Thank you Permies!

Here’s a photo of some fruit and nut trees heeling in waiting to be planted a few months ago. These have all now been planted out in their permanent spots on my homestead. They’ll later provide propagating material for planting even more trees, inspiration for my children to plant and care for more trees, and maybe they will then go on to teach more people about trees and many more will be planted.




These trees would not have been planted this year if it weren’t for the support of the Permies community.

I can’t remember how I first found the daily-ish email, but I was subscribed for a few years and was quietly reading posts on the forums. I enjoyed the information, discussions, and the way people communicated on here, and that encouraged me to join up, even though I am very introverted and have trouble communicating sometimes.

Much social media seems to encourage divisiveness and snarky behaviour, and I find that off-putting, but the way Permies is run is encouraging for people to post their experiences and opinions, and not to shove politics into everything, and that makes it a nice place to be.

Sometimes people come into the ‘tinkering’ forum and rant about how Paul is running the site wrong, and how they have better ideas, but I think the fact that Permies is thriving speaks for itself - everything that is being done here is working!

In 2018 I read up about how to promote stuff on here and was a bit nervous when the time came to promote my goat book Kickstarter. It’s hard to ask others for help, but the book I was writing was very unique, and I was keen to get it published and noticed, so I read all the stuff on here about promoting things, did all the things suggested in those threads, and contacted the right email address. The Permies staff that helped were really lovely, and suggested ways that I could get my book better noticed by sharing some bits out of it in the appropriate forum, and they even posted it in the daily-ish and gave me a special week in the forums to answer all kinds of goat questions… This was so helpful!

There’s no way my goat Kickstarter would have been 100% funded if it wasn’t for Permies. I was so caught up in writing the book, and that is where my heart is, I am not good at promoting things, and I didn’t give much thought to how to promote this, but the Permies community were so lovely and helpful that the book made it past its goal.

After the publishing expenses were all paid for, I ended up with some extra money. At around the same time our generator and our inverter/charger both broke down, and because of the extra funds from the Kickstarter I was able to create a better off-grid electrical system, with all solar panels and no generator! This provides 100% of our household needs, and makes the ecological footprint of this house tiny, as well as showing to others that it’s possible to get by with a small off-grid solar system, and hopefully inspiring others to live with small-scale generator-free off-grid solar systems.

I enjoyed contributing to Permies and was asked to become a staff member at some point, and when I had more internet time it was great to be able to help stop spammers and other nastiness on here. Seeing behind the scenes gave me even more appreciation for what the volunteer staff do here - there’s a lot of work done by many different hands, and a lot of careful decisions being made that make Permies the place it is.

For A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen, the Permies community have been very helpful and lovely again. We’ve been able to host the recipe testing process on a private forum, and to get lots of helpful feedback from other community members during the book creation process that helped to shape the book and make it even more useful for more people. Paul and Raven contributed to the earlybird bonuses, which helped to bring more backers in earlier, and made me less nervous as the Kickstarter quickly climbed up and got to 100% within a few hours.

This book was a great success on Kickstarter, being made a ‘project we love’, and getting lots of attention and support, way beyond the initial funding goal. Permies contributed a lot towards this success.

I ended up with extra funds leftover from this Kickstarter as well, and have been able to do a few things to grow our homestead and make it more resilient, including the heritage fruit trees at the start of this post.

By supporting my books, Permies has been supporting planting more fruit trees, more water harvesting, more helpful plants growing, more earthworks, more permaculture, creating more resilience, and just more good things in general…

I also hope my books have had an impact in helping and inspiring others towards growing and raising more food locally, and making homesteading and permaculture achievable. I am getting really good reviews of them, saying they have helped people to reduce waste and cook more from scratch, which is exciting. Permies has helped this to happen - thank you Permies!

I know it’s hard to promote stuff without seeming spammy, so I just wanted to thank Paul and Permies staff for promoting my stuff in a respectful way, and for the Permies community for supporting it and just for being lovely. Thank you!

Thank you Kate!

I really think this forum is made wonderful by the contributions of its members!

I mean not only the people that post pictures and reports of the cool things they're doing, but also the people that ask weird, hard, and very niche questions. That is after all what the internets are all about, right?!

