donating to the empire

Dec 10, 2019 11:19:59

how much are you donating?

$

(optional) Wordy bits attached to the monies.

Take all the credits and galactic titles you want. Maybe mention somebody cool. Or your favorite garden snack. Or a brutally short poem. Be as silly or as serious as you like!

Donate

In the last month, more than a dozen people have suggested that I create some sort of donation thing. And there have been about seven different general suggestions. Buttons, links, full e-forms, all sorts of stuff. I feel weird doing this, but I confess, I have received a lot of amazing gifts. So if nothing else, it is time to create some sort of page/thread just to talk about it.

I clearly remember somebody sent me a paypal payment for $100. I asked "What is this for?" and they said something like "I just listened to podcast 111 and it changed me so deeply that I felt I had to send this to you. Thanks!" Since then, stuff like that has happend about fifty times. Wow.

I was told that for email list stuff, you have to include your snail mail address or some mail software will think you are sending spam. So I made it a little silly and wrote:

send gifts and post cards to paul wheaton, 2120 s reserve #351, missoula, mt 59801

And I have now received well over a hundred packages. Including some amazon gift cards.

Speaking of which, here is the amazon wishlist. I've been using that just for "if i get the money ..." - and today I added some stuff that we bought recently, but it would be good to have more of (e.g. we teach welding here, but have only three masks - so it would be good to get more) but maybe what I should really do is ask for suggestions on stuff to add to that list.

Our Projects

The best details about the greater mission is in this thread.

But we have some seriously ambitious projects that are held up by the number of people we have here in the bootcamp program and, of course, money.

- the annualized thermal inertia test for the first wofati

- a proper well at the lab

- finishing the second wofati

- building and experimenting with a freezer wofati

- improving the speed of a wofati build

- improving the designs for berm sheds

- hosting rocket mass heater innovator events

- growing a lemon tree, outdoors, in montana

- multiple iterations of improvement on the wofati design

- community experiments

- the SKIP and PEP programs

- about a hundred more things

The best place to put your coin at this time

We call it "the BEL". The idea is that if a boot in the bootcamp posts a bunch of pics or video each day for 100 days, they get a bunch of community love. One guy recently rang this bell and he got over $1600 and a whole bunch of care packages. I would like to see a LOT more people in the bootcamp - this would further a whole bunch of our goals. And right now I think this is the best way to do that. All you have to do is comment on the thread describing what you would be willing to put in. When somebody rings the bell, you will be contacted. Click here for deets.

Another simple one is boot love, where the boots have been shy to ask for stuff. Maybe somebody could post to that thread with some ideas?

Patreon

I confess that at this time, pretty much all the money I get from my Patreon stuff goes to stuff to keep those things going. But if there are any funds left over, those funds go directly into new projects here which leads to even more videos and more podcasts!

My patreon for my podcasts

My patreon for my youtube videos

Permaculture Inner-circle Elite (PIE)

Jack Spirko once told me that I need to do what he does with his MSB. So PIE is our equivalent.

People subscribe to PIE for a month or year or more. This gives them access to a lot of extra features in our software, plus a bunch of freebies and special offers from vendors.

Unlike Jack's stuff, you can give PIE to others. This is usually done if somebody has posted something super helpful - you can award the PIE for that post, and then that post is highlighted with a tiny picture of a piece of pie.

The PIE program has been slowly growing. I hope that some day soon it will have the support of a hundred vendors and we have a hundred cool site features just for PIE people.

I think this is the best way to say "I love the permies.com community!"

Details here.

plain and simple donations

Here is the easiest thing: https://paypal.me/paulwheaton

You can also send paypal coin through friends and family to paul at richsoil.com

My bitcoin thing-a-ma-bob is 177pNU2a9iCpUXQwXX9EbtA2UwZpgeqcMT

really, really big?

Willie Smits was here a few years ago. He manages a half million acres. I asked him how that came to be and he said that it is all thanks to a billionaire guy. Wow. I love the idea of scaling up like that.

I have had a few people offer to will me their land - but the thing I tell them is that I would have to just sell it. This is part of the reason I am working so hard on developing the SKIP and PEP stuff so that these people can will their land somebody that will do amazing things. But I suppose that if somebody had a fat bank account and wanted to will it to me - that would be cool.

time instead of money

Right now, I think the most important thing I need help with is the SKIP and PEP stuff. It takes brains and time to understand what we have now and do the legwork to inch it forward. It is a massive undertaking.

