Miles Flansburg wrote:Gary, have you seen this thread?
https://permies.com/t/27663/labs/volunteer-visit-apply-paid-position
Perhaps you could work something out that would benefit you both?
You still don't understand that money is the, well, root of all the problems in the world.
Money is not the root of all evil. Evil is the root of all evil.
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
Therefore if 50% wanted Zone 1 food gardening, 30% wanted bees and 20% wanted hobbit homes, then you'd allocate your resources accordingly and tackle the projects as simultaneously as was feasible -- B. Freeman
Nerds be nerding...
QuickBooks set up and Bookkeeping for Small Businesses and Farms - jocelyncampbell.com
Moderator, Treatment Free Beekeepers group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/treatmentfreebeekeepers/
Michael Cox wrote:Publishing data openly can be very inspiring. I've followed the Smart Passive Income Blog for quite a while and he makes a point of publishing his monthly earnings with a complete and detailed breakdown of what has come from where.
This makes a lot of sense for him in his niche (advising people how to set up websites to earn cash) and is a major selling point for him.
It may be that a similar approach based on permaculture farming might be equally inspiring. The difference I guess is that the "bottom line" for permaculture farms isn't just financial. You would probably want to summarise environmental gains year on year (fruit trees gaining maturity so increasing yeild, soil fertility building, biodiversity increase etc...), number of people supported by the farm (eg 5 families, vrs one industrial farmer), products yeilded regardless of whether they are sold or used on site.
One of the biggest barriers to promoting permaculture to mainstream agriculture is that hard figures are difficult to come by - how much will I save by not fertilising my fields? how will this affect yield over 1 year, over 5 years, over 20 years...
If we get a few large permaculture establishments publsihing this kind of information openly and transparently over an extended period then we will have ammunition to use. Flying into a farm for a walk around video tour gives a great snapshot but it is nearly impossible to get a sense for the underlying financial security of an establishment on that kind of basis.
QuickBooks set up and Bookkeeping for Small Businesses and Farms - jocelyncampbell.com
Jocelyn Campbell wrote:
I think Paul would say if you want this, then you should do it! While it would be lovely to gain that knowledge from others' efforts, I think it would take some serious shifts before that will happen here or other places.
Moderator, Treatment Free Beekeepers group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/treatmentfreebeekeepers/
Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Bill, in my experience, accountants treat financial information with confidentiality. So I most definitely will NOT be posting accounting information (about anyone) in the fora. As others have said, this is not a nonprofit where finances are made permies.
paul wheaton wrote:show that a wofati shell can be built for one tenth the cost of a conventional home
show that a wofati shell can be built in one half the time of a conventional home
show that a wofati house can be built for half the cost of a conventional house when you pay for labor
optimize rocket mass heater technology so that the shippable core is cheap and public buy in is far stronger
highest food production per acre for montana without irrigation or fertilizer
highest ag income per acre for montana without irrigation or fertilizer
Nerds be nerding...
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
Martin Vandepas wrote:I'm curious what your hesitation is with sharing more financial details. Privacy? It would be helpful to others thinking of starting similar projects...how much $ for land? trackhoe? structures for housing volunteers? Maybe some of this information is already out there in podcast form. I'll admit I haven't heard any of the recent ones.
Subtropical desert (Köppen: BWh)
Elevation: 1090 ft Annual rainfall: 7"
Andy Reed wrote: I'm not in tune with your goal for the most profit per acre, but I can see the reasoning behind it. I'd more agree with a goal of the lowest costs, per acre or unit of food
Andy Reed wrote: I know it takes a lot of money to set up a farm, and I think it's great you came out and told us all how you felt about money grubbing. For a while last year I was getting sick of the constant stream of requests for funding, but that's how you get things done, go for it. I chipped in for the earthworks kickstarter once you came up with a decent reward.
Subtropical desert (Köppen: BWh)
Elevation: 1090 ft Annual rainfall: 7"
Andy Reed wrote: I chipped in for the earthworks kickstarter once you came up with a decent reward.
