Malek Beitinjan

Katherine Quick wrote:My 2 daughters and I are building a hugelkultur in our backyard for the gardening badge. Can we work on this together as long as we each do every part of the process? Thanks, Katherine Quick

I believe you would each need to create a hugel of the required size, and each plant all the seeds/buds required. It says in the BB the following:

 
- 7 feet tall, 7 feet wide, 6 feet long
 - mulch it with at least 4 different kinds of mulch
 - seed/plant at least a dozen different species
 - seeds are mostly nitrogen fixers (>75% by volume)
 - at least three comfrey plants
 - at least three sunchokes
 - at least a dozen sepp holzer grains (currently available as a prize for anyone who reaches BB20)

So you would each need to make a hugel 7 feet tall, 7 feet wide, and 6 feet long. And each need to plant at least three comfrey plants, three sunchokes, a dozen sepp holzer grains. And each mulch with at least four different kinds of mulch.

When I earned this BB at the SKIP event, four of us did it at the same time by making a very long hugel - it was 7 feet tall and wide, and 24 feet long so that the total size could be divided into four portions, one for each individual.

Beyond that, I think it's okay if you help each other with some of the physical labor involved, but each individual should do the mulching, digging, etc. on their section.

Wheaton Labs is located in Montana and they have a lot of events focused on homesteading. If you went there for a visit you'd probably pick up some good tips.

https://wheaton-labs.com/events/

Start a fire with flint/tinder

Make a snow shelter

Cook something in a pit

Split a log using only nonpowered hand tools

A lot of the natural building PEP badges would apply here as well

Welcome to Permies! If you're interested in developing your skills for a permaculture lifestyle, consider doing the SKIP program. It features a list of specific tasks organized into categories like gardening, woodworking, commerce, community, and more. By doing the tasks you can learn some stuff and demonstrate to others here your permaculture skills!

It's too true....

If you click the button with an ellipsis (3 dots) at the top right of the post, that should give you an option to edit.

The videos of tadpoles I had seen had them much bigger than these guys, so what you're saying makes sense. I didn't realize that's what mosquito larvae look like. Thanks Permies!

Bell Cedar Farm wrote:Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after watching your video, those are 100% NOT tadpoles.  Those are mosquito larvae.

Ah, that is some good information to have! If they are mosquitoes, they'll be turning into adults relatively soon, so I'll just wait and see.

I live near a couple different nature preserves. In these preserves, they have the California red-legged frog, which is threatened (primarily in the Sierra Nevadas - they're quite plentiful by the coast).

I have a bucket on my deck that I use to collect rainwater, which I can then use to water plants. It's been sitting out there for quite some time. One day, I looked in the bucket, and I saw that there are a bunch of tadpoles in it! I've heard frogs out there at night, I guess they made good use of the water. Everything's been rather dry out here since all the rain comes in a few big events rather than consistently.

Youtube has made changes recently that seem to have broken embedding videos below a certain length on Permies. You can view a video of the tadpoles as I first discovered them here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HyJVLMlf8TI

They seemed a bit stressed in the bucket with a dwindling supply of water and zero cover. I added some pinecones, sticks, and green fodder to the bucket to make more of a habitat for them. I also added a bunch of water, although I made sure to let it sit first to allow the chlorine and fluoride to evaporate from it. City water!

I've been checking on them every day and they seem to be fine. Now that I added places for them to hide they are harder to spot, but when my shadow passes over the bucket that freaks them out and lets me see them.

Based on my research it takes ~7 months for them to become frogs. They also are expected to go dormant during the summer due to lack of water, but I'm not sure how that will work in a bucket. Furthermore, I know that my bucket will be an increasingly accessed water source by birds as the summer goes on and the puddles and wallows dry up. Once they reach adulthood they can hop out to the forest with the next rainfall, but until then I'm just checking on them once a day and adding water if needed.

Rachel Lindsay wrote: Everything is mowed mowed mowed here, eight months out of the year. (Even the long grass patches by the railroad tracks crossing lengthwise through the town!)

Anything that is visible from a road is likely to get mowed. But there are often ignored spots lurking nearby. Areas with steep slopes, vacant lots, etc. You can use google maps to look for places that seem to have a lot of green in your town, then go check them out in person. You might find some neglected spots that will have a chance to grow things.

There's often a contradiction where the areas that get mowed a lot can only host fast growing pioneer species, but the areas that never get mowed are choked and overgrown to the point where doing some chop and drop would actually benefit the plants there. Simply scattering seeds in an area where they won't have space to grow has a low chance of success.