Rhiannon Drake

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Summary

Paul and Uncle Mud talk about warmer homes with less wood.

Paul starts off talking about slow burning.  People try to burn the fire real slow so that it's warm in the morning.  Slow burns are inefficient.  Paul doesn't like having a fire alight at night when you're asleep.  For example, you could have a chimney fire.

Paul thinks if you have the house warm at bedtime, the best thing is to shut the air intake completely.  If you leave a slow fire burning it can draw heat out of the house.  The air intake should always be shut when the fire is out.  Mud points out that modern codes require an outside air intake, but it still needs to be shut when the fire is out so it doesn't lose heat during the night.  Paul doesn't like external intakes.  Mud points out that some homes are so well sealed that there isn't enough airflow.  Paul points out that various things do have vents, like the bathroom, or dryers.

The next thing you can do is to add mass.  The best place to add mass is on the top of the stove but not directly onto the top. When you have a good fire before bedtime, the mass gets hot and gives off heat during the night.

Mud talks about the origins of mass heaters, which are in Scandinavia and Russia, where they built a big masonry stove and put the bed on the top of it.  They didn't heat the whole house, just the bed.  The mass took a long time to heat and took a lot of attention to get it fully charged.

Paul gets emphatic about burning green wood.  Wood should always be dry. Mud agrees, green wood is horribly inefficient and can cause chimney fires.

Mud talks about strategies to limit the cold air getting into the house, and warm air getting out.

Paul says fans can be useful to distribute the heat but they need careful use.  He's also been working on ideas like de-humidifiers in the bathroom

Relevant Threads

Wood Burning Stoves forum
Thermal Mass forum

Building to hold out the Russian winters

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

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Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

part 2 of a 2 part podcast

Paul continues talking about gardening gardeners with Samantha

Paul comes back to the woman from Portland who he mentioned earlier and thinks maybe she would benefit from attending boot camp.

He also comments about changes he's made to how boot camp runs, based on his observations in Portland:  boots' time is divided between boot time and personal time.  Previously, harvesting food and storing it for the future was boot time, but feeding just yourself was personal time.  The change he's made is that preparing any meal primarily from the garden is now on boot time, and that makes people more keen to do that, so that more gardening activity is happening.

Samantha says Paul's program is wonderfully organized and every time she goes home she makes changes to how she runs her homestead based on it.

Samantha wonders how Paul sees his operation vs WWOOF.  Paul says he's seen many people who were part of WWOOF but now aren't, as overall it created more hassle and didn't get any more done.  He relates that Helen Atthowe and Joseph Lofthouse both reckon that about 1 in 20 people who offer to help actually allows them to get more done.  Paul wants the other 95% to attend boot camp, he feels that they could become good gardeners.  In boot camp, expectations for the first week are super low.  The main difference is WWOOF is largely farmers not gardeners.

Paul is working up a model for gardening gardeners and intends to write a book about it.  He relates another couple of tales: A farmer with a lot of fruit trees, and wasn't able to use it all, or give it away.  Paul feels he was bummed about that - but reckons that this would be an ideal location for gardening gardeners.  He also talks about Samantha's neighbor who has an amazing garden but, like the other guy, doesn't managed to use all the food he produces, and again, he could be gardening gardeners.  

Finally Paul reminds us that you can grow sunchokes, walking onions and kale, which can be harvested most of the year and this takes away some of the sadness at missing half the fruit harvest.

Relevant Threads

permaculture bootcamp - gardening gardeners; grow the food you eat and build your own home

wwoofing forum

The great big thread of sunchoke info - growing, storing, eating/recipes, science facts

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
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Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
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Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Paul is with Samantha talking about gardening gardeners

Paul has been visiting Portland, OR and has been to a bunch of potlucks.  During this, he saw a lot of pear trees but a lot of pears on the ground.  People seemed not to be able to preserve or use all the harvest.  Yet other people he visits dream of having a pear tree.

As an example he talks of a place where a woman has 3 houses surrounded by a large garden with a community of about 8 people, and all of them were supposed to be gardeners.  However, the people seem unable to do anything about using the pears.  Paul feels she's unhappy as it hasn't worked out.

