Welcome to Permies.com. Introduce Yourself...

I did a search and realized we do not have a place for Introductions. There are lots of new members joining every day. I think it would be friendly to tell us a little about yourself....

I live in north Florida, work for an industrial contractor as a foreman. That means I put on boots and yell at people most of the day.
I steward just under 4 acres of pasture with some woods around the edges. Instead of a dog, I went a miniature bull-a Lowline Black Angus. There's a couple of roosters around to keep the hens in line. This year I added 3 turkeys to the flock. Next year I'd like to get a couple of pigs. There are some fruit trees-Japanese Plums, Lime, Apple, with more on the way. Pecans, hickory and pignuts grow wild in the forest.
I'm doing what I can to develop this place into an All-Natural farm. Beds are in the works to grow vegetables. I intend to grow enough to open a Pick-Your-Own Vegetable operation to the permies. Things are falling in place, but it will be a couple more years before I am able to flush the job.

I like this "hello" idea!
I live in a little wooden house in the middle of the deep, dark...suburbs in Wellington, New Zealand.
My property's small, about 4000 suare feet all up and there's stuff growing around, up and over everything.
My long term-mission is to maximise water-harvesting and passive solar energy, but considering I do various community gardening/education/roles-they-haven't-invented-titles -for type things, I'm always broke and any solutions must be cheap, small and slow.
Luckily that's all part of the permaculture ethos
I don't have any domestic animals; it's either chickens or a garden for me, and there's no contest! Luckily I know plenty of people I can swap things with for eggs.

We live on a small property, for a Texan. :

Okay, to be serious, we live in Costa Rica though from the USA. We own and manage plantations of trees, which are creating a permanent forest, which will be selectively harvested, hopefully forever. Our company makes doors, flooring, etc, but we also sell wood. We are currently in the plantation phase and starting first thinnings, which includes added back in some more diversity.

In total, we have about 350 hectares, or nearly 900 acres. The hobby plantation where we live is about 30 hectares, and a river runs along the side of it. We have also built ponds for fish, etc.

I am slowly turning everything into a food forest as well, since I like to eat, and love to see wildlife.

Running our company is my real job, but I used to be in software (engineer, architect, director, etc.) and still do some consulting when I get the urge.

We have been married for more than 30 years and still think it was a great idea.

Fred Morgan wrote:

We have been married for more than 30 years and still think it was a great idea.

That is probably a major key to your success. A couple that gets along will almost always have a major advantage over those who are on their own. Every week I check the new building permits as part of my work. The vast majority of permits are obtained by couples who have plans to stay together. Building a house often tests the relationship. I know several couples whose relationship has survived a build, and I know of a few who fought and spent their way to personal and financial ruin.

High schools often have programs where they pair off the kids and get them to raise a plastic baby. Rather than center on reproduction, I'd like to see if they can get along while building or growing things.

I'll de-lurk and introduce myself.

I discovered these forums a couple of months ago and have been lurking and searching old threads ever since. What a great site! I live in northern NY state, up in the north east corner. Three kids ages 10, 6, 3 and a husband, two dogs, two cats, 20 chickens, 6 ducks, no partridge, but I do have 2 pear trees coming this spring! I used to be a registered nurse, but I don't work outside the home since having kids; I homeschool my kids and tinker with my crazy little projects.

I love this forum! Yay! Now I can post and not feel like a poser.

Renee

Great to have you around, Renee. Any of those chickens qualify as French Hens?

Hello, I'm Kathy

I lurked around here for close to a year and finally signed in a couple of weeks ago. I live off grid on 7 acres in a low desert area of Arizona. I'm a freelance writer/author and photographer and work from home using a tethered cell phone.

It's just me, my husband and a house dog at the moment. We have 4 grown kids in different parts of the world. No livestock or chickens yet because we don't have a well or other source of water. We haul in about 100 gallons every week or two for the basics.

We do have lots of critters: coyote, bunny rabbits, jack rabbits, javelina (wild pig), road runner, quail, misc birds, etc. we even had a visit from a gila monster once

I'm working on a variety of water harvesting and dry gardening projects. I have hopes of someday being able to eat some of my crops before the bunnies do.

I enjoy all of the ideas and interaction here

bump

Hi.

