Welcome to Permies.com. Introduce Yourself...

Greetings!
I'm from rural Michigan and just started WWOOFing by bicycle this summer. I had been living in Ann Arbor and after two years there decided the city wasn't offering enough time outdoors. Everything lined up so I was able to leave my job in good standing and so far I love my new lifestyle. I want to travel and learn how to farm and live in concert with nature and others.
My background is art based and I make a small income selling prints, books, and teaching workshops. I expect to make my way around the states until I find something worth sticking around for. I'm a big believer in sharing knowledge and so this place seems like a good place to contribute and participate in.
With warmth,
Kevin K.

Bumping this thread because I want to go back and read all of the posts.

Hi all.  I'm just getting the hang of the site.  I spend most of my online time at LibraryThing.com and, like Jefferson, "but tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener."  Except I'm an old woman; not quite retired, but eagerly looking forward to it.  I've got 5 ridgetop acres in Kentucky that I've been developing for almost a decade on weekends.  (Still work in West Virginia.)  I bought the place for the view - Daniel Boone Forest starts at the next ridge over.

The house was new but unfinished, and everyone always asks how that project is going.  But frankly, I worked on it just enough to make it livable to my standards and it'll never be up to anyone else's.  My focus is the outside.  I've got a small meadow that I've been developing into a mixed orchard and gardens.  Most of the property is young woods, and the rest is trying to return to that state.  I have to regularly chop volunteers that begin to block the view.  The open downslope is covered in blackberry brambles and poison ivy, honeysuckle and cat briar.  They all try to take over the world.  I've made a deal with the blackberries.  They have to stay out of the yard, but I'm cultivating them elsewhere in preference to the other three, with lots of mulch and hoeing.  I put up 20 plus quarts of cordial each year that seems to be popular with friends; though only two family members have joined me in the summer heat to harvest.  Sipping the final product tastes like sunshine to me in the dead of winter.

I'm widowed; two grown daughters and their families are reasonably nearby.  The grands used to fight to come and help me, but their interest has waned as they get older and involved in more stuff.  Oh well.  They'll be back.

The isolation was also a big draw, and I acquired a very near neighbor last year.  I'm not sure how that is going to play out.  It's been mixed so far.

Winter heating is still the big question mark, and it was rocket mass heat that brought me here.  Considering how I might retrofit my frame-on-crawl-space house.

Passive food sources fascinate me.  Is that the term I'm looking for?  Perennials, self-sowing veggies, etc.  I brought in Yucca for the edible flower, though I think the plant is terribly ugly.  

I'm looking forward to learning more and meeting great people here.

Ruth

Welcome Ruth!

I love passive food sources too, and really enjoy fruit trees, berries, perennial vegetables and self seeding ones too!

I think it's great to get a good harvest with minimal work!

Hello! I was born and raised on a farm in the central Minnesota lakes area. We purchased our own farm 4 years ago and are working on making the most of it.

Sending a hearty welcome to Kady, Ruth, and Kevin! Best of luck to you all.

Thanks for bumping the thread Ruth, I'll tell a few words about myself as well. I've been reading lots of amazing threads here so it was time I registered.

My name is Alex (she/her), I'm 19 years old and from Finland. I am currently living with my family - parents and two younger brothers - in a peaceful semi-rural spot in a big house with fields and forests. My dad has lived his whole life in this house and his parents and probably grandparents are from this area, so I feel a strong connection to the land. My family is very conventional, and their negative energies and superficial lives are making me feel unwell, but it's the price I have to pay for now. I myself left the traditional system life in July 2018 in search of some freedom, when I left Finland to volunteer in Europe. I returned home a month ago to "unschool" myself in my own pace and to get ready for my first growing season.

My dream is to spend this lifetime in balance and peace with myself and all the rest of the nature, not draining the recources but adding to them (I'd also like to make up for all the damage I have done in my traditional childhood). To be truly sustainable, my aim is to live outside the monetary system, only using materials within a walking-distance. This means that what I or someone in my area cannot craft from local materials with simple/primitive tools, I will live without. Of course I am only starting out now, and what you are hearing here is only my current direction and motivation. There are so many open possibilities and as I learn more, I can just completely change my opinion in a matter of moments.

My interests seem to range from nature to spiritual stuff to freedom and beyond. I learn about anything that could help me in my journey, and happily skip over any information that is not relevant or interesting to me in that moment. I have some basic theoretical knowledge about permaculture and eco building etc., but I am seriously lacking real-life experience. I have never successfully started a fire without a match (although I did burn the crap out of a damp leaf with a magnifying glass), or grown a single vegetable. But that's the fun of the game called life, and I am looking forward to testing and failing with these this coming summer!

You can see my face and blog URL in my profile page. I'm very excited to meet you all, lots of love folks. <3

Nice to "meet" you, Alex - wish I was 19 again! I've visited your lovely Finland - seems that people there are very in touch with nature/land. Sending you encouragement and best wishes  in your quest.

Hi Alex, welcome to permies. Glad you're here! :)

Hello (AGAIN),

I posted my FIRST introduction on this site in 2017, fully intending to interact with all you wonderful people. But then LIFE stepped in and those plans were out the window for a while.

But I'm back...finally.

Quick review: I have been 'playing' with permaculture concepts in my yard in Marietta GA for years. As I mentioned in my previous post, I started having dreams about "The Land" in 2005 (and still to this day.) I spent the year of 2018 preparing my house for sale. [BTW, it's on the market now if anyone knows a buyer. ] And I am planning to move before May 2019 to look for my land on the Colorado High Plains near the Yoder/Rush area.

I am so grateful for you like-minded folks who understand having dreams of Land, permaculture and taking care of the Earth. I'm still hoping for a group of friends with whom I can talk, laugh, dream and share my crazy ideas. Y'know, a support group for permies! And any help finding my Land would be welcomed/appreciated too.

Love and Peace,
Mary

Hello world of "permies".  I am a married aged pensioner, been living in the bush on 8 acres for 10 years, in the southwest of Western Australia.  Here, rentals are impossible to find, so my younger brother has moved onto our place with his caravan.  He's very handy with a chainsaw, builder by trade.  We are loving our life here, tho a lot of hard work.  Vegan by choice after a ca issue.  Said no to offered treatments, said yes to comfrey, stinging nettle, dandelions and grow our own food.  Good thing I actually love weeding, it all goes into my compost  bins - 25 at last count, 3 worm farms, 5x 200 litre blue drums filled with comfrey leaves and water with a tap to decant into a bucket, and 1x 200 litre blue drum with just water for diluting the buckets of compost tea.  Blessings to all of you.  Deb.

Hi Debra,

Welcome to Permies.