Almost 66, Southern Orego Coast, Kind, Clever, Enthusiastic Permaculturist

Living on a puny .13 of an acre, but even that needs permaculture! On a river, which connects to an even bigger river. Starting permaculture from scratch, working to erase mankind's former damage and destruction to the property. Fortunately, there have not been any chemicals used here for 20+ years as the prior owner wasn't into that sort of thing.

An avid spinner of any fibers that will fit through my Lendrum spinning wheel (and considerable can get through its orfice!) for about 25 years now. I'm pretty good at reading patterns, but also in making my own.

Have MUCH to learn about permaculture--Oy vey, I'm starting at the beginning. None the less, it is just wonderful to learn that there is a name and a culture out there which embraces the notions and desires that I also treasure. Fortunately, I learn fast and rarely make the same mistake twice (giggle).

Old fashioned values (don't drink, smoke or do any funny stuff) but it's very hard to keep shoes on me and as a result the bottoms of my feet tend to pick up unwanted and painful objects. You know what...it's darned hard to hold the bottom of your foot sunnyside UP so that you can see what you are doing to get a wood sliver or piece of glass out of your own foot! At present, a bemused neighbor has done the "eradication" duty, provoking occasional yowls on my end.

Considerable experience in prior years with horses, saddle-making, gentling, and several natural horsemanship modalities. No horses now (this property is too small for such and the city fathers seem to have distressingly little flexibility or sense of humor about these things) but horses, mules, goats, sheep, ducks and chickens, and one or more ponds with fish are definitely on the ol' bucket list!

One cannot learn everything that one wants to know in a lifetime It's just too short, darn it! I am quite good with cooking, canning, drying, and freezing. Also sewing, and making things from what is lying around. However coming up to speed with rocket mass stoves, cob homes, and permaculture would sure be a lot more enjoyable and go faster and easier with a companion who either knew something about all of this or wanted to learn so that we could bounce things off each other, experiment, and so on.

Personality-wise, I'm a happy camper whose highest and best use is as an assistant...the "chief cook and bottle washer" and main support to a fellow who has an agenda and is making things happen. Prior experience as a life coach, a pretty good education coupled with brains, an old graphic design degree and massive organizational and secretarial experience can be thrown in to boot.

New friendships are most welcome. One can find more friends than one can ever find really good potential life partners. A new union is ultimately never proves profitable for two parties unless it is truly right and they take their time to establish a good foundation for the relationship, I'm not in a massive rush. Time is "The Great Revealer." Take time to smell the roses and enjoy the journey, sez I...it always pays off!

p.s. I have no idea how large this forum will choose to display the attached photo. If it turns out to be humongous, my apologies! Consider the photo a 'trial balloon' to find out how large that many KB will be....providing the photo even displays (giggle).

Hi Cheri,

I am a confirmed Texan but would certainly like to chat. I am about 2/3 through the Design Manual and can see a lot to discuss. I am also a 3rd generation organic gardener with not much opportunity to garden since I move with my construction job. I have 20 acres in the beautiful Texas hills but so far have an accessibility problem, it is on top of a hill with a bad road. Not that that would stop a mule but I am working it out.

Gary aka gem_cat

Gary, I tried to Purple Mooseage you with a reply, but could not get the system to recognize G Moffatt nor gem_cat. So I'll send this through the forum to you.

Gee, I texted a chatty response, then the "fickle finger of fate" struck (darned mouse finger pads!) and apparently everything was lost. Okay, time to re-write it as best I can--but this time in notepad FIRST!

When I think of Texas, which I've never visited, I think of a fairly dry landscape, with grass and rangeland. However as it's our largest state, perhaps it has more diversity than that.

You are much further along with permaculture knowledge than I am, that's for sure...I just found the site this last week!! And ever since then, I've been soaking up information like a dry sponge (giggle).

Fortunately, my little property has not experienced chemicals for the last 22 years or so. The previous owner did nothing (no maintenance, no gardening). The garden was a jungle and the house looked a proper mess (hole in the floor where the bathroom should be, holes in the lathe and plaster walls inside, siding like paper in some places, and a large sheet of plywood nailed to the roof!). It is a bright and cheerful little house now, with a brand new roof (the roofers started pretty much from scratch), new siding, and the jungle-like mass of greenery has been pared down. Heck, I never realized that clematis and fuschia plants could turn into veritable TREES!