I'm a bit of a hermit who's been living in a suburban neighbourhood but is about to move onto some undeveloped land that I own. We (the other hermit and I) have thirty acres of round granite ridges with forested meadows between them, a fair amount of swamp and *tons* of rotted limbs and old stumps from when the previous owner took out most of the canopy trees (the big ones).

Our plan is to move out into the wilderness and live as simply as we can. So I've really enjoyed lurking on Permies picking up a few tips and ideas about what we can do while we are there. As I mentioned I have tons of rotting wood, so I guess you know what kind of gardens I'll be making while I wander around, do my hermit thing

Greetings everyone. I have been lurking here for a few months, taking in lots of info and watching Paul's Youtube videos and listening to podcasts. Actually, I realized that Paul and I go back many years, since I am also a software guy and I have frequently visited JavaRanch when researching stuff for work. Thanks Paul! My partner and I are burning our candles at both ends trying to become more self-sufficient while we are still giving our 40 to the man every week. We both work for state agencies in Richmond, Virginia, and we live in the sub-suburbs about 20 minutes outside the city. I am a software architect, she is a data analyst. She has one teenage daughter who lives with us, I have five kids (from 9 to 21) from my previous marriage who visit us frequently.

Our home was originally a Habitat house two owners ago, roughly 800 square feet with one actual bedroom. While it may not qualify as a "tiny house", once you pack in 7-8 humans, 5 dogs, and 2 cats, it is a pretty cozy squeeze. We have been making that work since I moved in 2 years ago, and we are building a fairly conventional "workshop" (we call it the "bunkhouse" when there are no building inspectors around) which will serve for overflow sleeping and hanging out. We love our tiny electric bills and small space to clean, and we're excited about our outdoor spaces and permaculture projects.

Although we live in a fairly suburban area, our house is on a private road and we are zoned for agricultural use. This gives us quite a bit of freedom when it comes to building codes and animals. We have a small flock of 6 free range laying hens (v 1.0) and one rooster who live in a stationary coop in back of the house. We got a dozen chicks from a breeder 2 months ago, and they are just moving into a mobile coop with portable electric fencing (v 2.0) for paddock-style egg laying chickenhood. I also just got three honeybee hives set up this spring, starting with traditional Langstroth for now.

We have 3.3 acres, with about one acre cleared and the rest in perhaps 50-ish year succession with tulip poplar, a few oaks, sugarberry, sumac, black walnut, birch, and more I am learning about. There is also tons of black locust around, but we don't seem to have any at our place - probably due to an incursion of paper mulberry (all male, no fruit, rapid growing and root suckering), which I am slowly fighting back and hope to replace with the BL and native mulberry and other fruit trees. We are both pretty horrible at growing annuals that need to be watered and weeded and raised into adulthood - we keep trying, but we are also planting lots of trees and weeds and other perennials. There are tons of great weeds in our area, and we are supplementing these with a few weedy medicinals and accumulators. I am working on a permaculture design for our place, so we can try to fit things into a bigger picture where our land can support us and our chickens, and perhaps some pigs?

We are struggling to balance our jobs and raising our kids with doing what we can to become a self-sufficient homestead, or ideally a net exporter of calories. As our kids grow up (and my child support bill drops ), we are hoping to be prepared to "retire" and leave the cubicles behind. I turn 40 this year and my lady is 45, so we are looking forward to spending a good bit of our lives in the dirt!

I have really been enjoying these forums, getting a lot of info and inspiration. Thanks Paul and everybody here for creating this space!

I'm Peony. I'm a Canadian gal. I live in the centre of BC. 5 acres with a seasonal creek. Zone 5. Rural but 10 minutes to town.
I'm new to permies and have only known about 'permaculture' for maybe 5 years. I've always been an organic only gardener, try to eat as much organic as possible. I'm an ex-vegetarian and ex-cook/teacher/world traveller...

I'm settled and boring now. I've been domesticated. Married, one kid, one pet...

40's, fit, funny (I have a quirky and dark sense of humour)

I love- gardening, cooking, music, dancing, music fests, being outside, biking, reading (mainly Buddhist stuff)...

I dislike-shopping, commercialism,keeping up with anyone named Jones, Hatfield OR McCoy, snootiness, rude people, people who always have to have the last word, racism, small mindedness,homophobia...