What amazes me is that almost every question, no matter how weird, hard, or niche... seems to get answered.

There are a lot of lurkers too, and they are also super valuable! Readers drive the engines that make google love us.

So, more love to you and everyone here! Thank you all from me as well! It's almost time for thanksgiving in the USA and I'm in that spirit already.

i am pretty new to permies and VERY internet/forums etc. cynical.. so much bullshit

tbh i didn't think i would last more than 3 posts.. but i am still reading and commenting MUCH to my surprise

i like the old website vibe, i like the rough and tumble... i like that everyone here seems genuine..

and nice and helpful.. there is definitely a LOT of sincere effort behind the scenes to make it work... for others

i commend you all - this is the real deal... who would have thought?

so thank you as well, just for helping anyone who needs it as best you possibly can!

L. Johnson wrote:I really think this forum is made wonderful by the contributions of its members!

I mean not only the people that post pictures and reports of the cool things they're doing, but also the people that ask weird, hard, and very niche questions. That is after all what the internets are all about, right?!

What amazes me is that almost every question, no matter how weird, hard, or niche... seems to get answered.

I agree!

I wonder how much helpful information has found its way onto the internet through weird/niche questions and discussions on here. I feel as though no matter how obscure the question I have to ask, I'll always find helpful answers here (and maybe an interesting story or two).

There's been times I've been searching online about something, and have been led to a Permies thread with exactly the information I've been looking for.

Kate Downham wrote:

I wonder how much helpful information has found its way onto the internet through weird/niche questions and discussions on here.

What I love is when some innocent, relatively new member ask for some solutions to an atypical problem "just in case" there are ideas they could use. Then they come back to check on their thread 2 days later and there are 6 or more nifty ideas and they're actually having to choose which one to try!

Permies are great problem-solvers, great at thinking outside the box, and wonderful at being supportive - no insulting someone just because they needed help on this website!!!

So yes, thank you to permies for existing, the staff for keeping things positive, inclusive and nice, and thanks to all the members who contribute great info and hit the report button if they spot spam or nastiness - keep up the good work and when possible, spread this attitude to the rest of the net.

James MacKenzie wrote:
tbh i didn't think i would last more than 3 posts.. but i am still reading and commenting MUCH to my surprise

Much to my surprise, I just realised I have had my first permies Birthday. I registered on November 12 2020, and I've just posted 1001 posts (1002 after this one). I came, read, answered and became Pollinator and then Staff  - Gardener and accidentally Master Gardener this month, (although I don't think that will last!).
I like it here. I think I like it because whatever my personal experiences, there is always some way I can help other people here. Sometimes it's growing stuff, sometimes it's cooking, sometimes it's a shoulder to cry on. It's nice also to feel that I'm not alone, but someone here (somewhere else in the world) is willing to read and reply and help me too.

Thanks to Paul for hosting us, thanks to all who buy Pie and other goodies from Permies to keep the site going, thanks to all the super staff and nice posters that make this such a great place to hang out.

Just thanks!

Kate Downham wrote:By supporting my books, Permies has been supporting planting more fruit trees, more water harvesting, more helpful plants growing, more earthworks, more permaculture, creating more resilience, and just more good things in general…

I also hope my books have had an impact in helping and inspiring others towards growing and raising more food locally, and making homesteading and permaculture achievable. I am getting really good reviews of them, saying they have helped people to reduce waste and cook more from scratch, which is exciting. Permies has helped this to happen - thank you Permies!

This is such a good example of how Permies is helping the world become better! Not hidden behind log in screens or paywalls, but free for everyone in the world to find and help make our world better. Let's keep it so.

Nancy Reading wrote:
This is such a good example of how Permies is helping the world become better! Not hidden behind log in screens or paywalls, but free for everyone in the world to find and help make our world better. Let's keep it so.

Let's all chip in to keep it going! There's a fundraiser going to upgrade the servers (see also the banner on top of the website).
Permies Fundraiser

I have a short attention span and poor discipline. I am very prone to starting projects and not finishing them without really keeping my nose to the grindstone. By hanging out at Permies, it helps me to keep my own permaculture pursuits in the forefront of my mind so that my little bit of the world keeps getting better. I really appreciate this place!