Beau M. Davidson wrote:
PSM 403: Permies is focused - you can talk about anything you want, but it's undergirded by a set of ecological values and fosters kindness and open discourse. (Where else on the internet can you find that?)
I made this post a wiki so we can grow this list.
Unfortunately the list may be shrinking. Looks to me like Gir has tacovered Permies as of a year ago, so I think it might be considered overGIRded now...
That 4500 is split up over the season. 15 groups of 300 all staggered every other week. So at any given time we have 5 groups total of 300 all ranging in age. Each group is broken up into 2 processing weeks. First week we take half of the oldest group and leave smaller birds for another week of growout. Week 2 come back for the rest. Following week, on to the next batch as new baby chicks hit the brooder, and a group cycles out of the Brooder into pasture. That cycle continues until we run through 15 batches. So, no we don't need all that water all at once. I use about 100ish gallons a day just for the groups on pasture. 3 groups on pasture, 2 in the brooder. This allows us to offer fresh chicken at the markets every week... I feel like I should just make a video tour explaining our setup. Lol
There are some great suggestions here already and hanging here on permies to learn about plant identification, growing food, harvesting, cooking, wood-working and everything else, is a great way to get from feeling trapped to feeling like you can genuinely contribute to the planet in ways you want to.
Simple things like learning to mend your own clothing can be done with a needle and thread from a thrift/charity shop, and yet will make you less dependent on "the system". ( https://permies.com/t/54406/sewing/mending-clothes )
You could even use this thread as a bit of a "goals and responsibility" document - decide today what one thing you could do that would help you reach your goal. I would encourage you to start with small goals that aren't a big stretch so you build confidence. A positive attitude is an important tool.
I’m always irritated when I hear my neighbor’s voice in the backyard playing with his kids. He’s got a very loud projecting voice and he’s often screaming with the children. I don’t care about the kids playing that’s a good sound but him, it’s so annoying because he knows he can be a bit more quieter when he speaks.
One of the big reasons why I wanna move out of the city, I don’t want neighbours.
Timothy Norton wrote:My story is not as adventurous as everyone else.
... I always came back to where I grew up. In fact, I managed to take over ownership of of my childhood home and have been working on it piece by piece as I have time. It has been fun. The abandoned factory is gone, replaced with a volunteer fire station. Ongoing work locally has been getting closer and closer to cleaning up and repurposing the closed down mill. Young families have started moving into the homes near me and folks are all over town walking and bicycling. It is a privilege to be able to see the transformation of this piece of the village in my lifetime.
I used to be envious of the people who were born and raised in one place; in my envious vision they had friends they had met at kindergarten, they had deep roots into the environment, they belonged.
Later, I came to realize we all have our own treasures, found along our life paths
... when the last bit of weedy mess lawn has been turned into garden space. No more lawn to mow. Just enough space remains now to walk through. Today's crop was peanuts. They grow well in poor soil with no care needed. Perfect. Less lawn more food has been my plan for 30+ years & it continues today.
... when an empty toilet paper tube is ripped up & given to your worm farm.
Finally found my headset. Apparently, it tastes good to silverfish. Um...
Going to get some new ones. It appears there are some big honking headphones that doubles as mp3 players. I can load the music or audio book on an sd card and it just plays somehow.
My biggest problem is my head. It's been so long since I last bought headhones, all the shops in town that used to sell them are gone. Radio shack. A&B sound... etc. kind of like to try them on as my head is a weird size and shape.
I just realized I missed the "action" shot, so understand if this isn't approved. If that's the case, there will be a next time. In that event, I'll need to get She Who Must Be Obeyed involved to keep the DSLR oil-free.
We've neglected our kitchen woods overall, so it was fortuitous to find this BB. I checked a couple local grocers online and once I found one carried walnut oil, we were off to the races.
The composite boards didn't absorb like the spoons and other board. I was concerned about the big board as it feels like it had originally been waxed as well, but it absorbed the oil nicely and it really brought out the grain visually again. This morning the spoons felt drier than the boards, so they can definitely take more before long.
