youtube vids, content etc. This is the only path forward, I wish people would wake up to that faster, but hey maybe we each gotta waste enough time "fighting bad guys" to finally "get it"...

Curt Regentin wrote:
We just kept adding straw until the snow melted and we could spring clean the chicken house. A very smelly job!

As far as plant nurseries, here are two Michigan nurseries that have served me well: Okios Tree Crops and Cold Stream Farm. Oikos has a wide range of perennials & trees and Cold Stream Farms has many varieties at quite reasonable prices.

I did the same with the chickens. Thank you for the nursery recommendations. They seem to have some cool stuff. I didn't think I could grow persimmons here, but maybe I can. That would be awesome.

Mike Cantrell wrote:
It's a good place for it! A lot of folks see the short growing season and figure that will be tough on the bees, but it's not that bad. Plenty of rain means plenty of flowers straight through from beginning to end, no overly dry time in the middle where your bees can't forage (ahem, Arkansas). They're sustained the whole time.

Good to know. I see lots of people around here doing them with the Langstroth boxes or whatever they're called. I want to build a topbar beehive. I know someone that's good at woodworking, and I think he'll be willing to help.

Mike Cantrell wrote:
Ugh. Don't do like I did and skip the volume calculation. Size your catchment right the first time. How much rain? How much roof? Build it big enough.

Thanks for the advice. Will do. Looking into acquiring some food-grade IBCs at the moment.

Mike Cantrell wrote:
Anyhow, where ya from?

My brother and I were born in Grand Rapids. My parents moved us to a little town an hour from Dayton, OH when I was 12 and we lived there until moving to Lansing a few years ago. We were living in Lansing when I met the girlfriend, Nicole, from Jackson. We all decided to buy a place up here because property is cheap. The upstairs, which used to be a separate apartment, is where the girlfriend, son and I live. There's 35 acres, and a lot is woods/forest/thicket/marsh... not really sure what to call it LOL. I think there's enough grass that I could graze a cow or two for most of the warm season without supplementing, but I have no experience, so...

Moved here a little over a year ago. Wanting to raise chicken, pigs and cows. Wanting to build a beehive or two, a moveable chicken coop or two like the "Chicken tractor on steroids", and possibly a box for soldier flys, if I'm not in too cold of a climate. Wanting to slow down the water using rain barrels and swales to establish a food forest. Wanting to eventually build a wofati with a rocket mass heater. Wanting a rocket mass heater for the chicken coop during the winter.

Lots of wants and not a lot of progress, yet. Guess I could blame the child we're raising... but it's probably just cause I tend to be more of a thinker than a "doer". Maybe I'll change that soon. I hope so.

What do you all think should be the top priority? Catching the rain from the roof in barrels with overflows directed to (currently nonexistent) swales? The movable chicken coop, cause we have a few chickens freeranging, but sleeping in a nasty coop that hasn't been cleaned well all winter? I do already have electric chicken fence with a solar panel and battery, so I just have to build the coop itself. Is this just something I have to figure out myself, based on what I want most?

It really bothers me that the chickens I'm raising aren't in ideal conditions. If I had a moveable chicken coop, the winter coop could at least get some "rest" to reduce the nasty. I guess my big problem is I hate to do something not as good as possible. Really regret not waiting to get the chickens. I helped fund the permaculture chickens kickstarter (and the recent RMH one), and don't want to wait until I get the movie and ebook. Here's something to creator posted recently: http://abundantpermaculture.com/chicken-housing-that-works-5-brilliant-ways/

Love this idea of building something like this:



Just don't want to wait til he releases the plans. Anyone know of plans out there for something similar? No old trailer to work with like Geoff Lawton (plus no welder or welding experience). No wood working experience either, but I want to learn wood more than welding.

Wanting to start some good permaculture plants. Thinking nitrogen fixing plants good for sandy soil. Sea Buckthorn trees and shrubs seem well suited. Maybe Russian and Autumn Olives? Jerusalem Artichoke? Indian Breadroot? Comfrey?

Where do you all recommend buying cuttings for the plants from, considering where I'm located? Maybe even some place I could get all the above from, to reduce shipping costs?

What needs to be registered for? The in person conference, or the webinar?