Corey Collier

Well, there's the Permaculture Connvergence in September, in Hopland, and the Solar Living Institute itself. The Occidental arts and ecology center puts on things, and there's Canticle Farms in the Bay area. Intentional communities are always rising and falling though.

Here's an awesome resource for games and activities for groups of kids!
http://intergalactic-childcare.weebly.com/curriculum--activities.html

Like many of us, I am nearly overwhelmed by the flood of information that comes at me when I try to begin researching the uses for a plant, or the beast herbal remedies for a given ailment. Most of us have some sort of filter that we use to shake out less reliable source, or certain trusted sources of information. So for those of us who don't have a trained herbalist in our friend circle, or even if we do, we recognize the need to respect that person's time and energy, what do we do? What books do we buy-and which ones should we scoop up immediately should they be languishing in a thrift store?

My question has a few parts:
Who is a trusted source on medicinal/medical knowledge, in print or online?
Who is definitely NOT a reliable source, in print or online?

What are some of your Tells for distinguishing the difference?

I look for lots of caveats and an absence of certainty. I almost immediately discount anyone who recommends ingesting essential oils without heavy cautions. And I stay away from anyone who appears to be promoting any given product. I do look for sources and citations, but it's difficult to know who is reliable. When the official story is so much different from the truth, but it's not always possible to tell how, how does one gather the best knowledge?

I don't have the space to construct anything underground. But my housemate and I both love fermented pickles--only they take up so much fridge space! I want to build something that will keep things at least cool even in our bone dry 108 degree summers. I have access to endless pallets. I know that refrigeration technology has been around for a good long time, using evaporation or airflow. I'm wondering if anyone has a practical design for this sort of thing.

Wow, thank you all so much! There are so many threads here I wasn't sure if anyone would notice. This is my first time posting on permies.com (though not my first time getting helpful information from the forums) so many thanks for the warm welcome.

A couple notes about the yard:
I'm a renter in one of those situations where the landlord does the bare legal minimum and doesn't care what you do as long as you pay rent and don't burn the place down. This has pros and cons--the biggest Pro is that I have a free hand with the yard. I can do whatever I want. And for the record I despise lawns. Absolutely have no use for them whatsoever.
The Con is that the landlord hasn't had anyone come out to do anything with the yard for who know how long, so the neighbor has been dealing with a completely untended patch populated by some shady renters who occcasionally emerge for a smoke. So she took matters into her own hands. I don't blame her too much, just for being ignorant. I only moved in in July, this is what I walked into.

It's a small yard in a small city in CA, about halfway between sacramento and redding. Lots of sun, strips and corners of shade, a couple of landscapy shrubs, a bamboo fence on one side, wooden stockade style on the other. Arid and unreasonably hot in summer, rainy and chilly in "winter," not much of a transitory season. Lots of nuts right now. Chris Kott, thanks for the advice and condolences.

So I moved into a new place in July; the yard hasn't been tended in some time and the neighbor, tired of all of the stuff getting into her yard, hit it with Roundup shortly before I moved in. It's also overrun with ailanthus.
A bout with search engines has brought me to lots of articles about how roundup is terrible. This is less than helpful.
I'm trying to decide what to do. I need ideas, resources, links....I'll take anything.