Rarna Vanda

There are a few ways to reach a billion people.

!. The bifurcation method.
Talk to two people about your idea, and ask them to also talk to two people. Eventually this will grow into a huge network.

2. The influencer method.
Talk to people who have already got thousands of followers, and by convincing them, you pass on the idea to all their followers too.

3. The viral method.
Create a meme or make a video that will catch people's imagination and go viral on the internet.

4. The advertising method
Literally just pay for it. Make an advert and put it on national TV or on google or wherever will get the best coverage of your demographic.

5. The fame method.
Write a song, form a band, and get famous so you can speak your truth to the masses.

6. The Hollywood method.
Make a big blockbuster film that makes people really think about your message.

Which option you choose really depends on who you know, how much you have to spend, and how creative you are.

Honestly though, I think spreading the message of permaculture is not an easy task, because there is only a limited percentage of the population who even care about gardening, and most of them do it in a more traditional way. This is because of the pressures on people, to live their lives in a certain way ie working 40 hour weeks. Covid did help to focus more people on their gardens, and on nature, so that is a big plus, but even then, permaculture doesn't really apply to small gardens, owned by people who are working a main job in an office, or even those working from home. Permaculture is really relevant to smallholders, homesteaders and small farmers. So if you can reach a good percentage of those people, with the permaculture message, then really that is all that is needed. And honestly I think that has already happened, so well done

I have no experience of ponds, but I used to live half way up a mountain, so we had a lot of runoff, the main idea was to just maintain the drainage in the correct places to let the water flow past us and onto the next lowest area, or into the nearest stream. It was an annual job, digging out the ditches before the main rains came. (or sometimes in the middle of the deluge lol).

We also planted big trees higher up, to stop the water that is falling. Big trees will suck it up.
Lower down we used reeds, and sedges, to make barriers or just to suck up water. Reeds and sedges also clean water, so they are useful if you are wanting to re-use the water.

I had an allergy to soap in my early 20's. No jokes please, it was a real allergy, big red blotchy rash, that spread alarmingly.

So I simply didn't use shampoo, or soap for clothes washing, or any soap on my skin for many years.

And I didn't smell, because I did wash, with plenty of water, and kept myself hydrated on a daily basis. (it's usually dehydration that makes our sweat smell).

After a few years I started to use a very small amount of soap and shampoo on rare occasions, and it was fine, no reaction.

So now (30 years later), I tend to use soap and shampoo and washing liquid about once every few months.

I find my hair, which is lightly curly, tends to look awful, dry and frizzy, for a week or so after it is washed with shampoo, then gradually as the natural oils start to work their way back through, it gets manageable, soft and shiny again. If I leave it more than 3 months it starts to look dull, due to the build up of oils that are not totally brushed out, so then I use some shampoo again, but only a tiny amount.

Just to have a bit of a brag.. I am now 53, and my hair is waist length, thick, and I only have one or two slivers around my temples. So I can safely say, after a 30 year trial, that shampoo is bad for your hair, and only using it very sparingly, will keep your hair much healthier in the long term, and make it look better too in the short term.

Mike Haasl wrote:Hi Rarna, I'm aware of landowners that are looking for new people to take over their land in the US, Canada and Europe.  There is no limitation on where the people live as far as SKIP is concerned.

Great, I will give it a whirl then. Good luck with putting it together, I look forward to seeing the results :D

Mike Haasl wrote:The SKIP program is available to anyone world wide.  The SKIP kickstarter is definitely available world wide.  The 1000+ skills in the book are oriented somewhat towards what Paul thinks is important to permaculture in Montana at his site.  Luckily most of those skills are applicable anywhere in the world.  Does that help?

Yes thanks Mike, what I meant, is will you include homesteaders who are looking for workers, worldwide. Or are the homesteaders just in America?

Hi, can someone tell me if this skip book includes Europe, or is it just for American permaculture people?

Well this seems to be a super old thread, but it was linked in the daily email, so....

I will add my bit.

