Chris Lynn

Thekla! I'm your guy! Christian Huble. I'll PM you my address.

What an absolutely wonderful idea. I have been wanting to send handwritten letters for years... maybe this stranger obligation will get the ball rolling for me. :0

[Edit: Seems like people are enjoying the heat where they're from; we're experiencing NEGATIVE -30 F in Minnesota, USA. ]

1) Practice saying NO! more - As a project manager who is interested in literally everything, I tend to overextend myself.
2) Practice dealing with conflict and having uncomfortable conversations AS THEY COME UP; no longer avoiding or delaying.
3) Improve my fluency in Minnesota/Midwest native plant species and their Latin names.
4) Focus more on growing and developing the relationships in my life, in order to strengthen my personal community.
5) Continue using my flip fone and boot up my raspberry pi so I can begin to use technology responsibly--as a specific tool to complete a specific task--and not waste as much time on social media or mindless scrolling.
#flipfonerevolution

Nicole Alderman wrote:And, the parents who take their kids out of public school to shelter them from the influences of those high need kids, also deprive those high need kids of the positive influence their kids could give them. The whole situation makes me very sad.

This also raises the concern of children without high needs lacking the exposure necessary to understand and empathize with the needs of others. Those same kids grow up to be changemakers and policy writers, without ever having the understanding that other needs exist beyond those that they themselves have experienced.

(Alternative Exemption is a term I have [maybe?] coined which presents the idea of an ethical departure from the Status Quo of common society, with the intention of one day living a life that is complete apart from societal conventions; off-grid living.)

Let's discuss...

Possibly the biggest question of my life that I recall having asked myself before I was even double digits, is whether or not this system can be fixed from within, or if it is better to pull away from society and form a new way of life.

My current standing is thus: This current system of societal structures is fundamentally flawed at a foundational level, and therefore any further structures built upon that foundation would be unstable and unsustainable.

I made my standing because I firmly believe that our system is not broken... our system is geniously contrived and instituted successfully concerning its main principles. It's a top down institution that keeps all the power, control and wealth at the very top, instituting regulations and cleverly designed obstacles that make it extremely difficult to climb to the top.

We find that so many CEO's of major corporations are considered extreme Narcissists and often show signs of Borderline Personality Disorder and Clinical Sociopathy. Well jeez - of course they are!

If we look at it from an objective standpoint: a business is created, and success within that business (NGO/ethical corporations exempt) is measured by capital gains. Typically, those gains are limited by ethics. So, if you have a leader within that company whom is physiologically incapable of experiencing empathy than they would of course be the most efficient, profitable asset to that company.

This is why we have so much corruption. Institutions, such as those within medicine and science, are directly competing for resources within a system whose directive is antithetical to the mission of those said institutions, which should be considered for the purposes of benefiting mankind as a whole.

Discuss.

Have you ever considered experiencing a nomadic lifestyle? I am deeply connected to the national Renaissance Festival community, and for 3 years I lived on the road, crisscrossing the country every 2 months, working only Saturdays and Sundays when the festivals were open. You are not entirely off the grid, but it is an exceptional way to experience nature, community and spiritualism all within a [mostly] self-sustained community of artists and fun, funky people.

I started doing this when I was 19, and it dramatically changed my life for the better. I spent almost a decade with this community, ironing out my emotional and spiritual walk of life, which eventually put me on the path to recovering from severe trauma, and settling into my passion for nature by going to college with clear and precise direction that I did not have when I was 19.

It's just a thought... feel free to contact me with questions.

To begin,

You would be hard pressed to find someone as passionately in love with the European Honey Bee, (Apis mellifera), as I currently am, and have been for the past decade.

That being said, a thought has been nagging at me ever since I [dropped out] of a beekeeping course last summer. Hints to this thought lie in the common name of the honey bee itself, and our understanding of mellifera's origins. Another hint came from my first hearing stories of early American Indians calling the bee, "the White Man's fly," (an interesting thread on the origins and veracity of these stories can be found here: https://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?256722-White-Man-s-Flies-Bees-in-America)

The thought revealed: Are Honey Bees, whose plight for survival in the wake of Colony Collapse Disorder has captured the hearts and imaginations of progressives and conservatives alike, throughout the world, an invasive species?

