Nina Surya

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the forum!

As I'm reading your post, I can relate to the Big Dream vs challenges of reality-vibe. There's a thread about it here .  
I think working together is a great idea...but do you like the company of others, in a living together (apart) setting?
If so, you might want to also post in the intentional community section !

Good on you to follow your dreams! And good to have the conversation about challenges.
There's always a way. Often the solution is Observation and Time, observe and see where the route of least resistance/most result is.
I do think 'tribal living' is the way forward, but it needs heaps of self-accountability and realism.

Keep us posted!  I'm sure others will chime in as well. Good luck!

What a great resource you've found, Nicole! Thank you for sharing!

The stuff under the leaf gold is applied in layers on the page of paper or vellum;
- gesso to make a slight dome (so that the gold shines no matter what angle you're looking at it), which is polished smooth
- under painting to give the gold a hue. I've come across brick red mostly, to give the gold leaf extra warmth
- glare/glair to stick the gold leaf to the prepared base

Using garlic juice as gold leaf glue makes so super much sense! Those papery peels of it always stick to my fingers when I'm cooking. Learned something new / had a light bulb moment! Thank you

Have you, too, noticed the lovely homesteading videos on social medias?
Gotten carried away by promising projections from what you read in books and see on the internet about abundant gardens, food forests, livestock, processing your own milk and wool, fermenting, renovating, natural building, solar power, rockety contraptions etc?
And tried to do it all??

I'm wondering if there are others who have found the limits of their resources (time and energy, financial) and decided to adjust their envisioned Paradise. And if so, how did you adjust?

This adventure of mine has taken my analytical mind in all kinds of directions.
"I want it all" doesn't balance out with "the two of us". Which made me think of   community and tribe , but I'm not a community kind of gal.

The limits of our land proved too small for pigs. Later we had a horse since our neighbour's donkey needed a friend, but bringing and fetching him, at designated (but shifting) times, two times a day, proved not to be a sustainable option for maintaining low enough stress levels - especially when the said horse wanted to be with his donkey friend 24/7, but couldn't, and would test the robustness of gates and fences.
We now have three small sheep and they're perfect, alongside with the small-ish flock of chicken.

I tried to do all the fermenting, baking and cheesemaking - next to establishing gardens, working on my business and renovating.

When I read all of this back, I can see why there weren't a lot of successes. Some. Small and tasty. And fun. But also a lot of exhaustion and feelings of incompetence.

So I'm simplifying. I believe we can have "it all", but it needs to be in a better order. All at once is a recipe for a steep learning curve ( + ) and exhaustion ( - ).

Getting the basics in place first, and expanding from there if and when the time is right.

Have you had a Too much vs. Simplifying experience? Do share!

Welcome to Permies, Olivia!
A friendly wave from rural France
Nina

Micheal James wrote:Large-breed goats are what happens when the universe accidentally pours equal parts mountain man, demolition expert, philosopher, a sack of concrete and drunk toddler into the same furry body, then adds horns and a poop dispenser out of spite. They spend every waking moment proving that gravity is merely a suggestion and that every object in your possession has secretly been waiting for a goat to eat it or stand on it.

A haiku-

Horned toddler mule
Chaos wears a beard today
The fence learns humility

The warning has been noted, thank you Replying to applaud your totally entertaining writing. The audience asks for more - learning is fun when the writing is this good!

SolarPunk is in the air!

I've previously come across this guy on a (much less nice) social media channel. He's actually living the Solar Punk lifestyle since 2015!
Check out his website here .

A good friend shared this video with me today about SolarPunk!
While I'm not agreeing on the political views, it does have interesting thought seeds to try out.

paul wheaton wrote:
Loppers or pruners.  Cut to 1 foot lengths or shorter.  They lay on the ground pretty good then.  With soil contact they will rot.

Thank you, Paul. Excellent advice. Totally doable. Merci!

I'm now wondering how to get brush/dead wood that is not good enough for the RocketMassHeater into the soil without an excavator?
Clay soil, a woman and a spade. Is it all muscle work or are there "work smart, not hard"-solutions?
.

Posting for a good friend:

"Workshop The Leadership of the Shepherd

An interactief workshop for everyone who works as a shepherd or wants to do so in the future.

Saturday 5th September '26, 10 AM - 4 PM

The wolf. The sheep. The people with dogs. How do you take control of these forces and create harmony?

Location: The Achterhoek region in the Netherlands (exact address will be communicated at reservation)

Investment: 220,- euro's p.p. including fresh lunch, coffee, tea and snacks.

Places are limited to max 10 participants.

For more information, please visit the website of Canine Efficiency ->   canineefficiency.com/workshop ."

Hugo Morvan wrote: Especially if we manage to collect varieties that can easily be propagated by cuttings it could be interesting for some of us to offer people a fire resistant package of possible trees and shrubs. See it as a business opportunity, as well as every saved house is a house that doesn't have to be rebuild and keeping people in the countryside is a matter of importance.

This is super interesting, Hugo! I think it's very much worth while to gather ideas and information on how to fire-proof our homesteads the permie-way, plus selling plants that thrive in this new, arriving ecosystem, catching water and slowing down any fires.

My two things for the portfolio are; grazing animals (I have three little sheep for my 2000m2 grassland) to keep the wild grasses and underbrush short. and the  ponds  I mentioned earlier for catching rain water.
But it would be interesting to gather a list of plants that are drought tolerant, fire repellant and cool and moisten the landscape.
I'm now staring "at nothing" as I try to come up with plants that would fit that description, and I realize I'm looking at a fig tree. Hmm!