my brain. I love my long net, my shovel, and a host of other items, but they all cost me money. Too many times i've been given advice by well meaning people to just buy X and solve my problems. Often I can puzzle out the problem with a little patience and my grey matter. Ultimately I could walk into the forest without any tool other than my brain and survive.
Norma Guy wrote:Haha, I just have to add one... this is so stupid.
I harvested my cabbages (red express) with the intention of making sauerkraut, and layered them in a recycling bin with newspaper, leaving them until the weekend when I would have time. I was stressed out and mentally exhausted from my job and the only thing I did for myself at that time was gardening.
One morning I got up for work, groggy and annoyed. On the way out of the house to catch the bus, I remembered it was garbage day, and hurriedly got the items ready for garbage pickup. I saw the blue box full of newspaper and wondered where the heck all of this newspaper came from, assuming my in-laws brought us all their garbage again (this happened from time to time).
I put the whole bin of cabbages out for recycling and didn't realize what I had done until it was time to make the sauerkraut and I couldn't find them
Between my lack of energy and time, powdery mildew (the garden plot is not ideally situated, but it's a rental property), and squirrels, it was a very discouraging gardening season. But the mistake to avoid in this case is don't throw out your best produce in an exhausted, stressed out haze.
I'm just picturing some confused recycling guy looking at bin full of cabbages! I can't stop laughing!
I for one am glad of the off season plants. As an experienced gardener I know to set my maters next to the house to keep them in the thermal bubble to ride out the mild colds. I wish they would hire people of similar knowledge sets at the stores to tell people tricks like that.
I would just like to add don't be afraid if you have the wrong type of chips. still try! I am growing wine caps on cedar atm! They are a great beginner mushroom that is very forgiving.
I always feed mine to my mushroom beds, sometimes i soak them for a day. They won't keep a bed fed for me by themselves but they do help cut down the amount of chips i need to add.
Nicole Alderman wrote:Think about it from a certifier's viewpoint. If you're looking at a picture of something that has already been done, without any pictures of it being done, how do you tell that person did it? For all the certifier can tell, their spouse or friend or hired person (or a previous owner of the land), could have done it. We want to make as sure as we can that the person who's got a badge, actually has those skills.
Say someone tries to hire someone who has a roundwood working badge, or an animal care badge. But, they "earned" it just by just showing pictures of things already done. They never actually did any of the work. So, they come to work and actually know nothing and end up building a bad shelter and feeding your animals the wrong things and not keeping their house sanitary. That'd be horrible!
Now, of course, the lower level of skills aren't usually what you'd hire someone for. They're basic skills that show that someone can learn stuff. Say you might want to hire someone with an Wood badge in rocket stoves to make you one. Or maybe a Iron badge in natural building to make you a wofati. And, we went and certified a person that said, "hey, I made this wofati and it's rocket mass heater!" But, they never showed progress pictures, and it turns out, their X-wife did all the work, and they know nothing.
This is something every certifying agency has to deal with. Right now, my husband has a coworker that is a phlebotomist (the people who draw your blood), but it's apparent the person knows NOTHING about phlebotomy. Their wife probably took all the tests for them. When asked to take a test at work, the person stormed out, refusing to do so.
We're trying really hard to make sure that:
(1) The documenting requirements aren't TOO complicated
(2) The people who are getting certified have a high chance of actually having done the stuff and know what they say they know
(3) It's easy for someone who's looking at hiring or giving their land to a badge earner to look at their pictures and judge for themselves the quality of the persons work
(4) To have an online resource full of pictures of people doing useful things, so others can learn from what they did.
I don't like videos, either. But, sometimes, a video seems like the only way to prove that someone has done it. And, it helps other people online learn and find out about permies. We're building a vast collection of knowledge that is FREE and available to everyone. None of us are getting paid to certify. And when someone tries to get something certified that doesn't have documenting proof, that makes it really hard on the certifiers. We don't want to accidentally certify someone who never did a lick of work and has not one ounce of knowledge about a subject!
This is easily the best explanation I've seen on this. I can easily understand your reasons. However I think that "We're trying really hard to make sure that: (1) The documenting requirements aren't TOO complicated" Needs some work. Maybe a thread with exact documentation expectations instead of several sometimes contradictory posts?
The other point I would make is not everyone has so much land that simply doing a project again will work.
r ranson wrote: You can use past projects so long as you have the images to meet the requirements.
