Miguel Mateo

Thank you all very much for your words of advice. I appreciate enormously that you all took time out of your lives to come and give some feedback to a guy like me, looking for work in a somehow disadvantaged position. Allow me to reply to each individually!

Abraham, I agree that physical work would be ideal and I'd be more than glad to engage with painting, repairs or gardening (especially gardening!) for a living. However, it seems that, as you point out, (1) the credentialism of the Spanish job market has gotten there too, and even though I know enough about painting, cleaning, gardening and small repairs to work in that area, an FP (for everyone outside Spain: the equivalent of a trade school degree) is needed to secure a position, and (2) salaries are terribly low (around $1k/month, $1.5k/month in really "high-end" positions). I don't have the financial means or the time to set up a company (considering how difficult it is to start a business in Spain, especially), to buy a van, pay for the driver's license, and buy all the necessary tools. I definitely would like to do it someday, but it's not very doable for me right now. That said, if you or your friend know of any open positions that are exceptions to these rules, I'd greatly appreciate it if you let me know! I've tried applying to some gardener positions myself, but they all have said I'm overqualified, or that it's too grueling physical work (even though I'm sound of body and would gladly use it).

Ned, I think your solution intrigued me the most, and I would love to have a chance to discuss it further with you. Would you mind if I sent you my email, or if I asked you to share yours, so I could get a better sense of the process one could follow to end up working in UX/HFE. I agree with you that UX can be used for evil (design for addiction is, quite literally, one of my definitions of evil work), but I've interacted with enough websites and products that were necessary for my work, yet painful to use, to know the value of good UX.

Melissa: thank you for this idea! I did write everything here without the help of any translation software, and I have, as I mentioned above, a fluent level of English. In my experience, though, this kind of work pays salaries mostly in the 5$-10$ range for non-native teachers. Here in Spain, in particular, is the job of choice for expats and exchange students who don't really need the money, but for whom an extra 800 euros or dollars a month makes a difference in the amount of fun they can have. Spain is, sadly, the most overqualified country of the EU (in terms of having the largest percent of its workforce being composed of university graduates) and everything related to teaching feels the impact of this overqualification, as there are many teachers offering private tutoring in a myriad subjects.

You mentioned doing this work online, though, so that may make the whole difference. Do you happen to know of any good online language course providers to send a CV to? I found a ton just searching around, but I'm concerned as to their reliability and their non-exploitativeness.

Posting this here while I keep looking into all job boards I know of, just in case there's someone around who can help. Thank you all, beforehand, for reading!

I'm 26 years old, and a South American immigrant in Europe (Madrid, Spain). Since I left my country six years ago, my main concern and the source of all my wrinkles has been to find job security in an organization where I contribute something to society. It really doesn't have to be an NGO or even something specifically within the field of permaculture: I think that making a forklift rental business work well, or helping install solar panels, is already something I'd enjoy doing for life. Bonus points if I can actually save enough to buy some land in the future, or to join an intentional community and bring some financial resources with me.

I've got about five years of experience in three roles, all of which required basically three things: research (from market research to reading research papers), communications (writing a ton of content) and operations. I think that, in particular, having gone through so many administrative processes in my life, I have found a sort of calling in being that one person in operations or HR who actually helps you solve an issue. Being competent and empathetic is a great way of working towards the betterment of the world, I think. I speak English and Spanish fluently, and understand Portuguese and Italian very well.

But (and this is a major but) I really feel that the only hard requirement I've got is that my work should actually do something for society. I feel I could never work in real estate speculation, or in fast fashion, or in selling things that nobody needs. It is amazing that this casually describes most of the jobs I find, to some extent. That and the fact that I don't have an university degree (I'm educated, but I haven't had the resources to finish college; an empty place in the wall is staring at me, where the diplomas for my four-year unfinished Law degree and four-year unfinished Philosophy degree should be) feel like crippling hindrances to actually get a stable job.

Do any of you kind folks know of any job opportunities in Madrid or, if remote, anywhere in the world, where I could do my work quietly and well, and earn about $2k a month? Even $1.5k would be fine for me, if I didn't have to care for other people as well. I don't have children, but I do frequently support friends and family who are worse off. I feel that something like keeping an eye on the operations of a plant nursery that ships accross Europe, or serving as a land manager for a renewable energy company that has solar or wind farms, or helping with recruiting and onboarding and company culture for a green startup could be ideal jobs. But I'd be more than happy managing a greenhouse, or just working there if they paid a living wage.