Paul's Boot camp is one example of what Paul calls gardening gardeners - a community which grows food and all work to gather harvest and preserve it.  Paul recalls his community in Seattle, where everyone was keen on the idea of gardening and permaculture but almost all weren't keen to actually do it.  Unlike the earlier community, boots don't pay rent.  They contribute to the community in order to support it.  Samantha says this makes them free from the everyday need to earn money to survive, and thus are able to spend time gardening.

Samantha feels that comes down to people's values, for some people the value of things like social life outweigh the value of growing your own food.  

Paul feels that the "gardeners" from the earlier example would likely fit well into a program such as boot camp, and be happier than being stuck in the "conventional" existence of working a worky job to pay for their lifestyle and which leaves them little time to actually be gardeners.  He's convinced that one good success with gardening gardeners would mean the idea would spread.  

Relevant Threads

Welcome to the new Pears forum
Pears forum

permaculture bootcamp - gardening gardeners; grow the food you eat and build your own home

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
Download

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

Paul continues Brock's consultation.

Paul suggests Brock plants re-seeding kale.  He thinks he's seen some kale on one of Brock's pictures, but apparently it's Brussels sprouts which Paul thinks are disgusting.  However Brock's family like them which causes Paul to think they're weird.

Paul asks Brock what else he wants to know.  Brock would like his thoughts on adding more hügelkulturs.  Paul says that in general hügelkulturs should run up and down any slope to avoid frost pockets and they should also be wiggly so as to reduce the effects of wind.

Brock also wants to add fruit trees and bushes.  Paul asks about the annual precip, it's normally 30-40" but this year Brock measured 50".  It's pretty wet.  The soil is quite sandy, so it drains well.  Paul thinks the fruit trees would do well near the bottom of the hügelkulturs, favoring the north side so when the trees get bigger there is still some sun.

Brock's also interested in something to feed the chickens.  Paul suggests paddocks.  The idea is to grow stuff in the paddock, and harvest it before the chickens go in there.  The chickens get to rotate around the paddocks.  Paul brings up the subject of mulberries which he can't stand.  The thing about mulberries is that birds eat mulberries first.

For developing the plot, Paul suggests focusing on a quarter acre each year, and make that awesome.  Brock plans to cut the dead/dying trees and will build hügelkulturs with the wood but it's likely to be late in the season to plant them.  Paul suggests plants to help build soil over winter like radish or Kale which can grow through the winter to help build soil.  You could also grow comfrey in spots which aren't yet fully planted; it will make mulch.

Relevant Threads

Midwest USA regional forum

Hugelkultur forum
Rotational Grazing forum
Chickens forum

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

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Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Brock lives in Minnesota which is cold in winter.  There are lots of lakes.  He's already listened to a bunch of Paul's podcasts.

He has 3 raised beds and a crab apple tree in front of the house where it's sunny, to grow vegetables. The property is mostly flat and is about 2 acres; he aims to feed 5 people and some chickens.  Right now he has a lot of cucumbers.  He planted a bunch of potatoes and beans but the rabbits ate a lot of them.  He plans to rabbit proof the fence.  

His wife likes cooking and canning, but mostly the gardening falls to him.  Paul thinks that's a big bonus.

He's already started making a hügelkultur, using ash trees which are being killed by off pests.  He has more dead trees to cut down.

They talk about RMHs, but there is a robust department of making you sad, plus a neighbor who tends to object to stuff.  Paul suggests building an extra big berm between him and the neighbor.  Paul says you have to comply with the government at all times so they have nothing to complain about.

Brock needs soil for the proposed hügelkulturs and mentions he has a source of compost which is bio-assayed.  However, Paul points out the pitfalls of the bio-assay and doesn't recommend importing it.  Instead, he suggests digging in between the hügelkulturs and using the nice clean soil to build the hügelkulturs.

The talk turns to the crab apple trees.  They have harvested one and like the fruit.  Paul feels crab apples are more work than other apples.  

Paul's next point is sunchokes.  They discuss the side effects and Paul explains ways to mitigate those.  Sunchokes give high calories per acre.  They also can be left in the ground and harvested during fall and winter.  Brock like the sound of that.  The other excellent thing is walking onions.