Is there a good list of what those are? I skimmed through the topics and couldn't find what would and would not count as good enough.
r ranson wrote:So do I. But I know a lot of people who have no idea how to make their phones take stills.
I only saw one badge that had video requirements. Are there a lot of them? The ones I saw had video OR photos or said: "show XYZ" which could be either video or photos.
After reading more than this topic it looks like photos will work(?) I guess this part could be changed to a request for clearer requirements.
r ranson wrote: On the whole, it sounds like you want something different than what Paul's created. Perhaps you could make PES - Permaculture Experience according to SHAWN.
I've seen a similar response to several others who posted suggestions. I guess I don't see what about my comment caused this canned response? I don't see a reason why in my reason I would need to deviate from pauls. However if this is a permies.com thing and not just a paul thing (hence the badges) I think it should be more inclusive. Things like this are great for motivating people to get out and create content. However it also runs the risk of alienating part of the user base if they feel left out in the cold. Just food for thought.
Some constructive criticism.The lack of being able to use past projects, makes this really irrelevant to me and probably many others. The video requirement also is lame! I shoot exclusively photos. Most find my voice annoying. Is there some reason why only video works? Managing a video camera while soloing a project sucks!
My uncle planted my nemesis apple tree with a chunk of log and a single small branch. I didn’t argue them putting it between two raised beds because I thought it would not work. It does.
Has any descendent of colonists successfully planted a 3 sisters garden?
I guess this is where I chime in. I have had mixed success. To put it simply it’s never completely failed me. I even had one great year where I harvested way more than should be possible in the square footage! Unfortunately I have no pictures, but hope to document next years growing.
There are a few tricks to three sisters and I’m not certain it would work for everyone or anyone with subpar genetics. The first trick is only winter storage varieties. You want to harvest all three at the same time. The second trick is a very hardy and fast growing/slow maturing corn. It must be planted about a month before beans or squash.
Cons: you have to plant dense and it’s slow to take apart at seasons end.
I wanted to mention that I’ve always had more luck with a plant or two they like rather than sugar water setup. Comfrey seems to be a favorite. It also pops up around the time most of them migrate to my state. Are you sure they are supposed to be locals?
Peter VanDerWal wrote:When asked for a phone number, my wife just pulls out her cell phone and gives them the phone number from one of the recent SPAMers that called her.
Just stumbled on to this thread. Stealing this idea. Take that robocallers.
Julia Winter wrote:There's a Portland Permaculture email list, sometimes you hear about events from that
try emailing ppg-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
I'm also getting emails about Portland permaculture things via MeetUp.
https://www.meetup.com/Portland-Permaculture-Meetup/
I’ll have to try subscribing to the mail lists, though I rarely tolerate that much spam in my inbox.
I skimmed through the meetup group. It looks like no actual “meetups” just people looking for work or pdc type things. While I’m not opposed to helping others with their projects, I’d prefer to get to know them a bit first.
Liv Smith wrote:I wish we could create a “Portland permies club”, to meet once a month for instance, and exchange ideas, projects, what worked and what didn’t, and so on
What do you thing, Shawn? Would you be “in”?
Definitely count me in! That sounds like exactly what I have been looking for.
Seeing as how my Lady and I have decided plan A is to stay in Portland for 5-7 years, I was hoping to network with some fellow permies nearby. I’m looking for someone to bounce ideas off, share surplus with, barter, or do seed swaps with.
Everyone says go take a PDC. Well I don’t want to drop that kind of money, I prefer something more organic. So if your in the Portland area and looking for a Permie friend too hit me up!
I’ve only skimmed the thread so apologies if some of this is covered by others. Let me say what I’d do and see if any of it sounds good. I’d probably take an acre and drop half the trees. Put those to mushroom production and hugel beds. Plant hugel beds with blue berry, heather, strawberries, potatoes,ground nut, elderberry, currents, miners lettuce and semi shade tolerant plants. After a couple years I’d start running ducks through. Don’t be afraid to embrace the forest there are a ton more edible crops I left out!
Travis Johnson wrote:Not really something "made", but something trained I think, would be a Mouse cat.
Not all cats are good mousers, but there is a huge demand for them. With a house full of daughters (4), they fall in love with any cat, but I cannot afford to have cats that do not mouse. To be guaranteed a mousing cat would be worth spending money on.
