George Yacus

Sam B. wrote:I am plagued by the guilt.

I would say that feeling guilty and being guilty are distinct issues to unpack.  

I did a quick Google search to define guilt.  From their "Oxford Languages" source, that yielded...

"the fact of having committed a specified or implied offense or crime."

Something that stands out to me, is that guilt is a fact and is an offense or crime.  

Now a fact is a statement that is always true.  And a crime is an offense against a specific standard or standards, a law or set of rules if you will.  It is the realm of justice, applying to certain people.  What is permissible and acceptable for one group of people or citizens perhaps, under one set of rules and rule-makers, is not necessarily permissible for another group under another set of laws and law-givers.  All laws and rules are not arbitrary, but rather they come from or represent the will of law-givers and rule-makers.  

But there are good laws and bad laws, good law makers and bad law makers.  
Not all laws and law-givers are just, and not all accusations are true.  

So I would ask you (rhetorically):

1) Who wrote or brought forth the rules or standards that define your guilt (or innocence)?  Under what authority?
2) Are you voluntarily under their jurisdiction, and are you free to leave at will?
3) Are these laws and rules clear?  Are you equipped to follow them?
4) Who accuses you?  Is their judgement against you not only true, but is it also just and good?
5) Will guilt actually bring about a change to goodness, or is it fruitless shame?  
6) Who has the authority to erase your guilt and therefore establish justice?  Under what terms?


P.s. As for me, it is my sincere hope for you (and everyone here) to enjoy freedom, under that just and gracious law-giver, who does not wish to accuse you or bring up worthless charges against you, but rather serves as one who gives you good laws and empowers you with the knowledge and tools you need to abide.  

First, Happy New Year, permies!  Whatever you choose to do, be kind and good to yourself, and enjoy! :D

As the wisest ancient king wrote:

King Solomon wrote:Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart...

Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.

One who is full loathes honey from the comb,
but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

So whether you are eating out with a bunch with friends, snacking on "junk" food at home alone, cooking up a nice healthy meal from your garden, or barely making ends meet with inexpensive food at the table...may it be with joy and gladness and in the loving company of others!

Peter Ellis wrote:I recently bought the Frontier sawmill, with trailer and bed extension. The machine arrived in two palletized packages, each close to 1,000 pounds. One should be prepared for moving them, I wasn’t really.

How did you overcome your challenge; and what would you have done differently?  Thank you for sharing!

Aurora House wrote:So a lot of the gardening/woodland BB's want you to plant x number of (tree/bush) in rows to show % sprouted. Would it be possible to do a "guild mix (at least 5 species)" and then encase 1 (tree/bush) seed per ball for making a perfect poly culture for the chosen plant?  So using the quote as an example the guild mix would be clover, buckwheat, and Sepp grain as perennials 2 more annuals and 1 of the trees seed in the center.

I like Aurora's concept of Guild Balls.  It makes more sense to me than how the BB is currently written.  Maybe someone can help me understand, but I keep thinking about the competitive exclusion principle, imagining all these perennials and annuals fighting one another for nutrients over the years.   (Either the maple will win, or the mulberry, or the apricot, or the apple, or the black locust, but not all four in the same inch, right?)  In nature, I just don't think I have ever seen six plants sharing the same 1 inch event origin of root space.  

So as I am making my own seed balls, I'm skipping this BB and making several smaller 1/2" to 3/4" balls, each tailored with a tree, a nitrogen fixer, a pollinator-friendly plant, and maybe a biennial rooting crop or a vine.  Plus some dedicated N2-fixer balls to go around the broader area.  Fewer seeds per ball, less competition, wider coverage area, more balls.

I encourage folks to take pictures of their results over the years, so we can make comparisons!

I like the idea.  Especially if it is a printer-friendly, table format, such that all the codes could be printed on a single page and posted in a public place like a library foyer, and strips torn off by passers-by to enjoy.

[logo here]
~~ENJOY THESE GIFT CODES FROM PERMIES.COM~~
Come on out to the forums at permies.com where we talk about:
https://permies.com/[uniquecode1here] / "How To Build a ..."
https://permies.com/[uniquecode2here] / "Plans for a ..."
https://permies.com/[uniquecode3here] / "Workshop Video..."
https://permies.com/[uniquecode4here] / "Workshop Video..."
https://permies.com/[uniquecode5here] / "Workshop Video..."
etc.
"all the time!"

I use tractor with a forklift attachment and sometimes nylon straps. Logs are way too heavy, let my machine work for me.

Thanks, I've added it to the wiki!

Fellow permies, feel free to add to the list above!  Thanks!

What are different ways to get logs out of the woods to somewhere useful?

