PEM Philosophy

Permaculture Experience according to Mike (Haasl)

PEM is an adaptation of PEP (Permaculture Experience according to Paul[Wheaton]) that is adjusted in the following ways:
 - Towards my idea of permaculture homesteading
 - Oriented at a semi-humid, cold temperate, rolling forested landscape (upper midwest, maybe New England, maybe northern Europe, etc)
 - More generic in some badges to enable people in different regions to participate
 - Try to eliminate prescriptive lists of BBs so that there are more choices to complete a badge
 - Eliminate cases where you can do Sand items for Straw and Straw for Wood.  This is to make future apps and Girbot programming easier
 - Eliminate cases where you can do duplication within a badge.  This is to make future apps and Girbot programming easier
 - Fewer cases where you do more/bigger versions of the same thing over and over.  Like sharpen one knife in Sand, then sharpen 3 knives in Straw, then in Wood sharpen a dozen knives.  
 - Eliminate cases where you have to go to Wheaton Labs to complete a badge
 - Eliminate point ranges for BBs
 - Eliminate oddball options (unless you get a PEP badge with oddball, it will count for PEM)
 - Generally everything is open to twofers.  If you build a small house, you can also get the BBs for building a wall and building a roof.
 - Generally badge levels build on themselves.  Plant flowers in Sand, show they grew in Straw
 - Fewer badges will be defined through Iron level since you only need 3 Iron badges to get PEM4 (same as PEP4)

Equivalencies to PEP:
  - PEM has the same number of badges as PEP
  - Same number of hours of experience per badge level
  - PEM1, PEM2, PEM3, PEM4 are all the same as for PEP

Transferable credits:
  - All completed PEP badges count for PEM badges except for the following:
      - Gardening (all levels)
      - Oddball (all levels)
      - Dimensional Lumber Woodworking (all levels)

Badge adjustments:
 - Change Rocket to Wood Heat
 - Change Greywater and Willow Feeders to Household waste streams
 - Change Natural Building to Building with blend of natural and "more environmental" conventional techniques
 - Remove Oddball and replace with a badge for Traditional Skills.  Something that would include pottery, making a birch bark canoe, horn working, sinew work, candles, etc.

Nuances:
Gardening
 - More of my style of homestead gardening.  Less food forest, no hugels
 - Fencing
 - Growing in the ground
Building
 - No wofati projects
 - Framing, additions, remodeling, house modification, timber frame, cordwood, strawbale, log homes, lean-to, living roof
 - foundations
 - Root cellar
Woodland
 - Slab wood into siding
 - slab wood projects
 - no junkpole or junkpole fences
 - split rail fence
 - making timbers
 - Nordic conifer preservation technique
Roundwood
 - no hugel scaffolding
 - round house posts/beams
 - reciprocal frame roof
 - swinging bench
 - rockjack chair for hillside
 - staircase
 - chicken tractor
 - ladder
 - handrail
Toolcare
 - More vehicle/equipment (I hope)
Earthworks
 - no heavy equipment at Sand level
 - small pond at Sand level
 - less stuff at Straw and Wood
Dimensional
 - Woodburned sign changed to pine tar sign
 - Allow glue and good finishes at the higher levels
 - Sand badge a bit harder than PEP
 - Finish carpentry
 - Nice woodworking projects
 - cedar strip canoe
Wood Heat
 - make a j stove and boil water in Sand
 - make a rocket oven an option for Straw
 - Chimney sweeping
 - Dakota fire hole
 - Syrup cooker
 - water heater (unpressurized)
 - water heater (pressurized)
 - shop RMH
 - batch box RMH
 - j tube RMH
 - charcoal making wood stove for shop, greenhouse, etc
Food Prep and Preservation
 - Pretty similar
 - Maybe fewer WL specific things
 - No haybox
Animal Care
 - I'd like to remove the Control XYZ requirements but everything else is good so I'm just copying it directly
Foraging
 - More hunting/fishing
 - More "berry", "fruit", "nut" instead of specific plants
Community
 - Same as PEP
Textiles
 - Nearly the same as PEP except at the higher levels
Household Waste Streams
 - Composting
 - Greywater stuff from PEP
 - Humanure, composting toilets
 - vermicompost
 - minimal willow feeders
Metalworking
 - Less prescriptive
Plumbing
 - Same as PEP
Electrical
 - Same as PEP
Commerce
 - Same as PEP
Nat Medicine
 - Same as PEP
Nest
 - Same as PEP
Homesteading
 - Move out a bunch of Sand items to other badges
 - pallet fence
 - mini root cellar, root cellar in basement
 - Move a bunch of Straw items to Sand
 - Evaluate if Wood is needed
Traditional Skills
 - Collect plant materials like spruce roots, willow, birch bark
 - Baskets, canoes, bows, arrows, knife handles, pottery, shelter, leatherwork, tanning, whittling, dugout canoe, snow shoes, snares/trapping, fire starting, debris shelter, snow cave, candles, lye, soap, pine tar-like products, wigwam
 - Smoker

I see a 'submit for BB verification' button in the individual PEMBB threads. Will that be appropriate here? Does it track separately in my profile?

