Jeremy Laurin

My house in the city of Erie, PA is up for sale and hasn't been doing well (but that's another story). I'm planning for Spring to create some large hugelkulture beds in the back of the yard, butting them up against a fence there.

But, this morning, I got to wondering...what's the best way to improve this land, possibly exciting someone about the ecological opportunity ? I mean since we are trying to sell the house, does it make sense to work with the land to create some earthworks and grow something?

What do you think?

Thank you.

Hi all,

I'm in the market for some property in NW PA around the Erie County area. If you see something that is a few acres or more, priced below $25000 - please let me know. I appreciate any help in this effort. Additionally if anyone in this area wants to make some sort of arrangement I'm looking for as much acreage as I can get really, please send me a message on here and we can talk. Thanks.

- Jeremy

pahanna barineau wrote:it is based on a concrete dome but offsetting cob weakness with a stronger frame and stronger fastener than a wire tie,

Not sure how anyone else took that but that is confusing me. Do you mean you used concrete over the wood skeleton then cob, then the earth berm?

See this link here: https://permies.com/t/14725/critter-care/covenant-poultry-Alternatives

Jeanine Gurley wrote:Exerpt from Permaculture Techniques "a couple of small ponds, perhaps four feet across and 18 inches
deep. Some of them filled with about 12 inches of soil, and some of them filled with about four or five inches of soil.
A pond that size will turn out about two hundred or three hundred frogs
about twice a summer. The tadpoles live in the pond, and the frogs live in
the cabbages, lettuces, and mulch. They return to the pond and you must
make a place for them to get out. A good sort of pond is one that is slightly
higher than the surrounding soil level, built up and paved with stones.
We put sweet alyssum and thyme and garlic between the stones. The alyssum
trails into the edge of the water, and the little frogs climb out on it.
Another thing you can do is to build up a little stone pile in the pond. Frogs
will drown if they can't get out of ponds, so let them have a way out.
Mosquito control is accomplished in two ways. I always put a bit of garlic
around the pond and just squeeze the bulbs out into it. That is the best. That
kills the larva. Just float off your garlic oils. It's about 100% kill. The
garlic doesn't kill tadpoles. The tadpoles eat some mosquitoes, but they are not a control measure."

Here is a pic of my small pond; fed with well water, no pump, overflows into veggie bed. Black things are tadpoles.

http://erie.craigslist.org/reo/3554469778.html

Jock Gill wrote:Paul,

For starters, I would put a link to the article in the very first post in this thread. Currently it is a pain to have to leave this thread to hunt around for it. Make the "end-user experience" fun an d easy -- not obscure.

Secondly, I would look to find ways to break down silos. Make a list of all of the ideas that are compatible with permaculture and then find leaders in each field and work with them?

Cheers,

Jock

Seconding Jock's idea here. Ideas that are compatible with permaculture have a common distrust of the "system" as is.

I would contact people like Lew Rockwell (liberterian freedom advocate), Alex Jones (conspiracy theorist), those at the survivalist forums, the conspiracy forums, natural birthers (home birth), non vaccinating families, homeschoolers (especially unschoolers), extreme green advocates (not sure who that would be), the people at the National Inflation Association (created the college is a scam documentary that went viral among youths last year), 4H national chapter, people that support medical marijuana, ron paul or gary johnson supporters. I'm sure there are more.

Can you think of any more of these leaders in compatible fields? I would love to help with this. Let me know what you want to do. Thanks.

Jeremy Laurin

Hi,

I read elsewhere that it's very important in permaculture and just makes good sense to harvest rainwater which I agree with. However, water is fairly plentiful where I live and we have plenty of underground water for a well. My brother has convinced me that harvesting rainwater won't provide enough water, and we should just go with the well.

What do you all think? Thanks.

Michael Reynolds of Earthship fame stated that the only company in the US using safe materials for rain water harvesting is Pro Panel. It was in his the second DVD. You can watch here if you like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIrOupHnScE

and more info here:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/Earthship/Visit/WaterSystem.htm

Mike Dayton wrote:Welcome Jeremy, Glad to have you aboard, I am pleased to hear about your straw house project. I have been very interested in straw bale buildings for some time now. I live about 3 hours south of Erie, I will be very interested in your progress. Keep us all posted about how you are coming along.

Mike,

Thank you for the warm welcome. I actually used the Ontario data combined with what I've pulled together from the work Penn State did on the Indian Reservation. As of right now I have tentative approval for the building code. I was incredibly lucky to have found such an open minded inspector in our area, he was actually a builder himself and was involved in a handful of "Oehler" style (underground) homes in our area. So far that has been the biggest hurdle was being allowed to build a straw bale structure that is load bearing, we are referring to it as a SIP (structural insulated panel) with cellulose insulation. My inspector understands that is one way around it that doesn't involve a structural engineer. He even said the other day that he wants to see it built and he's excited to see how it turns out. Like I said I feel lucky to have found an inspector such as this, especially after hearing the horror stories about how bad the code people can be at times.

Where abouts do you live?

I am located in NW PA as well. It's very encouraging to see you all on here. I'm well on my way now to developing the first load bearing straw bale house in PA (at least according to the volunteer registry). Planning a permaculture farm/food forest in Eastern Erie County.

Thanks for this thread.