I'd be more than glad to send my CV to anyone who knows about any opportunities, or to hear about any job boards that present this kind of roles, and which I might now be aware of. For now, just being able to communicate so candidly about my job search (considering that job searching is all about presenting an uberconfident persona that knows everything and has two hundred years of experience) is already a big help. Thank you all for sustaining such a beautiful community here!

Hello to all!

For a little while now I've been toying around with the idea of starting a mushroom farm, one that is actually capable of making some money at the end of the month. I've been interested in permaculture and horticulture for years now, but never thought of it as something that could be done for profit until a friend mentioned that mushroom producers invest relatively very little and are getting surprisingly high payments per pound of produce (particularly those who grow some species of Pleurotus).

Now, I have located an interesting piece of land near my city (I live in Asturias, Spain). It's around 7.300m2 (a little less than two acres), a beautiful creek crosses it and, perhaps what's most interesting about it, it's currently mostly covered by a forest of chestnut trees, oaks and poplar trees. So I've been thinking: would it be an insane investment to buy it (it's very cheap, it sells for less than 10,000$), and try to start a moderate production of mushrooms on it? Shiitakes, perhaps, and if I decide to go foolproof, Oyster mushrooms in greenhouses scattered among the trees? Does anybody in this forum do something of the sort right now, or has tried to do it in the past? I think that, at least as for distribution channels and potential buyers go, I will surely have a good deal of available market space. In case I decide to go for it, and before I actually invest any money, I plan on literally going store by store, supermarket by supermarket and restaurant by restaurant asking if they would be interested in buying locally-produced, organic and fresh mushrooms. Perhaps I could offer to produce and deliver certain mushrooms species specifically to cater their needs, starting small and serving just a few businesses, then expand in time.

To be honest, I'm excited at the prospect of starting a rentable business at the same time that I respect and protect a forest. But, also to be honest, I'm a 22-year old, senior Philosophy college student, with limited funds. Full of energy and willing to make a living from something else than my degree, something that allows me to pursue Philosophy as a passion and not as a business interest; unwilling to become yet another grey professor begging for a grant, but still, as I say, currently with limited funds. So, in the opinion of the most expert contributors to the forum, is this idea too risky? Of course I know it's risky, but is it too risky, perhaps? What pieces of advice could you offer for a project like this one, and, if you can, for a person like me?

Many thanks for reading! Be sure that I'll appreciate any sort of input that you may provide.

Marco Banks wrote:You might start with laying out a single swale on contour with a A-frame, and see how it works with your garden plans.  If it were me, I'd dig the first swale down toward the bottom of your hill, and then plant a row of fruit trees below the swale.  The water captured by the swale will soak in and provide moisture to the tree roots below.  If you like the look, feel and function of that, you can continue up the slope and lay out your next one.

Yes! I was thinking of something like that at first: planting a long line of berry bushes (blackcurrants mainly, but also blueberries and thornless blackberries) at the base of the field, as I prefer them over fruit trees for concerns of their shade later affecting the growth of nearby vegetable patches (...though perhaps I could maintain them small and very well pruned?). But now I shall do a swale in contour, also, which should fixate the soil much better.

As you see in the image I took from Google Earth (I really like this image-attaching thing, everything is explained better with graphic support!), the slope is not continuous, though, but much steeper as you approach the street. It makes something of an obtusangle triangle, but with an inclined base, as if it were a first very steep slope that cuts directly into a much less steeper one. As you see in the first of all my attached images in this thread, I already planted a Leylandii hedge along that steeper slope, thinking of both using it to contain the soil with its roots and charmed by its relatively low price. In consequence, I was thinking also of cutting into the base of that 'first' slope, where the hedges are planted, and making a swale to also be useful as a path, hoping that the Leylandii's roots will hold the slope. And I planned to do this second swale because:

Pearl Sutton wrote:A weird question: how hard is it for you to walk on the slope? I am terracing mine, it slopes a lot like that, but I have health issues, and hard time on slopes, I'd rather go down, then walk level, rather than be sloped when I walk the whole time. Plants will grow fine on a slope, it's more you that is the deciding factor.

Because yes, it's kind of annoying to walk along a slope all the time; particularly when you are carrying heavy or voluminous things from one extent of the terrain to the other. My only concern is whether if I dig this near-the-top-of-the-slope swale, it may eventually produce a landslide. But near that part the soil is more clay-ish, and this gives me some moderate tranquility as to its capacity to hold its position.
Thanks for your compliment on my post, Pearl, by the way!