This style of Gardening seems more applicable to me. I expect to be a guinea pig.

Thanks Kevin, I'd love to have some guinea pigs!  I just got the Gardening badge all set up this morning and it would be nifty if someone did a BB to see if I set it up right.



I don't actually know how it will show up in our SKIP profiles.  It should show up there, I just don't know quite how it will look.....

With my first PEM BB completed I see that it does show up at the bottom of my BB List. It doesn't seem to know what to do for a badge icon.

Ah, we're still working on the badge icons so they aren't quite set up in the system.  Hopefully within a week or two... Thanks for test driving PEM!

I'm working on the Building badge now but maple syrup season is getting in the way.

I LOVE THIS!!!  You just made the gardening badge so much more accessible and practical to my current suburban limitations, thank you.  I am excited to see what else you have in store for PEM.  A couple questions... ok so maybe a lot of questions.

Transferable credits:
 - All PEP badges are transferable/redeemable for PEM badges

Is this a reciprocal transfer system or a one way transfer system (i.e. PEP to PEM and/or PEM to PEP)?

ALso, say one has a straw level dimensional lumber PEP badge is it necessary to also achieve a straw level dimensional lumber  PEM badge?  Does having both prove anything?  Are they equal in the eyes of Otis?  Would an extra icon even be necessary?

Why not just revamp/amend PEPs to maintain continuity?

Why not remove the third letter all together and just call them PE badges?

Thanks for entertaining my curiosity.  I have so much fun and learn so much with this program I can't thank Paul and all the Permies enough!

Thanks!!!  It's definitely a labor of love but I think having PEM will really help broaden the appeal of SKIP.

It's a one way transfer system.  I haven't talked to Paul about that detail but I'm pretty sure it will be a one way for at least a long time.

I think if you got the straw level PEP dimensional lumber badge, I'm ok with counting it for PEM.  The challenge of that Straw badge makes up for the ease of the Sand badge in my eyes.  I don't think an extra icon would be needed but it might look nice.  Not sure how it will look on a signature line...  Once you'd get to Wood though, if you're pursuing PEM2 or PEM3, I think you'd want to get the PEM Wood badge.

I think PEM3 and PEP3 would be equal in the eyes of an Otis.  The idea of creating a PEX is that each badge takes a particular amount of time/experience to gain.  I tried to keep PEM similar to PEP so I feel they're equivalently hard.

Since the PEP badges have been defined, revamping them would take a lot of time (Paul's time) which is in very short supply.  The idea all along was that other people could define PEXs so I figured I'd give it a go.  If people like PEM better, that's great.  If there's enough clamor for Paul to accept credit transfers from PEM, maybe he'd consider it.  

We need the third letter so that when someone in Brazil make a PEX for the jungle, they can call it PEC (Permaculture Experience according to Carlos).  That would would be more different from PEP than PEM is.

Hope that helps!

Can they be combined (doing a specific sand badge in PEP, another one in PEM, then combining them to make a certain PEM level)? What I mean is: if I switch to PEM now, is it a permanent switch, as if I was transfering to a different university and taking credit points with me? Or can I mix and match?

Oh, and of course: THANK YOU! I really like PEP, and the gamification of it helps me do all the things I was intending to do/learn/implement anyway, but being in a suburban setting in a rented house makes some of the things just impossible. I have actually ruminated a good deal about wanting to be really good at this, but feeling doomed to fail eventually because I can't do certain things here.

I think the answer is yes.  Once I get them all posted, you'll see which ones are direct copies of PEP and which have a lot of overlap.  In some you'll be able to get either the PEP or PEM badge and then with a couple more BBs, get the other one.  For now, keep doing PEP, most of those will transfer to PEM if you choose to later.

I have the badges mostly together but I'm waiting to post them until I have the BBs all created.  It sounds like I need to pick up the pace...

My guess is that an Otis from a warmer part of the world might prefer PEM Gardening and PEM Wood Heat over the PEP analogs, even if he would accept PEP as a standard for competence.

My thoughts are that I will use both programs as a list of things I should learn to do and as a measure for how well I learn them. I might even build that Hugel one day.

Kevin Harbin wrote:My guess is that an Otis from a warmer part of the world might prefer PEM Gardening and PEM Wood Heat over the PEP analogs

I think Mike's climate is slightly cooler than Paul's, but the big difference is precipitation. (Which is what I think explains Paul's veneration of hugelculture and Mike's lack of.)

Yup, some of all of that.  My experiences and exploits have lead me to love wood stoves and admire rocket tech, especially batch boxes and rocket ovens.   I'm less keen on J tubes but that's just my particular peculiarity.  

My gardening climate is colder but wetter than Paul's so that could be part of it.  I also have seen about 250x more examples of productive non-hugel gardens so I'm not as excited about hugels.

Is it too premature to point out that I'm hoping to take the PEC acronym someday with stuff more suited to desert environments? both cold and hot, high and coastal? I have my heart set on doing this on hard mode, just to prove it can be done. Remind me of this post in 10 years or so.

