permaculture thorns, A Book About Trying to Build Permaculture Community - draft eBook

We are thinking about recording a toobie thing with talking heads on friday, aug 21 about thorns.  9am mountain time.  

Is there anybody that has read the book and wants to be a talking head?

I'm happy to be a talking head for thorns!

That day I will most likely be be dog-ass tired...and if chosen I'll do my best to be cogent and concise anyways

While I haven’t read the book, I lived it for nearly two decades with the same core group for a decade.  I’m currently building community resilience with the Self Reliance Festival (Nicole Sauce) and Midwest Preparedness Project. I’ll be at the Living Free in Tennessee Holler next Friday.

Yes, I would like to participate in this. 8am PST on Friday, right?

I read "Thorns," but it was years ago - I should probably read it again. Let me look for it . . .

Found it! I downloaded it in 2019, hope my copy isn't too too out of date. I will read back through it today as a break from worky work.

Permaculture Thorns Smackdown!

We’re doing it! Join Paul Wheaton, other permaculture experts, and community enthusiasts this Friday, August 21, at 9:00 a.m. Mountain Time for a live discussion about Permaculture Thorns and the challenges of building permaculture community.

Click here to watch the live stream!

Once you’re on YouTube, click Notify me to receive a notification when we go live.

Feel free to post your questions below!

I have read it, and i would love to be in the podcast toobie thing. I need to make sure i have time to read it again, since i last read it in 2020. How do you feel about me joining, but only if i have read it again in time?

I bought this book this morning and read the whole thing today. I didn't know anything about Paul Wheaton yesterday, but now I'm a big fan. I have been running residential wilderness programs (ie. community, but not quite) for a few decades. Paul's ideas mesh with what I've learned experientially, but I also learned a bunch from his vast experience. I loved the book, will be recommending it to our students, and rereading it soon. If you are interested in how communities function in the real world, this is a must read.  Thank you Paul for putting it out there.

The bit about aluminum trailer wheels threw me for a bit of a loop because I had never heard that. But after checking ours, they are all steel.

me, presenting about thorns, in front of 500 in person people and 3000 people live, online.  

Do we talk about these things some more, or touch on some different topics?

T. Smith wrote:I bought this book this morning and read the whole thing today. I didn't know anything about Paul Wheaton yesterday, but now I'm a big fan. I have been running residential wilderness programs (ie. community, but not quite) for a few decades. Paul's ideas mesh with what I've learned experientially, but I also learned a bunch from his vast experience. I loved the book, will be recommending it to our students, and rereading it soon. If you are interested in how communities function in the real world, this is a must read.  Thank you Paul for putting it out there.

What are 4 things you would like us to expand on during the smacky tomorrow?

Sure. Here are three things I'd love a bit more discussion on:

1. The book is a couple of years old. Any new insights that have developed since writing it that would be counterintuitive to a reader who just came across it?
2. You mentioned the book as an experiment in trying to create a recipe for communities that could help future communities develop. If you had to summarize it into short form, like a recipe, what whould it look like? Such as 2 cups gardening, 1 cup problem solving, etc. Shortest description possible, a sort of elevator speech.
3. To use the recipe analogy again, what would the experience level and timeline for the cook of such a recipe look like? I see many posts of people wanting to start a community. Based on your experience and in your opinion, how much experience (years) and in what (skills) should someone work to accumulate before starting?

Funny how these things happen. After being a member on Permies for a while, I was going to write you (Paul Wheaton) and ask about best practices for organizing a community based on your experience. And, probably more importantly, ask about pitfalls to avoid. Then I read about the book. Then I read the book. And I learned a lot from it. In my work I often tell people that the soft skills, the people skills are the hard part in most endeavors. This book reinforced that view. Thanks again.

paul wheaton wrote:We are thinking about recording a toobie thing with talking heads on friday, aug 21 about thorns.  9am mountain time.  

Is there anybody that has read the book and wants to be a talking head?

I can try to chime in. Read it years ago and haven’t had time to refresh my memory but I can at least show up and speak from experience living communally.

Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:We are thinking about recording a toobie thing with talking heads on friday, aug 21 about thorns.  9am mountain time.  

Is there anybody that has read the book and wants to be a talking head?

I can try to chime in. Read it years ago and haven’t had time to refresh my memory but I can at least show up and speak from experience living communally.

Hi Joshua! Just seeing this, ty for the interest but we got the roster full. Hope to see you in the chat!

We are live!