I live in Western Kentucky at the southwest edge of the Cumberland Coalfield , USDA zone 6b. We have 20 ares of mixed use land that has N and S facing slopes, 9 acres of pasture land and about 6 acres of woods. My beautiful wife and smart 15 year old daughter live here with our chickens, turkeys , and Pepper - a tabby that catches more rodents than a mousetrap. I have 25 and 27 year old son and daughter living out west .We have vision of converting this to permaculture farm that supplies us with food and income , trade items. This is a very conservative area- not many hippies - and I would love to see a permaculture based community develop. I work as a Registered Nurse - am currently Director of Nursing at Nursing Home. I see the care of the elderly as the culmination of what permaculture idealizes. If we cannot respect and recieve wisdom from the care of the elderly we are doomed. What does permaculture say about end of life issues in our culture ? But that is a subject all its own. This site has helped me to wrap all the crazy ideas I have had into a holistic vision, Thank You all . Especially Pauls videos and Skeeter Pilarski - what a couple of characters.

Nice to make your acquaintance, sir. *hand shake*
I, too, love Paul and Skeeter's videos. So helpful and encouraging. I'm not the only nut out there. Phew!

Thanks - and to officially introduce myself Wayne Stephen is my first and middle name . Last name is Charbonneau.

Hi all. I love the vibe of the site. The open exchange of ideas is most welcoming.

Welcome aboard folks!

I've been lurking a while also. My son and I just moved onto
our land a few months ago we're really excited about
our permaculture farm! Finally, after twentysome
years of trying, we're ready! We are in eastern Washington,
zone 6, and just a few minutes from Canada. We have 22
acres, abt half is pretty flat, the rest is conifers on a sharp
incline.lots of wild turkeys and coyotes.
This is a great site with so much good Information. It's amazing
how helpful you all are!

Evelyn Smith

Good to have you around, Evelyn.

This one time, at ayahuasca camp, I was doing some of dat shaolin tumbling, gasping for air after a set, and I hear a THUD.  Hey, look at that! It's an avocado!  I hadn't noticed, I am under a large avocado tree, and there's fruit scattered throughout its canopy.  I ask the retreat owner later, how long does the season last? "Oh, they seem to drop somewhat regularly year round."  Regular avocados...for free?  

Later, also at ayahuasca camp, we are digging some holes to plant 3 new trees.  One is a palm looking tree that puts out weird fruit with scales that are at least 1/2 large seed pit by volume, and you scrap the orange flesh off of the seed with your teethe.  It's not all that tasty, but they tell me it's very nutricious.  The other two were coconuts.  

The new trees are a number of years old, many kilo root balls in big burlap sacks, so we were digging some sizable holes for them.  The dirt is real soft and fluffy, but digging is still slow because we are repeatedly hitting and having do dig around hunks of wood and these flat rocks and then remove them by hand.  They are like gently curved sheets that look smooth but feel rough, almost black in color, never more than an inch thick. I've never seen such a collection of rocks in dirt before.

Que son estas piedras? Hay un tipo?  I ask as I'm turning over one that would almost work as the top of a small end table.

No son piedras. Son de ceramica.

It took about 10 minutes of broken conversation for me to get it, because my spanish wasn't great.  The whole place as on a section of man-made soil.

La gente lo puesto alli!

Que quiere decir, fecundo?  At least I knew the word, Hueso, when it was pointed out to me.  Can't get them all...

I always liked growing things, though I had only toyed around with cannabis before, and my interest was piqued.  Later that day, I found out, the soil is many centuries, in some cases an eon or more old.  Put their by a civilization that otherwise isn't known to have left a trace.  Then I was very interested.  

Thus I was introduced to the concept of building soil.   I am attracted to trying psychedelics that have a history as psychological medicine/shamanism, and because of this, I ended up digging in Terra Preta.

Drugs are bad, mmmKay?

I like making things, I should try making some of that, some time...  

It was very amusing, I could study some ancient creation that is in a way more valuable than all the megaliths on the globe.  Like Indiana Jones, but with dirt instead of artifacts.  Not as glamorous as golden idols and massive stone temples, but it will do.  Not that I've given up on stumbling into another lost civilization...

I'd settle for digging up some of this dirt, and measuring all the pieces of stuff I found in it, because I majored in math and always fancied myself an experimental scientist, and had never really had the chance to be one in a way that was interesting.  

