Hugo Morvan

Parsley is quite robust and will go a long time. More so if you get it in spring though. Mine get enormous in a season and keep churning out foliage to use in stews and on sandwiches with cheese.
I bet if you like it you'll plonk all your friends window sills full of herbs in no time. Be very careful it's a gateway drug.

Hi kostas. I can't really know if the bird thing works or weather it's just wishful thinking of the people doing it. If it's true that they forget half of them in the winter, that means a lot of work gets done by the birds.
If your pine tree forest doesn't seem to produce any seedlings of oak trees it could just be too dark on the ground, or too acid because of the pine needle layer. Or it could also be that deer who cross this almost liveless forest eat every young tree that despite the darkness and acidity pops up. I can imagine dynamics like this at play in the monoculture.
If you try and plant some in there, you will know. Have  you done this already?

The thing with the feeder is also ... that it's a way of trying something new . Who knows if it works. Maybe there are many more squirrels  in Greece for instance , who will steal the nuts and keep them in one guarded spot, close to their nest. Or rats who just feed on the spot. We cannot possibly know for sure if we don't try. Sometimes trying a new thing and being surprised by the ingenuity of nature to f.. it up and allowing yourself to be surprised  by how she really works is humbling. Those 'failures' can however form great stories and storytelling is important to keep people going. Because halfway your story human arrogance kicks in, people think "of course that works", or "i would do it better". But if they feel you're honest about the rest that surprises them you fascinate them. And it's that fascination that is the life energy for doing things that go against the odds. Like growing trees in arid, barren lands.

Islanders face specific problems, salt, drought, wind,  poor thin soils. Very specific problems, i learned.
As well, they're not many, which makes breeding efforts difficult. i know this from contacts i made at that at Going To Seed forum. It's a spin off from Joseph Lofthouse his book. And has turned into a small people's breeders collective where people share diversified adaptive seeds and you can meet people who have similar climates, contexts and specifics.

Bears is a different ball game altogether i believe, climbing, fast running, digging animals with gigantic strong arms and teeth that eat what we eat. We don't have them here, so i probably say something dumb. I take the risk to do so, because if even 1 thing i say hits home a fellow spirit might benefit in his natural ways. We're simply incapable of physically keeping them out, so we'll have to outsmart them. This will take some knowledge of levels native peoples had, i don't think there's another way.

I missed what kind of bears they are, black, brown, grizzly, what more have you? A mix.. I think that studying their diets and behaviorisms is key.
I would try and find out what we eat that they don't and if it wants to grow where you are multiply that and learn to cook and store that in differing ways. Are they fast learners?

I would imagine they take fruits at peak ripeness or even at what we would call overripe. They just skim the best and easiest. Learn to get there before they do, to partly pick unripe fruits, learn to make those good for you and store them where they can't reach.

A little anecdote.
I have planted many hazelnut trees, people more looking at the negative side of things said squirrels will just take them all. Not wanting to dismiss them i looked into that. Turned out when you plant enough, if you're not physically protecting the hazels, you'll always lose some to squirrels. But at some point they'll stop collecting them, because they feel they have  enough. An area can only contain so many squirrels, because they cannot only live of hazels, they need other stuff too. And if that is not there, because i didn't plant it, then there is a maximum squirrel density to be expected.
I don't know if this principle one on one translated to bears as they're more versatile and intelligent than squirrels.
But if their numbers are limited/topped off by say salmon flows, then i would assume if there would be a lot more berries and what you gather will not increase their numbers significantly. You might by increasing the berry/apple flow not increase their numbers, because they are limited by a flow which is out of your control. Moose or something maybe. A combination I don't know, that will take studying. If it is limited, that opens a window for propagating wild berries. I would say the easiest is take cuttings when gathering in autumn and plant them straight away to root. Learn to propagate berries in an easy way. It took me years and only this year to learn to grow blackcurrants from seeds. I never realized they lose viability when they dry out until i asked on a Permies like forum. Now i freeze them until winter than store them in the refridgerator with dampish sand until they pop roots and then plant them in favorable conditions in spring. I would say plant life adapted itself to the bears spreading the seeds in their faeces, a much simpler way of doing things as usual. Bear faeces probably contain tons of seeds and could maybe be used if it doesn't make humans ill.

