Robbie's Permaculture Bootcamp experience

Robbie in the PDC



Keep up the hard work!

I'd like to hear about what you designed, Robbie!

Hey Robbie, thought you might like this video of your plot in this thread, if not just let me know and we can delete it.

Nicole Alderman wrote:So like this color red for the body



and firey colored wings? I can do that!

I think should be able to make a Yukon Cornelious figure. It'll be a fun challenge! It might take me a few months, as the pants and shirt will probably take a few tries to get right. I also just found out my mom has cancer and will being going through chemo, so I'm using every spare moment right now to madly knit hats.

I'm very excited to make your dragon and Yukon Cornelious. I love a fun, creative challenge!

I have not forgotten you!

I started working on the dragon a couple of days ago. It's still very rough, but I wanted to find out if I had the colors right, and what type of horns/frills/ridges you want on it, as I need to attach them before the dragon gets too felted.

I was thinking maybe a firey colored ridge down it's neck, kind of like this, but in flame colors to match the wing



But, I can just do horns or no horns, or frills or whatever you'd like!

Any prefrence on what to do for the tail? Would you like an underbelly color, or keep the dragon's body solid red?

How many pieces should a potato be cut into before planting? can every sprouted eye be planted separately? Thanks.

My husband and I have been getting a house ready for sale this year, and I hadn't been on Permies much for quite awhile.  I woke way too early this morning, couldn't sleep, and figured I'd take a look.  WOW.  What a year! Thank you for posting all these awesome pictures Robbie!

In case no one answered your bug questions, I'll give it my best guesses...

On page 8 - that's an adult stonefly, I'm pretty sure.  Here is an example of them and their life cycle.  You may have seen the nymphs in creeks, especially among rocks. They only live a few weeks at most as an adult.

Stonefly life cycle

Page 9 - that spider was a tough one to ID.  I couldn't find anything that looked exactly like it.  I think it's an orb spider, based on the shape.  And it might be a marbled orb weaver, which has a huge variation to their color patterns. I searched and searched for any picture that matched that guy - nothing.  But marbled orb weavers are found all over the US, and they do have many variations of reddish, tan and white patterns.

Marbled Orb Weavers on BugGuide

Page 12 - I think that's a red-backed jumping spider.  Red-backed jumping spider

On a page towards the end that I didn't write the number down for, I think a flower that was thought to be bee balm is actually a perennial cornflower, Centaurea montana.  Perennial cornflower smells like a combo of vanilla and almond to me (it's one of my favorite fragrant plants).  The leaves don't have much of a smell.  Here's a pic of the plant:



Whereas bee balm flowers are all shades of lavender, purple, pink or reddish - no true blue that I've seen - and the leaves have a medicinal smell.  A good smell, but a minty-ish, bergomot-like, balm-like, aromatic smell.  Bee balm is in the mint family; perennial cornflower is in the Aster family.

Your photos of the Young Ponderosa Pine Buds (p. 11), Crab Spider on Allium (p.13), and the bumblebee on an allium - those were fantastic!  I'd frame at least the ponderosa pine picture.  That was unreal.  Beautiful.

Thank you for sharing!

And Nicole - that felted dragon is outrageous!  I recently saw snippets of a post with your little mini-me, too. That is so cute.

theresa tulsiak wrote:How many pieces should a potato be cut into before planting? can every sprouted eye be planted separately? Thanks.

Theresa, I usually cut potatoes so that there are at least two eyes on each piece that I plant. That way if they don't all make it, I still have most of the spots I planted producing potatoes.