As always: post good questions and post good answers. This moves all of permaculture forward for everybody!

Here is a thread somebody started many years ago called Ideas of simple tasks that anybody can do at anytime to help permies.com

Dec 14, 2019 21:31:20

For donat--the well, the well, the well, cloning of Fred and Jocelyn and you, etc.

Oh, donate for server costs!!! (and ideally mentioning how much it costs and how much has been donated) That's just paying for what you're receiving from using permies.com.

Dec 15, 2019 07:12:04

The well: I think that we do not make the call until I have $50,000 in hand. It might end up costing just half of that, but when they get 200 feet down and say "nothing yet - should I keep going?" then we need to say "keep going". So I think we need to be prepared. I have two people that have contacted me to loan some of the coin. About half. I do not yet have all of the other half. I thought that if sales of the new book and the cards were strong just before christmas ... but ... oh well.

So, yes, the well. If I were still working as a software engineer, then it would not be a problem. But I transitioned to being bonkers about permaculture. :)

But here is an even more important thing: I feel absolutely certain that if we fill the bootcamp then all of our projects will get a strong forward velocity. The benefits come back a hundred fold, including full events, more stuctures to rent and more cash flow which leads to the funds to getting the well. And dozens of other things which then leads to infecting millions of global brains with permaculture. So rather than donating money to me, I think those same funds would do ten times more as a pledge in the boot BRK here.

The well is my top priority. I have to work hard to come up with that coin. And I am trying lots of things. But if somebody is thinking of putting up money to improve our forward velocity, I think the best place, by far is with the boot BRK. And, as a bonus, the public gets about 300 pics or 100 videos of the projects we are working on.

Dec 19, 2019 19:49:42

paul wheaton wrote:The well: I think that we do not make the call until I have $50,000 in hand. It might end up costing just half of that, but when they get 200 feet down and say "nothing yet - should I keep going?" then we need to say "keep going". So I think we need to be prepared. I have two people that have contacted me to loan some of the coin. About half. I do not yet have all of the other half. I thought that if sales of the new book and the cards were strong just before christmas ... but ... oh well.

As you know 1 gallon is 231 inches^3. Every 10'x10' square of roof is 14,400 inch^2 at 10ft (12in/ft). One inch of rain on every 10'x10' roof square captures 14400 inch^3 of rain. 14400/231 means you just caught 62.34 gallons of water for EVERY 10 square foot of roof.
Missoula gets 15" rain per annum on average.

My little tiny house in Missoula with a 16'x14' roof = >2.24 10x10 squares, would catch (62.34*2.24)*15 = 2094.6 gallons each year. I can do survival rationing of 1000 gallons/per person/per year.

How many 10' squares of roof do you have Paul?

-Fisher Price House
-tipi
-shower shack
-love shack,
-red cabin
-auditorium
-shop
-chateau de Poo
-tool shed
-bee hive lean too
-second pooper

something tells me right now, this very moment, you have more than 2000 gallons of water per person per year for eight people just waiting to be harvested

A high pottable water cistern at the top of the highest property of 35,000 gallons would do you wonders...and a you would never sink a $70k dry well, never have to pay for the electricity, never have pay for a well pump, never have to unclog a clogged well pump, never have to replace a well pump......it's way easier to replace a pump system above ground then 700' down a 4 inch pipe

....if the shacks and sheds caught the water at the eve and immediately piped it into the interior wall AND stored in a 6" pipe at 8' high around the wall's top perimeter, every building would have some water pressure with overflow to an outside cistern.

secondly, a kund could be a feature where the lemon tree double scoop is....now you are talking real water collection, industrial scale water collection

you have shelter, fire .....water is next as you want.....I'm saying make a building code that every structure must have a cistern equal to its roof's annual rain fall.

I tried it, I loved it......and damn, no well, no well costs, and no dry well cost......I didn't have to do the kund!!! I had water pressure too inside my tiny house without a damn pump either .....just saying, reconsider cisterns and kunds over a well

....the wofati's were not constructed to collect rain water for drinking: I suggest this is an oversight and I hope it gets fixed otherwise....I will have to experiment with the gable methods over my wofatis to get my water because I believe every shelter should automatically provide water as well as thermal inertia.