I actually gave away pretty much everything I owned when I was 19. I lived in various places and worked where and when I felt the need. I didn't live without money, but I lived with a small handful of possessions. A few changes of clothes, a kettle, a radio. That was about it. The reason I needed money was for shelter, and for food. And because of this need, my soul did not feel at ease, I didn't want to be part of the rat race, or work 9-5 for the boss.

So when I met someone a few years later, who had bought and renovated an old ruin, and was attempting to grow their own food, I was very interested, and joined them to help with the process. We put in our own water supply and sewage, and we lived without electricity for many years. We worked on the land, and were lucky to have a lot of local stone and slate readily available to build and work with. (this is how I got into permaculture).

But no matter how hard we tried, for many years, we never managed to totally do without money. We lived on very little, but we never lived without any. Tools were the main thing we needed. None of us had any skill with smelting metal, and although I often used pieces of slate, attached to sticks, to hoe with, and other makeshift things, we needed saws, axes and so on, just to cut firewood to keep warm. Now a purist would say, all metal items can be replaced with flint, slate or pottery. And in theory this is true. But not many people in the modern world have the skill to make these things, or even the materials. Candles were another thing we never managed to have enough of, without buying them, even though we had several bee hives, but we could have expanded that. I did learn an amazing amount of skills though. I learned to spin, weave, make baskets, make flour from acorns, bake with the most random ingredients, forage for wild plants, treat basic ailments with herbs, make tinctures and infusions, grow stuff and save seed, take cuttings, make clay from what I dug from the earth, fire pots, work with wood.. the list goes on and on...

So my eventual summary on living without money, is that it is possible, however it is very very hard, and mostly it is hard because we don't have communities of people who are making different things to trade, but it is also hard because we can't run machines without fuel, or create them without metal, and although it is possible to make things with clay, wicker, twine and wool etc, it is super time consuming. Buying machine made things is something we have come to rely on very much in the modern world.

So eventually I opted for making a small living from my art. It is something I love to do, and also something that I managed to get a regular income from, but it doesn't take up all of my time, and I can work on my own timescale, as and when I feel the need. I use my small amount of money to buy things that I can't make, and that I do need.

And now I have quite a lot of things which I now call 'luxuries'. I have to admit, electricity is great, I love being able to read with an electric light, I love the computer/internet, I love my washing machine. Those are the things I missed the most, when we lived more frugally. But the things I miss about those early days, are the peace, it was so deeply peaceful. And also I miss the challenges, every day brought a new challenge, and I found it so invigorating and honestly satisfying to solve each one. And there are a few things that I never went back to, even after having more money again, television, dishwashers, soap, detergent, a car, to name but a few. Because some things we think we need, and we really just don't need them at all.

So I guess my take on this whole 'living without money' thing, is yes.. it is possible, if you want to give up a lot of the modern things we take for granted, mostly those related to electricity. Of course it is possible, because all human beings lived without money a few hundred years ago anyway, and they lived perfectly happily. I would recommend to anyone, who has never tried living with very little, to do it for a week, or a month, or a year, just so they can appreciate what they do have more keenly. But it is certainly not easy, and I would personally recommend that living more frugally, and naturally, is much better than trying to live without money altogether.

Probably not so easy to do, because it would need to be fired, but I would think the best type would be of clay. Make the inside shiny with a glaze, and the outside rough like bricks. Ever felt a red brick wall that has been in the sun? They get super hot. So that would certainly warm up your clay oven. I'm not sure how you would manage the reflective part on the top, but perhaps that could be made with just a metal sheet, or foil on card, without any styrofoam.

Very useful and comprehensive list, thank you. I never knew Monstera Cheese Plant was poisonous!

Another thing to think of when growing your own food, that I only found out recently, is that some plants just suck up toxins. For improving the soil this is a great feature, but if you are going to eat the plants, you must be sure to grow them in soil that has no toxins in it.

Sunflowers and Tomatos are two of the best toxin suckers.

So if you need to remove toxins from the soil, you can grow tomatos or sunflowers on the soil, then destroy the plants. But if you are eating lots of homegrown tomatos make sure to grow them in good soil!