Rhiannon Drake

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Summary

part 3 of a 3 part podcast

Paul and Steven continue the discussion about the state of the jungle.

Paul has a list of podcasts he wants to do. Some highlights:

* Homesteaders who work at it for 2-7 years and then quit and go back to the city and worky jobs. He feels having a good community is the key to solving this. If you have animals, community members can look after them for you, for example.

* SKIP as a solution to depression. Some folks have found that SKIP has helped with their depression.

There are also a bunch of Youtube video topics to cover.

They talk about the public image of RMHs. Steven feels that the RMH lacks appeal visually although it's much more efficient, and this might put people off. RMHs need some better PR.

Paul says that composting toilets are getting banned (sometimes for good reason) and yet sewage is dumped in rivers.

Steven has an idea to boost the numbers: have a GAMCOD camp, where 3 (and 3 is enough) new boots commit to being at the lab for one growing season, from the beginning of April to the end of September, and each of them makes and is responsible for a GAMCOD Hügel. Once the season is over, they could continue as regular boots or decide to move on.

Paul brings up the point that the bad guys (spammers, bots, whatever) claim a lot of his attention, because something has to be done about them. He feels that although for all the bad guys there are a bunch of good guys who support Wheaton labs but sometimes he doesn't get around to showing proper appreciation for that.

The final point on Paul's notes for the podcast is that, almost 12 years ago he ditched a successful career in software engineering to start Permies and try to make the world a better place. He's a little frustrated that he still hasn't found enough people who share his specific vision to come and make the whole thing work better.

Steven signs off by thanking everyone who supports Permies and Wheaton Labs throughout the year.

Relevant Threads

GAMCOD 2024: 200 square feet; Zero degrees F or colder; calories cheap and easy
GAMCOD forum

beautiful rocket mass heaters
Rocket Mass Heater forum

Toilet Alternatives 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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

1 week ago

Podcast 683 - State of the Jungle - Part 2

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

part 2 of a 3 part podcast

Paul and Steven continue to discuss the state of the jungle.

Paul returns to the theme of reworking the better world book, there may be scope to rework it into something aimed at apartment dwellers. Someone told him that the original is "too earthy" for them. Paul is still trying for the book that 100 million people will read. He wonders if people get put off by reading about big things they have no way of doing, like rocket mass heaters or hügelkulturs.

Another thing that's lined up is a new hügelkultur presentation on Youtube. The same material can also be the basis for a book, but that's probably more than a year away. Steven was ambivalent about hügelkulturs until he made the GAMCOD one, which being only about 5ft high is easily accessed and harvested. He's now a convert to smaller more manageable hügelkulturs.

Paul and Mud are working on a new project "more heat with half the wood" which is about devising ways to add mass to a regular wood stove so that it can store heat like an RMH does. This could be a future movie/book combo for a kickstarter.

Paul also says he has a bunch of other ideas he's working on which he hasn't put on the list.

They discuss the apparent decline in interest in RMHs. They note that people visiting the lab in the cold season often don't manage the heat in the cabins well because they're busy doing stuff all day and then by night time they can't be bothered with learning to work an RMH. Steven has a solution to this: when events are happening, if he had enough boots, he could assign a boot to go around the cabins making sure that fires were lit so that people are happier while visiting.

Paul is disappointed that BEL is not moving as far or fast as he'd hoped. They agree that the financial incentive of being able to get money for making BEL posts might make people keener to join boot camp, but for that to work BEL needs to be funded consistently.

There are some technical issues related to the internet: The server is being overloaded by bots demanding too much from it. Paul's solution is to devise very lightweight pages to feed the bots which don't overload the server. The new server has been delayed but is nearly ready for deployment. The other issue is that the whole email thing is fucked. Unfortunately, solving that is terminally boring so nobody wants to do it. Paul's convinced that bad guys are sabotaging it.

Paul declares that there are about 500 things which could usefully be the subject of Youtube videos, however, people aren't making any. Steven suggests selecting a "top 3": that way if people ask about making videos they can be told "the top 3 we want to make are...". The top 3 would get updated any time one is made.

Relevant Threads

GAMCOD 2024: 200 square feet; Zero degrees F or colder; calories cheap and easy
GAMCOD forum

Back the BEL, Ring the BEL (Bootcamp Experience Log)

Building a Better World in your Backyard by Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop

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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

2 weeks ago

Podcast 682 - State of the Jungle - Part 1

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

part 1 of a 3 part podcast.

Paul is with Steven and they discuss the state of the jungle, which in this case is mostly about kickstarters.

Last year's kickstarter didn't get finished for various reasons including health issues and Paul willingly takes the blame for that lack. However, most of the material for it is now to hand and thus it should be finished fairly soon. The kickstarter was supposed to fund repairs to Judy, the larger truck, which needs attention. It doesn't get used much but is vital for moving heavier stuff. Because the last kickstarter didn't get done, there hasn't been one this year and that affects the availability of funds at the lab.