Dave de Basque wrote:Hi Miguel, from your climate analogue farther to the east!

From the looks of your photos, I would guess that you don't have slopes over 10 or 12 degrees. So I think terracing might be overkill, unless you just really want to do it. Of course, once you break the soil open, you need to worry about erosion and keeping it covered.

I'm a no-dig fan, so I personally would sheet mulch on contour without disturbing the soil. When I sheet mulch on a slope, I make the downhill side much thicker (even though in a year it will flatten out). Also I may drive in a few short stakes on the downhill side if I'm foreseeing any slippage problems. Since it's grass at the moment, your soil is likely to be very bacterially dominated, which is not bad for annual crops, but you might want to work on increasing the presence of beneficial fungi in the soil to balance it out. If you've been lurking for a while, maybe you already know about Dr. Redhawk's Soil Series? There's some fantastic information there.

Hello, Dave, and thanks for all the incredibly valuable resources! I'd like to do the sheet mulching strategy at least in part of the land, but just a couple of hundred square meters of this requires already a massive amount of mulch, and my resources are limited (as even lumbermills want to charge you for giving you their sawdust). Same for the manure idea, since apparently even poo is sold, or if it's not sold then transportation is hard and not provided, which means very expensive third persons, the transport companies, need to be hired. I do plan to bring in manure, of course, but if I mix it with the existing soil I maybe need only half or less than half of what I would need if I wanted to plant directly on it. Still, I shall keep these plans in mind for later stages, as they may very well come in handy if I start to experience difficulties with more conventional methods!

I'm also greatly pleased of having a fellow Spain-based, Cfb climate colleague in here! Maybe I'll hit you up later to get your plant nursery, seed provider and other similar services' information.

Hello, Jack! Thanks for your reply.

I plan to turn it into a vegetable garden for personal consumption, starting with a few crops for this year and progressively 'reclaiming' more land for crops until I reach the chicken's grass limits. In order to do this, I had in mind John Seymour's methods of deep bedding, and thus planned to section the terrain into smaller squares, dig deeply in each to loosen the soil well (see the attached image, although the part in which these ditches are filled with the soil dug up from the contiguous ditch is missing) and then just aireate that soil yearly with a pitchfork, again as John Seymour recommends.

After that, I plan to have it planted year-round, as in winter I will grow green manure on any unused patches of tilled land. And, of course, I plan to plant the crop rows cutting horizontally across the slope, to detain more the flow of water during rainfalls, which, by the way, are pretty common during the whole year (the area receives between 1000 and 1300 l/m2 yearly, or roughly between 24.5 to 32 gal/ft2). The place has an oceanic climate, Cfb in Koppen's classification.

If I do end up having to terrace the ground, I will have to do it mostly myself (perhaps a few friends will come and help) as I'm on a very tight budget, and would resemble those of the second attached image (excuse the bad resolution). I've leveled a little bit of the soil before, in order to put the foundations for a shed, and it's not that hard when it has rained recently. Of course, having to do that accross a first extension of 400 or so square meters will prove an absolute challenge, of which I will either get out with some real muscles or a nice wooden coffin to rest in.

Let's see!

Hello! I am a newly registered user in this forum, though I've been already checking it from time to time.

I thought of asking the community for help (though I'm still somehow unsure of whether this is the appropiate forum to ask for this specific information) on whether I should terrace or not a new piece of land that I'm starting with, after renting it this past month. It's 2000m2 (a little less than half an acre), and it's located in Asturias, Spain. The wheather is often rainy here, and, as you see in the images, the terrain does have a more than perceptible slope. I've been thinking, thus, of terracing it to prevent erosion, but nevertheless I'm still quite unsure of the extent of terracing needed, or if it's truly needed at all. Evidently, of course, I wish to be careful to prevent the soil from depleting, but since I've seen practically all gardeners in the region growing things in even worse slopes, I begin to doubt whether it's truly necessary.

If so, I was thinking of making bench terraces, cutting and filling, and holding them with turf walls. As the slope is not that bad, I've even thought of making just two really wide ones, with turf walls. Do you think this is enough, friends, or will it need more work still?

Thanks to all beforehand!

Oh, and by the way: the nearest part that appears in the first two photographs, from the newly planted hedges up to a little elevation at the left side of the terrain, is not actually land I plan on using to grow vegetables. I planned to work a little with the terrain there (as it coincidentally has the steepest sloping) and put some chickens, only planting a Sunburst cherry tree in the lowest area to contain the soil a little with its roots.