feed the empire

paul wheaton wrote:A series of odd events led to the need for $20,000 in 25 days. So I am going to try to pull that off.

So there is all the stuff currently in this thread. (BTW fte12 is now over $50)

For the last year I've been working with Alex on a project that is nearly done. So I'll kick off a kickstarter in a few days for it.

I have an idea of selling the name of some things on the land. For example, there is a draw through the middle of the land that looks like it was a creek bed many years ago. But I was recently up there have a big snow followed by a big rain and there was nothing flowing. I am going to restore the creek. And somebody could buy the right to name that creek. I'm thinking that somebody might give their family name, or the name of a loved one. i would really like to get some feedback on this idea. I was thinking of doing this over ebay.

Any other ideas?

If you are going to have a camping site there, how about some kind of time share camping spot. Not one particular spot, but say a 25' x 25' camping site that the time share buyer could use one week out of the year for a period of 5 years?

There might be too little time for this and I don't know the details but Daily Kos runs/has run(? it's been a while since I've been to the site) an annual auction. People donate items and I believe, there is no actual collection of items; it's all done on-line and the donator is responsible for sending the item to the winning bidder. I realize that there is a lot that can go wrong but if the people involved are operating in good faith, maybe it can work.

How about a simple pay pal link right here. 1000 people, $20 each, easy. Better yet, an address where I can send a check. Make it easy for me to help. Building my own little empire wears me out, keeping chickens out of the garden (dirty look at dog) finding baby goats (dirty look at new mommy goats) and all the plants to plant, leaves no energy to hunt up how to help. $20, 1000 people....done

Im a waterlover so can contribute something to that. A name with the joint effort of bringing it back would be great with the names of the contributers underneath. How about that?
What is the history?

Jennifer Smith wrote:How about a simple pay pal link right here. 1000 people, $20 each, easy. Better yet, an address where I can send a check. Make it easy for me to help. Building my own little empire wears me out, keeping chickens out of the garden (dirty look at dog) finding baby goats (dirty look at new mommy goats) and all the plants to plant, leaves no energy to hunt up how to help. $20, 1000 people....done

This!

I'd give $100.00 to have a 16'x30' camping site named after me. And I get one free week a year for 5 years, to camp there on Ronie Dean camp spot. The size does not have to be exactly the size I said - just a spot where I can park a camper. (Do you take Discover or Mastercard?)

Paul has a PayPal button on his richsoil bio page (scroll down) - very cool of you to think of it, Jennifer.

More info on naming opportunities (and other things) as we are able.

The last 24 hours has been a roller coaster. Good news. Great news. Bad news. Confusing news. News. Ideas. And, of course, paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork.

Short version: The 20k is covered! And then there is a new shortfall! And then that got mostly covered! And .... and .... and .... Overall, I think the good news is outweighing the bad/nutty news. But the tales are far too long to relate here.

So far, 56% has arrived.

I think the smart thing to do is wait 2 days and see what is here. Then make plans from there.

The closing date for base camp has been pushed back to June 3. The closing date for TL is thursday. Once closed, we will nail down dates for workshops and .... a few other interesting things.

Ideas that are related to the farm probably should go in the "paul's farm" forum. Ideas that are related to the on-line empire should stay in this thread. I will say more soon.

You could do some serious work camps--100 people, BYO wheelbarrow and shovel and tent. Get the classroom training in exchange for manual labor.

Hmmm .... this is food for thought. Something I had not thought about. I suppose we could set something up and see how many people actually sign up. I would think it would need to cheap and vague. But we could make sure that there is two hours of classroom time each day. And we could even have some sort of theme to the work being done that week (earthworks, animal husbandry or something).

I think this train of thought is worth its own thread in the "paul's farm" forum.

full on trackhoe contractor.

i talked to my brother a few minutes ago. He is definitely moving onto TL. He might build the first wofati. He thinks we should buy a trac hoe. he and I both know how to run them. He found one for sale that is close by - but we would, of course, need even more money.

but could you "sell" special visits to your compound for the future?

That's hard to do right now since such visits would be painfully dull. There is nothing permaculture-ish to see. Plus, I think I would feel differently about it depending on whether the person has listened to most of the podcasts or not.

For anyone having trouble with the homestead gear website trying to buy a tee or a mug, please contact me at alexojeda@mac.com. Sorry for the inconvenience with this.

I have spent all day, in between my life here trying to send my $20. Will not take my card and I can not remember my oay pat password. Working on my phone sux. I will try again tomorrow to recover my password. I still think a bunch of people kicking in just a bit adds up. Pass the hat thinking.

If you are going to have a camping site there, how about some kind of time share camping spot. Not one particular spot, but say a 25' x 25' camping site that the time share buyer could use one week out of the year for a period of 5 years?

I'd give $100.00 to have a 16'x30' camping site named after me. And I get one free week a year for 5 years, to camp there on Ronie Dean camp spot. The size does not have to be exactly the size I said - just a spot where I can park a camper.

I really like this idea.

I think the price should be more like $200. And the idea is that the first time you come out, you pick the spot (and I or somebody in the know will make sure it is okay). And then you prep the spot and make all the appropriate signage. And the spot will stay named whatever name you choose as long as the sign is still visible.

I think the idea of a place to park a camper would be limited to the base camp acres.