Relevant Threads

Midwest USA regional forum
Hugelkultur forum
Rocket Mass Heaters forum
Food Preservation forum

The great big thread of sunchoke info - growing, storing, eating/recipes, science facts


Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
Download

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

Paul is with Nick in Spokane, WA where they're going to have a potluck.

Paul used to live on mount Spokane, so he knows a bit about the area, but yesterday they went to Manito park which Paul never knew existed.  Nick says he grew up in the park.

The subject turns to earwigs.  Paul when he was young used to ride his bike a lot, and had a small tent.  He tells of how once he camped at a site, and millions of earwigs got on the tent in the night, due to it raining.  Nick makes earwig traps from newspaper formed into a mini tent, and discussion turns to what to do with them once caught, from a permaculture point of view.  Nick used diatomaceous earth.  Apparently chickens don't like them.

The number of earwigs seems to vary: 8 years ago, there were more, then they got fewer but now they're back to the same as 8 years ago.
Paul says Sepp Holzer says the bugs will be controlled if the permaculture design is good.  Paul thinks that something will eat the earwigs, and by encouraging whatever eats earwigs the problem will be controlled. Sepp Holzer for example puts food and habitat away from his root cellar to attract the rodents so they don't get in the cellar, but this also attracts the rodent predators to eat the rodents.

They move on to talking about lawns.  Nick's lawn isn't that good and Paul thinks the soil needs improving and predictably thinks there should be hügelkulturs, and many more edible growies.  

Relevant Threads

Cascadia regional forum
Rockies regional forum

Gardening for Beginners forum

Bugs forum

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
Download

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

part 2 of a 2 part podcast

Paul and Stephen continue talking about aspirations.

Paul sees people buying homesteads, but many of them fail - often they're not well prepared, and work harder than they need to.  He feels bootcamp would be a good way for people to find out if they could take on homesteading.  Stephen agrees: it's why he came to Wheaton labs and bootcamp.

Paul mentions when he found he had cancer: He couldn't see how he got it, but when he looked into it although he lived a very organic life, he still ate in restaurants and other food which wasn't organic.  Genetics was also relevant.

Paul wants to see 20 people living there year-round.  He feels it would be good if they were people who arrived there wanting to change their life.  He would also like to see that all of those people had different expertise, which they developed at bootcamp. He mentions Josiah who developed skill in roundwood building.

Stephen comments that it's important that people can work with others.  Being too much of an individual doesn't help the team.  He'd like to see a dozen full-time residents.  Paul feels that bootcamp is working well as a community and the occasional bad people either leave or are kicked out.

Paul is keen on what he calls half-assed holidays and that they should become awesome.  

Paul's last topic is there have been some really good Seppers and short-duration boots.  Stephen mentions Faith who's going to med school but had a week off at bootcamp and jumped into everything that was going on, which resulted in a lot getting done.

Right now they are easily able to feed people from the gardens.  The talk about sunchokes: deer eat the foliage in the fall, but they don't dig up tubers.  Paul reports fewer side effects from eating them enough.  Stephen says making sunchoke chips also mitigates the side effects.

Relevant Threads

permaculture bootcamp - learn permaculture through a little hard work
Wheaton Laboratories forum
Come visit the Wheaton Labs: The Seppers Program!

Podcast 705 - Bootcamp Culture - Part 1

The great big thread of sunchoke info - growing, storing, eating/recipes, science facts

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
Download

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Paul and Stephen talk about aspirations

He kicks off with what he thinks it means to call someone an asshole.

Paul did a video in May about base camp, and how it's changed over time.   Years ago when he first came to base camp almost nothing grew there, barely even weeds.  Now, thanks to the big hügelkulturs, it's like a jungle.

There are around 40 rockety contraptions and a lot of bunks.  Through this they (i.e. Paul) have held to a set of values.  At intervals people show up who don't share those values, but they move on.

For the first couple of weeks, there's very little expectation for boots to work.  By the time they have been there a few months they are getting around 6 times as much done.  

There are 3 things they say to new boots: first, 95% of the work boots do is for current and future boots.  The second thing they say to new boots is "go with the flow" and the last thing they say is to take 5, don't try to keep up with people who've been there a while.