Carrying it on your shoulder like an absolute champ

Rope, rounds and roll

Rolling with cant hooks, peaveys, or dragging via LogOX skitter

Paring Ladder

Animal power

Skidding on an old vehicle hood or skidding cone

Lifting on a home-made log arch

Snatch blocks, pulleys for mechanical advantage, cables, vehicle

Flip-flop wench

Flatbed / trailer

Sleds and snow

Floating down waterways

Two man log carrier

Tractor w/ forklift, nylon straps (h/t C.C.)

Tractor w/ boom pole (h/t J.V)

Tractor w/ hook, chain, logging tongs (h/t E.H.)

Portable winch capstan (Gas or Electric)

Winch attached to a vehicle or tractor

Travois (h/t M.B.)

Homemade Skyline Yarder (h/t D.F.)

What else?

Vinnie Cappitani wrote:
If anyone is looking to pick up a course on Udemy, the best time would probabaly be around black friday/cyber Monday time. This is also a good time to pick up most kinds of software, as they are typically deeply discounted.

Just checked.  It's currently $13.99 for 54.5 hours of video and "19 articles + resources."  That price ends in a day.  Usually is $119.99, apparently.

https://www.udemy.com/course/permaculture-design-course/

More importantly, if you go and look at the freebie "Course Preview" video, you can see what Geoff Lawton used to look like with short hair and a moustache but no beard.  Woah.  I'm still feeling knowledge saturated, otherwise I'd bite at that price.

The starting lease offer from the telecommunications company would be in the ballpark of $14-18k yearly for a 20 or 30 year lease with an adjustment every 5 years for inflation. They would cover the increase in property taxes.

$14,000 * 20 years = $280,000
$18,000 * 20 years = $360,000

Thinking about mitigation...for that value, you could at least move to a brand new property to address your concerns.

If you do it and stay, consider asking for the expected power and polar & elevation diagrams of the cell antenna.  

As you might know by now, even though radiation follows the inverse square law, every antenna has its own main lobe and side lobes, which can change depending on beamforming / steering.  All this is to say that the actual expected beam shapes and radiation pattern of the antenna can affect where and how close you wish to place your zone 0 and zone 1 & 2.  (300m away at one spot could have drastically more or less power than 300m away at another bearing from the tower.)  

I would expect the corporate folks to want the tower in the highest parts of the land, with line of site to the most customers.  While tops of hills are good for towers and water storage, from a permaculture perspective, mid-slopes are usually better for housing.  So if you have the beam pattern info, and site elevation information from a topo map, you could calculate how big of a berm or how deep of a cut into the hill you will actually need to get effective line of sight protection from the tower's radiation lobes.  After doing permaculture sector mitigation for zone 0, continue on with the earthworks and berms using your handy-dandy excavator in other parts of your property as desired.  And don't forget Weird Al's low cost Personal Protective Equipment for radiation!

Hi and welcome to permies!  

I bet there are a many encyclopedia-like permaculture and plant databases floating around.  Here are just three:

https://permacultureplantdata.com/plant-database
https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia
https://pfaf.org/user/default.aspx

That said, I can't personally verify the usefulness of the above sites though, as I have never used them.  If folks are telling you that 'a plant must serve many purposes in a permaculture design' then that probably stems from Mollison's big black book, the Permaculture Designers' Manual.  He writes the following...

Mollison, in Chapter 3, METHODS OF DESIGN on page 55. wrote:The Basic Energy-Conserving Rules
Every element (plant, animal or structure) must be placed so that it serves at least two or more functions.
Every function (e.g. water collection, fire protection) is served in two or more ways.

That rule, we see, is about conserving energy.  But it's also helpful for promoting resilience, space savings, and cost savings.

Now, the context of the section Mollison wrote is about zones and sectors, which are two awesome design concepts which everyone enthused about permaculture can hold near and dear to their heart and homestead.  So the rule is not just about the plant itself, what the plant can do -- whether it's medicinal, Nitrogen-fixing, mulch producing, useful for timber or fuel wood, fruit or nut bearing, pollinator friendly, shade, coppice/pollard, cash crops, dynamic accumulator, etc. -- but it's about patterning.

All that is to say, you may find it is better to have just a single book of 100 useful plants local to your climate, that you can source and use, than a world-wide database at your fingertips.   It's not just knowing about plants, but actually using them, by placing the right plants in the right relationship to other elements, to meet your (and other living things') needs.

Keep the questions coming!

P.s. When you get a chance be sure to check out "how permies works".

Edit to add: If you find yourself in a Temperate climate, looking for useful plants, be sure to check out Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier's Edible Forest Gardens.  It's a two volume set, and the first has 100 recommended species for forest gardens, and the second is chock full of information about useful plants.  https://www.edibleforestgardens.com/ (Amazon link)