Jon Ray

Thanks for that. Ordered! From the reviews and descriptions, it seems like a good resource to have.

Anne Miller wrote:

This is the permaculture bible, also referred to as the "Big Black Book". It covers the basis of permaculture, the philosophy, the ethics, and the design concepts. It also touches on the climatic factors, trees, water, soil, earth works, and aquaculture

Thanks Anne! I'll definitely give this one a look and add it to my growing library. I've been into permaculture since the mid 2000s, but now going back to the basics, as I intend to make it a part of my life and future career choice.

I'm looking for a resource that I'm not sure exists in either book, website, or app form. What I'm looking for is a list of food plants, bushes, and trees and what their nutrient needs are, along with light exposure and any other special considerations. Does something like this already exist?

I've been looking online recently for a good paperback book that has lots of charts/graphs/photos on Permaculture. I'm looking for a Go-To book source that everyone uses and knows about. I'm not looking for obscure or advanced technics, but a good primer. My ideal resource would also cover the basics from what to look for in the land for the best results, to getting water management under control first, and then progress on how to build the resources for self-sufficient living.

Adam Geriak wrote:Hi all,

I've just created a blog post regarding the question of Why is it so hard to get into farming? What is the root cause of these struggles?

I've come down to monetary and government policy.
In the blog post I share some relevant charts to show the extent of the problem.
Other blog posts also involve land management, usually discussing home scale stuff like holistic lawn care and the value of great insulation over your gardens.
I hope this information falls upon some some people that can value it.
https://www.monardagarden.com/news

Think of starting and growing a Food Forest as the same as starting a growing a Monetary Fund to get started. You want to align your current living situation to where you have a positive cash flow first. Do not depend on Banks to get you started, save your money and grow it. Like creating sweals on the land, setup revenue cash streams into your savings until you get to the point where you can buy the canvas of land upon which you can start your farming.

Regarding Gov intervention, the answer is to Move to a pro-farm/permaculture area that will support your needs.

Marisa Lee wrote:I don’t think there’s a single best answer. If you can share other factors specific to yourself, that will help. For instance, what foods do you currently eat and want to grow? Do you intend to keep animals for meat, dairy, eggs - which ones? Do you want to keep bees and/or tap maples? How much acreage are you thinking and what’s your budget? Looking for raw land or want something move-in ready? What cultural factors are important to you?

Also consider the long-term availability of water, energy/fuel, and community.

Right you are, but for now, I'm focusing on the growing areas. I plan to have half-earth-buried greenhouses, a few beehives for pollination and honey, somewhere with low property taxes as I'm giving up on the pursuit for monetary accumulation, and the less I have the better. Chickens would be a must, some existing woods/trees. For energy, mostly renewable solar/wind/hydro with backup gas/wood. I would catch my own rainwater so I guess the state of CO is out. Would also drill a well if needed for water and if the water table is high enough. It would be more an old-world type homestead where everything is self-sufficient and provided for with little dependence upon the outside world. The more remote the better, so no concern for community or external culture. Acres wise, I'm only looking for 10-15 and in place, I won't be bothered by local housing codes. Eventually, I plan to turn the area into a small eco-village but I would be the first resident to prepare the land and get it started is what I have in mind.

I'm looking at buying some land anywhere in the 49 states of the US excluding Hawaii to build a small to a mid-size food forest. Knowing that grow zones exist, I'm looking for one that will give me the most diversity in stuff that can be grown. Looking for suggestions by states that are food forest-friendly at remote locations.

While living in Arizona, I heard of a guy who turned his backyard pool into a covered Aquaponic dome as an experiment and it worked really well for him. He called it a Garden Pool and has a website www.gardenpool.org

Here also is a news story done on his Garden Pool and what he was able to accomplish.

I made Cherry Mead once but screwed it up by adding Sarspirilla to it. Was trying to combine two things I would like on their own into this batch. Was surprised and happy to see how red it was when I first mixed it in. 2nd photo is how it turned out.