Unfortunately I knew very little about soil, and my brief bit of reading before taking the measurement did not prime me to differentiate between charcoal and wood.  I counted it all as wood/duff/organic matter.  I remember some of the pieces were much heavier than others, there was definitely charcoal in the mix.  In any case, all the 'wood products' were just about black.

I spent about 20 hours picking through 50 kg of dirt for this measurement.  It was then dissolved in batches in 5 gallon buckets after I picked out and organized every component I could identify larger than a pebble.  I'm sure there is significant variance in different Terra Preta sites in any case.  This bit was off the Terra Preta charts with the bone.

5 years later, I am google searching "clay soil amendment" doing a bit more research before I actually started toying with the soil project that would happen in clay suitable for the likes of dandelions and making ceramics.  It didn't take too many google search returns before I was on the Permie website forums earlier this year.  Over the next 6 months, I watched a few dozen hours of related videos.  Sepp Holtzer mountain farm...good god, that's how it's done.  I've always been into those steep grades.  Falling water junky.

World domination gardening, enlisted.  I make these to pay bills in the meantime...http://www.tubewringer.com/  Silly little tool.

Currently seeing how much food I can coax out of my parent's mostly hardpan anaerobic clay hillside for now, for immediate nutrition and practice with soil.  The corn hardly put out, but I got 52 lbs of butternut squash from 4 plants, planted in areas covered by english Ivy before I started messing with it!  CHeers!  The 3 delicata squash plants simply up and died soon after barely growing and putting out a flower or 2  : (    The Brassicas thrived, more cabbage and kale than an individualwants to eat.  There's going to be quite a preserving project when the ice comes.  Brad's Crunchy Kale ftw.

Any Oregonian stewards here know the Yinyang platform up Susan creek on the North Umpqua?  I'm pretty sure my place is in the area! LOL.  

So much great information on this website.  Hope to add!  Glad to be!  

Hello!
My name is Mary Hyde and I am new to Permies! Much thanks to Paul et al for hosting/shepherding this site. I am currently living near Marietta, GA, where I am self-studying permaculture and 'playing' with the concepts in my own yard. (I <3 hugels and swales!)

Back in 2005, I started having dreams about a piece of property I was being drawn to somewhere, which I referred to as "The Land". The dreams continue on and off to this day, and I have narrowed the location of "The Land" to Colorado. (I know, it's a big state, but I've got it narrowed down from 48 states to one, so...Yay me!)

I am looking 1st) for folks who don't look at me oddly when I talk about permaculture and taking care of the Earth; 2nd) don't look at me oddly and with deep concern when I talk about having dreams of Land and having a Dream to one day BE on that Land; and Finally) just a group of friends with whom I can talk, laugh, dream and share openly and freely, without judgement or condemnation. Bonus: any help finding and acquiring the exact piece of Land that God/Gaia/my Higher Self has in mind for me would be most welcome too.

So, thanks much for listening/reading! I look forward to getting to know some of you!

Love and Peace from my soul to yours,
Mary

Howdy Mary, welcome to permies!  Come on over to the "Rockies "forum and lets talk more about Colorado !

https://permies.com/f/30/rockies

Thank you for the kind welcome, Miles. I am just starting to peruse the Rockies forum.

Now I just need to 'get my footing' with navigation on this site...

Hello...my name is Toni. My husband (Stuart)and I are at the beginning of our life change and will be going off grid in Idaho in spring 2018. My husband is always on Permies and so I decided to check it out and found this site to be great! We have done a lot of research and believe we have what it takes although we will be asking for advice. We started a YouTube channel for people to follow but we have never done videos before.  I will include the link below if anyone is interested but please let us know what you think.
It's really scary and exciting thinking about this life change and only hope we succeed. We have a lot to do to get our house ready to sell and we still have to find property.

[youtube]https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCYRSMRS6RWfrw3PZKgbE50w[/youtube]

Howdy Toni, welcome to permies ! Thanks for the videos!

Hi I may be selling my Idaho property with 7 acres and an off grid Strawbale cabin. It's near the town of Clearwater about 15 miles NE of grangeville. Email me with more details davemrk@outlook.com

Greetings to all from another "lurker" of about 6 months. Learning so much!
Short? backstory, since you WILL be hearing from me again.
My son spent 7 years as an IT contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan dreaming/researching permaculture - "Restoration Agriculture"  by Mark Shepard was his "bible" - he even insisted on buying me a copy - we do not yet live together.
June/2017, he purchased 105 acres + 1921 house + pole barn ... in the NW. WI county where he grew up.  Of course, the house needed more work than he was expecting, and I was not able to move up to a "construction-zone", plus MANY projects were delayed due to excessive Spring and Summer rain.

