Rhiannon Drake

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Summary

Paul and Cheryl continue their discussion

The next point is paddock shift, which people don't all seem to get.  For Paul it's always been a normal thing.

They talk about laundry.  People use dryers but that kills your clothes.  Paul uses Oasis brand detergent but he's looking into alternatives.  Cheryl says she almost exclusively  just uses baking soda.

Having an apothecary is discussed, Paul talks about theirs.  He also talks about the apple trees, and round wood joinery.  The new wood racks improve the appearance of the berm shed.

Relevant Threads

Laundry products for greywater systems
Clothing forum

berm sheds

Rotational Grazing 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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

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Summary

Paul talks to Cheryl about organic bananas.

Cheryl reports that someone in the store was questioning why she would spend extra on organic bananas.

Paul has become anti-banana because regular bananas get sprayed with toxic gick, which would be a good reason to buy organic.

He goes on to explain his theory that non-organic food is a cunning plan to get rid of old people faster so they don't have to pay pensions.

He also wonders how many banana executives eat the bananas they sell.

Paul would much rather apples than bananas; he's upset that bananas cost less than apples in the grocery store.

Cheryl lists things about her garden and her lifestyle which stand out where she lives, as her garden is for growing food; the neighbors think it's weird.  Paul understands, he has the same issues when trying to talk about gardening.

Cheryl would like to raise rabbits, but the rabbit she bought has become a pet.  Paul feels that wouldn't be an issue if there were 20 rabbits.

Foraging is another issue which the neighbors look sideways at.

The next point is sewing her own clothes, rather than buying them in the store.

Finally they drift off into talking about homesteading vs boot camp, and how "the system" is failing.

Relevant Threads

Wild Harvesting forum

Rabbits forum

Clothing 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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

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Summary

Paul embarks on a walk around basecamp with Samantha

About a year ago they had help week; Paul had the idea of creating a trail around basecamp so he can walk (he's got a target number of steps per day) and then they could plant stuff by the trail.  He's been working on this intermittently, and Samantha has been helping.

Paul mentions that yesterday Samantha went out in the garden to get stuff for a salad.  She's brought some lamb with her.  Paul has her list what plants she found.  Some of the plants were planted purposefully, others just turned up.  Paul found a couple of morels which he cooked, and was surprised to find out that Samantha hadn't ever had them.  Paul says morels are the best mushroom.

They discuss Camas which native Americans used to eat, until someone brought potatoes, which are much easier to process.  Paul also discusses the soup he made, which had various veg from the garden.  Paul talks about his apricot tree, which had a ton of blooms on it and he has high hopes for apricots this year.  He's also kept a lot of seeds from a good plum tree to plant.  Many of the fruit trees are in bloom, but there are some lacking: they have no peach trees for example.

Paul mentions gardening in the Seattle/Portland area: there's someone in bootcamp who was a big player in the beacon food forest.  Seems there they have "hügelkulturs" which are about a foot and a half tall and she is amazed by Paul's huge hügelkulturs.  In general though Paul doesn't want anything to do with Seattle and Portland - it's full of lichen and slugs and other nasty stuff.

Relevant Threads

Wild Harvesting forum

some pics from paul

Camas / Quamash growing, cooking and harvesting

Podcast 291 - Beacon Food Forest
Beacon Food Forest website

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

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Summary

Paul is joined by Samantha

Paul talks about a video he watched of a family harvesting their food, but a comment about only growing what they eat annoyed him as he felt they don't grow all the stuff they eat.  He offers the example of a PBJ sandwich - you can't grow bread and jelly.  You can grow wheat but getting from wheat to bread is hard work.  It has to be threshed, winnowed and ground and even then you don't get bread like store bought flour; plus all the wheat has to be harvested when it's ripe, with a fairly narrow window.  

When you grow what you eat, you start from what you get at the grocery store which can be a challenge.

Paul much prefers "eat what you grow" as a philosophy. For example learning how to eat the stuff the grows already with no effort.  However he's frustrated by the huge majority of gardeners who are convinced it's all bullshit.  As an example, today they spent 5 minutes getting sunchokes and onions to make soup.