For the boards, I basically poured the oil on directly and spread it by hand. It was wonderfully tactile to feel the dry board getting to a lower friction state as the oil was applied. For the spoons I poured a bit of oil in my palm and went over them by hand. The painter's stand-offs were quite handy to allow me to oil all at once and then let the items sit overnight to absorb the oil.
I used to be very competitive (mostly shooting and slow pitch softball). Maybe I still am competitive, but I don't actually compete anymore, but one of the books that fundamentally changed the way that I approach any task that I want to be great at was Lanny Bassham's "With Winning in Mind". One tidbit that really stick: He was an Olympic shooter who won a silver medal and lost to a Russian shooter. Where he was located, the only time he could get to a range to practice was at 3am. Every time his alarm went off to go practice and he turned it off to go back to bed, his wife would mutter "The Russian is practicing" and he would get up.
Jordan Peterson's "Twelve Rules for Life" also had a pretty profound effect on me and helped me to understand a lot about human nature and ways that we can better ourselves and the life of those around us.
Riona Abhainn wrote:Planted lettuce and spinich:
I got my lettuce and spinich planted in containers, like everything for now. Also my garlic babies sprouted, I helped my good friend who lives next door plant a garlic clove too so she can get a bulb later in the year she grew herself, she is in the infancy of learning how to garden. I planted 2 cloves, one per smallish pot, but they're big enough to grow a bulb. I'm getting to where I know enough to start helping others learn.
I think my mint is dead, as hard as that is to believe. It died off early last year, around August, and there's no sign of new growth, I've had it for a few years and divided it last year in springtime, so presumably some of it is still growing where I guerilla planted it outside my last apartment, but none is growing in the pot I have, I thought mint was nye on impossible to kill.
My friend gave me her strawberry container from last summer which fruited for her, but which I'm afraid is royally dead and is showing no signs of green leaves. I have experienced strawberries lasting a few years when happy, but apparently these aren't happy enough, they did get ignored after they were done producing for her, but I assumed they'd come back. If they show no sign of new growth by the 1st they're getting mulched. Another friend of mine whom I visited earlier this week showed me his strawberry plants and many of them are coming back with green leaves, hence I know mine are likely caput.
The upstairs at my dad's house is coming along, a lot has been cleared out and the mini-kitchen is almost completed so we can move in come June.
It's such a good feeling when we start to share what we've learned with others! Keep us posted!
Also possible is to burn the grasses. That should help the fire-loving native meadow plants (probably milkweed and other edible ones too) and keep the area meadow. Only it might be good to make precautions it doesn’t spread.
Think about your life as a plate, you can only fit so much on it at once. But once you "eat" what's there you can add more. But if you try to get all of your project goals on your plate at once it overflows and then meltdowns occur. Be realistic with yourself about what you can accomplish when and don't feel like it all has to get done this year.
I made a very small batch producing about 1 quart of syrup. But I was left with this very nice maple sand. I only had about a quarter of a cup, so I mixed it with equal amounts of butter and made diy maple butter.
For some reason I have had difficulty growing strawberries. Two years ago??? I finally grew gorgeous strawberry plants that were producing well, and I didn't get 1 berry. If the Birds didn't get them the slugs did.
Last year I built a bed with a chicken wire top. I put bare-root strawberries in. So far so good, they are looking good. I have solved the bird problem. Being a new bed hopefully I won't have a big slug problem. It may be something I have to deal with in the future. Fingers crossed we actually get to eat strawberries this year.
Does anyone have tips on how to preserve the colour of the flowers well? Sometimes the primroses end up green rather than yellow, and other colours can be disappointing when dry. I don't need them to be fresh, but it would be nice if they were a bit brighter when dry.
...sheep sorrel...
...an indicator of acidic soil.
Thanks for your input 😩
First of all, welcome to Permies Julinka and congratulations on your baby and your new gardens and orchards!
We also have clay soil here and had a lot of sheep sorrel.
Last June we got three ouessant sheep for keeping the grass short. I haven't spotted nearly as much sheep sorrel at the end of last summer as the summer before, now that I think of it. But I also didn't really investigate, I'll look more precisely into it this season! Perhaps the cure is in the name?
