You know you're a permie when...

Any coffee grounds and paper go not to a land fill, but somewhere into a production cycle to get recycled.

Posting this on Thanksgiving:
When you realize if you asked the neighbors "what kind of pumpkin did you make your pies out of?" The answer would be a brand name.
I made mine out of a Blue Doll, I don't know a brand name, I know a variety name :D

When you go to Starbucks in the fall not for a pumpkin latte, but to get all the used coffee grounds for the soil around your pumpkins, both to keep critters from chewing them and to replenish nitrogen they took from the soil.

When you're listening to Christmas music and are horror struck when you hear the line in Away in a Manger, "the little lord Jesus asleep on the hay" because you immediately start thinking about all the toxic chemicals it probably has on it and how harmful that would be for a newborn. Then you remember that they didn't have aminopyralids and roundup in those days and go back to baking pumpkin pie from your abundant pumpkin harvest.

When your fall and winter "decor" revolves around pumpkins, because you have a tiny house and nowhere to put all of them other than your main living space.

There seems to be a theme here...I think the pumpkins took over my brain, along with the yard.

When you dog has a bout of explosive, fire hose diarrhea at 3 am, you go to let him out (no lights on), and your wool socks end up saturated with the vile stuff. But dammit! They're perfectly good wool socks, no holes or anything. So you throw them out in the frozen snow, knowing you will get over the revulsion and find a way to clean them.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:When you dog has a bout of explosive, fire hose diarrhea at 3 am, you go to let him out (no lights on), and your wool socks end up saturated with the vile stuff. But dammit! They're perfectly good wool socks, no holes or anything. So you throw them out in the frozen snow, knowing you will get over the revulsion and find a way to clean them.

Rinse as much out as you can. Sprinkle with baking soda and let it soak in for an hour. Rinse with vinegar until the fizzing stops.

You'd be amazed how well that gets things out!

When you have a moment of joy finding a bunch of nicely harvested, dried and stored mushrooms in your shed. And then you realize the squirrels didn't label the species. Dammit.

I have 1/4 acre land neglected for years and it's covered with invasives. I want to turn it into a food forest/ wild life habitat. I looked up to see how many pep badges I am going to get out of this project.  At least 8 if I remember to take pictures: odd ball--making biochar; making twine; making basket; brush pile; seed balls; dropping tree with bow saw; dropping dead tree with chain saw; and fresh harvest.

I knew I was a permie when:

I went to my local mom and pop hardware store and gleefully found them selling red wriggler worms, live ladybugs, and praying mantis egg cases.
I bought my new half-acre property and gave my husband a long list of bushes that needed to get pulled out because they were purely ornamental. Then we went to the nursery to replace them with edibles.
I have a great place on my property to put a few more fruit trees, but planting them in that spot would make it difficult for the mulch delivery truck to turn around. And by golly, free mulch delivered from a big ol' dump truck is a blessing!
I could've be a SKIP badge expert if I'd joined this site about 4 years ago! Time to start documenting my projects, I suppose.
Hubbie and sons collected free firewood from fallen trees after a windstorm blew through our neighborhood. About a cord of free hardwood!
We picked up an old dog kennel set out with the neighbor's trash because the size was just right to extend the gate of the chicken run.
We go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore not necessarily for home repair parts, but because they sell windows we can use for cold frames. And the old guy who runs the till thinks we're weirdly cool.
We foraged for bamboo because it makes great trellis supports.
I air layered a fig tree just because I wanted to learn how to do it.
I saved an apple seed that was sprouting inside the apple core. Now it's almost 6 inches tall.
I found a pecan sprouting in my compost bin. Moved it to a reused cottage cheese container to let it do its thing.

You know you're a permie when...

you give a garbage can of duck shit to your neighbor. Merry Christmas!

You know your neighbor's a permie when...

you get a big smile in return! Paid in full!

(Actually, he's known to give us fresh salmon if he goes fishing and has more than he can use - fresh salmon and a smile, in return for duck shit and we're both happy!)

When your husband gives up trying to remember all the names of things you do, and calls them all "making." ... Growing food=making food, knitting/felting/weaving/sewing=making cloth, etc. (He usually half-joking calls all my fibre art stuff "knitting" ). And then he tells you that "buying lives matter" (his hobbies require buying hot wheels or other collectibles).