Much of what's in the grocery store is selected for its shelf life, or for ease of machine processing, or for high profit so there's a limited choice.  

They move on to talking about boot camp.  The gardening gardeners program is a way of building a community.  There are a lot of communities out there which you can buy into but people don't contribute where they should.  In the boot camp, people are expected to put in 40 hours a week.  In general this works well without the resentment which comes from people not contributing.  Paul is trying to formulate good words to describe it.

Finally Paul went into Missoula to an Earth day event.  When he arrived they were firing up a cob oven which was making smoke all over.  There were many things which he knew could be better but he didn't want to rain on their parade, so he spent the whole time biting his tongue.  He found the whole event disheartening.


Relevant Threads

permaculture bootcamp - gardening gardeners; grow the food you eat and build your own home
Podcast 716 - Gardening Gardeners - Part 1, Part 2

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

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Summary

part 2 of a 2 part podcast

Sleaze and anti-sleaze

Paul continues the discussion accompanied by Samantha.

Paul compares Boot camp with homesteading, especially taking on a homestead for the first time.  Rather than spending over 100 hours a week and not getting all your projects done, in boot camp you do 40 hours, and gain spoons rather than using a ton.  Boot camp has a powerful anti-sleaze effect.

Setting up a homestead from scratch or taking over a non functional property creates a lot of self-imposed obligation which sucks spoons, much like sleaze does.

Samantha says permies is a community of individuals.  There's still room for independence but also space for collaboration.  

Paul says that the sleaze of people working and gaming the system is a problem in the USA as everyone wants to tell people what to do and how to advance.  However with a humble home and a large garden you can step back from all that.  Boot camp is a powerful anti-sleaze force - no need for a phone or a car or other things which are increasingly sleazy.

Paul wants to get the gardening gardeners program fully sorted out, so that people setting up a homestead for example could run such a scheme and reduce their obligations and increase their spoons.  Without a good, proven framework it's risky.  As Samantha comments this is what's great about SKIP, people can demonstrate their abilities and homesteaders can see that.

Paul relates something of Mike Oehler's issues with interns: he had 100 interns and they were all no good.  Paul suspects that the indoctrination that you have to be a fierce independent was part of the issue.

Paul finishes by reflecting on the last 20 years running permies.

Relevant Threads

Spoon theory - Wikipedia

Podcast 717 - Gardening Gardeners - Part 1,  Part 2

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

Listen Online
Download

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

Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Sleaze and anti-sleaze

Paul is with Samantha in a zero-prep podcast.

Paul talks about a book which he says should be titled "how to live your life as a level 9 douchebag", which he feels sums up a lot of what happens these days.  This last week there's been an unprecedented amount of sleaze.  

Paul used to donate blood when he was young, but they gave him a health warning which turned out to be a false positive, which put him off it.  Later, he decided to go donate blood again.  He had to fill in a long form but apparently the system had him flagged due to the previous issue so he wasn't allowed to donate.  After spending 45 minutes on the phone he thought it was cleared up, so he went back to the red cross but they still wouldn't accept his blood.  Nobody seemed to care enough to fix it.  

Now he donates blood in Couer d'Alene, where he's not flagged by the system. However, recently their online system refused to let him make an appointment, and it seems it wasn't easily possible to fix that, nor could he talk to an actual person to discuss it.  The sleaze is evident in the poor quality of the systems, and the lack of interest shown by the employees.

Paul hopes that permies does better than the blood donor people to handle issues that may arise.  He feels that at least in the USA it's at least four times sleazier than 10 years ago.  People seem to only care about themselves rather than doing their job.  In this way permies staff are different as they do care.

Paul brings up the topic of spoon theory.  Being exposed to sleaze eats spoons.

He mentions something Des said when he was commander of the boot camp:  In his life before, everything was done from a position of scarcity; by comparison, everything at the boot camp is from a position of abundance.  

Paul relates a recent experience where Harry and Stephen were fixing something in Allerton abbey, and the whole way it was done seemed to generate spoons.

