In search of a person with a PDC in Carolinas

I live on the coast of NC between Wilmington NC and Myrtle Beach SC and could really use someone with a PDC to help me work up a comprehensive permaculture plan for my small homestead. I've been piece-mealing things and could really use help getting a more organized system planned out.

Tina Paxton wrote: I've been piece-mealing things

Oh, but that's part of the fun of it.

Keep doing what you are doing, learning as you go, and soon you may be that person with a PDC.

I'm inclined to agree with John. I think the beauty in these systems is that they evolve. Permaculture (to me) is a rejection of our cultural programming towards structure and control over nature. The important thing is that you are conscious of the change you would like to see, and that you are doing and observing.

That being said, not everybody is a big-picture sort of person. I'm curious what your situation is. How do you currently use your space? What sorts of projects would you like to see happen? Are you interested in developing a food forest, raising ducks, harvesting rainwater, building a rocket mass stove, etc? What do you feel is making organization difficult for you?

Yarostan Nachalo wrote:I'm inclined to agree with John. I think the beauty in these systems is that they evolve. Permaculture (to me) is a rejection of our cultural programming towards structure and control over nature. The important thing is that you are conscious of the change you would like to see, and that you are doing and observing.

If that were true, there would be no need to get a PDC because no one would need your consultation. Clearly, there are people making money in consulting as PDC's which means I'm not alone in wanting/needing someone with some wisdom to help me organize my thoughts and plans. And, I've been very blessed by a PDC who has offered his wisdom and encouragement.

Yarostan Nachalo wrote:That being said, not everybody is a big-picture sort of person. I'm curious what your situation is. How do you currently use your space? What sorts of projects would you like to see happen? Are you interested in developing a food forest, raising ducks, harvesting rainwater, building a rocket mass stove, etc? What do you feel is making organization difficult for you?

I became steward of this little homestead 5ish years ago after my stepfather passed away (it belongs to my sister but I have been given lifetime rights because she doesn't want to live here). His philosophy was Roundup Rules. The property had no worms that I could find, not much else except for grass and pecan and oak trees. My goal is to make my .6 acre homestead as productive as possible -- vegetables, fruits, proteins, and herbs (culinary and medicinal). Food forest? yes. Fedge? yes. Ducks? yes--I current raise Muscovies and recently added Blue Swedish and a Pekin. I also raise Silver Fox Rabbits and have a flock of chickens. Harvesting rainwater? yep -- both roof runoff and swales. Rocket mass stove? not in this house but if I were able to bring this house down to the studs and rebuild, certainly -- I used to say that we suffered from 2 weeks of Winter but this past Winter proved that that isn't always so mild. (Plus, off grid is always at the back of my mind for SHTF/TEOLASNI situations.)

I suffer from several problems:
--too much I want to get done right away which puts me in a mental battle of FOCUS
--uncertainty about best approach FOR MY PROPERTY....how to translate what works in Australia or the PNW doesn't necessarily work on the coast of NC
--$$...I can't afford to keep spending money redoing a project because I made the wrong choice -- not to mention the time lost in trying to get better prepared to deal with a SHTF situation
--a lot of self doubt because everyone around me thinks I'm crazy and I want to prove I'm not but when their toxin ridden gardens are producing and mine is not, it's hard to prove I'm not the crazy one.

Tina Paxton wrote:
--a lot of self doubt because everyone around me thinks I'm crazy and I want to prove I'm not but when their toxin ridden gardens are producing and mine is not, it's hard to prove I'm not the crazy one.

This is where patience is required, and you have to keep repeating "to thine own self be true".

My neighbors rototill all the soil life out of their gardens and liberally apply Sevin. But all their "nice" vegetables come with a cost. At the end of the season, they have lost the battle to the weeds and the weeds rule through the fall and winter, making sure that next year, they will have set enough seed to come back with even more vigor.

On the other hand, I don't have much of a weed problem. I see people fuming and fussing about bindweed, but I don't. There is a little of it here and there and I catch it with my normal weeding, but it is not choking the corn stalks like a hungry anaconda.

The more I pull the volunteer plants I don't want and encourage new plants that I do want, the more the garden understands. Nature responds to my gentle prodding, much better than she responds to my neighbors' attacks with the rototiller and the chemical sprayer.

I can also wander my garden without too much insect attack. When I go over to the neighbors, I get eaten alive by their hordes of mosquitoes. I suppose I can thank all the toads and frogs I hear at night for that.

It does take time. I've been here 5 years, and the first three were very disappointing, like you describe. But I can see it turning around, and soon they will be coming to me, asking for the secret of my bounty.

I apologize if my response was irksome. What I meant to communicate was that it's admirable you are taking action at all. I've found many people who talk about how interesting and cool these ideas are, but don't really take the plunge... which, yeah, is something that makes you look crazy. I can empathize with that in a whole lot of ways. What you say calls to mind a quote:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Krishnamurti

Sometimes remembering that is about all that gets me through the day.

Yarostan Nachalo wrote:I apologize if my response was irksome. What I meant to communicate was that it's admirable you are taking action at all. I've found many people who talk about how interesting and cool these ideas are, but don't really take the plunge... which, yeah, is something that makes you look crazy. I can empathize with that in a whole lot of ways. What you say calls to mind a quote:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Krishnamurti

Sometimes remembering that is about all that gets me through the day.

Nah, not irksome...it'cool....

Hello from Wilmington (where I work my career job) and Willard, NC where I just paid for a farm. I'm networking with others in the southeastern part of NC. We can share ideas, successes and failures. I've a farm neighbor who raises bees, another plus, and she is good at what she does. I'm also an avid seed collector. I plant to have a very diverse, environmentally friendly farm.

Steven Grimsley wrote:Hello from Wilmington (where I work my career job) and Willard, NC where I just paid for a farm. I'm networking with others in the southeastern part of NC. We can share ideas, successes and failures. I've a farm neighbor who raises bees, another plus, and she is good at what she does. I'm also an avid seed collector. I plant to have a very diverse, environmentally friendly farm.

Well, howdy neighbor!! I'd love to network! Does she teach beekeeping by any chance? I'd so love a mentor in natural beekeeping. I have sent you a "purple moosage".

Yarostan Nachalo wrote:I apologize if my response was irksome. What I meant to communicate was that it's admirable you are taking action at all. I've found many people who talk about how interesting and cool these ideas are, but don't really take the plunge... which, yeah, is something that makes you look crazy. I can empathize with that in a whole lot of ways. What you say calls to mind a quote:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Krishnamurti

Sometimes remembering that is about all that gets me through the day.

The post from Steven brought me back to this thread and having reread your statement above I'd like to say "Thanks for the encouragement." I think I was suffering from tunnel vision or something. Anyway, I'm feeling rather a bit more upbeat about things. I still don't have a "clearly laid out plan" but am getting a little more comfortable with the idea of wingin' it....and taking a load of pressure off myself from trying to be the poster-child of permaculture homesteads....hehehehe.