Adam Lehn

I am planning to get a couple of Nigerian Dwarf goats before next summer. My wife and I want to raise a couple of does for the sake of having fresh raw milk for the family.  I have been doing some research as to where to obtain them, general husbandry, and safe and productive practices.  I reached out to several farmers in my area asking all kinds of questions. One of those questions was "do you offer breeding services?" Most people either gave me a yes or no answer, but one goat keeper gave me an answer that I hadn't even considered: beware of goat diseases. Here is what she said:

"Under no circumstances do I breed any does other than the ones I own here. I spend a lot of money testing my herd every year for those horrible goat diseases and would never risk an unknown as once it is in your herd, you have to pretty much put them down and start over. Which leads me to your plan to purchase goats and breed them elsewhere. I will caution you to be leery, very leery over anyone offering to breed an outside doe. Reputable breeders with exceptional genetics will not risk it. Generally it is people who don't even test who offer outside services. And if you pay 1000 dollars for an animal, why not keep them safe? Goat diseases are much higher on radars than genetics to close. In fact, a lot of breeders line breed. I don't personally, I like to out cross but I have purchased many line bred animals in the past who are some of my exceptional animals."

So....what do y'all think? How prevalent are goat diseases? Is it worth getting an in-tact, stinky buck who has been tested for STDs to sire my small herd?  Would it be worth it to offer to pay for a test for the sire in somebody else's herd, so that I could rest assured that my doe would be safe?

I'm thinking of trying something, and I was wondering if anyone has ever tried it.

So say I inoculated a bunch of coffee grounds with oyster mushroom mycelium. Could I both continue to feed the colony whenever I made more coffee and also take some of the mycelium every now and then and put it in a bag/bucket to fruit it? I'm thinking of something like a sourdough culture...you feed it and you take from it, and the culture lives on all the while. Any thoughts?

Two more pics...the first of how one of the upper windows is currently (and uneffectively) sealed. The second is another door opening.

Here are some more pictures. These show the window openings.

I am thinking about buying some land. I found a beautiful 15 acre parcel for sale for a very reasonable price. The land is on a gentle, south-facing slope. There is a swale already established about halfway down the hill. There is a cistern well at the bottom of the property. The property is a gem.

On the property, there are two monolithic domes. One is advertised as "finished and livable." The other still needs some work. The problem, however, is that even the "finished" dome appears to be in rough shape. There are leaks around pretty much all window and door openings, and the foam insulation is exposed on most of the domes. Small animals have even made nests in the foam. There appears to be a rubber tarp under an insignificant application of some kind of stucco. The tarps has some visible tears in it.

The property is in southern Colorado. Heavy snow and cold temps during the winter. Relatively mild summers. 7200 feet in elevation. I am wondering what you folks out there might have to say about what these domes really need to make them livable. Water-proofing is my number one concern, and it is what makes me most hesitant about wanting to invest in this home.

I have a dilemma that I would like to pose to the permies community, to see what y'all think.

I am almost at the point where I am ready to buy some land. I am currently in Southern Colorado, and love it here. I have been thinking of buying land in this general area for a while. There are lush green fields, rivers running through towns, beautiful mountains, and plenty of sunshine and fresh air.
However, I recently heard about a very dreary climate change forecast. Somebody told me about a report that they read that predicted that in 50 years, Grand Junction, CO will resemble the current climate of Tucson, AZ. That was not the first dreary prediction that I have heard. I also heard spoken that within 10 years Santa Fe, NM will resemble the current climate of Albuquerque. Regardless of the credibility of these reports, climate change seems like something very real, and must be reckoned with and anticipated.

My concern is that if I find a beautiful and lush piece of Earth to put my name on (in the eyes of other humans, at least), will it turn barren within my lifetime? Will I wake up one day and realize that there is no more water? I love it here now, but would it be a better idea to seek land a bit farther North?

Hello all of you cutting-edge minds! I recently relocated to the Olympia area and was hoping to meet some permaculture folks around here. Anyone out there?

Great. Thank you! I had no idea such a society existed.

I was wondering if any of you out there are or know of any mushroom experts in the Fayetteville area. The more I learn about mushrooms and mycelium, the more fascinating they seem to me. I would love to carry lunch and water for an expert if they were willing to take me along on a foraging adventure, and just to discuss the wonderful world of mycelium.

Great topic. Great advice. Thank you all for posting. I'm currently struggling with student loan debt as well, with a degree in philosophy. I've been out of school since 2009 and have held a few jobs since. My first reaction to reading these posts was to reflect on which of those jobs I was best at, which I enjoyed most, and which will give me skills that might help me down the road as a permaculture practitioner. I am trying to stay positive through debt by treating it as a learning experience. Throughout high school and college, I never learned the value of a dollar. If I had, I wouldn't have paid so much for a degree in philosophy, and I would have visited the classics section of a used book store instead, saving a few tens of thousands of dollars. This debt has greatly instilled in me a desire to never be in debt again, which will hopefully lead to skills and principles with which to live the rest of my life, and pass on to my children. So it's not all bad. The struggle will be worth it in the long run. It's good to know that we're not alone in the struggle.