Relevant Threads

Spoon theory - Wikipedia

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

Listen Online
Download

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

Summary

part 2 of a 2 part podcast

Grow Our Own Food

Continuing the discussion about growing food.

Miranda describes her property; she has about 2½ acres with perennial food crops, out of about 10 acres total.

Alexandra describes her area where most places 20 years ago had fruit trees, but now almost all have been cut down - people can't be bothered with them.  She doesn't know how to get people interested again.

Paul talks about polyculture, which is what he's aiming for.  In his view each plant species helps to feed the others.  He likes a more chaotic aesthetic.  However that's not a popular thing among "gardeners" who want everything in rows with no weeds.  

Alexandra says she has issues growing carrots in a chaotic environment as they don't compete well, but others find that they grow well.

M mentions that where she lives Parsnips grow wild and invade everyone's garden.

Paul wants to broaden the automatic backyard food pump; the idea of which is to have food all year round.  However it's challenging to convince people that it works.  

Miranda comments that where she lives, the ground can be frozen solid so it's impossible to dig in the winter.  Paul says although sunchokes don't keep too well there are ways to store them for a while.  You can also use hot water to thaw the ground to be able to dig the sunchokes.

Alexandra dries a lot of her produce.  Paul likes dried food, as it gives more variety in addition to preserving the food.  There's also the rocket assist food drier which dries food about four times as fast.

They move on to foraging.  Paul mentions huckleberries that are popular in Montana, but acknowledges that there are multiple fruits called that.  M maybe gets 70% of her food from foraging during the growing season.

Relevant Threads

Hugelkultur forum

Automatic Backyard Food Pump
Build a J-Tube Style Season Extender in a Hugelkultur - PEP BB rocket.wood.hugel
3D Plans - Solar Food Dehydrator with Rocket Boost

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

Listen Online
Download

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

Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Grow our own food.
Paul says at least 99% of people are convinced that growing your own food is too expensive and too much work.  In his experience though, it's possible to spend just a few dollars and to work only a few hours a week, and still grow hundreds of dollars worth of food.

Paul says much of the growing in Missoula is "gardening for someone else".  He introduces M who's from New England.  She thinks they have 30+ inches of rain.  Paul says that's about the same as Seattle, WA.  It's significantly more than Missoula.

Now more people arrive: Alexandra is from BC, Canada, where the climate is similar to Missoula.  Miranda is from Minnesota, zone 4B, again similar climate but probably a bit more rain.

Alexandra comments that it depends if you have costs for the land and for water, for example in her neighborhood, they put in water meters, but now everyone has cut down all the trees.  Paul comments that if you build enough quality soil you don't need so much watering.

Miranda uses hoop houses (poly tunnels) which extend the growing season by 4-6 weeks per year.  However that's another cost to factor in.  Miranda says the plastic on hers is now 6 years old and is starting to get a few holes.  Although the costs are high initially you can grow a lot of stuff in them.  Mostly she grows for farmers markets so she's growing more than just food for herself.

M mentions a video about using an RMH to extend the growing season.  Paul says this is an experiment to try heating the soil without using a greenhouse or tunnel, so you still get full sunlight.  It's called the rocket powered season extender but as yet it's not been fully tested.  Em thinks it might be good for starting seedlings.

Paul talks about the automatic backyard food pump - he wants plants with a large harvesting window.  Alexandra has a food forest approach which is quite similar in terms of what she grows.  She says what Paul is doing is more like foraging - Paul agrees, he's setting up plots which he can forage.  He's trying to push ideas which counter the "gardening is too expensive" problem.  

Alexandra and Miranda comment that there are issues when people try to grow food in urban environments for example such ground as there is is probably not viable.  Paul's point is that the advice from "experts" seems to end up costing a lot of money.  Basically, he wants people to do Hügelkuturs.  

Relevant Threads

Hugelkultur forum

Automatic Backyard Food Pump
Build a J-Tube Style Season Extender in a Hugelkultur - PEP BB rocket.wood.hugel

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

Listen Online
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Summary

part 3 of a 3 part podcast.

