why is the stuff in PEP so hard?

Everything in PEP is something that can be, someday, accomplished at my place in two weeks.  

Everything in PEP is stuff that can be done on half the planet.  

Some things are easier if you have the right tools and circumstance.

In time, we hope to refine PEP so that it will work for even more people.   And, in time, we hope that parallel programs will be developed for other climates and situations.

I hope that a few years from now there will be thousands of tiny events all over the world where people will build a few of the PEP experiences.


PEP is supposed to be challenging.   When you are PEP1 certified, it should come with a sense of powerful accomplishment.   Plus it should be pretty damn impressive to Otis.  


As I write this, all of the sand badges have been defined and most of the other badges have been defined.   Dozens of people are working on getting PEP1 certified.  And dozens of people have elected to not do a single BB because PEP1 certification includes a BB that they feel certain they cannot complete.  Otis is looking for people that will get things done despite the obstacles - so the PEP1 filter appears to be on track.  


Of course, an alternative would be:

  - go to harvard, fork over money, live there, commute to class every day, write papers, take tests and do what those people say to do
  - afterwards, get a job to pay student loans
  - pay all the bills racked up while paying that money back
  - save up to buy your retirement package
  - buy the land, the house, the truck, the tractor and have some buffer in the bank

or:

  - get PEP4 certified, mostly on your own, maybe while still in high school - find a way to do it
  - get the land, the house, the truck, the tractor and a pile of coin from Otis

or another path out of millions of possible paths:

  - coast, enjoy life, work a part time job to get coin once in a while, couch surf, take it easy


Life is about choices.  If this is too hard, then don't do it.  


Some people say they cannot do the hugelkultur BB.  That's fine, then don't do it.   Others do a bunch of other BBs and look around for somebody in their area that might have some digging equipment and would be okay with a hugelkultur.  


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This whole program is offered for free and might be of greater value than a harvard education.  A little respect for all the people putting in a huge amount of work to make this possible would be nice.   Maybe a little help to make the program work would be nice too.

If you want to see the program expanded in some way, I suggest creating a thread in the proper forum that makes a proposal.  And if you make it really easy to adopt the change, there is a better chance it might be adopted.  

I reviewed the various PEP requirements at a month or 2 ago.  For every task I felt was challenging, there was another that was relatively easy.  And, as you have already indicated  they tend to be pretty routine tasks that someone living on a homestead would encounter at some point.  It is clear a great deal of work went into the development of PEP.

I'm guessing this is a rhetorical question, but I'll answer anyway!

PEP is hard so that when you get your first BB certified, it feels good (and you get an apple!)

When you get your first badge, it feels really good!

When you get PEP1 certified you know you've done something pretty damn awesome. And you have the proof to show you have a bunch of nifty skills.

When you get PEP2 certified you are really, really awesome and so on till PEP4.

If PEP was really easy, it wouldn't mean as much.  

I do need to add that PEP is full of stuff that I wish I had known when I first started homesteading.

I see all of the difficult badge bits as a learning opportunity. But even then... I like how some of the not so hard stuff is also a great learning opportunity.

Like unclogging a sink with a zip tool. I remember one story from this certain urban homesteading book I read where the author called in a plumber to unclog their sink. Lo' and behold the plumber came, went after the sink with a zip tool, and told them to invest in one of those.

I'm young, I've used a zip tool before, but I would bet a high dollar many of my college peers did not (maybe still don't?) know how to fix a clogged sink.

I think a large reason why some PEP badges feel so hard is that they're not skills we've used yet. There's a big learning curve to get from never-having-knitted, to making a potholder. Or from never having carved to making a mallet. Or from never having wired something, to repairing a light switch. It'll take hours. It might feel impossible. But, you can do it! It'll take you 3x to 10x as long as someone who does that stuff all the time and had the right tools from it, but you CAN do it.

I spent hours making my first compound mallet. I used a drill stuck into a little hand screwdriver and just kept moving the bit size up and up until I could use my largest bit (wrapped in leather) to drill the rest of the way. It took a LONG time. But, I did it. And then I found better tools at the thrift store that make it a lot easier to make them in the future.



On the other hand, I've knit a lot of things. I've made lots of knit hot pads. So, when it came time to knit a hot pad, I was able to do so rather quickly, even while going above and beyond the original requirements. It was easy. It was fun. I'm sure there's other people who look at that badge bit and think, "No way am I going to tackle that one! It looks too hard! I don't have the right materials." Maybe someone will really want to do the badge bit, and will use wool yarn they found at a thrift store (or take apart an old wool shirt to use as yarn) and knitting needles they made from sticks (or found at the thrift store...there's usually knitting needles there). And they'll spend a long time figuring out how to knit, and struggle, but they'll push through and make their oven mitt. And then they'll have an oven mitt AND the ability to knit.

I think once you've pushed through a badge bit and learned a new skill, you have not just a project completed that improves your life, but also a huge feeling of accomplishment. Even though I don't yet have my roundwood badge (I'm one BB away!), I still am the most proud of my roundwood badge bits because I learned SO MUCH that I'd always wanted to learn.

TL:DR (Too Long, Didn't Read summary):

I think PEP badge bits feel hard because:

(1) They're skills you've never learned before

&

(2) There's a large learning curve, so it takes time to learn them. Most of the time spent making them is learning how to make them.

BUT, after you've done the badge bit, you have completed a cool project, have something to show for what you learned, and you feel a great sense of accomplishment.

Thank you for not requiring ALL of the badges to get PEP1 certified.  I'm thinking 19 sand badges will take 2 years to complete; some BBs in an hour (or less), others in weeks/months.  I don't see getting the greywater badge on our current piece of property.  That's okay -- it can be one of the 3 left undone.  If you can't do one for whatever reason, there are others.