James Alun

Hi Ron, good to see you here. Why don't you start a thread about what you're doing with the trees that you have had success with?

As a shameless knock off of the thread on seeds. Who do you buy fruit trees from?

I'm particularly interested in apple espaliers, pears and plums.

At work I dress for the worst case scenario. If something breaks, I have to go on stage to fix it.

For normal weekly events, chinos, polo shirt and black merino sweater, black merrell vapor gloves with orange laces (or brown with lime green laces).
For bigger events (arch bishops, government ministers, that sort of level), white long sleeve shirt, purple tie, dress trousers (if I can find them, else chinos) and black merrell vapor gloves with black laces.

Outside work, chinos, long sleeve t shirt (plain cos I don't like logos and most slogans are too boring), hoody and moccasins.

All the time, short beard and just past shoulders long hair.

One thing I have really noticed is that I look at least one "step" or "grade" more formal in the same style clothes not that I have lost 150lbs. People notice and judge and then forget that they noticed and judged.

I tend to wear shades when out in town here in africa, it adds a dehumanising layer that puts off most street sellers.
If I take the shades off, the service improves. It also works with accents, my local british accent, meh. A clean cut oxbridge accent and people can't wait to do stuff for you.

Gary Numan wrote:>> Or brown hair.  Or brown eyes.  Or red hair.  Or green eyes.

I find the green hair kinda fun. Dunno how permie the dyes are but the personalities that leads to that choice are often good fun.

Seance?

I went to one once, and the woman holding it laughed, so I hit her.  I always like to strike a happy medium.

Hmm those springs could be really useful for suspension on a bike trailer I'm dreaming of building.

Just a quick follow up to my earlier comment.

Here's an excellent video about big transformers in microwaves and the projects that people do with them.

I've just passed a shirt on to a charity shop. I got it used from ebay last week. It got a vinegar rinse and a couple of days on the washing line but still no change in the perfume. Swing and a miss.

Like most theology/philosophy students and politicians, instead of answering the question, I’m going to change the question and answer that instead.
(Theology students do it because they don’t quite understand the question and hope that by throwing more words at it, they might accidentally answer the question. Politicians do it because they know the answer and know that you won’t like it!)

So, why permaculture?

Like several others, TV is a major influence. Growing up, I watched the Good Life and Star Trek The Next Generation. Both of these gave me a deep dissatisfaction with the military-industrial-media-politico-whatever complex that describes the capitalist Ponzi scheme that is running society today. (You can tell I haven’t really studied philosophy!)

The idea of following the ‘normal’ route, school > university > soulless desk job > soulless desk job with too much stress > a couple of years without soulless desk job but now too tired to do anything > dead, never filled me with joy but I didn’t see any alternatives. The blessing of failing my last year at uni gave me the chance to experience the minimum wage jobs, shop assistant at a supermarket and cleaner at a private school. It also kept me off the treadmill that many of my schoolmates are stuck on.

I took a dive into minimalism and realised that that swimming pool isn’t very deep. Useful tool (I plan to build a bicycle trailer that will hold all my worldly possessions) but not a great philosophy. Stoicism from MrMoneyMoustache again gives a very useful perspective but I’m not devoting my life to it. Adaptation from Ross Raven addresses many of my concerns but, possibly stupidly, I hold some hope for humanity.

And now permaculture. I dunno. I suspect that this again will be a very useful tool, the difference may be the number of voices and the depth of experience that I can learn from.


And that leads on to, so why permies.com?

Cos you lot know lots of stuff!
I really appreciate the community that Paul has brought together here. You’re an eclectic mix (I have an affinity for the odd), with a massive range of knowledge that I can plunder. I suspect I’ll never fully embrace the cult but that my crazy is close enough to Paul’s crazy to get along here. (Please read Paul’s Thorns book before you crucify me for that.)

I’m probably somewhere around 2/3 on the Wheaton eco scale, no garden but fully pooless, highly reliant on diesel but living in community. I’m aiming for around level 5, growing 90% of my diet but living in town with no non-muscle vehicles and no energy bills.

It'll be a good few years until I have a place and starting making threads here but I'll post replies to other peoples threads. I'm a refiner not a visionary.

I’m here to learn and hopefully help others learn from some of the knowledge and skills I’ve gained.  



Sorry for the essay. I hate writing but once I’ve started, I carry on for a bit.

Sorry to hear this Elle. Like Christopher, I haven't got much to help you with this but I saw the title and was wondering if this should have been posted in personal care as a flatulence problem..