John P

Awesome story I enjoy hearing what you are doing

I am a hobby diver myself and can often find enough food to feed myself, the issue for me is getting there as I live in the city and must bum a ride. I love your approach and have considered building a small, living wage company by recovering waste streams and re purposing them for better uses. Not sure where you live, but the USA culture I live in is a land of waste and false opulence! I intend to find a way without menial, lack of purpose work which wastes people's lives so they can buy things which they do not need. Things I have found include table, couches, chairs, mops, baskets, tablecloths, lamps, rugs etc all perfectly fine and in the waste stream headed to a landfill!

Good luck! Keep us updated with pictures!

One of my favorite books related to the topics of frugality and simplicity is called "Less is More: The Art of Voluntary Poverty." It is simply an anthology of the most famous quotes and passages on reducing desires and why this is good. I can honestly say it has altered my worldview and led me to movements such as sustainable development and things like permaculture.

I have been finding sustenance in the waste streams of consumer society. For pennies on the dollar, I have furnished my apartment (until I graduate and leave the city) with thrift store or free items. Both of my couches and 2 chairs I found by dumpsters. I made my bookshelf from scrap cuts of sawmill used to enclose a barn. Tablecloths, wicker baskets, solid boxes, milkcrates, etc can all be found near or in dumpsters. Friends and I often go dumpster diving for food (something that r/Frugal tore me apart for suggesting). The fact of the matter is that we find hundreds of dollars worth of food set to expire the next day (almost always nothing wrong with it, those with a hint of concern are left behind) shortly after it is thrown outside by a bakery and produce section. I have eaten better on dumpster food from grocery stores then I would ever be able to afford previously. And to those who this alarms, I have never been sick from food scavenged from dumpsters, I have actually been healthier.

Some have joked with me that I treat older products with more care than newer products, and I guess that is true. I value products of the past that were built to last, cradle to cradle goods. In my fathers garage there are 3 drills, 1 broken new model, one new model on it's way out, and one metal hand crank drill from the past which has never so much as slipped. (although watch that you don't pinch your fingers.) The fact of the matter is there is no shame in frugal, modest values and a rejection of consumer desires. I feel better wearing $5 jeans and having money for books than I would feel in $150 jeans when I stain them or pop the knee open. Just my 2c

I expect the short future to continue making leaps in internet speeds. Not to mention with the development of new phones functioning as mini-computers, those USB devices which plug in for internet everywhere might increase in popularity. The main benefit of computers for me is the information > most of which is stored on hundreds of PDFs and takes some searching through. However, it will be hard to move away from the speed of instant answers through google

I have seen 2,500 - 9,000 an acre for undeveloped or cleared land with no structures near me in piedmont NC. I guess it depends upon their motivations. A lot of older articles advocate getting county land maps/stopping by the courthouse and contacting owners of land parcels who are not local who might want to sell but did not previously think that they could. Also, someone who might own 100+ acres might consider breaking off a little chunk of 5-10 acres for a 15-30,000 payday if they are in need of cash. The advantages of taking your time and asking around might get you the piece of land you really want.

Wow, great knowledge. Seems absurd that they would not find a way to utilize a sole polymer type for each type of material contained. Such as one polymer type for soaps, one for edible liquids, one for cleaning agents etc

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I will heed your advice, place some slash on contours to stop erosion, and innoculate the stumps with mushrooms. Does anyone know what the optimal height would be for the stumps to be left at?

I also hope to keep some of the trees to try hugulkultur...I have started one attempt in a raised bed but do not think I left the logs to sit long enought before placing them in the bed, oh well they will break down eventually!

I am no expert but if it were me, once land was acquired I would look into building a house out of a natural material such as stone or cob and then using recycled windows and doors and such to finish it. It would be cheap for materials, but might take awhile to build. Depends if you think the extra time is worth not having to do a job twice. As for the land, I am in the same boat as you, but still in college. I feel like once I had future land paid for, I would be able to figure out how to work out other issues. Land is just so expensive...frustrating to worry about

Hey everyone, one of my first real posts here, looking for some advice

My father and I have been hoping to clear some land to plant for multiple livestock forages for goats. We already cleared about 1.5-2 acres, but it is obvious we did not do it right. A trackloader and tractor compacted the soil and accelerated erosion over time. Clearly not a good practice as we found out the hard way, and now we are planting cover crops and grasses and letting that land be for it to come back to health. I have seen the birds and other creatures slowly moving back over the past two years and we are trying to intersect multiple different types of perennial covers.

We need to clear about 4-5 acres that has great carbon content in the humus and I would not want to let this great soil wash away. What is the best way to clear land using permaculture/sustainable methods? I was thinking and guessed it would be something like starting from the inside moving towards the outside of the section in question, clearing the land with chainsaws and leaving shade trees/diversity trees but enough taken away so there is sunlight for some crops. Then, I guessed that a stump grinder would be good to get rid of the stumps while leaving the roots to hold the soil. The section in question would ideally in the future be turned into fruit and nut trees similar to the food forests I have read about in permaculture books, but I am no expert. I would like to be able to grow fruit/nuts/and then plants on the ground such as oil bearing seeds to produce biodiesel...

What do you all think? What is the best way to clear land (which is semi hilly) without losing the valuable topsoil, compacting the soil, and hurting the environment any more than can be avoided? Thanks for your time and I appreciate any advice!

Thank you for this great resource! 

Brenda Groth wrote:
then as you are able to build up swales to hold the water in different levels..by throwing other stuff on top..like compost, soil, logs, hay, anything to build up something to hold that water..

make them in a crescent shape to hold more water than a flat shape..like a bunch of small dams..

another thing you can do is what we did here..dig a trench, bury perforated pipe with a sock liner over it..and then cover with gravel and then grow sod over that..it will drain BELOW grade to your pond

Thanks for the good advice, I will consider the trench method and most definitely build a rock wall to slow it. I have a few other large loose rock walls farther down but need another one up top. One of the main problems is that the uphill access road to the barn is acting as a rain "river" for the water to come down and then cause even more erosion problems which I face downhill. How can I fix the problem farther uphill?