You could plant things you think are fun. You could put in a mailbox so that items could be kept dry - maybe there is a guest book and interesting things.

Well Paul, I probably wouldn't plant things there as I have my own farm to plant on. If I did ever show up, it would be to get some ideas that I could use at my place or just to relax on vacation and get to know other like minded folk.

The idea behind a time share is that a lot of people use the same 20X20 spot of land - just at different weeks of the year. Since, not a bunch of us 'Southerners" would come to Montana in January, I would guess that the "hot" weeks to have would be June - September. That is 17ish weeks that 17 different persons/families would be using the same spot of land. At $100 a time share, that is 1700 per spot/year. 10 different time shares would take up around 200'X20' and bring in $17,000.00. If you have 100 spots 2000' X 20', that is $170,000.00. The other 'cooler' weeks of the year could be time share weeks at a discounted rate. (Or sold to Eskimos and Canadians.)

Some smaller people might only want to have smaller spots maybe 10'X10'. They could be at a lesser rate..

The base rate for the time share week would be B.Y.O.E. (Bring Your Own Everything.) Bring your own food, water, shower, utensils EVERYTHING - and take your own shit back with you. If the time share person wanted to use any of things that you have set up, then the price would be per day of use.. Use solar shower and rocket cooker - $10.00 per day of stay. Solar shower, rocker cooker and annoy Paul $20.00.

Jennifer Smith wrote:How about a simple pay pal link right here. 1000 people, $20 each, easy. Better yet, an address where I can send a check. Make it easy for me to help. Building my own little empire wears me out, keeping chickens out of the garden (dirty look at dog) finding baby goats (dirty look at new mommy goats) and all the plants to plant, leaves no energy to hunt up how to help. $20, 1000 people....done

Paul, Jocelyn,
Many people are comfortble with Pay pal. If there are problems with your links, get them straight and ask for $5 to $20 and you might be amazed. I will go to the richsoil.com site and look for the Paypal link and see if I can make it work.. add a a physical address for checks too. Don't underestimate this source! It is simple for those of us who prefer to keep things basic and don't want T-shirts and coffee cups.

Kathy J.

So I am not the brightest but....at the end of the daily-ish emails is an address. I wrote my check and it will go out in the mail today. $20 isn't a large amount but I am struggling with the building of my own small empire and if enough people put what they can it will add up.
The address in the daily-ish email is
2120s Reserve #351
Missoula MT 59801

Just made a contribution using the PayPal link on Paul's website and it worked for me. I would challenge anyone that is using these resources to learn about permaculture to contribute what you can to help Paul make his vision happen - he and other like-minded folks need a place to implement, practice, experiment, learn and teach! This is IMPORTANT work and needs to come to fruition.

As a very new user, I am amazed at the quantity, quality and depth of useful information available on the podcasts and the forums and the fact that other than being asked to post some links to the material and a nominal charge for archived podcasts there really isn't a charge for it - compare that the price of virtually any other permaculture resource, i.e. books, videos etc.

paul wheaton wrote:

If you are going to have a camping site there... <snip>

I really like this idea.

ronie McCoy wrote:<snip>Some smaller people might only want to have smaller spots maybe 10'X10'. They could be at a lesser rate...<snip> and annoy Paul $20.00.

I copied your two posts (without the truncations here) over to a new camping sites thread in the paul's farm forum.

I always try to click here before shopping at Amazon. Hope it's helping a teeny bit.

How or where do we bid on naming the creek? Is there any other criteria than just being the highest bidder? Do I have to have my suggestion approved in any way?

Amazon: yes, it is showing up and it does help!

Naming stuff: https://permies.com/t/26994

paul wheaton wrote:Amazon: yes, it is showing up and it does help!

Naming stuff: https://permies.com/t/26994

Good to hear diaper pail liners can be of service!

I'd kinda like to name a squirrel "Permacreature."

Probably the best way to feed the empire now is to buy the 4-DVD set:



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00FBXAFQA/rs12-20

Bump

This might be a bit obscure, but I nominated Paul's stuff for the donations that http://www.fearlesschocolate.com/ gives to what they call "changemakers. "

He made it to a survey list where I think only nominators allowed to vote.

I think it is a cool example of a for-profit business giving back, and I wonder if the permies empire might qualify for others.

Edited to add the link to my submission: http://www.fearlesschocolate.com/changemaker-nomination-paul-wheaton/.

Well I used the link to Amazon on Friday and bought "You Can Farm" Joel Salatin....I hope you get some $ for it...I realize it might not be much but I will be using your link to Amazon from now on.

Erik Little wrote:Well I used the link to Amazon on Friday and bought "You Can Farm" Joel Salatin....I hope you get some $ for it...I realize it might not be much but I will be using your link to Amazon from now on.

I see it!

Congratulations, without parting with any money, you put $1.62 into the pocket of the empire!

Thanks!

Bought some RAM for my laptop the other day on amazon.com through this link, hopefully it's still viable.

George Meljon wrote:Bought some RAM for my laptop the other day on amazon.com through this link, hopefully it's still viable.

Yup! I can see it!

Total income to the empire from that link for the month of june is .... $10.63!

Total income for 2015: $60.80.

Total income for all time: $622.90.

So, putting the link here has paid off!

you should be getting an amazon kickback from the knives I just purchased:)