Central Texas permie rollcall

Any permies in Central Texas?

I wish. Property is too expensive out that way! I'm headed East. Northeast actually.

I'm hoping to locate fellow permaculturists in my locale.

I do! Which area? I'm in Killeen.

Hooray! Too bad we're kind of far apart. I'm near Boerne.

I live in Austin where I build and implement solar systems for people. Im doing it to save up and build a tiny, sustainable house that I can tow with me as I travel the US teaching people about building and implementing sustainable systems into their own lives
you can check out my blog and see if its the kind of thing you are interested in, and if so, drop me a PM!

http://projectupcycle.blogspot.com

Very interested in what you're doing there, Nathan. Would you be interested in giving presentations about solar power and other interesting topics down here? I know you'll be traveling for a couple months, this opportunity wouldn't arise until next year.

Down? Where is this property located? [if you don't mind me asking] and I would LOVE to give presentations, workshops, whatever! In this case, later is better because the van will be converted in to an eco-rv that I can demonstrate and whatnot. I started a youtube channel for Project Upcycle but I haven't uploaded anything because we are getting ready to launch our Kickstarter for the van's battery bank.

I love sharing information, I love learning, and I love positive energy! If I can help you in any way just let me know!

I'm located about 100 miles southwest of Austin.

I'm in North Texas. Denton has gotten a lot of rain recently and much is being ruined due to rot.

Seems like that's what we get anymore, either drought or flood! It's never just normal. Makes it very hard to figure out what to plant and when. My summer garden is looking very thin because I missed a key planting opportunity right before it got too hot. I like to think perennial plants will help, but I don't have a very diverse collection of them yet. I'm not very good at starting seeds and plants are too expensive....

Heh, I can germinate seeds pretty well

and my motorcycle gets 70mpg when Im using gasoline [45 when I'm on ethanol] , so 100 miles aint nothin but time!

I hope we can get you down here some time!

I would be glad to!

Greetings,
We are a bit south of all of you, but between you. Bedias is 25 miles west of Huntsville, and 13 miles south of Madisonville. Conveniently located in the middle of nowhere. We have been farming with no till gardens, no chemicals, heirlooms and saving seeds etc for over 10 years, but we are just learning about permaculture.

Just want to let it be known that there is at least one person in Lone Oak, Texas (East of Dallas and Rockwall, South of Greenville-the city not the street- and JUST east of Lake Tawakoni) that is into Permaculture. Well, reading about it and wishing anyway. I'm trying some of the smaller things that I can handle on my own. I'm also doing my best to get a local faith based organization I'm working with to use Permaculture methods in the community garden that they CLAIM they want to be sustainable.
I have yet to convince my fellow garden workers that if they really wanted a sustainable garden they wouldn't even THINK the words 'roundup' (except in reference to getting a bunch of animals together!) or 'miriclegrow'. So far when I mention growing cover crops around main crops in an effort to get them going on multi-cropping rather than mono-cropping they just look at me blankly and ask "So then how would we till the area between the rows?" ARRRGH!
Sorry about the rant. "Traditional" farmers around here are one of the reasons I hesitate to ask for help or hire them to use their big machines to do any kind of Permaculture earth working on my land. I very much fear they would decide to do what they "knew you really needed" instead of what I said I wanted.
OOps. Still ranting.
Anyone else closer to or even living around here in East Texas? I need all the help I can get. Heck, I need to take a PDC!! If I could find one close enough, and or cheap enough for me to be able to go.

Greetings,
Your comment about needing to take a course struck home with me. I said the same thing on my introduction and guess what? One was recommended. It is an internet course and so far, I love it. http://www.permaculturevisions.com/ It is very reasonable for a permaculture course and it is tailored to your needs. I wish I had someone closer, but you are about three hours from me. As is everyone else. Hey, if anyone ever heads Houston direction, I am down that way.

Betty Montgomery wrote:
Anyone else closer to or even living around here in East Texas? I need all the help I can get. Heck, I need to take a PDC!! If I could find one close enough, and or cheap enough for me to be able to go.

Some folks from East Texas used to post here a lot but I haven't seen anything from them in awhile. Here's their website: http://www.sabinehomestead.org/

Thanks for the replies! I'll be looking into that web site. Thanks again.

I live around the Temple area. My wife and I just bought 11 acres of our own.

Betty

I live in Rockwall. I, too, have been researching permaculture, sustainable off grid living. I'll be working at a monolithic dome build between Quinlin and Tyler this week-end 18-19. The guy teaching this class also teaches aquaculture. There should be several people from the area there working and learning. I try to tell people "if you're tilling it you're killing it". Got to go pick-up some organic goat manure this afternoon just northeast of Rockwall.