My project thread
Agriculture collects solar energy two-dimensionally; but silviculture collects it three dimensionally.
Cj Verde wrote:
Andy Reed wrote: I chipped in for the earthworks kickstarter once you came up with a decent reward.
My reaction to this is totally different from Jen's (& I'm normally pretty quick to take offense)!
Subtropical desert (Köppen: BWh)
Elevation: 1090 ft Annual rainfall: 7"
Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:
You sayin' I may have fallen out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?![]()
My project thread
Agriculture collects solar energy two-dimensionally; but silviculture collects it three dimensionally.
paul wheaton wrote:
So, here is some of the criticism from this morning:
Donate here, buy this, fund that... It gets tiring after a while as this is not what I thought I was signing up for. I've read a post where you used to make over 100k a year which is a lot more than some of us make in several years so yeah... the reason I don't support what you do is that I have not gotten any real quality newsletters to be honest. When I say quality, I mean good content, stuff that will teach me something.
Yes, I gave up a lucrative career because I felt that this permaculture work was just that important.
Yes, I don't give away as much free stuff lately. Of course, the TED talk was free. Wait - I actually had to pay to get up there and back. And pay for a bunch of stuff there. And it took a good three days out of my life. I didn't get paid anything.
Just looking at the last 30 days: the mason bee video, paying for innovation, supporting geoff lawton's free stuff, my tiny contributions to some of the allan savory stuff, i was on four radio shows, the porta-wood-shed, supporting a new permaculture author, paying thousands of dollars so that people with poor internet can get the videos and podcasts, on two podcasts, giving away four new podcasts for free, talking to lots of instructors for lots of topics to bring them more business and somehow find more ways to get what is in their brains into more brains, my contribution to the survival summit, one magazine interview, heaps of rocket mass heater work that i am paying thousands for ... this is probably about half of it. And this is just for the last 30 days.
And, of course, I guess my past work doesn't count. The only thing that counts is "what have you done for me lately."
One of your previous issues talked about the desert and it was supposed to be great content... maybe to you, but I live in the north of Canada and it was -44 c last Monday. Besides the point that I don't support the idea of living in the desert, it just does not apply nor will it ever apply to me so I cannot relate to the content your provide, it's just too much off topic for where my interests lie.
I guess it is true: you must be THIS smart to ride this ride. This is a technique called "observation". If you can grow a garden in a desert without irrigation, then surely you can grow a garden in a place with ample water without irrigation.
... ...
...
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
Jackie
~ Be the change!
We now have the land. And it is clear that the thing we need is a critical mass of people that want to be part of all this. And people need food and a bunk. Focus has been on shelter and once the ground thaws we will start focusing on food production. And then focus has to go back to shelter.
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
paul wheaton wrote: And I have put in a lot of work to connect that content with 35 million brains.
I have found that the kickstarter path is making it so that I can reach people that I cannot reach with the free content.
We now have the land. And it is clear that the thing we need is a critical mass of people that want to be part of all this. And people need food and a bunk. Focus has been on shelter and once the ground thaws we will start focusing on food production. And then focus has to go back to shelter.
With a critical mass of people, ideas can feed ideas which feed ideas; difficult tasks become easier; overall velocity is improved; work is more of a joy and less of a burden.
I see a lot of organizations get grants for millions of dollars per year for ten years to accomplish what has been accomplished with the empire so far. And fail. We have accomplished what they could not using baling wire, duct tape, rubber bands and sheer will. And now we go even bigger. We now have a recipe to fuel these projects: the kickstarters.
The kickstarters fund projects. Projects lead to more kickstarters which funds even more projects.
The "goal" price for a kickstarter is set to be the "barely break even" price. So when we meet the minimum goal, nothing extra goes to projects.
Bottom line: the more we bring in from the kickstarters, the more velocity we have with our projects.
My books, movies, videos, podcasts, events ... the big collection of paul wheaton stuff!
“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.”
― Voltaire
I will suppress my every urge. But not this shameless plug:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
|