Dec 19, 2019 23:20:49

My little tiny house in Missoula with a 16'x14' roof = >2.24 10x10 squares, would catch (62.34*2.24)*15 = 2094.6 gallons each year. I can do survival rationing of 1000 gallons/per person/per year.

How many 10' squares of roof do you have Paul?

-Fisher Price House
-tipi
-shower shack
-love shack,
-red cabin
-auditorium
-shop
-chateau de Poo
-tool shed
-bee hive lean too
-second pooper

something tells me right now, this very moment, you have more than 2000 gallons of water per person per year for eight people just waiting to be harvested

A lot of those structures are really spread out. Like, acres and acres away from each other. At least, that's my understanding. So, it'd require a LOT of piping... And, I'm pretty sure it's a long distance from basecamp (where at least half those structures are, and where there's already water) to the the Lab, where they need the water. And, I think a lot of the structures at the lab have green roofs, so wouldn't be good at catching water, right?

paul wheaton wrote:wheaton labs is owned by Paul Wheaton and is over 220 acres near Missoula, Montana. It is actually TWO pieces of property, base camp and the lab. Base camp is on-grid, ROCKY, has wifi, and is where Paul and Jocelyn live in the "Fisher Price House." The lab is down a paved, then gravel, then dirt (some times mud adventure!) road, is off-grid (with our solar trailers), no wifi / spotty cell reception, and is where ant village is located.

I'm thinking if the lab is that far away, it'd be really hard to get water from all the raincatchment at basecamp there...

Dec 20, 2019 06:49:35

I have put $20,000 into a variety of schemes for water on the lab. Most of which produced zilch and some of which produced pretty weak results.

I have plan to restore the dry creek bed and introduce a series of ponds, and put in a spring terrace and a humus well and dozen other projects to bring water to the lab. And they can all stand in contrast to a conventional well.

A conventional well can go in and provide water in a few weeks. And then people can take long showers and they can germinate seeds and easily wash dishes .... they have the systems that they are used to in more conventional settings and then we can being to slowly introduce the greater luxuries that come with other systems.

I have an enormous amount of thought, effort and money put into this path. And as I juggle hundreds of projects and try to optimize our overall forward velocity, with information that is a hundred thousand times bigger than we have all shared in this thread, I am certain that getting a well on the lab is not only the best path at this time, but the highest priority. The only thing blocking us is coin.

Once we have the well and normal people plumbing, we can begin on the dozen other water related projects.

Dec 20, 2019 20:10:29

Thanks for taking the time to explain; I know it's frustrating to keep explaining the same things you've already hashed out.... sounds like a combination between what visiting people are willing to live with, a cistern solution which is expensive for actual site conditions, monies on other ideas which ended in a "dry well", and an overall property solution which won't need either cisterns or a well. But until the overall property solution occurs, immediate water is needed.

I do realize most people expect to use 200 to 300 gallons per day.....so my 1000 gallons per year per person sounds insane (it isn't). But that is the general expectation and many unhappy campers make few happy workers/PDCers.

Also, the piping, as mentioned (even for the tiny house, many fittings were needed), would be extensive and my experience is only with plastic tanks (which is exactly what you don't want on property). Huge wooden tanks used to exists but I certainly don't have the know how to create them nor the old growth oak to donate.

Lastly, some of the conventional buildings have tar shingle roofs onsite and those would require a non-piosonous re-roofing jobs.

...so your choice of a well makes sense in the larger picture of our current culture

I hope the coin comes as well as good boots like you have had the last year (and thru this winter).

Dec 21, 2019 08:58:11

I hope this isn't sidetracking your subject here.
How far down would you have to drill to hit hot water?
I think there is a geothermal aquifer in your area.
The property that we rent a tiny portion of has an artesian geothermal well that supplies enough water at 102 degrees f and I think 160 psi to run a fairly large hydroelectric generator at the well head and then gravity flow through Tilapia raceways that produce up to 250,000 lbs of fish a year.