This is a fairly wet area--we get about 76" of rain a year. There are numerous streams, rivers and lakes all over, and the ocean is only 2 miles away as the crow flies. This property is on a tributary of the 'mighty' Umpqua River. The tide flows up the Umpqua and even up the tributary, so the water level rises and falls considerably each day. When we haven't had rain in quite a while, keeping the saline content fairly high, crab come up with the high tide, then go bouncing along the bottom of the river and back into the ocean when the tide turns.

The county has a levee at the back of this property, taking up space, and the city has an easement complete with a manhole cover in the side yard. The Army Corps of Engineers has all sorts of very tiresome rules about what one can and cannot do to 'their' levee. Sometime of their notions occasionally seem to verge on the crackpot side, however they're the boss (sigh).

I'm in the process of collecting cardboard and mmulch to stifle the massive blackberry and morning glory population in the back yard. The many years' growth of blackberries actually took down a chainlink fence back there! Needing something to deter humans who are in a pilfering mood and the local deer, the thought has occurred to see if stinging nettles might grow back there. And can one process nettles to get a linen-like fiber to spin perhaps?

And mushrooms--that's the latest thing I'm reading all I can get my hands on. We have a wild chanterelles growing in the area. People pick them and sell them, but I think we have too many "opportunists" who will pick everything they can get their hands on. They may be cleaning out our wild supply. I'd like to learn to grow them, along with some other varieties. Healing through mushrooms has been a passion long laid dormant. Perhaps now is the time to indulge the passion for learning in that regard.

So many deep interests relating to learning to live a permaculture lifestyle, and it feels like so little time to come up to speed. I find myself thinking about permaculture constantly, trying out ideas as I stare at the property.

"Townies" persist in feeding the local deer population old bread (obviously, very bad for the deer who gobble the stuff up). We're starting to see some birth defects in them around town. The deer are safe from hunters within city limits, and they have become more than a bit of a pest. If I hang about 50 Dixie cups (inverted with Irish Spring inside of them) all around the property, it keeps the deer out for about two months' time. Then all that soap needs to be replenished again.

Raccoons are also a problem to gardens (and to those who have fish ponds--although I don't have a pond...yet). Shavings of Irish Spring soap across the raccoons' favorite paths keeps them out of the yard...again for only about two months. Then it is time for a refresher.

I'm searching for a neighbor with a largish dog who would agree to bring the dog over and turn it loose in the yard periodically. While our local only half-wild deer have no knowledge of coyotes and their smell, and don't seem to have any connection with blood meal, they are well aware of the dangers of large dogs and teach their young to be also.

Hm...some real estate around here has the same problem that you do with regard to your acreage on a hill...and a bad road A couple of very interesting properties for sale right now are only accessible by boat across the Umpqua River! One of them has an old apple orchard which has been left to its own devices for many a year. I find such properties utterly charming and irresistible with their old farmhouses and all the greenery which has sprung up in the interim since anyone farmed there. Sometimes other Nature knows how to decorate and drape a property most beautifully. At those times, mankind can only hope to emulate her genius.

Your property ought to have a heck of a view, that's for sure! Can you get there with a four wheel drive pick-up? Or is the road really more of a a track or path? Sounds fascinating! If you didn't move around so much, mules probably COULD be a way to haul your supplies up to the top of the hill. Admittedly, such limited access would sure put the 'kibosh' on any UPS deliveries (giggle), however if times become unlike any we've ever experienced before in our lifetimes, something rather difficult and forbidding to negotiate might become a blessing and a treasure.
-Cheri

p.s. Can you figure out how to Purple Mooseage me?

Hello Cheri, maybe I can help on the purple moosage thing. Can you tell me what you did? Maybe we have a glitch?

You should be able to click on G's name, on the left hand side of one of his posts.
His profile page should pop up.
On the bottom left corner of that page, you should see a note about purple moosaging with a little button with two little people and the letters PM on it, clicking that should pop up another page where you can write a moosage.
Does that work?

Sorry...still blushing over this one. It was only AFTER posting a message that I discovered the correct way to Purple Moosage someone. Isn't that always the way--we squawk FIRST and then discover the answer (doh!).

Thank you so much for kindly taking the time to assure that a greenbean "newbie" would be able to get around on this remarkable site!

Best wishes for a great evening, and again, thank you ever so much,
Cheri

No problem Cheri.