monthlyish november 5 2020

a monthlyish takes about 12 hours to go out.  This is what I sent just now:

This is Paul, the determined!



10,000 books arrived last night.  Thanks to all of you doing the pre-orders - that helped a lot!  Books will be sent out over the next week or so.  

I need advice.  Suggestions.  I need your ideas to resolve a barrier to global domination.  It is a simple thought experiment.  How does a shy person give away 12 books?  After all, the big strategy is to have thousands of people give away a dozen books - thus infecting a dozen new brains with what is in the book.  But this can be a huge barrier for a shy person.  

My favorite idea is to direct a shy person to the little free library map.  The zip code search will find dozens of spots to insert a book, plus provide an opportunity to see beautiful neighborhoods never seen before.

  https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/

See the current list of ideas and add your ideas:

  https://permies.com/t/150777



Are you helping with a cool permaculture event?  Or starting a permaculture business?  Maybe you have a cool permaculture blog or youtube channel?  Selling a homestead?  Looking for a life partner?

I very much want to help all of your permaculture and homesteading plans succeed.  No charge.  

Nicole has updated our big list of how you can promote your stuff:

  https://permies.com/wiki/27826



Mike Haasle is now, officially, the first person to achieve PEP1 certification.  Ash modified a used baseball trophy and presented it to him explaining that the baseball bat is actually a wooden mallet!  :)   Mike is already about a third of the way to PEP2 certification.  

Some of the fun BBs ....

A lot of people have knocked out a "kindling cracker".   A fascinating collection of different designs:

  https://permies.com/w/112272/cracker

I am not sure why, but I am particularly keen on backwoods sawbucks

  https://permies.com/w/100458/sawbuck

We have worked hard to make sure that the animal care badges work well for vegans and omnis.  And far above that, I think this work has resulted in some powerful lines drawn between "organic" and "permaculture".  For example, to get the BB for controlling aphids, you are not allowed to use DE, any sprays, squishing or to buy ladybugs.  What's left?

  https://permies.com/w/148855/aphids

It is possible that we will finish the definition of all of PEP by the end of this month.  It is so exciting to see so many people be involved in this project!  Recently we found that when defining badges for natural medicine, we need to introduce a new character:  Aunt Natty.  Aunt Nattie believes, deeply, in food as medicine and will slap that donut out of your pie hole!  We have started a list of a couple dozen things that define Aunt Natty and we need to double the size of that list.   Please come and take a shot at adding more

  https://permies.com/t/150779/Aunt-Nattie

The permies.com software has been modified to add a bunch of features to facilitate PEP.  We now have "air badges" and certifications for BB5, BB10, BB20 and more.  Peppers are having weekly zoom meetings to work on BBs at the same time.  Ash has an apple poll running to help people determine which BBs are the easiest.

  https://permies.com/w/skip-pep-bb
  https://permies.com/c/skip
  https://permies.com/t/146515/easiest-apple-poll

As this group grows and grows, our current plan is finish all of PEP this month, then finish all of PEA next month, then mash it all into a SKIP book in January, prep a kickstarter all of february and then start a kickstarter around the first of march.   If you can click on the "thumbs up" on the first post in this thread, it really helps to propel all of us to meeting these goals!

  https://permies.com/t/136637/skip-kickstarter-poll



There are 22 people on the waiting list for the permaculture bootcamp.  When we announced two openings we had zero takers!  :)    I have to say that most winter days here are above freezing.  The snow usually doesn't stick.  And half the winters don't even get below zero F.  

Further, we have added seven holidays for the winter. A feeble attempt to make living up north a bit brighter.  

- the day of light
- christmas decorating day
- christmas baking day
- christmas stocking day
- spiced cider day
- pina colada day
- houseplants day

To learn more about our winter holidays, and the sort of stuff we work on through the winter:

  https://permies.com/t/149839

And if you want to encourage our forward velocity, inspire others to be boots, and follow the daily posts of our boots to see the progress of all of our projects, please take a look at our fancy, updated BRK page:

  https://permies.com/w/114138/brk



A few years ago I shared my "spoon theory" thread.  It seems for all of the permies.coms staff and hundreds of other people, this wording is now deeply rooted in our vocabulary.   About a year ago I wrote about "the fork" - and this has turned into a powerful communication tool - almost as powerful as spoon theory.  

  https://permies.com/t/48536/spoon-theory
  https://permies.com/t/121884/fork

And a bit of powerful philosophy called "dream big" which is really about hard work.  I think about this nearly every day.

  https://permies.com/t/41892/dream-big

Try 100 things.  2 will work out and you never know in advance which 2.

  https://permies.com/t/45415



20 years ago I shared an article.  I just felt the urge to get the stuff in my head organized and put it out there for others.   A year later I heard about putting a banner on it.  Money started to trickle in.  More articles, then the forums, and a youtube channel - more and more money.  I could stop doing stuff and the money would just keep coming in.  Eventually the money was more than my expenses - I could retire early.  Big enough to support the bootcamp and all of our projects.  When I got cervical radiculopathy and was forced to stare at a ceiling for three months, all of that money kept coming in.  

Residual income streams.

Joel Salatin says that we must create our own unfair advantages.  And he collects residual income streams from his books and many other things.  I wish for everybody that is keen on permaculture and homesteading to have this unfair advantage.  

How do YOU get your very first dollar? The first trickle.  The stepping stone to early retirement?  

  https://permies.com/t/149668

Here is a freaky big list, please help me add a dozen more things to the list:

  https://permies.com/t/52364/big-list-real-RESIDUAL-income

Hard data from somebody that likes to doodle:

  https://permies.com/t/150507/Print-on-Demand

Our forum dedicated to the topic:

  https://permies.com/f/196/ri



All of my podcasts, movies, videos and stuff

  https://permies.com/stuff
  https://permies.com/f/312/paul-wheaton



(together, I think me and my friends ...  I think we truly are infecting brains to build a better world ...  maybe I  have gone a bit nuts, but I really do think I can feel it.)

I think this is my biggest monthly-ish ever.