Dec 21, 2019 11:47:08

Steve Mendez wrote:I hope this isn't sidetracking your subject here.
How far down would you have to drill to hit hot water?
I think there is a geothermal aquifer in your area.
The property that we rent a tiny portion of has an artesian geothermal well that supplies enough water at 102 degrees f and I think 160 psi to run a fairly large hydroelectric generator at the well head and then gravity flow through Tilapia raceways that produce up to 250,000 lbs of fish a year.

I don't even know how deep we would need to go to hit water. I definitely don't know about the hot water.

Feb 24, 2020 11:12:33

Somebody just sent me $6.20. It took me about ten minutes of research to track it back to a permies user and this thread. It turns out that $6.20 is five british pounds.

Thanks for that!

And I think this might be the place to thank Bill Crim for an embarassingly large donation in the form of an amazon gift card. It went to effect the first of january and I haven't spent a dime at amazon since. But, for fun, here is a quick list of some of the amazon things that we have received thanks to bill:

A pulley. The orginal definition of "pulley". Something for drying your clothes near the ceiling. This is our first ever. I'm amazed we don't already have six!
https://amzn.to/37V78o8

We hyper focus on cleaning with just water. And somebody suggest that we get this steam cleaning contraption and see how it does:
https://amzn.to/2VgXQAf

Hunting is a bit scarce for the kitties this time of year:
https://amzn.to/2T9xSvT

We've been using a very eco laundry detergent, but this is Art Ludwig's stuff - we could probably use it as plant fertilizer if we wanted to:
https://amzn.to/3c8dzIa

For clearing drains we used the zip tool, but this looks far superior:
https://amzn.to/2Tb0qoL

Jocelyn has a crossbow, and a parade of people have lost or damaged all the bolts:
https://amzn.to/3c9prJZ

We need a new fence where the tractor auger won't reach and we talked about renting a power post hole digger. But we didn't like the idea of sucking in the gas fumes. And then we found this:
https://amzn.to/2HNKKCP
https://amzn.to/2SSfh8P

Our last attempt to get the casserole door to operate. This broke too:
https://amzn.to/2PlrCjP

The belt broke on the electric sawmill.
https://amzn.to/2PlPCTN

I have a bunch of stuff set up on camelcamelcamel and the price dropped super low on tow straps - which we use for a lot of things:
https://amzn.to/39Z5hjO

A cold was going around, so we all had some fire cider and ... nobody else (especially me!) got the cold:
https://amzn.to/2HSRT4A

If anybody has tummy trouble, this is what i offer them. And I really need to stop nibbling on it as a snack
https://amzn.to/3a1IKmy

We've been doing a lot of chainsaw work and some chains are getting to the point that they cannot be sharpened anymore
https://amzn.to/3a1ghgx

We are creating a new "heat bubble" space
https://amzn.to/32nlJYp

My chair squeaks a lot, so it needs some grease. The little tube of lithium grease in the library found a new home in the shop. I think we should keep some in the library too.
https://amzn.to/2urEwWb

Thanks Bill! You are accelerating our mission! I know you are keen on the podcasts - I hope this makes for lots of podcast fodder!

Feb 24, 2020 11:41:28

In a podcast we talked about a tool we would like to try. Burra heard the podcast and made this thread:

https://permies.com/t/135502/Log-Wizard-chainsaw-tip-planer

And here is the amazon link: https://amzn.to/2Vim793

Feb 25, 2020 08:56:37

I gave up my career because I saw a permaculture path that I thought could make an enormous, positive difference in the world.

At the same time, I have heard about hundreds of organizations that also believe their big mission is the same. But for nearly all of them, their stuff seems super weak - and yet they get millions in donations. On closer inspection, they seem to do a lot of big music events or fancy dinner parties. Stuff that I just don't really know anything about. My guess is that they have several employees who work full time at finding ways to harvest coin. This is not really my area of expertise.