Are you making a PEM BB Tracker? Something very easy to use?

Icons for my signature?

Please use the same template for each PEM BB?  
PEM - Ancestral Skills - Sand - Identify 10 plant species.
Purpose, examples, and finally minimum requirements/proof

Thank you for thinking more generally and for more choices.  I won't plant 300 Locust here, it's invasive like a plague, aggressive, and oh so hard to get rid of.  I'm on an oak/prairie landscape, but most of the large Garry Oaks have been removed for 'progress'.  I would gladly plant 300 Garrys in my neighborhood.

Thanks!

I'm not app savvy enough to come up with a tracker but maybe someone else (like Ash Jackson) will.

Yes there are icons for your signature line!  The naming convention for the BBs will all match.  For instance: Linseed oil paint - PEM BB building.straw.linseedpaint

Hopefully that's what you were asking and your welcome!

Build a Hugel/berm 8'min tall x 14'max wide. It would be really tough to build with hand tools and hard to harvest from.  

My Hugel garden beds are only 30" tall x 30" wide. I can harvest while seated, very ADA accessible. My privacy wall is made from 3" support posts, charred below ground level, with 6' shade cloth.

Hi Jennifer, to what are you referencing?  I don't have any hugelkultur in PEM.

https://permies.com/wiki/216935/berm-hugelkultur-PEM-BB-earthworks
Minimum requirements:
 - At least 8 feet high
 - 20 feet long
 - 14 feet wide or less
 - Path halfway up on at least one side
 - Immediately seeded and mulched

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
 - Landscape you're starting with
 - Berm/hugel location marked out from 2 vantage points
    - Showing length and intended width at the base
 - Berm hugel midway through construction
 - Finished, unmulched berm/hugel showing from the same 2 vantage points:
      - height
      - length
      - path halfway up
 - Seeds and mulch you will use
 - Mulched berm/hugel

Ahh, good find!  I was thinking about Gardening and forgot about Earthworks.  Luckily that's a berm or a hugel so at least there's some freedom.

Yes, machinery would be very helpful to do that BB.  My goal was to have the Sand badge be hand tool doable.  Couldn't keep that trend going in Straw.

I already put together a PEX tracker a little while ago for my own use. It's essentially a copy of Ash Jackson's Trello PEP tracker with all the badge cards rewritten for PEA and PEM, so I don't think I'd want to share it without permission, but I'll ask.

Edit to add: here's the link to the workspace. Copy the boards to a new workspace please!

Kia ora Mike,

I have recently started on SKIP journey and I would like to thank you for being the first to branch out into the brave new world of PEX.  PEP casts a long shadow.

I am really excited about the opportunity that the SKIP program offers as a curriculum for learning - especially for recent Permaculture Design Course graduates.

(As an aside - I know Paul designed SKIP to address a specific problem around land ownership, but I think another reading of the acronym could be Skills to Implement Permaculture)

After reading the book and your posts I can see thar the PEX model means that anyone can design a program reflecting their bio region and living situation (PEP/PEA/PEM) - and the questions I have are around setting one up. I live in the NZ and am keen to see a program available that is suitable for my community.


As I understand it - the BB’s are skills or tasks to complete.
Each PEX has badges that take a certain combination of these BB’s to achieve.
So the task
Of making a new PEX is to taylor the requirements for each badge for your situation

Finally question:

Is it necessary to duplicate all the BB’s from PEP for a new PEX?
Or is there a pool of BB’s that can be added to, and then each PEX refer to them?

If is the former it seems that the volunteer effort to administer them will grow exponentially and fragment

Lastly - how much time have you needed to put in to create PEM?

Thanks for suffering the essay

Kia ora Evan, I spent 3 weeks in NZ in 2020 and it was a blast!

Yes, your understanding of the BBs and how they align to your goals/region/style is correct.  The amount of approximate work (or experience gained) in completing a badge need to be the same as PEP to be a PEX.  IE 5 hours of experience to earn a Sand badge, 16 Sand badges to earn PEX1.

As for your main question, I think the answer is in between.  You can pull from PEP, PEA, PEM or any other PEX to fill out your PEX (maybe it'll be PEE?) with BBs.

I'm pulling as many as I can from PEP but making plenty of my own.  I'm planning to finish PEM this winter, it has taken a while to build...  I'd say creating the Philosophy, laying out the badges and coming up with the right BBs took 80 hours.  It definitely helped that I am exceedingly familiar with PEP and SKIP...  Each BB I create probably takes about 15 minutes.  I built tons of them for PEP so I'm probably faster (or more accurate) than most.  It's really easy to make a BB for something and then not think of all the ways it could be misinterpreted or deliberately shortcutted.

Good luck!

Up at the top, what does "unless you get a PEP badge with oddball, it will count for PEM" mean?

Good question!  There are a few PEP badges with oddball point inside them.  Electricity, Plumbing and Homesteading come to mind.  So if you earn a PEP Homesteading Straw badge, it will count for PEM.