Stephen comments that June 2025 was his roughest month there, it had a lot of challenges.  There are people who say one thing and do another, also people's lives can change.  He also wants people to have one growing season from May thru October in boot camp before renting in ant village or buying into deep roots, which gives a good chance that they match the values of Wheaton labs well and will have learned what they need to succeed.

Paul moves on to sunchokes.  Turns out you can harvest them for 10 or 11 months a year.  Apples and plums are doing great and the kale is looking promising for going feral and reseeding itself.  

Paul's hope for the future is for more people who are good at nurturing others.  It's important for the community, and he feels that this is something he himself lacks.

Relevant Threads

permaculture bootcamp - learn permaculture through a little hard work
Wheaton Laboratories forum

Podcast 705 - Bootcamp Culture - Part 1

The great big thread of sunchoke info - growing, storing, eating/recipes, science facts

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
Download

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

part 2 of a 2 part podcast

Paul continues to talk with Samantha.

Paul continues the comparison between him and Mark Shepherd.  Mark's work is endless so although he makes money the constant people who show up makes the money meaningless in Paul's eyes.

Paul and Samantha agree that canning food is soul-building. Storing up food is very satisfying. Having a garden which pumps out tons of food, you don't need lots of money.  This is the essence of Gertitude.

Paul gets started on Willow feeders.  He agrees that the modern sewage treatment plant is an impressive thing but it's reaching the point where it can't be made better without massive investment.

The sewage processing at Wheaton labs separates stuff out, so garbage, poop gray-water etc aren't mixed up.  Urine and gray-water can be put directly onto the garden, provided you don't put poisonous chemicals in it there are gray-water safe, and even if you live in an apartment, you can still effect a positive change by using them.

Paul outlines a 5 year plan by which everyone can reduce their impact on the environment.  After doing all these all that's left is the poop and that's where the willow feeder comes in.  However the willow feeder is a big leap, and he feels that's why the kickstarter isn't doing well.

Relevant Threads

Cleaning our Rivers and Oceans from Home kickstarter

Oasis Biocompatible Dish Soap on Amazon

Broken Limbs by Jamie Howell (Full movie)

are there currently millions of permaculture millionaires? (the story of Gert)

what is a willow feeder?

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper

Listen Online
Download

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files
Subscribe on iTunes

Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Paul talks with Samantha about the effect of his health on progress and the pitfalls of hiring people.

Prior to his cancer diagnosis he put in extra long hours all the time but now he has to spend part of the day on managing his food and other aspects and the result is that not so much stuff got done.  There were and are a lot of good people who stepped up to help but he has to face it and deal with it and the lack of attention to the empire has visible effect.

So today, the new kickstarter isn't going well and Paul feels his unavoidable lack of attention has affected this.  

On the flip side the new server has been a great success and now everything is awesome on that side.

He mentions that there are lots of ideas for important podcasts but that takes time.

He talks about Dawn dish soap vs Oasis gray-water safe dish soap.  There are adverts on the TV where they save seabirds from oil with Dawn but Paul feels this is trading one poison for another.

He talks about Caroline who asked if the kind of gardening Paul advocates is the same as Mark Shepherd's.  Mark grows a truckload of stuff and takes it to commodity markets but it's a risky process as you can get a low price which leads to bankruptcy.  He talks about the broken limbs film which shows alternative approaches.

Next he talks about a notable consultant who contacted him about an over-farmed property.  His plan was to grow alfalfa and bale it for hay which didn't impress Paul.  Paul suggested building a quarter-acre of hügelkultur, it will take a lot of watering to get going but next year it will have rebuilt the soil and you can do a new quarter acre, and before long you'll have more food than you know what to do with.

The gist is not to sell food to the market...

Relevant Threads

Cleaning our Rivers and Oceans from Home kickstarter

Oasis Biocompatible Dish Soap on Amazon

Broken Limbs by Jamie Howell (Full movie)

Support the Empire

Help support the empire and get all of the podcasts in a bundle here in the digital market at permies.

To support production of these podcasts, make a donation here at Paul's Patreon page.



This podcast was made possible thanks to:

Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Amy Berry
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
Janelle
thomas adams
David Lucey
Kay Gelfing
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Cindi Duehmig
Samantha Lewis
Polly Jayne Smyth
Banter Couch
Rebekah Harmon
Chris Holtslag
Zach Keeshin
Paul Tipper