When your 4-year old daughter gets a doll and realizes the dress was cheaply made, and says, "It's probably made out of polyester. Mama, can you sew Cinderella a new dress?" And so you spend the next two hours making a tiny dress from an old blue blouse and fabric left over from a project 14 years ago...

When looking at seed catalogs is a family affair that requires a multicolored pen to indicate who wants what for their gardens (and everyone has at least one garden bed)....

When you pull out a weed to add to operations, and get the whole root out Happy!   when plant snaps off without root or much of one (or a handy mallet/pick axe near by) feel a little bummed and move to next weed.
Weeding is great activity after a rain!

Nicole Alderman wrote:When looking at seed catalogs is a family affair that requires a multicolored pen to indicate who wants what for their gardens (and everyone has at least one garden bed)....

Hahah, love that! :-)

You're forced to go to the laundromat cause your rainwater supply is running low. In the hopes of avoiding contaminating your laundry with other people's smelly detergents, you skip the dryers there and opt to hang it in your bathroom to dry. Alas, the trace amounts of detergent make the laundry reek of whatever chemical cocktail it is that normal people think smells "clean".
Then you're struck by the fact that your unvented composting toilet smells better to you than said "clean" laundry, which makes you feel so sick that you have to put it outside to air out.

And then you go back to pondering which is really your favorite song about composting toilets, "Your Potty is a Wonderland" by the Watershed Management group or "Dad's Dunny" by Formidable Vegetable. So hard to choose...

Just gonna drop this here:

Hee hee, saw this on facebook



(Did the image show up? Sometimes they don't show up when copied from facebook...)

You are tempted by an ad for free, heavy duty bubble wrap. An entire shipping container full -- 150,000 square feet. And you start calculating uses (frost cover, insulated greenhouse, adult bouncy castle) while simultaneously calculating the possibility of divorce if you take it.

....if your son comes up with idea to make a rocket stove out of his magnet tile blocks, and fills it full of pencils for fuel and puts a potato fry from your garden in the "pot" on top to cook.

You're at a friend's house, looking out at his sloping lawn, and imagining where the swales would likely go.

The glass of water you just tried to drink out of had seeds soaking in it.

You run outside chortleing with glee in a rain event
You refer to a storm as a rain event
You plant buckwheat so it will become wild and your grandchildren can forage it if there's a famine
You LOVE "invasives", the more the better (especially if they're edible, just imagine; a food source that you can't get rid of!)
Your friends can see you have experience in some sphere of knowledge, but for the life of them can't figure out which one

Amy Arnett wrote:The glass of water you just tried to drink out of had seeds soaking in it.

and you immediately recall that tomato seeds are viable after passing through the digestive system . . .

Phil Gardener wrote:

Amy Arnett wrote:The glass of water you just tried to drink out of had seeds soaking in it.

and you immediately recall that tomato seeds are viable after passing through the digestive system . . .

so you choose carefully where you're going to put your next couple of "deposits" - seeds and fertilizer in one drop...

Jay Angler wrote:

Phil Gardener wrote:

Amy Arnett wrote:The glass of water you just tried to drink out of had seeds soaking in it.

and you immediately recall that tomato seeds are viable after passing through the digestive system . . .

so you choose carefully where you're going to put your next couple of "deposits" - seeds and fertilizer in one drop...

Oh crap, you're right!

You are a permie when you live in a rented place and have made the perfect Plan and set up a perfect farm concept for end of 2021 on a 29 acre plot.
...just to realize, that all the little trees from the seeds you ordered worldwide proving that you have the green thumb and turning your backyard into a thick impenetrate able jungle way too early.

OK, I have one more.

You know you are a permie when COVID separated you and your husband for more than one year...

...and you still discuss in your emails if the own design of a hand seeder
and a DIY wood chipper made with knifes out of a leaf spring for a truck
would be lasting a lifetime compared to the ones you can buy online?

(Actually it would be a great Topic to discuss with all of you before my husband returns and disappears for weeks in his workshop. Where to post this?)  

But actually it made us laughing yesterday as this discussion is already ongoing for weeks.
I want to order online and he is the engineer who love to improve things and making them by himself.
COVID separation and life crisis? I don't think we have, we are way to busy planning our farm and the equipment to use... (and control the jungle I made out of our backyard seen in the former post here, OOPS!)

Maybe post it in the projects forum https://permies.com/f/69/projects or gear forum https://permies.com/f/91/gear?

When a field of neat single species grass sets off alarm bells, while a ‘weedy’ field of varies species (including broadleaf herbs, shrubs, legumes) looks like a future.

When you've just moved to a new property and suddenly have a mega, mega rain event and the dry creek overflows for a week, floods both fields in the centre of which now runs a river, that ends up in not one but two lakes. The water is running from all directions ending up in your property, drowning the newly planted fruit trees, and instead of seeing a disaster you run around and shout: YEEES!!!  We were right.  This is exactly where we planned the ponds and the ditches and dams and creeks and trenches etc.. YES, YES, YES!!!

You know you are a permie when ...

You look at all the limbs that were cut from your tree that was damaged in an ice storm and think ... lumber and wood chips!

When you stack functions for most things.  Maple syrup, shade tree, erosion stopper, chicken soup maker....

Anne Miller wrote:You know you are a permie when ...

You look at all the limbs that were cut from your tree that was damaged in an ice storm and think ... lumber and wood chips!

Can't help but think of David the Good saying "Throw it directly on the ground!"  

Don't throw good building material on the ground of course...just all those bits you can't use

Olga Booker wrote:When you've just moved to a new property and suddenly have a mega, mega rain event and the dry creek overflows for a week, floods both fields in the centre of which now runs a river, that ends up in not one but two lakes. The water is running from all directions ending up in your property, drowning the newly planted fruit trees, and instead of seeing a disaster you run around and shout: YEEES!!!  We were right.  This is exactly where we planned the ponds and the ditches and dams and creeks and trenches etc.. YES, YES, YES!!!

You know you're a permie when you go "but land shape and water are #2 and #3 while plant systems are #5 - why'd she plant first?", but then you realize you did the same thing ;)

I smell some earthworks in your future :D  Speaking from my past couple years of experience, it's well worth just renting the machine and learning to do it yourselves - no one else will ever be able to understand the 3 dimensional image in your mind well enough to do the job right. And the moment you return that rental, you'll have a million more jobs lined up for the next time!

"but land shape and water are #2 and #3 while plant systems are #5 - why'd she plant first?",

Ah!  Too true, my friend!  Simple answer, we had some fruit trees gifted to us as a "Good luck to your new home" and impatience being what it is ...  And yes, we do have some serious earth works coming up, but I would not want to start in the saturated land at the moment, so I know I'm a permie when I'm chomping at the bit, waiting for the land to drain, and seeing all the possibilities and the future in the design and yes, when a bit ahead of myself, I plant a few things!

I think the few rays of sunshine heralding springtime have gone to my head.  I'm just like a kid waiting for Christmas, I can hardly contain myself!!!

You know you're a permie when.....


you log on to permies.com because you are having a tough day and it always makes you feel MUCH better.

... When you brush your hair and clip your nails you think about the compost it will create.

... When you collect leaves on walks. For not only identification purposes, but also diversity for your compost pile.

... Being in charge of your community garden compost feels like you've succeeded in life.

... Collect detritus and rotted wood from the waterways.

... "Rescue" plants from places they will certainly soon die.

... Ask people what they are spraying in public places.

....you know you are a permie

...when you enjoy your day off, scrolling through your town and spot a leafless tree with a dry root ball in a broken pot somebody put beside the garbage can.

your mind changes from relaxed walking into a instinctive hunter and gatherer modus, you break a twig and see it has still sap and your mind changes further to rescue mode....

You carry that tree all the way to the next gas station, dump the root ball into the windscreen water bucket, taking the swearing from the owner of the gas station, passing then with the more heavier tree by the garden shop, ignore the moaning from the employee dripping the mud through the whole shop, buy a bag of 20 kilo best soil smiling at about 50 people staring at you who have seen the tree in the garbage , and returning fast home.

Within 5 minutes the tree has a new spot, your mind gets clear again and you ask yourself, why the heck I plant a half dead Ficus Benjamini into my garden???
and
It takes you weeks finding an excuse by searching benefits this tree would bring me in the future.

What are the uses of Ficus Benjamina? I’m having trouble finding any.