Could you let a few sheep graze over your terraces? Protecting the plants you've so carefully planted - my ouessants are a very small but primitive breed and they love to nibble at the bark of fruit trees, I've had to cage my trees.
Also, as sheep sorrel is an indicator of acidic soil, you might try dumping a handfull of chalk lime at the foot of each plant - and cut off any seed heads.
I hope these suggestions work for you.
Hi Nina,
Unfortunately I can't use sheep for this issue as there are many hundred plants to protect which is close enough to impossible, I did however already do this on the very bottom bank where I set up electric fencing and they did chew that right down for me (it has since regrown). But yes using animals is ideal, thanks for that suggestion.
Timothy Norton wrote:I would like to nudge this thread and see if other's might be willing to share their setups.
Here is my setup. It's two bays, mainly because I didnt want to buy any more pallets and because we dont really have enough inputs to warrant more space. Once we do our first mow, Ill gather up as much of the clippings as possible, mix it in with what Ive been piling up then let it sit to finish while I start working on the other bin. (The pallet on top is just laid on top. There isnt anything on that side.)
Anne LaBastille wrote about buying a lakeside plot in the Adirondack Mountains area. I have read the first book "Woodswoman." I think she wrote 3 books in this series.
She wanted to escape the dangers of city life and a bad breakup and she built her log cabin herself.
Had to move it when the council said it couldn't be where she chose.
This was before snow skis and tech to navigate winter conditions and her story also goes on to describe the changes when these came in to use.
If they were there in winter, they stayed there which made any medical emergencies arising of great consequence. Good neighbours who were mostly dim lights across the water were important.
She also had companion dogs which were part of her decision to leave the city. Muggers were shooting their victim's dogs to get their way, which made her trying to save her beloved dog as well by leaving touching.
I enjoyed her journey, but she was a scientist funding her life by working as an ecology consultant so she wasn't growing things and generating her food sources like most homesteaders. Some fishing if I recall and a lyrically beautiful looking up at the night sky out when camping/exploring on the day of the moon landing which I found profound.
She describes her days and preparation for winter.
The crushing fear when unplanned accidents threw her at the mercy of whatever came upon her next.
The sense of freedom and amazement at the utter beauty all around her remains memorable.
We don't have snow and winters like this in Australia so I found that aspect engrossing.
Edited to add............. not fiction per se, but a scientist making home base in a snowbound cabin and making it work.
Thank you for the recommendations. Some interesting looking reads there.
Maybe ramps? They like it under trees and are delicious. I planted a patch under a honeysuckle shrub some years ago and they have liked the place.They seem like a root crop but they are just as good to harvest for leaves and more sustainable that way, though not terribly productive in that sense. If you have good enough soil, sometimes ramps come right out of the earth with a bit of tugging. In my family we have always pulled ramps, never dug. I like to gather the leaves better because I like the flavor just as much at least. Garlic chives are somewhere between ramps and “onion” chives in a lot of ways and may work well too.
Most of the perennials I have planted are near trees namely because there are so many trees around. Mugwort grows very well under the shade of a particular birch tree, though be careful with them. Dock seems to grow anywhere with good soil and moisture, Rumex obtusifolius (broad-leafed dock) especially. Think about nettle too, maybe wood nettle if that grows where you live. They are a very good vegetable, and a forest dweller, better in the estimation of many than stinging nettle (or at least more juicy and tender, and sting less potently.)
You can also try medicinal plants like motherwort, which likes a little shade, or any sort that prefers a shaded habitat—there are plenty of those. Hops may be a good one too but I have seen them pull over a wild plum tree. They are also a vegetable as you can eat the shoots, which are thin but quite good.
I was just extolling earlier the virtues of Korean bellflower, Campanula takesimana, a tasty leaf vegetable. It might also be that the roots are edible but I haven’t eaten them yet. They are still getting established here.
Other ideas based on my north-ish New England climate:
Asters of various kinds (New England aster is quite tasty right before the flower bud stage)
Ground ivy/creeping Charlie
Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum)
Trout lily
Milkweed (seems like a particularly good choice; I often see them in dappled sun settings)
Bee balm
Solomon’s seal
Dandelion, maybe chicory
Spicebush? (have never grown/foraged them)
Tilia, basswood, linden trees (edible & esculent leaves)
Fuki (Petasites japonicus—I saw those starting to shoot up their crazy flower buds in someone’s yard the other day).