I would like to begin this conversation with some articles I found with a quick Google search:


https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-bees-you-know-are-killing-bees-you-don%E2%80%99t

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16054-5

https://www.bee-safe.eu/article/invasive-bees-do-no-good/

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/bees-gone-wild/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198217/

https://theconversation.com/bee-battles-why-our-native-pollinators-are-losing-the-war-40620


The deeper issue here is thus: Are we doing more harm than good by propagating advocacy towards crucial environmental issues without establishing a clear understanding of larger environmental relationships and impacts with regards to native ecosystems?

Chew it up and spit it out; I am itching to hear the thoughts of other bee lovers and conservationists.

I have been busy shooting letters and talking to academic advisors and field experts, when it hit me that I should probably return to the community I already love and trust -- Permies!

Let's cut to the chase -- I share Father Paul's passion of "global domination" through the spreading of permaculture wisdom. I am 25 and never went to school, but low and behold! I am returning to school Fall 2018 to start a long and arduous journey towards a degree in Plant Science through the University of Minnesota's CFANS program.

Perhaps, I wonder, my first question is: Am I making the right choice going back to school?

What drove me to this point was,

1) Reading through Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren. AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ for lovers of plants, humans, and words alike. Her prose is sensational, and inspired so much in me.

2) This recurring hypothesis I have, probably prompted by permaculture:

"Is there a correlation between plant systems and human systems, and would a deeper understanding of those systems aid in the designing and implementing of more sustainable, efficient, proactive human systems in a climate of economic, social, political and environmental uncertainty?"

My desire is to be a community developer, a sustainable designer, an innovator and entrepreneur. My greatest abilities in life have to do with fostering human connection; I excel at communicating, empathizing, advocating, and connecting individuals with other individuals who can "get sh!t done." I am just a super passionate middleman between the wants and needs of people and the systems they find themselves in.

What do I do... how do I become more than an angsty 20-something, burning with passion and ambition; to become an actual element of change within a society that is fundamentally and principally flawed.

Help me, permies; you're my only hope!

-disgruntled citizen

Hello,

I am a student of permaculture and a community man. I live in Minneapolis, MN, and am currently looking to lease a city lot for an urban farm.

As it is already late in the season, my ideas for the lot are as such:

-clear the land
-raise funds
-construct some raised beds
-build a year round greenhouse for winter operations
-build a shed and possible workshop space
-set up rain containers for next season


I also have an idea of potentially capturing snowfall over the winter and solarizing it to melt at a steady rate for next seasons additional irrigation or waterheating the greenhouse. Mpls gets roughly 45.5" of snow annually, and I am looking to translate this number into how much irrigation that will give me. (how much water is needed per sqft)

Any ideas here would be helpful, as this is all new to me. I am ambitious, but have nothing to lose and a whole world to gain.


Thanks for the support.
Christian

Im still brainstorming with people, so it is vague, yes. But i also kept it that way because this is a network. We will ally with independant small businesses, coops, large corporate firms, ej movements, social movements, lobby groups, and any sort of permaculture project that comes along, in any field.

The purpose of the project is to be a network of resources, financing, and skilled professionals that can collaborate to help maintain existing projects, use crowd sourcing and social media to get smaller, budding projects the attention and support they need, and send teams of trained professionals to boost speed and efficiency of start ups and new projects.

Project Phoenix is a network of sustainable interests. Our goal is to provide viable solutions to real world problems. We aim to organize individuals, groups, and resources to start effectively reaching the goals of these sustainable ventures, through creative collaboration, labor extension, and media networking.

This network will unify the ongoing effort of organizations and movements across the globe with the intent of sharing resources and venture capital throughout a centralized, expansive network of sustainability.

Utilizing crowd sourcing, we will aid current and new projects in establishing themselves and maintaining integrity through collective accountability.

A series of core teams will first be assembled to sort and compile applicable initiatives, as we begin to add them to our network. These teams will also be responsible for organizing the central themes and goals of Project Phoenix as a whole.

If this seems to interest you or someone you love, comment below.