Hope this helps a bit, good luck.

In France they make little oakseed plant feeders, the birds come and hide them in the ground.
Article in French, but i guess most people got translation options.
birds help to plant oaks

Member of the dineh tribe if i understand correctly selling squash and some of them squash bug resistance.

Very good tips.

But what if it's night  and  it attacks you and you need your sleep to keep a job. Things tend to look even darker at night. I have no partner so found out about humming. You can make that sound and follow it in your body. Feeling your body better already takes your mind of stuff and humming soothes. Moms hum, monks ohm.
Once you feel your body you might notice pain/ energy blockades. You can pitch your humm to remove that i found.
Sometimes i fall asleep like that.
Praying helps as well. Why worry if you can pray.

In the day/ morning  i do breathing work, my kind of meditation.
40 deep breathes to the feet and connect to earth, hold breath a minute.
40 deep breathes to the belly to open to feel what i feel, hold breath a minute.
40 deep breathes to open the heart, hold breath a minute
40 deep breathes to the head to be with the highest, hold breath a minute.

Just did that, coffee, time to see what the good people of the world have to say on the interwebs.

Site note:

I think having no control is a thing of life we have to accept, we get born, no control, we die, no control. In the mean time we get to vote, the jury is still out on that one. I think what humans do is, we try to asses what danger is there for our families and direct community and country/ humanity. And if the danger seems so big and complex we can't work out how to keep our loved ones safe we tend to obsess. But it's all for the sake of love.

I couldn't go out and just start digging holes randomly . It would have to be a pond/ swale. Or make them tree distance of each other and fill them  with compost.

AI is handy for little factoids , but monodimensional, it can't work out a plan, what permaculture is about basicly.
If squirrels are a problem , try an airprunebed, i made one last year because the rats started stealing too many nutty seeds and i have 25 young walnut trees in them now. If you plant them like that, the squirrels won't bother them. Maybe something else, i don't know what keeps them in check over there.
It might be worth looking into propagating trees if you have a lot of land and learn to graft. If you take apples as an example. Nurseries will sell you whatever is easy for them , not what's good for your soiltype or you have 20 appletrees that are all ready at the same time and perishable, while later you find out you wanted to have apples all year.
As well look at layers, do not plant high trees in front of small ones, shading them out in the future.
Make a plan, observe, learn.
Don't plant the known terrible invasives, but some people are really purist about things that are reasonably well behaved and produce food we need . Canadian Permies will know what they are.
How is the water situation? Droughts? Springs/water retention?

Great to have you here.

Update. I broke the machine. I tried to fix it but couldn't do it. The motor burned, i think it was the dust that did it.
Martin, yeah it's a problem to get it to flour. I'm not there yet and might not ever get there, i will need community.
I can imagine using it to feed chickens. I like eggs more than i like bread, personally.
But the thing is, it's just great to experiment and try things. Get to talk to people. my neighbor said they used to get into an empty room and hit the stalks on the floor or wall. Another friend has a lot of wheat and maize and a solar set up with machines and separates it from chaff and seeds and grinds it to flour. He said he'd help. But it's too far away for the tiny bit i grow. I'd spend a day and 25 euro on diesel to have enough flour to make 2 breads. It would be fun though, but it's not serious.

Hi Chance. I recognize how you feel about well behaved 'invasives' and call them immigrants, good call. I guess most people are very static in their world view. Even if nothing wants to grow  where we are and a plant arrives that does, we don't want it. On top of it we tend to obsess over them.
Hop on board the Serendipity Seed Train of Going To Seed if they let you. It's a box of seeds people send through US and you can add and take what you feel like as long as it's diverse varieties. So don't mix in tomatoes and peppers.