Kara Ann

Hey Ned - ditto all that about spices conquering the world of bland. Wherever possible, I nab something fresh and alive for the herbs, but for the rest, they are in arms reach, visible, and taking no counter space.

I am currently glamping in a trailer while the tiny home is getting built. The trailer is a rental from a friend, with a request to minimize holes in the wall coverings for any enhancements or modifications. I ordered some stainless steel sheets in a dimension that would fit (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JCM1MNX). I stuck them on to the wall with glue dots and added the magnetic spice canisters to it.  (In my previous kitchen the canisters were arranged on the side of the fridge that was nearest to the stove...)

If you have some wall or backsplash space, this might give you an option to consider... though it would require transfer from the purchased jar into the canister. I often buy spices in bulk or in a bag, so the jar situation is a little more flexible...

Hey Ac,  thanks for sharing your potato efforts - and loving your turn of phrase potatoes are romping away with lush green growth

Hope your weather is cooperative this year for a great harvest!

Hey Luke!
Thanks for chiming in and adding to the dialogue here! Your explanations are much appreciated.
I will see what I can learn about locking banana plugs.
In an earlier post, Eric also mentioned Anderson PowerPole connectors. Are you familiar with those?  Similar to locking banana plugs?

Thanks for finding this, Robert - I appreciate your suggestion.
I contacted Alibaba, gave the details requesting the cable, and got the reply that it is out of stock.

Seems like they should not list an item that is knowingly out of stock and discontinued... but there it is. Glad I checked it out!

Congrats to all of you for making Permies the wonderful community that we all enjoy!!
We all grow on the shoulders of giants who have paved the way...

Hi Ac - this is such a great topic!
Seems like potatoes bring some opportunities for timing and cycles of polyculture.... and disruption can be the disturbance needed for the next step in the cycle...

Tillage radishes go in before the potatoes, helping break up soil as they grow and are harvest... or oats or winter rye which gets chop/dropped to make mulch and potatoes can be planted directly into that...
When potatoes are in, they can be companion planted with nitrogen fixing bush beans so that they can repel eachother's pests: potatoes repel the Mexican bean beetle, and beans repel the Colorado potato beetle.
A few interspersed horseradish plants in the potato / bean bed also increase resilience to pests and disease, and provide another crop in the same bed. Interplanting coriander and dill in the same bed also attracts hoverflies and ladybugs to eat potato pests...
After the potatoes are harvested, there is a ready condition in the loose and friable soil for leeks, garlic, carrots and parsnips to join the polycuture cycle...

Adam Klaus (Bella Farm) teaches about his use of polyculture cycles in his Permaculture Voices (1) talk on biodynamic farming if you want more examples.
You can also read more guidance and examples in this useful blog from Peter Vogel
Here is a really helpful post about the use of potatoes as a developmental tool for building beds: https://permies.com/t/potato-bed
They can also be planted in a hugelkultur bed to reduce the irrigation burden. There is so much variety in the size / shape of the potatoes that selection for the target planting area can be individualized as well.

Girbot loves tacos. On my farm, we love potatoes....

Thanks Susan for your kind reply - and yes, the frustrations and fear that people have about disease and pain comes out in harsh ways for both conventional and CAM practitioners - and like you I have had years of it coming my way. Listening and observing are so important, as you have pointed out!  I appreciate your encouraging acknowledgement, and it is wonderful to hear your wish to have both conventional and CAM working together to find what is best for the clients!  Reading your warm response, and seeing our shared vision, it is a pity that we are on opposite coasts, as it would be lovely to get together for a cuppa.

Hello Susan,

Thanks for your post, and for your heartfelt sharing, and for the decades of service to so many gentle souls. I hear your burden of care - and for you and every other doc and nurse in clinical practice, we owe you our thanks for your service. And I am sorry that you have experienced, within this wonderful Permies community, an unwelcome, snarky or harsh lens of conventional medicine.

I have practiced for the past 30+ years as a homeopath with a focus on women's health, licensed in Arizona, offering adjunct support for the challenges of daily suffering. People come to me after they exhausted the conventional medical options and did not find a solution. They arrive desperate, in pain, and struggling, with or without a diagnosis or difficult side effects from medications or procedures. People search until they find respite and healing. Those who have experienced wounding within the conventional medical system can have harsh words, but surely it is not  personal to the individuals who have offered their skills with so much care and often with sacrifice. The medical system is increasingly difficult to navigate for both practitioners and patients...

It takes courage to practice medicine, whether conventional or CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Both contribute to a safety net of healing.  Thank you for your courage, and wishing you ease as you work through the therapy process to heal your grief and burden.

High above peril,
Full moon gives light to owl flight
as ocean tides swell

Mike Spooner wrote:I wanted to let everyone at Permies know about the latest effort to finally get tiny houses on wheels codified in the International Residential Code (IRC) at the upcoming ICC code hearing in Hartford, CT in April.

Ever since the tiny house movement started picking up steam, tiny homes have existed in a confusing legal grey area. Manufactured/mobile homes are regulated through the HUD code for full-time living, while recreational vehicles have their own standards as temporary living quarters. Tiny homes, however, fall somewhere between. They are smaller than manufactured/mobile homes, but unlike an RV, they are built for full-time living. They are also often owner built or built by small artisan builders who can’t afford the HUD pathway.

This is why back in 2016 a group of tiny home advocates, including Andrew Morrison and Macy Miller (two of my inspirations when I was designing my own home around this time), participated in a successful effort to create Appendix Q of the International Residential Code (IRC). This created a realistic pathway for homes under 400 square feet to be built. Most jurisdictions in the US use the IRC, so this allowed jurisdictions everywhere to easily adopt this new code.

At the time it was written, the advocates had intended to include provisions for the trailer chassis in the appendix. Unfortunately, this was determined to be too much of a lift and the chassis language had to be scrapped in order to ensure that the appendix could be approved. This meant that Appendix Q really only applied to tiny homes on a traditional foundation.

The intention was always that the chassis (tiny homes on wheels) option could be revisited in a later revision of the appendix. Well, that time is NOW!

Macy Miller has reunited a group of advocates, including Martin Hammer and David Eisenberg, who were both instrumental in making the original tiny house appendix a reality (and have advocated very effectively for a variety of other alternative building techniques) to back a code change comment (RB42-25-1) that would add chassis provisions to the tiny house appendix (now called Appendix BB). There is a real possibility that this proposal could pass. If it does, it will finally give jurisdictions the tools they need to start zoning for movable tiny houses.


TL;DR: Right now we're looking for people who would be willing to send a simple email to their local building official to let them know you support tiny houses (we will provide verbiage when the time comes). The more we can get on board, the more likely this will pass. You can sign up for that here.

You can also sign your name to the petition that will be presented at the hearing: Change.org Petition (Don’t donate here–just sign the petition)

Finally, if able and so inclined, you can donate to help with travel expenses and engineering costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-tiny-homes-in-building-code

Lots more about this effort (including an awesome FAQ) can be found on Macy Miller's website: https://minimotives.com/2026/01/18/tiny-houses-the-irc-a-path-to-clear-safe-housing-options

Hey Mike -   do you have any updates for us on the action taken in April, or other activities in this effort for tiny homes?