Huh. Didn’t know this was a marketable skill. I’ll as that to my list of possible income streams.
Yes thanks! I was actually already planning on that since it is how I keep my runs alive. I currently have winecap and shiitake, but I’m going to be buying 2 different oyster strains.
So things didn’t work out down here for various reasons. Now I’m moving in to a place near Portland that I’ll be free to homestead on, but is a small suburban lot. Conveniently however it is unincorporated! So I can keep my rooster and chicken breeding plan in motion. Also there is a lot of foot traffic and I’m thinking I want to sell my excess farm stand style seasonally. There are aged pear, plum, and apple trees on the lot.
So here is a rough draft of my current game plan.
Get free woodchip deliveries (very reliable)
Use wood chips to grow a variety of mushrooms (I’m very good at getting spawn to make more)
Use spent spawn to feed chickens/ as bedding/ worm food (not something I’ve done yet, but the chickens love mycelium in woodchip bedding)
Use bedding that gets cleaned out of chicken run to make a finishing compost pile. At this point I’ll add all the yard trimmings I want composted but not with chickens. After a while I’ll move this pile to the next stage
Cooling pile. At this point I’m not adding new material I’m setting this in the shade to cool off for several months to a year.
After the cooling pile I want one last compost pile. (I might have a problem.) This is where I will inoculate the pile with blewit spawn. Before sending it to the garden as mulch!
I hoping one of the experts still drops by but in case that doesn't happen for a bit let me chime in. It is my belief that the universe is by its nature symbiotic. It simply takes more energy to compete with others than to work together, Fungi seem to mostly understand this. If you go to a forest and examine the soil you will find several different species of Mycrorrhizal fungi working together in the same soil sample. I see no reason that would behave differently in an artificial environment.
Don't let the naysayers get you down. I have tried to follow your posts closely as I am a few years behind you in a similar plan. You are an inspiration to some permies!
r ranson wrote:
I love teaching because I can feel that I have something to contribute to society.
But if I'm not wanted, I shouldn't waste my effort.
It saddens me to see you despair so. I hope you never believe that you don't contribute to society. Your posts are some of my favorite to read. Whenever you and Joseph are both posting in a thread I get excited because I know I'm going to learn a lot! I don't know if I have ever thanked you but now is as good a time as any.
Thanks for all of your knowledge and wisdom you share freely. Thanks for the kind words you often share. Thanks for freely donating your time to help those who are still learning. Thanks for being a member here. Because without your help I wouldn't be as far as I am today!
Sounds like permaculture to me! I can definitely relate to your situation. This is the first year on a new site for me and I also have hard heavy clay. Mulch is your friend! What you are doing sounds like it will work but clay soil takes time.
Rolf Olsson wrote:This is interesting but my thoughts are if the ukranians can remotely shut down the wehicle? This software could maybe be implemented in other wehicles and if it comes to that,hackers can shut down wehicles.I would prefere if it is only John Deere that can remotely shut down my tractor as it is described in the article.
That’s not how it works. If there is a security gap for one, anyone can find it.
Anarchy is highly overrated in my opinion, and seen as a panacea for all by those who don't actually want to think about real-world solutions. It may have worked in the neolithic, but not out of our infancy.
The mechanical governor analogy was just that. I don't hold that the goal of governance is to slow things down, but rather to moderate and regulate between competing interests so we don't foul each others lines as we fish, so to speak. With so many people doing so many different things, we need assistance to make sure the steps we take for individual advancement benefit society as a whole, or are at least of net-neutral impact.
Who gets to decide the best interests? Currently those who hold power and most permies disagree with what is best. By your logic, you should give up permaculture and follow cultural norms.
Wow! I love this thread. I am a self described "techno-hippie." I love nature and tech and don't believe they need be mutually exclusive. I however have always taken the attitude that until machines gain sentience, they exist to serve us. (I think we need to revisit that we real AI happens.) I remember preordering the original iPhone. I had a pocketpc before that. I remember when they weren't programmed to hyjack my brain. I resent that they are now. I am always amazed when people look at me like I'm mad because I treat text messages like email, getting to them when I have time, not immediately. It seems strange to me that in my younger years (a mere decade ago) people would accept as normal a delayed response but now we are slaves to the screen? Anyways now I'm rambling... just wanted to share my thoughts and thank you for yours!
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