45 permaculture solutions.

33. Adobe or cob.  Not quite the same thing.  Adobe tends to be bricks, cob is usually a single lump.
34. Slipstraw.  Also not adobe.  clay/water/straw mix used to mold buildings.  Good insulation value.

35. STUN.  Strategic Total Utter Neglect - from Mark Shepard's restoration agriculture; zero care growies
36. Starting trees from seed.  Can be very successful - a bit of a lottery what you get, but mostly good.
37. Landrace gardening.  Joseph Lofthouse's technique for breeding plants that do well where you want them to grow.
38. Skiddable structures.  Buildings you can move around.  Cabins, outhouses, animal shelters etc.
39. Wavy deer fence.  Mike Haasl's design of wavy fence.  Deer don't jump it.

40. Haybox cooker.  Very effective for cooking big pots of certain foods.  Good in summer.
41. Automatic backyard food pump.  Three crops which grow easily and abundantly with low effort and a wide harvest window.
42. Chop and drop.  Unwanted plants become mulch wherever you cut them.  Low effort and free.
43. Brush piles.  Brush piles attract critters which help control pests which eat your growies.
44. Community living.  The biggest challenge in permaculture; communities without drama.
45. Farms vs gardens.  Farms and gardens require very different methods.  Gardens don't need to be flat!
46. Forest vs woodland.  Forests are made to maximize lumber output.  Woodland has diversity and grows loads of food.

Relevant Threads

Cob, daub, adobe, etc. What are all the natural "concretes" and what are they sourced from?
How to Make and Use Clay Slip

Mark Shepard on Yields, Getting Started and STUN
ten skiddable structures
19 skiddable structures documentary - 36 minutes
Wavy Deer Fence

Cook Grain with Rocket Stove and a Haybox Cooker
Automatic Backyard Food Pump
Build abundance with chop-and-drop

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard

Listen Online
Download

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

Summary

part 2 of a 3 part podcast

45 permaculture solutions.

15. Willow feeder.  Possibly the best way to process your poop! (not a composting toilet!)
16. Dry outhouse.  Same process as the willow feeder, but feeds the trees directly.

17. Never buy chicken feed again.  Planting growies that chickens can self-harvest
18. Solar food dehydrator with rocket assist.  Super-effective food dryer, especially in fall.
19. Cool box.  Insulated cool box which works by running cool spring water through it.  Can be scaled up.

20. Berms and wind.  Create areas of shelter from the wind.  Can also reduce noise from such as roads.
21. Stealth ponds. Dig a pond, fill it with huge rocks.  Water whenever you need it.
22. Natural swimming pool.  Using a reed system to filter pool water instead of chemicals.
23. Paddock shift system.  Cycle livestock through several paddocks, stuff grows better and faster.

24. Mycelium insulation.  Fireproof high quality insulation from spent mycelium after harvesting mushrooms.
25. Sealing a pond without a liner.  Using clay to seal a pond by emulating pigs.
26. Junk pole fences.  Using small trees from forest thinning to make fences, instead of burning them

27. SKIP.  SKills to Inherit Property - Helping to find worthy people to inherit property.
28. Gert.  Gertitude vs farming.  Paul advocates a humble home and a large garden, not a farming mentality.
29. Cleaners you can eat.  People are getting sick from toxic gick in cleaners.
30. Dry stack.  Building dry stacked stone structures.
31. Berm shed.  1500 sq ft shed for $500.  
32. Roundwood timber framing.  Many roundwood projects at the lab.  No glue, no fasteners, just wood.

Relevant Threads

Low Tech Laboratory

72 Bricks to Build a Better World by Paul Wheaton

what is a willow feeder

tree bog vs. dry outhouse

3D Plans - Solar Food Dehydrator with Rocket Boost

Homegrown Mushroom Mycelium Insulation Panels

All about SKIP, PEP, Badges, BBs and More!
are there currently millions of permaculture millionaires? (the story of Gert)

berm sheds

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
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard