This is perfect

I'm Zach. I'm 34. I've had a lot of odd jobs growing up. I've been studying computer science on and off for years. I finally broke into the tech field recently and have been doing that for work.
I've felt empty for a while, felt like I wanted to learn how to do things that my dad and his dad could do, like fix things or grow a garden.
I bought homesteading books but they didn't really seem to help as someone who lives in a Florida apartment with no space to call their own but a single bedroom, or eventually their own apartment with a porch and a fun attempt to grow corn in a bucket with no direct sunlight (almost!).
The word I was looking for was apparently Permaculture, and the program I was looking for was SKIP. I came from this reddit comment (reddit is great for finding things, terrible for social media) https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1ferqis/list_of_self_sufficient_skills_to_learn/lmrfeg2/
I immediately bought the ebook and I've been sitting here on the verge of tears as I read. Looking at the badges and bits and everything. This amazing community.
I'm so excited to actually start working towards something that isn't just crap to line someone else's pockets. Please stop asking me if I've ever been on a cruise or taken a vacation, coworker who takes off every month, we are not the same. I don't work to take vacations. I work because I don't want to "work" forever. I want to do something real.

Sorry, I type/talk kinda weird.
I want to make things, but I also want to help people. I want to be around people. I want to be self sufficient. I want to enjoy my life with my wife, and I want her to be happy.
I learn skills pretty fast when I'm invested, and I think I've hit the biggest return of investment ever here.
I'm ready to sink some time into this.
Thank you all so much.

Welcome to Permies!

Hi Zach,
Welcome to Permies.

When you talked about growing corn in a bucket... it reminded me of that old TV show Green Acres where a lawyer from New York City wants to farm and plants a bunch of vegetables on his penthouse balcony :) He buys a rundown farm and becomes a farmer. The show is a comedy, but I always liked it because he was so set on becoming a farmer and gave up what so many people thought was a good life to pursue what he thinks is a good life.

Welcome home Zach! It sounds like you have come to the right place.
Your computer skills may be something you take with you as they can come in handy for residual income streams. I assume you've found the all about SKIP thread? How to get your first badge is another one that I hope you will need.
As far as I know there are no catches - no guarantees either. At the very least you would get out of it a load of useful skills, and the artefacts that you create along the way. The only thing perhaps to note is that PEP stands for Permaculture Experience according to Paul. Paul has particular values stamped on the badges. They are laid out in a particular way that is important to him and that is important for certification. There will probably by other PEXs as time goes on (PEM is nearly there for example). SKIP doesn't tell you how to do stuff, although there are great demonstration threads here that will. Part of SKIP is doing your research and reading instructions and the rest is 'getting off your backside' and doing it!
Much of PEP can be done anywhere, PEA was set up for apartment dwellers, who obviously don't have access to the space required for all of PEP. But there is a list of places you can go for a working 'holiday' to do badge bits on other people's land, including Paul's place at Wheaton labs.

Welcome to the forum!

There is so much to learn here that you might see direct sun in a couple of years ...

Kate Downham wrote:Welcome to Permies!

Thank you so much!

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Zach,
Welcome to Permies.

When you talked about growing corn in a bucket... it reminded me of that old TV show Green Acres where a lawyer from New York City wants to farm and plants a bunch of vegetables on his penthouse balcony He buys a rundown farm and becomes a farmer. The show is a comedy, but I always liked it because he was so set on becoming a farmer and gave up what so many people thought was a good life to pursue what he thinks is a good life.

That is such a fantastic premise. I've never heard of this show, most likely because I grew up with 70's sitcoms along with whatever was on TV in the 90's.
We lost the corn not only to lack of sun, but over watering and eventually a big fat hornworm made it's way into the stalks and munched up all the progress. Cute fella, but I'm sure the ducks thought he was tasty.

Nancy Reading wrote:Welcome home Zach! It sounds like you have come to the right place.
Your computer skills may be something you take with you as they can come in handy for residual income streams. I assume you've found the all about SKIP thread? How to get your first badge is another one that I hope you will need.
As far as I know there are no catches - no guarantees either. At the very least you would get out of it a load of useful skills, and the artefacts that you create along the way. The only thing perhaps to note is that PEP stands for Permaculture Experience according to Paul. Paul has particular values stamped on the badges. They are laid out in a particular way that is important to him and that is important for certification. There will probably by other PEXs as time goes on (PEM is nearly there for example). SKIP doesn't tell you how to do stuff, although there are great demonstration threads here that will. Part of SKIP is doing your research and reading instructions and the rest is 'getting off your backside' and doing it!
Much of PEP can be done anywhere, PEA was set up for apartment dwellers, who obviously don't have access to the space required for all of PEP. But there is a list of places you can go for a working 'holiday' to do badge bits on other people's land, including Paul's place at Wheaton labs.

I do look forward to being able to cross that residual income stream off my list, it's been a goal of mine for a long time to earn any sort of "passive" income, even $5 a year, a.k.a. the prereq for a sand badge.
I am reading the book right now, I do understand that this is all according to Paul. I will definitely continue to keep an open mind, check out the demonstration threatds, look into PEM and other PEXs. I'm very much into research and reading, and especially doing. I'm glad that someone can at least look at what I've done after I've documented and posted and say that it checks out or needs more time in the shop.

Anne Miller wrote:Welcome to the forum!

There is so much to learn here that you might see direct sun in a couple of years ...

Gosh I hope so, haha

Hi Zach,

Welcome to Permies.

Green Acres is a 60s sitcom show, and the wife is so funny, you go through the whole show wondering if her father really was the king of Hungary or not,  She certainly acts like a princess in the isn't-good-at-most-practical-things sense.