Jerry Sledge

Howdy! My husband and I live in sunset valley - a pseudo rural community surrounded on all sides by Austin I just learned of a new permaculture design class being given by ACC just two miles from our 3/4 acre homestead! If I can work it into the schedule I just might go for it!

Right now we've got a flock of (mostly) free range hens, a whole bunch of rain barrels (courtesy of the previous owner - what luck!), a few no dig beds that I'm turning into native/perennial vegetable beds, and the beginnings of a few tree guilds (olives and figs so far), as well as plenty of native texas edibles/useful plants growing nearby. I plant my annual vegetables in all the empty spots that I hope someday will be mostly naturalized edibles.

We're definitely learning as we go, and being former city slickers there is a LOT to learn, but we're really lucky to have a thriving community of like minded people to tap into. And I'm thrilled I found this site- I have been lurking for days soaking in ideas and inspiration.

Boerne isn't too far away, and we were in Austin two weeks ago. And I went to college near Greenville, and we are now starting initial (barely) planning stages of finding our homestead near Tyler or down as far as Lufkin. But currently we live in Laredo. And I have a nice small backyard garden. I would love to meet more people, and I will probably be taking a PDC or go through Geoff Lawtons Australia institute DVD course if I can't attend a live one.

Hi there!

Hello. I just joined mostly to find fellow scythers in Texas. Anybody interested in a meet? Myself I mostly grow anything that will flourish on benign neglect and allow for grazing. Peasant perhaps more than Permie.

Cool, and welcome.

What are scythers?

I'm relatively new to the permies site, so I haven't seen this title before.

Where abouts do you live?

Thanks.
About 25 miles east of Austin.
People who mow with scythes! One of the most beautiful tools ever invented. Tai Chi with a 27" razor blade!

Cool. We had friends living in Lexington a couple years ago, but they moved to Round Rock.

I was just curious if it had a double meaning.
I think it is Jack Spirko who I heard talking about using a scythe as a teenager.

I'm in San Marcos, took the PDC last year in Austin and am slowly implementing my plan at our 1/2 acre in-town homesite. There's a pretty active Facebook group on the Texas State campus called Permies.

Hi Tyler,
Since I am so late in posting and joining this group, I'm sure you have found many other permaculture enthusiasts in Central Texas by now. If you want to learn more by doing some hands on projects, there is a group of us organized on a Facebook group called Texas Permaculture Design Projects. Kirby Fry is the organizer and he took his PDC with Bill Mollison in the 90's. He is an excellent teacher and we have learned a lot. We are currently doing one Permablitz a month in the Austin area. We just completed our third blitz this weekend. We can always use more volunteers, so check us out.

Thank you, Linda. Most of the Central TX permaculturists seem to be in Austin.

I am in Schertz Texas. I just started reading up on permaculture. Would love to know what guilds everyone in this area are using. My current "land" is my backyard which is pretty shady(as in has lots of shade, not as in a bad element ). I have a million questions!

I'm still in the planning stages in Red Rock, just SE of Austin, but I'm looking forward to learning a lot!

Awesome @Haley Bradley. What are you going to grow? Let me know what you use for your guilds

Hi Everybody, I'm a new Permie. I live in East Texas close to Sulfur Spring. Anybody out this way?

I'm on the other side of Greenville from you in Rockwall. There should be a permaculture design course starting at the Greenville Farmers Market some time in November. The Greenvile Farmers Market is the only one I know of that does an onsite inspection of all vendors to make sure they are growing what they are selling. No imported produce there. Exit 96 Spur 302/Lee St. On your left as street becoms one way. They usually have a class/demo of some kind every Saturday. I even did my portable rocket stove/oven (saw over 800F).

Thanks Jerry that good to know. do they post a schedule of Saturday classes somewhere?

I am on Lake texoma 1 hour north of dallas, just have an experimental homestead to find what works and breeding landrace veggies and grain. We provide ourselves w/ about 70% of our food (more if you exclude condiments). Still working on the fuel and fiber part. Love to here from permy oriented people in the area, maybe do some mob builds to improve all our "little paradises".

Wally

They often post classes on one or more of the Meetup groups like http://www.meetup.com/Sustainable-East/ Cant find anything for this week-end, but I know there should be something.

Jerry

Since this list is expanding through Texas, just wanted to poke in and say hi from North Texas. I live in the mid-cities of Dallas/Fort Worth area. My permaculture site is suburban, in development for the 3rd summer now, but I'm just now getting more of a food forest set up. Now is the deadest time of year from my experience here, at least I haven't found quite the right things or setup to thrive in the heat and drought. Pretty soon we'll get coverage over the whole state I think.