Holly Windsong Greenwood

Yes, the chestnut husks are toxic, thus bitter-tasting and astringent on the tongue.

I LOVE the ideas about using them as critter barriers. If you pile them in windrows, over time, they will make an excellent base for a hugel.

Also like the idea of allowing them to rot inside heavy-duty black plastic bags. Can't wait to try out the resulting mulch/compost.

Oops, after "liking" Matt's posts for paying $500 and $1,000 for an Alan Booker-taught Permaculture Design Course (PDC), I enthusiastically or impatiently hit the "like" button on the $10,000 post. Admittedly, the refresh rate on the "like" button has always been a bit slow for me.

Online PDC course by Oregon State University for professional applications is billed at $1,350. Geoff Lawton's Online PDC course is billed at $1,950. I believe a quality hands-on in-person course is worth up to $2,000 per person. I am committing to pay up to $4,000 tuition for Jessie and me to attend an Alan Booker-taught PDC, plus housing and food.

For more on Alan Booker and PDC at Wheaton Labs, see "2023 Permaculture Design Course for Scientists and Engineers, June 17 - July 1, 2023" at permies. This curriculum and instructors were arranged, but cancelled

I will buy tickets for Jessie and me to an Alan Booker PDC, with expectation it would be offered through Permies at Wheaton Labs Montana Base Camp. Great idea, Beau. Wonderful comment, Matt.

So glad someone rolled the ball this way. Where was my brain before today? Oh, yeah, preoccupied with all those mundane tasks right here in front of me.

Beau, I love that you and Clay have ideas for additional ways to keep alive the forward thrust we experienced at this year's PTJ. Keep us posted, and we will do what we can to keep the conversation alive.

By the last days of this year's PTJ, the thrill of seeing the walls of the root cellar stand, the satisfaction of eating pizza baked in the rocket mass oven, the sweet birdsong around the soil-capped humus well, and the friendships made became powerful inducements to continue contributing. Even those who couldn't commit money or time this far ahead of next summer don't want to miss out.

I feel fortunate to be able to plan to return this summer. Jessie and I are looking forward to continuing work on the dog park fencing and the paths around it and Dogstar. Not everyone has this luxury. I haven't in previous years.

Good idea, Clay, and very glad you bought tickets to help bring the 2025 PTJ to fruition

Jessie and I are deeply disappointed, but will be looking for additional ways to remain engaged with permies and Wheaton Labs. (Note that we bought tickets for both 2025 PTJ events, before the discounted 3-week tickets were offered.)

See all you current residents of Base Camp and Wheaton Labs within the next three weeks. We plan to work on both sprucing up Ama-Zheng Dogstar and the Bark Park. Will post when we have dates for our next stay.

Re: background color for the new deck. Three colors made me say "Ooo, ahhh,"  so instead of voting for 1, I am ranking them. Most pizzaz = purple; most gorgeous in a refined way = green (also my favorite color, so biased); most wowee-zowee = yellow, which on my screen looks quite golden, so the overall impression is of richness.

Beau, this broad motivation is precisely mine for spending a month this summer at Wheaton Labs. I'm SO EXCITED that Boots will contribute time, effort, energy to the project of building a dog run with my partner Jessie and me, because that makes this a communal project. Communal projects bond us into community. Jessie and I have spent the past four years questing for our forever community. We haven't yet found the geographic locale for our forever home, but our work with other farmers and gardeners has created a web of mutual concern within which we move.

My aim when considering where to sink roots is along the lines of finding and growing a community devoted to holistic nurturance. I look as much to the quality of the social network, as to material and tangible benefits. There must exist a fundamental devotion to spiritual harmony with all resonant beings, as much as to material harmony with the natural world. If not, a lot of underhanded undermining erodes the social fabric that unites us for common purposes.

That spiritual harmony will be effectuated differently in different communities, but it always must be grounded in respect for individuals. It helps if we are glad to give and to receive, to be there, to do our share, because then we are more able to create and sustain equality and shared purpose.

Ah, yes, the trusty old all-around useful compost/mulch fork. Have fun.

Timothy, please post a photo of your new mulching fork, when it arrives, or when you've worked with it long enough to also post an evaluation of its merits and drawbacks. This was an interesting discussion for a handtools nerd. 😊