Adrien Lapointe

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Summary

Credit: Craig Dobbson

In this podcast Jocelyn, Fred and Paul are talking about jump starting community and reaching a critical mass of community member such that it's a self-sustaining entity. They touch back on a past podcast series where they talked about the ickyness that occurred up at the lab last year. There were some troubles with sticky locks on the gate and mice in the willow feeders. Fred explains the details of what happened in these situations and Paul and Jocelyn make observations and comments about how things could have been better handled. All in all, it seems as though the troubles up at the lab were minimal but enough of a catalyst for things to end poorly for some of the residents. Fred notes that the mice were actually taking the toilet paper from the willow wonka.

Paul begins the discussion about community by noting some of the things that have been positive factors in getting to where Wheaton labs has gotten. Of course the first thing is that they have land to call their own. This now gives them the opportunity to experiment and try new things. They talk about how many rocket mass heaters they have on the land. There's twelve of them! WOW! Paul also notes that there are 7 people currently living on the land. The permies.com forums are still growing as well. At the time of this recording, the forums have received 22 million page views in the last month.

There's also a couple of Kickstarter projects in the works. When they are ready, there will be many announcements.

There is still a position available for a "rental coordinator" and there's a 50% commission for all rental fees so there's some potential for the right person to make a little mountain of money if they can make that project sing. For the next few months, the commission is 80%. Know anyone? A position for an assistant instructor for the upcoming PDC is also open.

There are many challenges to building this community. For a while, they talk about building a well, and all of the struggles they've had in getting a functional well going because of lots of comedy in people's lives. They cover some points about renting structures and how that could be a serious income for the right person. That person has to be familiar with a lot of social networks, technology and emails so that they can reach a lot of folks that might want to rent a structure.

Later on, there's some discussion about how there seems to be a big difference between certain communities. Paul talks about this in relation to his knowledge about the computer coder community and the permies community. He notes that there is significantly more drama in the permies community and that it creates special challenges to building a good, stable community in the physical world, such as the one he's trying to create on Wheaton Labs. Jocelyn and Fred agree that people who are bonkers about permaculture also tend to have other curiosities in their personalities and some of those quirks can be a hindrance to community building.

They touch on the idea of symbiotic relationships between the lab residents so that everyone can make their own hours and develop their own ways of doing business, very similar to the idea that Joel Salatin came up with when he spoke about fiefdoms.

Paul also reflects on his PDC experience and how it influenced him to build community. They have a good talk about how a lot of folks attend more than one PDC just for the community experience. They want to hang out with other permaculture people and share a nice experience. Jocelyn takes a second to note that Paul is actually a pretty nice and sweet guy, once folks get to understand his patient yet boisterous personality.

They finish up by talking about how they can spruce up the different events that are coming up. Jocelyn talks about the simple act of taking a walk and learning about wild things. Paul also wishes to have guest instructors for the Peasant PDC. There's a lot of opportunity and many different ways that you can get involved with Wheaton labs. Check it out.

Relevant Threads

Building community
Wheaton labs Main Page
Peasant PDC
Homesteader PDC ATC

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.

This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Lisa Goodspeed
Keith Kuhnsman
thomas adams
Jocelyn Campbell
Julia Mason
Bill Erickson
Dominic Crolius
Josh Phillips
wade L
Suleiman ALAQEL
Ash Jackson is The Scrollbard
Jason Hower
Bill Crim
Full Name
Miroslav Ultrama
James Tutor
David Ingraham
Scott Reid
Wayne Fajkus

3 months ago

podcast 395 - Review of the Song of Increase

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Summary

Credit: Craig Dobbson

This podcast has been more than a year in the making. Paul and Jocelyn sit down to talk about it and right off the bat there's a lot to say. Jacqueline Freeman's book is called "The Song of Increase" and it's about raising honeybees without treatments of any kind. When he first saw the title, Paul thought it was kinda terrible, but once he finished reading the book, he realized that the title was a lot better than his original assessment.

Paul talked to Jacqueline Freeman about her book and he had some comments and questions for her to consider. The two big things that stuck with Paul were stories that are told in the book. The first story is about how bees live their lives and respond to the sounds and activities of the entire hive from the time they are a larva all the way until they make their final pollen collection trip at the end of their lives. Jacqueline spends an enormous of time watching, hearing and understanding the bees.

The podcast continues with a story about the old bee that comes back with a load of pollen. Jacqueline, can tell that it's an old bee based on the damage to their wings and their over all look. Apparently they also emit an odor that can notify the rest of the colony of their age. Because the colony is more important than any individual bee, there is a process by which the bees decide who can enter the hive and who cannot. The old bees eventually reach a point where they are no longer allowed in the hive and so they take a non-flying leap off of the edge of the colony platform and simply give up and lay on the ground until death occurs.

The second thing that was quite stunning was that when Jacqueline and Joseph were going about their chores they noticed that in the bee colony, there is no such thing as "fair". Bees contribute to the colony for the entire span of their lives and the colony will take as much as they can get as a collective, with no concern for the individual. The whole goal is to increase their numbers to the point where the colony is so large that they split up their forces and swarm to create a second colony.

The title of the book comes from the sounds of a happy, growing colony that could potentially split and swarm. Apparently the humm of the hive is a very dynamic and informative thing. Jacqueline has been able to discern the fluctuations in the hum in such a way that she can know what's going on in the hive without really needing to bother the bees too much. Some of the things they hum about are, growth, food, illness, stress and defense.