Paul moves on to talk about possible projects for the next kickstarter.

There's been a lot of interest in a willow feeder movie or book. A number of people have been working on willow feeder stuff which has led to some material being available for that. Julie is keen on the willow feeder book idea but Paul isn't so convinced as a book is a lot more work and cost to produce.

Paul and Uncle Mud have been working on a new rocket mass heater book, but Paul says interest in RMH has been declining recently and so he's not convinced the book will be a success as a kickstarter.

GAMCOD movie is another possibility, but so far there isn't enough material for that. Only 4 people completed the course, so there's not enough material yet for that. Steven feels it's doable to double that number next year and double it again the year after. He comments on the success of the GAMCOD at the lab this year which produced about 20,000 calories with minimal effort.

Another book project Paul's thinking about is reworking the better world book so it's aimed specifically at level 2 people; but again a book needs a lot of money to produce and he's not confident that a kickstarter would fund that.

Relevant Threads

What is a Willow Feeder

GAMCOD 2024: 200 square feet; Zero degrees F or colder; calories cheap and easy
GAMCOD 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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

2 weeks ago

Podcast 681 - BEL Fundraising

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

Paul is with Beau, Fred, Dez and Stephen doing a fundraiser for BEL (Bootcamp Experience Log). The idea is they will extend the podcast for each $10 which is contributed. BEL is a rolling fund which pays out to boots who make 100 posts in their BEL thread, each one containing at least 3 pictures or a video of the projects they've been recently involved with. The payout is 10% of whatever is in the fund.

The original GAMCOD didn't get off the ground but there's a new small-scale GAMCOD which involves a 200 sq ft plot. For the current round they are looking at colder climates: to qualify, you must have hit 0°F at least once in ten years. The idea is to grow 5 different foodstuffs such as you could buy in the grocery store and harvest approx 20,000 calories. You start from dirt and don't apply any extra manure or bought-in compost or any such stuff. There's one such bed already up and running, with no cash input at all and about 30 hrs build time, after which it's just taken half an hour or so a week for watering.

There's a new offer Paul has come up with: If any boot arrives between now and March, and they stay for 4 years, they get to have Allerton Abbey and its surrounding things. People said what if there are a bunch of boots, to which the reply is "we'll build more places".

In the first year of the passive greenhouse the minimum temperature in winter got to 34°F, while the temperature in the heat wells averaged 46°. However recently Steven got new data and the well temperature has gone up to just over 50°. This means the system is working, and this season they managed to grow sweet potatoes in it, which normally want a warmer climate.

They answer a question from the audience: "what major projects are coming along which a new boot could expect to be involved in?
The list that emerges is
* more GAMCOD beds
* more hügelkulturs
* paddocks for chickens
* finish up the bark park/dog house
* finish up Allerton abbey
* replace the uphill wall on Cooper cabin and adapt it for the giant round door.

Relevant Threads

GAMCOD 2024: 200 square feet; Zero degrees F or colder; calories cheap and easy

Back the BEL, Ring the BEL (Bootcamp Experience Log)

Getting Started With Hugelkultur Beds
the first wofati - allerton abbey- version 0.7

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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

1 month ago

Podcast 680 - Hawaii - Part 2

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

part 2 of a 2 part podcast

Paul and Katie continue to talk about Hawaii and how it's different from Montana.

Katie says the main work income is either government, military or tourism. Later they discuss the wealth disparity which is about the highest in the US. There's an issue with young folks moving away to the mainland to get jobs. Tourism is highly valued due to the money it brings, which can be an issue for local people, but without the tourism, a lot of people would have no job or income.

Paul tells us of a man he met who was talking about Belize: like Hawaii it has a year round growing season, but there's a downside, as there are a lot of parasites. In Montana they don't spend much time thinking about mold, fungus or parasites. Hawaii has a problem with feral chickens and feral cats which eat the chickens, and the cats all have fleas. Paul says he's not seen any fleas on the cats at his place.

When Katie moved to Hawaii it was mostly due to the year-round growing season but since then she's learned about techniques to extend the growing season in colder climates, so maybe that isn't such a big deal after all.

Paul feels his style of permaculture is well suited to Montana: he grows a bunch of stuff, harvests it, spends time canning and drying and making jam and all that part is good for his soul when he looks at his nice full larder. In Hawaii you wouldn't need to store stuff for the winter. In Montana they've grown a lot of Sepp Holzer grain, and Paul had to stop people from grinding too much flour because flour only keeps for a month or so but grain keeps for 10 years.

Montana is noted for having 300 days of sunshine. However when Paul moved to the west coast for work, what he missed most was proper rain. Seems the rain in Eugene pathetic misty stuff. Katie says in Hawaii you can get 10" of rain in a night, which is one thing that impresses Paul.

Relevant Threads

Trpical climate forum
Pacifica 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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

2 months ago

Podcast 679 - Hawaii - Part 1

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Paul talks to Katie about living in Hawaii

Apparently people keep saying they're going to go do permaculture in some good place, like Hawaii or Costa Rica or some other tropical place.

