Sandra Graham

This just popped up in one of my news feeds and I thought I would share. Though this describes efforts far less ambitious than a typical permaculture set-up, it’s this kind of research that can move the needle on big ag practices and regulations and funding at the nation scale. Plus, it’s ammunition in talking with skeptics or people new to the concepts. I particularly like the fact that they looked at food security separately from yield. It gets a little dense, but is worth reading to the end.

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adj1914

Yes, I tried to do the sign up but didn’t get the confirmation e-mail so I’m not sure it went through. I am sorry to hear about all the spammers, wish we had out own web robots to track them back to the source and ……

Anyway, I will definitely give it a shot later this fall when my paw paw crop comes in—it’s been getting bigger every year. And I’ll watch for listings to spring up in my area in the meantime. Is there a way to promote this discussion? I’m sure other permies would be interested.

This is a stunningly good idea! Backyard gardeners everywhere could participate pretty painlessly in this and it seems like it would be a lot easier (and less weird) than FB marketplace. In fact, I would make it your goal to ensure that this is a really frictionless for the backyard gardeners that might only occasionally have a bumper crop of fruit or veggies to sell. At the same time, you need a way to filter out the scammers that infest broader online marketplaces. (Staying niche will likely help with that.)

Question, right now all I see are a few postings for Florida and nothing for anywhere else. Is that all there is at the moment?

Jay Clayton wrote:Hay Jeremy,

Thanks for the info.  I will be posting pics of the crane, the transforming/articulated log hauler, and the multi-headed sawmill sometime later this month.

Cheers!

Jay

I am really looking forward to seeing that, old time manual cranes (and any type of force multiplier really) are an interest of mine. I know they were used extensively in shipyards in centuries past, but I’ve never come across any real information on them. Even pictures are rare.

Hi Aida — also in NOVA and would love to connect with a group of permies in this area. Also looking at areas in the western parts of Virginia for a future move and would love to be near a permie community when I do. (Not sure my SO is ready to dive into living inside an intentional community, though that may become a possibility at some point.) If anyone on this thread knows about areas near the Virginia mountains where permies are setting up shop, I would be extremely interested in hearing about them so that I can focus my search in those areas. I know there are some in the Louisa area, but I don’t know if I could handle the heat in that part of the state.

Renee Puvvada wrote:Hi Cécile,

Author Renee Dang here. Your request has been duly noted! Thank you for that suggestion.

I have received several requests from others in colder climates looking to build these systems either underground or heated. I plan to make this the 3rd book in the series very likely (the 2nd one being about rainwater treatment and purification), but in the meantime, please check out the amazing "Essential Rainwater Harvesting" by Michelle and Rob Avis.

They live in Canada and their book goes through the details for the design details of a system that can withstand freezing temperatures. The only downside of the book may be that there aren't as many details to build a cold-weather rainwater system on a DIY basis, and the book is rather technical, but it is a great starting place nonetheless. They really know what they're talking about.

Hi Renee, I’m especially interested in the book on treatment and purification, any thoughts on when that might hit the shelves? My situation is a little trickier, in that the water collected might sit for six months or so before being used, so safety (and lack of growing things) is of keen interest to me. I know the general principle is to run it through sand and charcoal but I feel like I need to know more about the specifics of a practical system. (And designs that I can copy [with info on possible modifications] would be my dream, as it would allow me to buy and preplan everything before expeditions to the remote site.)

You mentioned you grow pepper plants. I don’t know if this will be a permanent state, but nursery prices for plants have skyrocketed this year. A six pack of vegetable seedlings has jumped from 2$ and change, to $7 here. Tiny 2”-3” pots of herbs are now $7 to $10. Ornamental and native plants in 10” pots have more than doubled as well to $38 and up. It seems to me that someone could make a lot of bank this year just offering garden variety vegetable seedlings on Craigslist at a significant discount off the nurseries. Same with herbs, though that will take a bit longer to get them to marketable size. Ornamentals would be a multi-year project, but worth it if these prices are the new norm.

Sit down and actually read “Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual”. Time to remind myself of the fundamentals of permie design and I think most of my garden decisions for this year will flow from that. Have started on chapter 1 and I already feel re-energized and determined.

paul wheaton wrote:About three weeks later, the US shipped and sold a full winters worth of natural gas to europe at 10x the regular price.  Sounds like an extreme profit motivation.  If people learned about rocket mass heaters and started building them, then it could have had a dramatic cut in the profits of the shippers.

By US I’m guessing you mean a U.S. corporation? Would love to know which one but I guess these forums are too too public for that.

David Wieland wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:
I start with the thought of "why don't more people know about rocket mass heaters?"  And now it is clear.  It is a threat to the profits of ...  somebody.  Somebody really big.

The trolling blowout you described is disturbing. Do you know of others who have experienced such a thing? It certainly sounds organized -- but by whom?

It doesn't seem plausible to me that any corporate "competition" would feel threatened enough to bother. It's puzzling, but I wonder if the troll storm was a test of a nefarious tactic for disrupting a social media platform and you were just a random target.

My reaction was similar to yours. While I’m normally extremely impatient with conspiracy theories, what Paul described sounded clearly organized, and I find that quite disturbing. And confusing. Who would really feel threatened by a conversation about RMH? In any case, whether the thread was targeted as a demonstration or because of the topic, the fact that someone had a team (or an algorithm) primed and ready for that attack is, again, really disturbing. But probably useful to know.