He DID get the solar batteries and all electronics installed in the basement - they worked but were not in use, made good buys on a bunch of appliances, and a bunch of demo done .... then the house caught fire one night in mid-Nov when he was in the pole barn alone and the lights went out!  His Dad and dog were in town, nobody got hurt, but the 2-story house burned down into the basement and destroyed the foundation from the heat!! The grief was astounding at first, but insurance was good, and we're going to have a much better house, though needing a LOT of "sweat-equity"/general contracting from him.
Sooo, now we are additionally delayed by probably 18 mos, and he is feeling even more overwhelmed by time and finances.

Relatively flat/gradually sloping land which has at least 60 nice acres of pasture - un-grazed for 10 years - plus more pasture, and a small stream running diagonally through the entire lot. I guess the "silver-lining" to this disaster is that we have a lot more time for planning. We have TOO MUCH land, LOL.

Because of house-building this up-coming summer, there will be no garden or livestock, since we decided that I should keep on working my yearly contract for Disney - April-October, but I will be going up there now for February thru March for "face-time" planning for trees, orchard, and instructing him on preparing "lasagna" garden for next year's use. Hopefully, I can also meet up with local, experienced "permies": we are especially interested in top-bar beekeeping; apples/fruit/grapes; self-sufficient/"home-use"? hog raising/chickens/beef/dairy cow; barley/hops for home brewing; and mushroom cultivation. We do hope to be able to do some market-gardening, eventually. I'm an experienced gardener, but Zone 4a is going to be a new challenge!
Other than my gardening experience in Zones 7 and 9, neither of us has ANY animal husbandry experience .... we have been studying You-Tube like mad and have a LOT of well-chosen books, LOL.
I've been following Todd Parr and Mike Jay here on permies, but am hoping other N. WI/Zone 4 peeps will notice and respond to this intro ;-).

Before I end this opus, I DO have one odd question for which I could not find the correct forum: not plants, animals or Zone! We have about 10? total acres of BNSF railroad right-of-way running through our property - YES, we own 20 acres on the other side of the tracks, which is NOT R-O-W. I've Googled up restrictions on our use of that in any way - crickets. My son says nothing is allowed, but it would only cost about $900 for a crossing. We don't really care about that, but the R-O-W is really the only woodland we have, and the majority of it is on our side - more than 70 yards wide. Would love advice: can we take dead-fall out of it; can we make mushroom/blueberry plantings; can we hunt there; etc. It's semi-boonies - no probability of widening or development.

Sending my sincerest THANKS to this community and to all who have read this intro! PLEASE feel free to share/send links or connections/give advice. I hope to be able to respond, though I'm rather new at that process. Best regards and wishing a prosperous 2018 to ALL of us.

Howdy Mary Beth, welcome to permies!  Sounds like your family has a nice place to work on in the future. Here is a link to contact the railroad to ask about getting permitted to work in the right of way.  BNSF CONTACTS

Permies has been a big source of useful and fascinating information for several years as we started to research and explore how we wanted to grow food and raise livestock for our own consumption... once we decided on where to live!

After working and living in the Middle East for over 30 years (and having no permanent home in any country, although we are both originally from UK) we eventually decided to build our home in Bulgaria, in a tiny village, with no other foreigners, in the North Central region close to the border with Romania which is the famous River Danube.  We bought the property in 2010, visited it for the first time in 2011, started renovation/construction of the house in 2012 and finally relocated and moved in permanently in Summer 2015.  During that period we also purchased the two adjacent properties to the North and South of our first plot, giving us an overall plot of about 8,000 sq meters (almost 2 acres).