Katie lives in Hawaii so Paul is getting the low-down on what it's actually like. Katie moved there as the climate was good. She used to live in Seattle, but Hawaii is warm and you never get frosts.

There are various issues with Hawaii though, which Paul brings up. These include a lot of mold and fungus, the place is full of ants and there's this thing you can get called rat lungworm which if you're unlucky can be a lifetime debilitating disease. Most people who go there to try doing permaculture are back on the mainland within a few months or a year. Katie says she know people who won't make friends with anyone who hasn't been there a couple of years. She reckons at least 90% leave again within 2 years - the cost of living is high, and there aren't that many well paid jobs.

Katie agrees with most of the points Paul raises, but there's more to it than that.

The islands have a wetter side and a drier side due to prevailing winds and if you live on the wet side, the fungus is worse due to the high humidity. On the dry side, it's manageable.
The ants are varied; the only ones you really don't want are fire ants but those aren't everywhere. Due to the ants and the humidity you need good storage for your food.
The rat lungworm is an issue when it comes to raw veg and salad, as it's spread via snails and slugs. The best course really is not to try to grow those. Stuff that you cook is OK.

There's also an issue about soil. Some places are just bare rock, others are a jungle with amazing soil. But the cheap places are mostly rocky. There's also an historic issue where large corporations bought up what used to be sustainable farmland and put monocultures of sugar cane and pineapples there. Then when Hawaii became a state and labor laws applied, they moved on leaving essentially a desert.

Relevant Threads

Trpical climate forum
Pacifica forum

Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): bug killer you can eat!

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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

2 months ago

Podcast 678 - Paul the Snake Oil Salesman

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

Paul and Katie are walking again to the caldera.

Paul complains that people call him a snake oil salesman for his RMH stuff.

They talk about someone they call Waldo, who's maybe 21, has his own place, car, job etc. and is always broke. He likely spends $2000 a year on heat but that's just how the world works. He's not going to hear what Paul says about some RMH making free heat.

Paul admits when he first heard about RMHs he thought it was bullshit, until he visited Ianto's place and saw one. He feels the Waldo issue is the big problem with changing the world. Katie points out you get born and raised in the system and it can be hard to see outside the system. Another problem is knowing what information to trust.

When it comes to wood stoves, Katie says, when you want a wood stove you go to the store or order it from a catalog. People can't see themselves building a stove, so they don't take any time to think about that. She feels there's a need for an easy step people can take within the system For most people switching to a full home-built RMH is so big a step they can't imagine it and anyway their lives are all full with worky-work, kids, going out to the bar and so on, there's no room for a project like that.

Paul says there are starting to be pre-built RMHs which you can now buy but often they're compromised to meet the regulations and laws.

Last fall, Paul and Mud finished the heat infographic which was supposed to change things but not as many people looked at it. Heat is among the biggest carbon footprint things in the world. Katie admits when she first was listening to Paul's podcasts, she skipped the RMH ones simply because she couldn't see any way she'd make one so she didn't want to spend the time learning about it.

Relevant Threads

Rocket Mass Heater forum

Heat infographic

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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

2 months ago

Podcast 677 - Cabins and Gardens

Get all of the Podcasts in convenient, giant zip files

Summary

Paul and Katie talk about cabins and permies and gardens

Paul thinks this year they might achieve half the food that they need for everyone which is good as they've spent much of the 11 years so far building soil and not specifically growing food. Katie is staying in the red cabin.

Paul says the red cabin is the most popular and Katie says she likes it as it has good WiFi. She also says it's too cheap: it costs $250 for a week, vs $150 a night for a hotel room. Paul points out that the $150 hotel room likely has a built in bathroom, so you don't have to go outside to pee, which is a point but if you want a bathroom you can stay in the fisher-price house.

Paul reminds us about the Bootcamp Experience Log which has replaced the former BRK, which rewards boots for making 100 posts. It appears to work better than BRK did.

Paul has an ongoing theme that he wants to see more people at the lab or in bootcamp. Katie thinks that it's hard for people to break loose from the system, and because the system at the lab is still being built, it lacks some things that people tend to rely on like cafés or school or childcare. Paul thinks she's hit the nail on the head, people are used to relying on existing systems.

Returning to the pricing issue, Katie speculates that maybe there could be different levels of accommodation at different price levels, so people could choose to spend more for more luxury/privacy.

Paul lists the things that have been done to make the place more attractive like a reliable water supply, and initiatives like the better world book, none of which so far have had any effect on numbers.

Katie feels maybe Paul and Wheaton labs are ahead of their time. Also people might mistrust what they see on the internet and be unwilling to risk visiting, since so much marketing in the world is hype.

Relevant Threads

Back the BEL, Ring the BEL (Bootcamp Experience Log)

The Red Cabin

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 Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng

2 months ago