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Alice and Patricia’s Permaculture Homestead

pollinator

Posts: 460

Location: Western Kenya

posted 3 weeks ago

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Hi Friends,
It’s been a long time since I actively posted here. I’m Maureen, American who has lived in Kenya since 2011. In 2021 I bought a small plot for my daughters, and with great imagination named it “Patricia and Alice’s Permaculture Center.”
It’s been a long slow process, building infrastructure slowly and step by step as money allowed. We started living in the unfinished house last year. This week we have the masons coming to plaster the outside of our mud-constructed house.
I thought it might be fun to start documenting the progress of things again.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18583

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4709

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posted 3 weeks ago

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Welcome back, Maureen!

Thanks for sharing!

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

John C Daley

pollinator

Posts: 6018

Location: Bendigo , Australia

552

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posted 3 weeks ago

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More photos would help us understand what you are achieveing.

John Daley Bendigo, Australia The Enemy of progress is the hope of a perfect plan
Benefits of rainfall collection https://permies.com/t/88043/benefits-rainfall-collection
GOOD DEBT/ BAD DEBT https://permies.com/t/179218/mortgages-good-debt-bad-debt

Judith Browning

Posts: 10161

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3378

posted 2 weeks ago

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Great to see you back Maureen!
Looking forward to hearing about this new adventure😊

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 460

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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My internet connection isn’t that great, so please bear with me as I upload 1 photo at a time. It’s been a chaotic week here, with construction ongoing, a total of 8 workers trampling everywhere, new arrivals, and things breaking all as we try to prepare for the onset of the rainy season.

Let me start with a photo of our newest baby. Oreo, our herd matron, dropped a beautiful little buckling on Monday. These are Small East African goats who normally only deliver singles.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 460

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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We have two masons and 3-4 young men from the village applying cement plaster to the outside of our mud house. The mud house was constructed in 2024, the inside was cemented in 2025, now we are doing the outside. The layer of cement turns this into a “semipermanent” house that should last 50-100 years. It prevents the rain and heavy winds from eroding away the mud walls, and protects the wood frames from termites.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 460

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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We also have two local young men working with my partner to build a 4- stall KNF piggery. The first stall was completed just in time for the arrival of three piglets that we had reserved from neighbors. (2 males, 1 unrelated female.) Although the indigenous micro organisms are not ready, we went ahead and put them in the first stall with Joyii, our 6 month old kienyeji sow.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 460

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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More pig photos.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Maureen Atsali

pollinator

Posts: 460

Location: Western Kenya

posted 2 weeks ago

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Aside from construction, we are always working on the garden beds and the perennial berms. We have 20 annual no dig beds planted in rotation, so hypothetically one bed is replanted each week for a continuous harvest.

I’m also working on removing the native Justicia from the berms, and planting sweet potato vine for ground cover, along with planting pigeon pea, desmodium and tree collards. We are taking stock of which of our fruit trees survived the dry season. I know one avocado tree was lopped off by a worker this week - who thought it was a bush in an inconvenient spot!
I’m disabled so when I do the work myself I can only do a few feet at a time.

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Maureen Atsali
Wrong Way Farm - Kenya

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1417

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

166

posted 5 hours ago

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I joined up in late 2023, so this post is my first intro to what you're doing, enjoying it so far, thanks for sharing your life in Kenya with us.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

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