Suburban Permie looking for a global community

Hi,

My name is Joel, I've been learning and practicing permaculture since 2019. I'm currently living in a small townhouse in southern Ontario (dreaming of land of my own to someday transform into a thriving ecosystem). I don't really know anyone in my area who knows anything about permaculture. It would be nice to have people to talk to about related topics. I don't know how I've never come across this site before but I'm eager and a little overwhelmed to jump in.

A little about me. I'm married and in my 40's. I have two young boys who are a handful (as they tend to be). I'm currently a painter but I'm trying to find ways to transition my life into doing permaculture related projects for a living. This is where my passion is and I truly believe it's the most important thing we can be doing. I have a couple of projects in the works.

Welcome, Joel.

So, you're sort of like the bumper stickers that say, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" Just replace Texas with Permies. We're glad you're here.

If you have a permaculture question, the forums here are so deep and stretch back so long, your head is going to bust from all of the knowledge your brain is feeding on. What I love about the site is that once you've exhausted those threads, you start a thread and ask a question and people here are pretty good at responding, "oh, yeah! here's how that works..."

Probably the neatest thing I've discovered here is the SKIP program (scroll down the forum buttons on the left (if you're on a computer) and check it out. It is possible to get credentialed in permaculture and homesteading. Get far enough along, and you might just find yourself talking to some elderly gentleman who is looking for someone to take over the work he devoted his life to instead of letting his kids sell it to a developer.

The nifty badges below my signature show how far I've come with earning badges.

Anyhow, see you around the site!

Jim

welcome, you're in the right place!

And what lucky kids you have, to get to pick up the skills you're building -- and the meta-skill of building skills -- through exposure!

I can absolutely relate. I'm in exactly the same position, and it sucks and it's lonely not being able to discuss the things I'm thinking about with people around me.