James Wardell

Thanks for your reply! The beams were laid on top of a couple of rows of solid bricks. Extremely difficult to get access to, without a huge cost. The poured concrete isn't really in a bad condition - but does need to be water proofed. I'm going to clear around the perimeter of the house, dig down a bit, dump broken tiles and then concrete over. I have found that although the septic tank runoff goes into the ditch in front of house, the other bathroom/kitchen sinks empty via individual drain pipes onto the land right next to the side of the house. My mission - to capture rainfall from roof into water storage tanks, and dredge my ditch to keep flow of water away from property.

Greetings...! I'm fixing up an old wooden house. Oak beams laid onto a brick course, no damp proof membrane. An internal concrete floor was poured over the compacted dirt floor in the late 1980s - again no damp proofing. I've got holes around some of the sides of the floor/ground beams - where the beam has rotted away/mice have entered. I have attached photographs. My plan is to clean out as much loose rotten wood/dirt from the holes, and then pour in a thin layer of cement. Then paint the whole floor with the liquid bitumen, then with a butane heat lance and bitumen roll - install a fresh, new damp proof membrane. I am sure that after I have installed roof gutters and weatherproofed the exterior foundation - from penetration rain (the brick course currently has a layer of concrete on it) - the dampness in the land will be improved.

Delighted to hear any advice. Many thanks

A friend of mine is searching for a large area of land in mainland USA to do some training for his team. His organisation is www.sonsoflibertyinternational.com. He can pay a small useage fee. No accomodation needed and no weapon testing. Can anyone help?

Hello everyone, I have been giving serious thought to buying a tractor. I have done quite a bit of research and looked at the walk behind types, "vineyard" tractors, small and medium tractors. I currently have five cows and a bull so in the future this number will grow. This year they have eaten around 20 large, round bales of hay - and I think the final number will be around 25 - 30 bales in total for "winter" feed. I have looked at a Vladimirec T25 and T30 (USSR/Russian made). The T25 is around 25 kw or 33 hp and the T30 is around 35 kw or 46 hp - both have two cylinders. I've seen videos of them tootling around and coping - pulling forestry trailers loaded with cut wood, pulling trailers of hay, corn etc. They can also power a circular saw table with their PTO. They are a small tractor, parts or cheap and still available and pretty straight forward to work on. I've attacked a photo of a T25 (small red tractor). Now the other tractor I've seen is in a whole other league - it's an old Yugoslavian built Torpedo. It has a front loader with attachments, x2 different sized buckets, hay bale spike and pallet forks. It is 51 kw or 68 hp. The loader can shift up to around 800 kgs. Both tractors were built around 1992. The Vladimirec has doen aroudn 1300 hours and the Torpedo has many more... around two years ago it had a new electrical system installed (the old one kept failing) - so it has around 700 hours - but it's been used on a large dairy farm since it was bought new in 1992 - so the working hours will be much higher. The owner tells me that the engine has been fully overhauled and serviced, but that was around four years ago - and there's no paperwork...

It would be my first tractor - and I'd prefer to get something that I can live with for at least the next five years. The main function would be hauling firewood by trailer, cutting it, shifting hay bales, processing grass to make hay (during the two cuts per year) - then bringing the bales to feed the cattle.

I have the cows on the field by my house - and will shift them off as the herd grows to a more remote location. That is a future plan. I'm committed to developing a food forest and so far - planted around 80 mixed fruit trees around my house, and have made a basic raised vegetable patch - but want to increase my productivity and build on my experiences.

The smaller tractor costs around 2287 euro or 2424 USD and the medium sized tractor with front loader costs 8000 euro or 8482 USD, just the loader costs around 2000 euro or 2120 USD. I don't have any trailers, tedders, grass cutting equipment yet. The tractor would be the first thing I get.

I would welcome any advice, thoughts. It would be great to hear how you've gotten on using front loaders or making do with a small tractor and getting "creative"...  

Fantastic, thank you neighbour...! You bring me a wealth of knowledge thank you. Yes, I have discovered a forest of black locust and have used the boiling water technique to germinate the seeds. I'll search for all the plants/trees/shrubs that you mention and see what I can find and plant. I've been re-digging the neglected drainage ditches on the property to reduce the surface water. My wells are full to the brim. Yes, it does get rather windy - something I took note of when I planted some fruit trees last autumn. I read that it's a good idea to face the graft scar away from the prevailing wind direction. It is amazing how much one can learn just by watching and then researching online. Once again - thank you for your time, feedback - you are welcome over here anytime.

Dear Levente

Haha yes indeed the house is in my adopted land of Croatia...! My ultimate goals are to manage a resilient homestead with my family. Selling to local people isn't of such importance, however I would like to welcome the public to come, visit & learn about the techniques I intend on using. Any surplus will be shared out & of course I would love to get back to our traditional European system of bartering. I am a big fan of the "brain drain" from the urban areas back out into the countryside. I myself spent many years working in global advertising, making photo & video shoots only to realise that city, urban living makes me sick both mentally, emotionally & physically. I also get sad when I see so many villages decay because the young have fled to the city (to get themselves in debt & buy stuff they really don't need). However rather than bang my drum against empty, environmentally damaging consumerism - I have decided to create an "island of light" - kind of eco beacon that will hopefully guide those who share similar ideals & pull them closer.

I'm keen on establishing a mixed orchard, and then a no dig vegetable garden (with herb patch). Then in time get some chickens, ducks, goats - and fish for a pond. To keep things ticking over the colder months I intend on building some polytunnels, and will look into installing some kind of root cellar - such as the Groundfridge by Weltevree (http://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/get-back-your-roots-groundfridge-prefab-root-cellar.html).

I will post updates & will be active within this forum - it looks likely a fantastic resource. Thank you very much for your feedback.

Here are the temperature & rainfall charts. I haven't done a sector map yet - because I have not moved in yet.

Dear Permies

This my first post. I am interested to know your feedback regarding the following site:






The land area is 40,000 m2 (around 9 acres) and has a couple of old pear trees on it. The soil is a clay type and flat. There are drainage ditches around the Northern, Western & Southern boundaries. There are two wells on site close to the main farm house. If anyone can help work with me on a possible land use design that would be wonderful. As you can see from the images it is a near total blank canvass for a permaculturalist's paintbrush.

Here is a provisional basic zoning map I've done.


I would be keen to get some fast growing trees planting around the border. I've read that black alder would be good & the Chinese paulownia tree is a very fast grower (Wiki). I would definitely move to establish a mixed fruit tree orchard favouring pears, apples & plums. I am also open to the idea of constructing polytunnels on the site - perhaps to the east of the main farm house so as to occupy an accessible & complimentary location.

Here are some site photographs of the house and nearby land. The long building extending northwards from the back of the main house were used as animal sheds (calves/pigs).













I would hugely appreciate your input. Thank you for your time.