We purchased our first pigs (Bulgarian Whites - the predominant breed in non-commercial situations) in Spring 2012 and used them to plough all areas of the property that we wanted to cultivate, using them to plough up the land, uncover all the buried rocks, bricks and stone and root up trees that were either dead or we needed to harvest to make space for other things.  We purchased out young boar in 2013 and hand raised him, eventually mating him to two of our original sows after we culled the other two.  We have successfully reared 5 litters (50+ piglets) and sold the majority within our village and nearby villages, to locals at local prices. We also raised half a dozen born in Spring 2017 which were slaughtered in early December 2017.  We also introduced a mixed flock of poultry including hybrid and Light Sussex chickens, Pomeranian Saddleback Geese and various hybrid ducks. Currently we have a breeding quartet of Light Sussex, a gander and 3 Pomeranian geese and a small flock of Indian Runners - 2 drakes and 5 ducks. We had to cull one of our breeding sows last year aged 2.5 years and 254kg (560lbs), leaving us with just one sow (in pig) and our young boar who will be 2 years old in April 2018.

2016 we focused on learning with the pigs and piglets, breeding and raising them, etc. 2017 we focused on growing fodder crops but we weren't too successful :-( but we will try again this year with a strong focus on growing produce for our consumption and livestock fodder/forage, and better managing our grazing areas using rotational grazing.  We are also hoping to introduce a beef steer, a couple of lambs for lawnmower duties in our orchard and a young horse/foal to bring on and eventually use for local transport around the villages.

To see/read more please visit our personal blog (it has been dormant for almost a year for various reasons but gives some good insights and great pics) and our Alekovo YouTube channel here. We hope to be more active on the blog and YouTube in the year ahead.

We look forward to learning a lot more from the Permies forum members, and hopefully sharing our successes, challenges and loads of questions!

Welcome to Nick and Jane in Bulgaria! I love how this site makes it possible to hear from others around the world. Also, you two are inspiring to me - a "retired" couple taking on a LOT. I'm always a little nervous about the 3 of us getting "all this" done. Best regards!

Hello to Nick, Jane and you too Mary Beth.

Mary Beth, so sorry to hear about that fire. But, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you too will soar again.

Nick and Jane seem to have lots going on. Thanks for sharing that beautiful photo.

I'd like to hear more about both of your endeavours. Please keep us posted.

Mary Beth, sorry I'm late to the party, but welcome!  Always nice to have another WI'er on board :)  I just bought a new property that I will be starting work on this spring.  I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'll take lots of pictures :)  I'm planning to take lots of cuttings this spring, so if you need anything I have, maybe we can get together sometime.  Mike Jay has lots of cool stuff going on at his place.  We need to have a Wisconsin permaculture meeting, even if it's just the 3 of us.

Todd Parr - is it really only the 3 of us?? I've seen another woman very newbie make a post on another thread. Anyway - thanks for the offer. We're VERY underwater, what with planning a "tight-house" build, and all the other stuff that has to wait
I'm hoping to visit you and Mike Jay some time. Best regards to YOU AND all the permies!

Oh Boy. I'm not good at these things, but I'll try.

I moved from a large city in the Mid-Atlantic region to King County, WA in August 2012. In Fall 2017, I bought a small piece of land in Lewis County.

I see endless possibilities as I look around, but I'm learning to be patient, to observe and to plan and not go hog wild.

I grew up in a apartment, and I've never owned a home (I was a homeless vet for several years). Nevertheless, I persisted with a lot of help from wonderful friends and strangers.

So here I am, middle aged and spending this year watching the land transform with the seasons. The lawn isn't much to speak of, and I hate lawns anyway. I'm sheet mulching piece by piece as the mood strikes.

~Ten percent of my land (the northwest side) is shaded by a redwood, two or three doug firs, a bunch of big leaf maples, a couple of cedars (two types, but I haven't figured out what each is yet), and other tall growing things along a river bank. I have riparian rights. It took me months to try to figure out what was growing where, and I'm still not sure. But the discovery is the journey. I also have some blackberry issues. Not thrilled about that.

The rest of the land has almost full sun, but I have to wait to see what happens with the four horse chestnut trees on the southeast side of the house, and the house throws shadows as well. There's an area that has been incredibly over tilled. I might throw down some crimson clover seeds to show it a little love, otherwise, I've promised myself that I WILL NOT PLANT for a year. I'm also looking to see what ornamentals emerge. The house had been empty for about a year, so each week is a new surprise.

I'm looking at mapping software, and I walk around each day trying to really pay attention to what I see. Sometimes I just daydream.

So, HI! I'm happy to be here! Thank you for this forum and for the free exchange of ideas. Knowledge should not be hidden but shared and discussed. That's how we grown and learn within our environments.

Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ

Welcome to you, Evergreen, and congratulations on your land purchase! The WA state community is very well represented here on permies, though I am in WI myself. Be sure to fill out your profile with your location/zone, etc so people can better give advice. You've got the right idea to be patient and plan while you start on generally improving your soil. Looks like you have a nice buddy to keep you company, too. Best of luck - and keep us posted. Regards, Mary Beth

I moved from a large city in the Mid-Atlantic region

I suppose if there's anything that could ever persuade a person to move from our beautiful Mid-Atlantic region 😉, the land you described with all of its potential could just be it. That sounds like a great place. I know you must be anxious to get started, but your approach is a smart one. The first step in permaculture is always to observe nature first and then see how we need to proceed in order to work with and enhance what we have.

If you need anything (pertaining to your new land adventure or navigating on this site) just holler. There's lots of helpful, friendly folk here.

Long-time lurker First-time caller
Reading this stuff before I ever heard Paul tell me about the forums at the end of videos.
Me? Zone 5a, <40acres tad more than half is floodplain. Land is begging to be enhanced. Upland is autumn olive and poplar. Floodplain is 75% leaning Ash. Lotsa EAB.    We keep rabbit,duck,chicken. Digging my first swale. Got my tree guilds figured and germing indoors while I dig this ditch with my first class lever.
Discovered the term permaculture while writing a paper. Elated to have found a banner under which people are not deathly afraid of mosquitos, coyotes, and poop.

Greetings from the Mid-Atlantic! I'm in central Maryland, on a 1/3 acre suburban plot, working slowly on transforming my backyard into a food-producing zone. There are definitely challenges, but slow and steady progress is happening.

A little background - I was raised on a 3 acre 'homestead' that my parents bought when I was a child - 3 story stone house with major renovation needs, nine outbuildings and a lawn that hadn't been mowed in years. Dad was an engineer who loved to solve problems, so he always tackled anything that needed to be done with a 'can-do' attitude, with my brother and me as his mostly willing helpers. Plumbing, plastering, electrical, roofing and lots of gardening - all in a day's work. At one point in its history, the property had been a dairy farm, so the soil was rich though horribly neglected. Within the first year or so, about an acre was turned into gardening space and we started enjoying our own fresh veggies. Dad was into organic gardening long before it was fashionable, so our fields were only amended by our compost piles. We also had the ability to fix just about anything that broke down, thanks to having a small forge, a metal lathe and a welder. My adventures on that old property will someday become a book, but suffice it to say that my background there has proven invaluable.

But today, I'm working with much less land and a far steeper slope - the east-facing back yard slope is about 20 degrees, a fact which saved me several thousand dollars when I bought the place because it's not much fun to mow the hill. No real erosion problems but my goal is to turn that hill into something more productive. At this point the only things growing on the hill are several pathetic blue spruces, an apple tree and a grape vine. Down on the flatter portion of the yard, we have a 60 by 20 garden area with kale, tomatoes, green peppers, some beans and some popcorn (as an experiment). An expanding raspberry patch has been providing a nice crop for several years. Onsite herbs: oregano, basil, sage, peppermint, spearmint, cilantro, lavender, parsley, stevia, and probably a few others I can't recall at the moment.

Currently, I work second shift (4 to midnight) at a local clothing maker, to keep my days mostly free. Former work experience focused heavily on IT and financial services and I still do a bit of website development work, mostly using Drupal. I've been a linux user for years and enjoy helping others move away from other operating systems.

I've been reading Permies now for about a week and really look forward to learning more - this definitely looks like my kind of place!

Welcome, Mary McCune!

Hello, I hate these things (though I understand why you have them) I m a loner/drifter. I don t have a home (mostly because no one has figured out how to tie me down. I enjoy learning, and since Uncle Sam won t let me work anymore. I m building a vehicle a little bit different than normal, so I can travel.

Past: Former outlaw truck driver (O/O), had major stroke with complications ~~ so I slower than normal. Found you via Margory Wildcraft/Kickstarter.

Found by reading this page, that you have a profile page: I ll be working on it. Should I get a picture uploaded, I think it s a good likeness of me.  

Future: I plan to return to my drifting ways.  I ll check in periodically, just can t guaranntee when.

Live life,
John Shrek Walters

Hi there from Paula