I would look to your local wild plants and see which ones of them are edible and then which do you actually want to eat. They can oftentimes be the best choices for perennial vegetables, at least to begin with. (And even the ones you don’t want to eat are likely to be valuable medicines.)
The plant is so full of life and bursting with life that the new leaves look just like the old leaves and the only way you know the difference is because the old ones are lower on the stalk.
Can you shift the roadway?
I would lay a thinner layer of 11/2 inch rock ro just create traction.
It will keep sinking in the ruts until it finds something solid, but may work well as 2 strips.
We are another Temptations household. Our cat has a very delicate stomach and while we have her stable, we don't mess around with her food. She will get small bits of pure cooked chicken/turkey but that's it for human food.
I do grow her catmint, cat grass and spider plants. She can get a bit pushy in the summer, if I come in from the garden and don't give her a fresh leaf of catmint!
Joylynn
My thinking might be impractical, but my assumption is that we live in very visual and
performative world, who knows maybe 10 years from now robots will take 90% of jobs
including gardening, and my guess is that the more difficult jobs to be replaced will
be around people matters, so to me its accumulating a certain know how that pushes
my comfort zone, can it pay? like I said it before at the moment its just me and my ideas,
and I follow on the rule of "start where you are with what you've got", I have several
business models in mind, but each of them requires some recruitment to be done,
and I'm working on it, but I also stick to the rule "hire slowly, fire quickly",
in the mean time I keep accumulating skills and material, I believe right people
will come along just at the right time, especially that I actively work on that area,
even be it at my own pace of doing it.
I always try paint the bottom of my young fruit trees with white latex paint to prevent sun scald, sunburn and borer (and rodent) damage. Indoor latex is supposed to be better. I try to paint from 1 inch below the soil line up to the first few branches. This seems to work for me, although sometimes I need to put on a second coat of paint to fill in cracks, especially around any grafts.
However, there is a new product called IV Organics 3-in-1 Plant Guard that is supposed to work really well:
It contains garlic, spearmint, rosemary and peppermint: so you might try planting all those kind of herbs around your trees and canes. (I think that the other botanical oils listed are tropical).
But the problem is that this IV paint is super expensive, so I haven't tried it yet. I think a cheaper method would be just use some leftover white latex; then plant garlic, rosemary and mint around your trees and canes. I'd also recommend pennyroyal, but it can be invasive and hard to get rid of. Hope this advice is helpful...
i'm a little surprised you asked what i think is a pretty obvious reason - if you really don't know, or you're just curious what i have to say**, but anyway, you gave me the opportunity to clarify and reemphasize that if industrial infrastructure is done away with, permaculture and a very balanced, sustainable way of life is encouraged. couldn't one also point to the prevention of environmental harms that would be brought if the industrial infrastrucutre is left out? i know paul has said something to the effect "rather than spend our time blaming bad guys," which is great, but to better enable the positive ways (like "permaculture"), a serious reduction in the negative ways is needed, and collective working together (like this*) is needed
i am not as all-knowing/intelligent as you implicitly gave me credit for (with the action-oriented research question). *some people know/do this, other people know/do that, together with good energies/spirits, we know/do..
Rather than planting directly in the forest which as you suggested might break the balance, why not plant on the edges of the forest where there is ample sunlight?
I will differ from other posts and recommend a specific type of grass.
Zoysia grass is practically bulletproof and might be perfect for your needs. It grows out pretty aggressively and forms a dense carpet that chokes out weeds. It needs no water or fertilizer. Some people mow it but they mow it something like four times per season just to make it look manicured. I don’t have zoysia grass right now but I am seriously considering putting some in because of some very tough spots.
It might be worth a thought and there are several varieties so if you go this route, consider all options.
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The abandoned factory is gone, replaced with a volunteer fire station. Ongoing work locally has been getting closer and closer to cleaning up and repurposing the closed down mill. Young families have started moving into the homes near me and folks are all over town walking and bicycling. It is a privilege to be able to see the transformation of this piece of the village in my lifetime. 