Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within homestead Search permies
Advanced search Google search
Register / Login
rocket mass heater dvd
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
permaculture bootcamp sketch with tools Free heat movie list of PIE benefits here on permies Permies Book Reviews 6 ways to keep chickens ebook by Paul Wheaton
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ransom
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • Timothy Norton
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Tereza Okava
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • M Ljin
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Matt McSpadden
  • thomas rubino

Alice and Patricia’s Permaculture Homestead

 
Maureen Atsali
pollinator
Posts: 460
Location: Western Kenya
72
posted 3 weeks ago
  • Likes 17
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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.
31301D50-D1B9-40AA-B9FC-08FF38315012.jpeg
[Thumbnail for 31301D50-D1B9-40AA-B9FC-08FF38315012.jpeg]

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 18586
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4709
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 3 weeks ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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: 6018
Location: Bendigo , Australia
552
I like...
plumbing earthworks bee building homestead greening the desert
posted 3 weeks ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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: 10161
Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe
3378
4
posted 2 weeks ago
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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: 460
Location: Western Kenya
72
posted 2 weeks ago
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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.
IMG_6335.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6335.jpeg]

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

 
Maureen Atsali
pollinator
Posts: 460
Location: Western Kenya
72
posted 2 weeks ago
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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.
IMG_6352.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6352.jpeg]

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

 
Maureen Atsali
pollinator
Posts: 460
Location: Western Kenya
72
posted 2 weeks ago
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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.
IMG_6351.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6351.jpeg]
IMG_6358.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6358.jpeg]

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

 
Maureen Atsali
pollinator
Posts: 460
Location: Western Kenya
72
posted 2 weeks ago
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
More pig photos.
IMG_6366.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6366.jpeg]
IMG_6371.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6371.jpeg]

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

 
Maureen Atsali
pollinator
Posts: 460
Location: Western Kenya
72
posted 2 weeks ago
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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.
IMG_6376.jpeg
Reset annual bed
Reset annual bed
IMG_6342.jpeg
Berm work
Berm work

Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

 
Riona Abhainn
pollinator
Posts: 1417
Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b
166
posted 7 hours ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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: 12808
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
6698
6
I like...
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
posted 1 hour ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

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! "

 
One blast from the ray gun turned half a town into a guy named ray. Just like this tiny ad:
rocket mass heater jamboree 2026
https://permies.com/t/369866/rocket-mass-heater-jamboree
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...