How long have you been a permie?

Hi y'all. Tomorrow will mark my 6 year anniversary here at permies. I've learned so much and have a very different life since my discovery of this wonderful place. I found permies as I began researching the life I wanted when I arrived wherever my youngest landed with a shared dream of homesteading.  That ended up being in western West Virginia! Up in the hills the locals think of as mountains! Narrow, windy roads; clay soil on limited flat land (steep hollers on both sides of the roads). Very different from Southern California beaches and deserts.

I am working towards having enough growing space (hugel and raised beds) to feed the 8 of us (daughters family is 6). We are raising rabbits and chickens (14 laying hens and a roo) on my 4 acre, and my daughter has a small flock of ducks and rabbits on her 36+ acres.

How long have you been here, and what brought you?

I see myself as a homesteader and not a Permie.  Not that I have anything against being a Permie. Maybe the point is that being a Permie is the destination I am always traveling toward.

As for this site, I signed on the fall of 2017.

I've been crazy about permaculture for 20 years and this year will be my 12th year on Permies.  I came to interact with all the lovely folks here.....and sometimes to drop a couple bad jokes.

Here for 18 months or so.  Always grown some kind of veggies, more or less successfully;  getting better with age and Permies help.  Rather cook and grow than buy where ever possible.  Well into the textile aspects.

If you mean a member here Nov 2013.(just looked)  I started reading here about a year before that.  Now if you mean part of permie values(not all) most of my life so say 50+ years.

Been a Permie since January 9th, 2026.  "I'm justa baayybbeee" LOL  But I appreciate everyone here.  Even if I haven't read your posts or threads (yet), just the fact that you take the time to post, share, support & encourage one another is just BEAUTIFUL.  I hope to be a Permie for many years to come!

In deepest gratitude & appreciation for everyone's wisdom & kindness --Tess

Well, I just recently got to start on my 8th decade a few years back...
And I remember the night time runs as a youngster helping my siblings and my parents to made " honey-pot" trips to the backyard of the 2 acre lot they owned, to bury the semi-solids in the bucket about every other night.... Dig a hole, empty bucket, cover it up......
I can say this is my first HUMANURE adventure.... I just didn't know....
When I got married to my FIRST, I built her a primitive greenhouse...
We sold our first house with the gh, we bought about 3 ac... It was a un-planted, weedy lot......
I mowed, I tilled, I added leaves, grass clippings, "granite dust" ....
   I could not understand why anyone would add poison to their growing space, ( say round stuff, say chemical fert.....
    When I started, the 'dirt' was Carolina orange, no tilth to the dirt..
About the 2nd year, the dirt started changing color to a nice brown, the dark brown....about the 4 the year, I could walk anywhere in garden after a rain, and not worry about muddy shoes..... And beautiful produce, no bug bites, succulent g.
beans..... A 5 gal bucket I would take to farmers market, and get $55.00 a bucket.... They (the vendors) wanted all I grew....
    In the last few years, I bought the land next to my property, I have covered the planting area with 45 or so long bed dumptruck loads of horse stall droppings and another 45 or so truck loads of "" power line "" chips....
    That growing area grew "beautiful" green*chop&drop* weed of some plant.... The most beautiful dark green weed....
     I had my neighbor use his 2 bottom JD, plow it under after I mowed it.... I let it set, had him plow it again after a few rains, and 2 more later I had him disc it.....
.....
A most beautiful planting area this year,   I CAN JUST SEE IT IN MY MINDS EYE.....

I cannot wait till we start ....
Maybe 50 tomato vine, okra, g beans, squash, yellow crock neck,

So I'm off to dream......