Ezra Byrne

A very tough question. Although I would miss variety and having house pets and guard animals, I would have to say if I couldn't have a steady stream of eggs my body would fall into disrepair rather quickly. Fresh eggs are one of my foundational keystones of homesteading to begin with, and without them I'm not sure I want to do any of it anymore. I can do without meat and dairy, but don't take away my 3 egg omelet!

I've been mulling over this for years, and the best solution I can think of is a programmable induction burner and any compatible kettle that you like. They are cheaper now than they used to be, still much more expensive than an electric kettle, but no plastic touching the water and the burner can be used for cooking with cast iron as well.

Silas Marner wrote:All I knew was there were a lot of things wrong with how I was expected to live and I couldn't pretend not to see them.

This resonated with how I have felt about the world since I was a child. Thank you for boiling it down into a clear and concise sentence. Hit me right in the face. I waffle between wondering whether everyone pretends not to see the problems or they just don't see them - whether it's a choice or just plain ignorance - and I don't think I'll ever truly come to a conclusion on that one. The answer doesn't really matter though because eventually everyone has to deal with the consequences of meandering away from the cycles of nature, I'd rather just stay on the mean rather than deal with the rubber-band shock when we are forced to revert to it.

Although it may sound a bit sacrilegious, I would advise you to forget about that book. There is so much free information available to keep you educated, entertained, and interested that I just don't see the need to buy a book that may put you into hardship. The public library will have many permaculture books you can borrow for free, and depending on which library system you are near they may have podcasts, audiobooks, e-books etc. There is this site which is already almost endless on its own, and yet there is a whole internet ecosystem outside of it to browse as well. Keep the book in the mental wish list and some day if you come across it when you are in a better position you might want to buy it for yourself, or you may find you no longer care to. I don't think myself or anyone else is going to tell you anything you don't already know on this one - but we can at least assure you that you aren't alone in going through hard times. My first step toward permaculture was due to hardship and a desire for true sustainability of sustenance, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one that found it in that way.

This forum is probably the most constructive place to talk about these things, as the answers you get will likely be from experience rather than theory.

The comparison of using a lab vs using a kitchen may seem valid on the surface, but the end results are very different. Spending a day preparing and cooking a stew ends in having a nutritionally complete, satiating, satisfying, calming, psychologically and biologically beneficial meal. Spending a day preparing and breaking down cellulose ends in having a pile of sugar.

G Freden wrote:

And I go even further!  When the whole foot has been flipped and both sides are wearing out, I can flip the sock the other way, unravelling the cuff to turn into a new toe, and the leg into a new foot!  I can either join two worn out pairs of socks this way:  cut off the feet entirely and join two leg pieces together, adding a heel in the middle and a toe at one end;  or I can join on a new yarn knit a new foot/heel/toe from scratch.  On my drying rack below there are several socks that have had this treatment.

My socks last!  I have about a dozen pairs, and the oldest is probably about ten years old (they have been made over as described several times);  I wear them every day in the winter, about six months of the year.  These are all made from commercial wool/nylon sock yarn (75%/25%)--it's possible to get 100% wool sock yarn too.  

I love Darn Tough socks, I have heard the casual lifestyle models don't last very well, but I have the hiking and work socks and they last 5+ years of grueling abuse before they need to be warranteed for replacement. Darn Tough hits a couple of the requirements for Permie-wear, but definitely not 100% permie. G Freden's method is definitely the way, and just reading it has put the bug back in my ear that I need to learn to hand-knit socks!

It's a wonderful thought experiment, and like many thought experiments, I think most of the responses culminate in some version of "show me how it works". It sounds like you have at least some grasp of the science of how this would be possible, but we are all wondering about the practicalities of it. The nature of the processes required to make the conversion do not lend themselves well to an off-grid isolated bunker environment, and you mention stockpiling in the desert where land is cheap but that would require constant transport which is neither cheap nor sustainable and would require quite a budget - the budget being another question of project sustainability.

I love thought experiments, but they can only go so far before there needs to be a physical example - a test case. I would be very interested to follow updates about a prototyping of this concept, please if you feel strongly about the concept find out how you can begin the testing. Contact researchers that have already done cellulase procedure testing and float this idea by them, they would have the experience to tell you a lot more than us permies can about how you could move the project along. I just ask that you do keep us updated when you reach milestones.

My  answer is yes.

The subdivision, development, resale, and self-financing tactics they use are sadly all too common generally accepted profit-making strategies that beyond a doubt work very well in a world of population growth. The deceit is another story. The pictures pretty clearly do NOT show a 38" rainfall area, but the language was "up to" meaning at one point there was a year that was a monsoon year, could have been 100 years ago who knows. Definitely due diligence is the burden of the buyer, but also just some liberal applications of common sense. If you are looking to buy homesteading land but don't know what that should look like, consult someone even pay someone who does know to look at it with you to point out its best traits and its downfalls and their weight in a decision like this.

I would think that method will just end up with lots of roots going through the mesh and becoming impossible to get back out. The roots start the diameter of hair and expand outwards, so the mesh won't really stop the roots from going downwards, it will just constrict the growth in diameter once they get big enough, and you would probably end up with one root that is thick on both above and underneath the mesh.

Looks like this plant evolved with reasons to grow straight down, very  likely you can't make it change it's mind without an impermeable barrier, which would bring with it many more problems. I agree that temporary beds, bags, boxes etc. might be a more appropriate technology for this particular plant if you don't want to be digging these things out (I wouldn't want to either given these pictures - my back hurts just looking at them).