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Alice and Patricia’s Permaculture Homestead

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 1 month ago

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Hi Friends,
It’s been a long time since I actively posted here. I’m Maureen, American who has lived in Kenya since 2011. In 2021 I bought a small plot for my daughters, and with great imagination named it “Patricia and Alice’s Permaculture Center.”
It’s been a long slow process, building infrastructure slowly and step by step as money allowed. We started living in the unfinished house last year. This week we have the masons coming to plaster the outside of our mud-constructed house.
I thought it might be fun to start documenting the progress of things again.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18684

Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 1 month ago

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Welcome back, Maureen!

Thanks for sharing!

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

John C Daley

pollinator

Posts: 6051

Location: Bendigo , Australia

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posted 1 month ago

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More photos would help us understand what you are achieveing.

John Daley Bendigo, Australia The Enemy of progress is the hope of a perfect plan
Benefits of rainfall collection https://permies.com/t/88043/benefits-rainfall-collection
GOOD DEBT/ BAD DEBT https://permies.com/t/179218/mortgages-good-debt-bad-debt

Judith Browning

Posts: 10260

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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posted 1 month ago

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Great to see you back Maureen!
Looking forward to hearing about this new adventure😊

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 1 month ago

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My internet connection isn’t that great, so please bear with me as I upload 1 photo at a time. It’s been a chaotic week here, with construction ongoing, a total of 8 workers trampling everywhere, new arrivals, and things breaking all as we try to prepare for the onset of the rainy season.

Let me start with a photo of our newest baby. Oreo, our herd matron, dropped a beautiful little buckling on Monday. These are Small East African goats who normally only deliver singles.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 1 month ago

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We have two masons and 3-4 young men from the village applying cement plaster to the outside of our mud house. The mud house was constructed in 2024, the inside was cemented in 2025, now we are doing the outside. The layer of cement turns this into a “semipermanent” house that should last 50-100 years. It prevents the rain and heavy winds from eroding away the mud walls, and protects the wood frames from termites.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 1 month ago

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We also have two local young men working with my partner to build a 4- stall KNF piggery. The first stall was completed just in time for the arrival of three piglets that we had reserved from neighbors. (2 males, 1 unrelated female.) Although the indigenous micro organisms are not ready, we went ahead and put them in the first stall with Joyii, our 6 month old kienyeji sow.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 1 month ago

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More pig photos.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 1 month ago

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Aside from construction, we are always working on the garden beds and the perennial berms. We have 20 annual no dig beds planted in rotation, so hypothetically one bed is replanted each week for a continuous harvest.

I’m also working on removing the native Justicia from the berms, and planting sweet potato vine for ground cover, along with planting pigeon pea, desmodium and tree collards. We are taking stock of which of our fruit trees survived the dry season. I know one avocado tree was lopped off by a worker this week - who thought it was a bush in an inconvenient spot!
I’m disabled so when I do the work myself I can only do a few feet at a time.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1474

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

171

posted 3 weeks ago

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I joined up in late 2023, so this post is my first intro to what you're doing, enjoying it so far, thanks for sharing your life in Kenya with us.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 13017

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 3 weeks ago

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Maureen Atsali wrote:Although the indigenous micro organisms are not ready, we went ahead and put them in the first stall with Joyii, our 6 month old kienyeji sow.

Hi Maureen (welcome back!), I don't understand about the indigenous micro organisms, and why the logs in the stall?
I'm looking forwards to seeing your progress - the veg beds look great already!

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5348

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

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posted 2 weeks ago

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I hope Maureen adds more details, but that setup works similarly to deep litter for chickens. The local microorganisms move in, no stink!

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1474

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

171

posted 2 weeks ago

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I think its neat that the plot is in your daughters' name so they have something meaningful and as a provision already. How old are they?

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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Nancy Reading wrote:

Maureen Atsali wrote:Although the indigenous micro organisms are not ready, we went ahead and put them in the first stall with Joyii, our 6 month old kienyeji sow.

Hi Maureen (welcome back!), I don't understand about the indigenous micro organisms, and why the logs in the stall?
I'm looking forwards to seeing your progress - the veg beds look great already!

Nancy, I’m using a method from Korean Natural Farming to create a no-smell piggery. The houses are built with logs, charcoal, and sawdust, and then inoculated with a solution of indigenous micro organisms. The micro organisms colonise the carbon and feed on the pig manure creating a self-cleaning environment that really doesn’t have to be cleaned until the carbon has decomposed and needs to be reset. Theoretically! We will see how it really works in Kenya, where we have termites.

Already we’ve had an issue with the big pig rooting up the logs. If anyone has experience in KNF I’d love to hear how you deal with this!

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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Riona Abhainn wrote:I think its neat that the plot is in your daughters' name so they have something meaningful and as a provision already. How old are they?

The girls are eleven and twelve. ☺️ They aren’t all that thrilled to be gifted with a farm right now. I hope they’ll appreciate it more when they are older!

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 463

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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I thought I would pop in to give a quick update. The cement work on the house has been completed, and it has been painted, inside and out, and the roof-water catchment and 5000 litre tank installed.

We also had a new arrival on Sunday! We are small enough that every birth is a big deal.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Annie Collins

pollinator

Posts: 432

131

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posted 2 weeks ago

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Maureen Atsali wrote:The girls are eleven and twelve. ☺️ They aren’t all that thrilled to be gifted with a farm right now. I hope they’ll appreciate it more when they are older!

Amazing projects you have going on!

As far as your children not being too thrilled right now, it reminds me of when I was in grade school and high school. I wasn't all that happy having to go and study, learn, write essays,do projects, etc. As an adult I am so glad to know all the sciences, maths, language, etc. that I learned. I have been using that learning my whole life, in so many various applications. I don't doubt that your daughters will one day be so happy to have learned what they are now learning, as well as getting such an amazing gift such as a farm. What a wonderful thing you are doing for them!

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1474

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

171

posted 2 weeks ago

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They're beautiful kids, thanks for sharing such a nice photo of them. I bet most kids that age wouldn't understand why this is such a special investment in their future, they'll understand better once they're older though! I think when I was a young girl I wouldn't have been so into it either, but with time comes wisdom.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Did you just should on me? You should read this tiny ad:

Edible Landscaping With A Permaculture Twist/ Second Edition - Kickstarter

https://permies.com/t/369458/Edible-Landscaping-Permaculture-Twist-Edition