They talk about the different roles that bees play, such as taking care of brood, defending the gates to the hive, collecting food and capping cells. They all have the ability to do many jobs so whatever is of the highest importance, that's what they will do. Jacqueline believes that the bees really love to give back as much of themselves as they can to the colony. They work themselves to death out of love for the rest of their colony mates.

In the book, there are sections that are called "in our own words", which are Jacqueline's attempt to decipher what the bees are talking about. While this is something of a translation between species, Jacqueline believes that she's gotten a pretty good understanding of what the bees are "saying" with their collective humming. In the audiobook version of her book, Jacqueline has a friend named Robin help out with the bee sounds.

Later in the podcast, they talk about how bees determine which plants are best to harvest from and how they go about performing tasks such as fermentation to increase the value of the foods they collect throughout the season. Along with this they also go in depth about how honeybees have methods and tactics for stabilizing their colony in times of stress or uncertainty.

Jocelyn really enjoyed the book and found it to be amazing in many ways. Paul had an idea that if Jacqueline decided to rework the book, he thought that maybe a religion would form around the book. Jocelyn found that statement rather odd, but Paul has determined that "the book is that profound" and wonderful that some folks might find it quite useful in guided them in their own lives. Not that he'll be signing up for such a religion.

Part of the song of increase is about gratitude for thousands of right actions. This is what leads to a happy healthy colony that is able to split and spread it's awesomeness to new places in the environment.

Relevant Threads

Welcome Jacqueline
Jacqueline's honeybee techniques streaming video
Jacqueline's profile on permies.com
The bee forums on permies.com

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.

3 months ago

podcast 394 - Permaculture Smackdown on Appropriate Technology

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Summary

Credit: Craig Dobbson
In this podcast Josiah and Paul have a good talk about the Appropriate Technology Course that is going to be taught at Wheaton Labs this year. Paul and Josiah discuss what they think are the types of technologies that are applicable to the realm of permaculture. They talk about how these technologies are used to help reduce the amount of toxic stuff in our environment. Much of the talk is about energy tech, such as rocket mass heaters, food dehydrators and electric tractors.

They talk for a while about the structure and layout of the ATC (Appropriate Technology Course), as well as a new event for the year, called the Brown and Purple Schmoozaroo at Allerton Abbey. This will be a community building event for folks who want to mingle and dabble in the Wheaton Lab events, but don't want to get overwhelmed with laborious ATC activities all day long. It's a little more laid back approach to making permaculture community. It's free to anyone who has already been to the lab before and you can stay for a few days or all five weeks. This event coincides with the Peasant PDC.

The biggest project that will be handled during the ATC, will be a complete overhaul of the electric tractor. So many modifications need to be made, but once it's complete, the tractor will be one of the biggest assets at Wheaton Labs. Come on out to the ATC, PDC, Peasant PDC or the Schmoozaroo. All the links are located below.

Relevant Threads

2018 PDC, ATC info page
2018 brown and purple schmoozaroo at allerton abbey
The 2018 Peasant PDC at Wheaton Labs
All of the best stuff at Wheaton Labs

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.

3 months ago

podcast 392 - Joseph Lofthouse on plant breeding - part 1

I just published part 2.

You can find it here

3 months ago

podcast 393 - Joseph Lofthouse on plant breeding - part 2

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Summary

Credit: Craig Dobbson

This is part two of a discussion between Paul, Jocelyn and Joseph Lofthouse. It's a continuation of their conversation from part one.
In this part they start off by talking about the difference between the terms Open Pollination, Heirloom and what Joseph refers to as Promiscuously Pollinated, because he likes to focus on keeping a ton genetic variety in his garden. He really likes yellow crookneck squash, so in order to keep the diversity up, he plants 50 varieties of them in one place. Every year, he adds about ten percent of chaos into the mix of seeds that he's selected. Again, this is all for the diversity and potential for better, stronger crops.

They talk a little bit about the observations that they make and how you can learn a lot about your land and seeds so that you can have better harvests. There are so many interactions between species of all sorts, that you really have to be paying close attention to pick up on some of the tiny details that can make or break a crop.

This podcast is so packed full of information and wonderful conversation between people who really care about spreading the word about landrace growing and permaculture practices. See the links below for even more from Joseph Lofthouse.

Relevant Threads

podcast 392 - Joseph Lofthouse on plant breeding - part 1
Joseph's profile page
Photos from Joseph's garden
Joseph's seeds for sale
Joseph's website

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.

3 months ago

podcast 392 - Joseph Lofthouse on plant breeding - part 1

Get all of the podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

Credit: Craig Dobbson

In this podcast Paul and Jocelyn sit down with Joseph Lofthouse and talk about seeds, plants, breeding plants and foraging. Joseph is known and admired for the specific way that he breeds plants to achieve results that few other plant breeders have been able to duplicate. Joseph is passing through wheaton labs on his way to an organic plant breeders conference and along his journey will be teaching a little bit about what he's up to.

Joseph is a landrace gardener which means he breeds plants to be genetically diverse so that they can be more resilient to all that nature can throw at them as well as be super delicious and reliable. The result is a plant variety that can adapt and overcome a wide range of conditions and circumstances that most other plant of that species cannot. Joseph uses no soil amendments, fertilizers, compost or mulch in his garden. Growing in poor soils allows Joseph to select only the absolute best performing plants. Because of this, when other people grow his seeds in their own fertile soils, they often have outstanding results.

This is part one in a series of talks with Joseph. Be sure to look out for part two coming soon.

Relevant Threads

Joseph's profile page
Photos from Joseph's garden
Joseph's seeds for sale
Joseph's website

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.

3 months ago