Stuff I've created so far to try to make a massive global difference:

- web junk has reached more than 100 million people so far

- huge efforts to try to connect brains to rocket mass heaters
o converting from electric heat in montana to a rocket mass heater will reduce your carbon footprint as much as parking 7 cars
o both free information and producing commercial content

- the book: I really believe that the book will fix everything. But only if it is read. And apparently I don't know how to get it to more brains without heaps of cash

- the cards, i think, do a great job of making permaculture seem enticing

- experiments at my place

o wofati: natural buildings that cost less, plus use the heat from summer to heat the building in winter
o rocket mass heater innovation
o willow feeder - scalable poop management that is a step up over sewage treatment
o community styles
o gerting it
o PDC for scientists and engineers

I suppose I am thinking of Willie. His projects are moving forward thanks to a billionaire guy. I don't have a billionaire guy. I am trying to find ways to infect more brains with my stuff and harvest coin to move my projects forward. Maybe people will buy my products. Maybe somebody will just go out and buy a million dollars in advertising for my book. Maybe a celebrity will say something about the book or the rocket mass heater stuff. Or, maybe somebody will just provide epic coin like what happened for willie. It seems like a part of the process is to write this post and say "yeah, I would like some help."

Mar 04, 2020 21:57:02

Can I ask why do you need a $50,000 well, when rainfall catchment which works well in Australia, may work for you?

Mar 04, 2020 22:38:55

The buildings at The Lab (where they need the well), are largely earthen roofs. I'm thinking it might be hard to get drinkable water off of a roof that is basically a hill

I know they do some rainwater catchment from their small roofs on their sheds and outhouse, but those are small roofs and don't catch that much water for washing, drinking, etc.

Mar 05, 2020 05:42:25

I thought your stuff for donating was generous.

Mar 05, 2020 17:57:40

Rainwater catchment sounds good until you do the math. If you have a lot of rain and a lot of roof, it’s doable. But the number for that area (15”/year) means that to supply 10 people with 5 gallons a day (not a lot of water per person, but 18,250 gallons a year) would require a 40’ wide roof 700’ long. That’s a lot of roof!

Mar 06, 2020 11:51:33

I'm not in a position right now, but I love permies and as soon as I am stable again I will donate you some money to keep this great thing going, the world needs saving And I'm glad I found such a great group of lovely people that want the same thing!

Nov 22, 2021 07:50:37

I received two pretty big donations this year. One was "normal" and one was part of somebody dying (thanks to Warren "vention" Bartell - we renamed one of our structures to "Bartell's Bunkhouse").

I just learned that for gifts of up to $15,000 in the US, there are no taxes. And, somehow, for "estate" gifts, there are no taxes until it hits something like 12 million dollars (and "estate gifts" can be done while the person is still alive - wacky!)

Just feeling very grateful.

----

In related news, I was talking to some peeps about what might be our next kickstarter. And somebody replied that they would like to see a project that would take dirt/gravel (or conifer dominant soil) and grow an abundant garden the permaculture way. Or maybe my permaculture way.

Delicious suggestion.

And then I thought it would be an especially excellent experiment to have five gardeners, each managing two plots with two different criteria. Each of the five gardeners would be paid, and there would be a fat bonus at the end of the year for hitting a calorie goal and another bonus for the most calories.

Then the idea expanded that it could be a series.

And the idea further expanded that there could be a another kickstarter for two years later.

To make this leap would be more coin than I normally get in a kickstarter. So I'm putting this out there.

Of course, if I had 20 people in the bootcamp, and several of the boots were super keen on gardening, then this might be ready to start. But somehow I like the idea of getting a few hundred applicants, and picking the best five. And then there could be lots and lots of people in the bootcamp standing by ready to finish a plot in case any of the contenders bail.

It is a massive idea. Beyond my budget.

Feb 09, 2023 12:57:28

does the amazon wishlist is up to date ? i same some old items like books from 20years ago!

Feb 09, 2023 13:26:21

Raphaël Blais wrote:does the amazon wishlist is up to date ? i same some old items like books from 20years ago!

Does it show you when stuff was added to the list?

Feb 09, 2023 13:30:14

Yes it does show ! But since old wish was still there, i was thinking somebody may buy your things you already had or not wishing anymore.

Feb 09, 2023 13:44:20

I think that over the last 20 years, two people bought me something through that list. So I haven't really worked on keeping it polished. I have two links to the hard-to-find sawmill belts on that list! So not quite the same thing as what the list is intended for.

The first few items fall into the space of "so expensive, i just can't bring myself to buy it, so maybe somebody else will." :)

rubbery bacon. rubbery tiny ad:

The new permaculture playing cards kickstarter is now live!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/garden-cards