Takota Coen

A Huggins wrote:I have really enjoyed the recordings on the Verge student dash board about the book after purchasing the book bundle. I have listened to them multiple times. Plenty of wise insights that are important to have a comprehensive wholistic design that aims to improve the designers well being.

At home I don't have time to scratch myself. I have four kids under ten. The eldest on the autism spectrum and the youngest still in nappies. Any advice on working my way into the planning tools sequentially?

Life is very hectic but I want use these valuable tools to make my actions more intentional and beneficial to achieve my well being goals. How would you approach your book if you were in the same situation? Thanks.

Hi A,
It sounds like you have a very full life!

I would recommend reading through the entire book at first then starting to work on the exercises in which ever step/struggle most jumps out at you, usually this is in the order in which they are presented in the book, but you will intuitively know where your weak links are.

Takota

Moira Teekema wrote:Hello to Michelle Avis, Rob Avis, and Takota Coen!  I can't wait to purchase your book.  What I've looked at so far, follows the path that my husband and I want for our property.  We have 5 acres, leaving 2 acres for the natural forest that exists and then making as much of the remaining property into a permaculture farm for ourselves and neighbors.  We've started an orchard and made our leaching field into a pasture of pollinator pleasures.  We are working on food beds, but it a process that can be slow.  

Can't wait to read more of your book.  Where can we purchase one?

Thanks again for joining the party!

Hi Moira,
It sounds like you are off to a great start!

You can get an audio, physical or ebook copy of the book a www.mypermacultureproperty.com

Moira Teekema wrote:Hello to Michelle Avis, Rob Avis, and Takota Coen!  I can't wait to purchase your book.  What I've looked at so far, follows the path that my husband and I want for our property.  We have 5 acres, leaving 2 acres for the natural forest that exists and then making as much of the remaining property into a permaculture farm for ourselves and neighbors.  We've started an orchard and made our leaching field into a pasture of pollinator pleasures.  We are working on food beds, but it a process that can be slow.  

Can't wait to read more of your book.  Where can we purchase one?

Thanks again for joining the party!

Sounds like you are off to a great start Moira! You can get a copy at www.mypermacultureproperty.com

Rojer Wisner wrote:I purchased this book during the summit (book launching) and have read through the whole thing.
Now comes the hard part - putting it into practice.
It's a well written book, easy to understand and comprehensive enough to get the job done - once the elbow grease has been properly applied.

Thank you to VergePermaculture for helping me to apply what I had learned from the PDC I took with Nicholas Burtner's School of Permaculture.  

What a task it is to get started.
But Thank You.

Thank you Rojer :)

Robert Lightfoot wrote:Rob, Michelle and Takota, congrats on your book endeavor.  

I struggle with trying to accomplish an already overbooked schedule and making the leap into bonified permiculture hits me with a reality check.   I adopt ideas that work for my small property and always seem to dream of bigger things that never come to fruition.  Like many, I do what I can.  High hopes and low expectations keep the dream alive.

Does your book have variations in size/scope of projects and ideas that would help those with limited time, money or resources.  Often times it's the little thing we miss that count the most.  Baby steps.

I can tell by your question that you familiar with the 5 struggles of permaculture:
1. What should I do?
2. Where do I find?
3. How does it Connect?
4. Where do I start?
5. When does it end?!

If so then this is the perfect book for you, as each of the steps in our process deal with these problems directly. You will find Step 4 and 5 particularly helpful in prioritizing and avoiding burnout.

Jay Angler wrote:Welcome Rob, Michelle, and Takota! I just put your book on reserve at my regional library and there are 9 reserves ahead of me. I always consider that a *really good* sign - a good book, and lots of people taking an interest in growing in ways that are healthier for the planet. Thank you all for visiting permies this week.

WOW thanks for sharing that is a good metric :)

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Yes, Takota, this one is for you:

After reading your book, and writing down just what I eventually want to build, I felt that the land I just purchased will eventually be too small, but its all I can afford right now.

I'm not a big-scale farmer, land inherit-er or millionaire. So.... the question I'm left with is: how does an average joe like me buy more acreage? What kind of a discussion would you create for someone wanting more land than makes financial sense?

Quality over quantity is what I would say!

I used to also think that I could only ever live on minimum of 160 acres, but I have since toured some incredible permaculture properties that were as small as 1/10th of an acre and I have realized that you can pack so much into even a tiny space that any land that had decent water access and structures could keep me busy for a lifetime.

Start where it makes sense, there is not saying you can't ever sell and go bigger. Geoff Lawton has had multiple properties in his career and some were tiny.

If you can prove your skills at regenerating land and producing something of value on the small scale you will have no shortage of buyers or investors :)

Amin Jamali wrote:
I meant to say criterion (my apologies). The reason I ask this question is because a good design can probably fix a good portion of challenges that are present with a given land. An example of this criteria would the level of sun exposure in winter or having a south facing road. If the energy that's put in toward fixing a problem (e.g. Having to create a new access road to the property because of long-term maintenance) is greater than the return, it feels like starting over with a different land would be easier.

Ah that makes much better sense! I had never thought of putting a cafeteria on a farm before haha!

My top three categories would be:
#1 Abundant access to water (or the ability to create access) in many different forms, lake, spring, wells, dams creeks etc)
#2 A minimum of 100ft/30m elevation change for gravity water potential and diverse microclimates. Ideally this slope would also face several aspects of the compass
#3 Good building location on a flat bench somewhere towards the lower third of the slope

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Ps, I posted questions for each of you 3, in the permaculture design forum. But maybe that was the wrong place?

Hi Rebekah, sorry I can't find them! can you link to the page, there are so many threads on permies!

Hi Frank,
In answer to your question:

Frank Cordeiro wrote:I only have a 5 acre property, garden about 1/4 acre due to water restrictions, and let the rest remain as forest.  Many permaculture books are designed for larger properties.  Is this book something I can use or would it just contain information for the larger community?

We have already received lots of positive feedback about the book from folks who own properties the same size or smaller than you. This book is not at all about specific techniques that worked for us on our own properties, it is about how think so that you can develop your own techniques that work for you.

Its about process not prescriptions. The latter usually has nasty side effects