Racked


Finished

Thanks for the insights! A lot of good information here to mull over. I'm not totally committed to this idea just yet, but I am at the stage of collecting information and research its potential. I'm also looking at this project and going about it as though I'm making a trip to Mars. Instead of just showing up, I want to have a clear workable plan when I hit the ground when/if I find land. I also hope to incorporate as many permaculture systems into my designs as possible.  

Dan: Thanks for the welcome. I checked out Eagle on Google Maps, a very nice-looking place there on the Yukon River. And that grass strip at the top I suppose is the local airport as I see planes tucked within the nearby trees. Regarding Earthships, I think they need to adapt to their local environment, so some things you might see out at Taos wouldn't be required therein AK. And being mostly cold weather, I would need to come up with solutions to the many problems already mentioned by yourself and others. I can't say that I've lived in a location with Permafrost before, but I already have been looking into how to deal with it. Of course, having those like yourself who have lived in that area helps a lot. I believe the farthest I've lived up North was actually in Northern Honshu, Japan. They got plenty of snow and whiteout conditions there, I also spent some time living in Denver, CO, so I have some experience in living in cold climates. For the "tires", I suspected it might be somewhat difficult so I would need to load them in and just make multiple expeditions of it. Back to adapting to the local environment, I could also look at other methods that a similar to replace the tire method if that's what is needed. Regarding finding Land, I have seen this, but I also know of people who have done it and know that the Feds have opened up new tracks for sale ever so often. I've looked into the local programs for getting land and I do have some time before I would actually purchase. I also plan to make some recon trips up to the areas I'm interested in, to get a better idea of potential sites. Back to digging, I've seen jackhammers and sledgehammers being used to break it up. I hear it's like hitting rock, if that's the case, would using a pickaxe help? I also know of a foam material that you can drill a small hole into the rock/ground fill it with this stuff and over 24 hours it expands x4 its original mass. It's an alternative to using explosives for miners in hard rock mining. Maybe this could be used to help break up the permafrost? The end product looks like tubes of expanded concrete. I've also considered the steam method as well to both help with heating the Earthship during winter and as a tool for working the environment. I don't understand your log cabin in a hole concept, but from what I can see there is a bit of clay in Alaska right? I'm looking at ways to turn local natural resources into things useful to me. If I have to tunnel into hard rock and just make a cave, I'll do that and just borrow Earthship concepts to add onto that. My main thing at the moment is to put the idea out there,  find the problem areas. I also am not tied to conventional methods and don't mind experimenting. Thanks again for your insight Dan, I know it's to be harder than expected as I've talked to others who have tried it and they all come back with it was much harder than they thought it would. I've come to accept.

Thomas: Hello and thanks. Yes, I agree. The beautiful Earthships in Taos are almost works of arts in of themselves. I can also see they borrow a lot of adobe design and I would do likewise in the Alaska environment. I already consider my Earthship would not look like those in New Mexico. There would need to be changes as well to support that environment. Three of my main considerations for building into the ground are insulation, protection from forest fires, and general protection from the harsh environment. One thing I do have a concern about and would need to factor into my designs would be Earthquakes. As I know there are a few faultlines just south of Fairbanks between there and Anchorage. But I have initial problems I need to work out before I get to that.  Thanks for your input.

Dougs: Thanks for the details. What if I were to build a temp structure covering the work area and just cover and heat it for the winter months. Do you think that is doable to keep working through the winter months? What are the main issues, other than the mobility of getting around and having enough food/water during the winter months to consider? I've also considered shorter or no daylight periods and would use a headlamp for that. I'm not against moving farther south as I do plan to do some grocery shopping from time to time. But I know the population increases the farther south I go and I'm wanting to live in a low-populated area, but I swear I'm not the lone hermit type.

Thanks for all the feedback and I hope to hear more. Transportation from civilization to the sticks is another whole other project I'm working out and I would assume will need various forms of it to do what I'm planning. I'm also factoring as I mention above for Earthquakes, as whatever I do will be subterranean, not looking for the cabin in the woods as an end result. I'd be curious about how well greenhouses function and things to consider for trying to grow things that normally might not grow in the natural environment. At the moment, I'm looking into steam, firewood, and focused mirrors for generating year-round heat as needed. Any suggestions or ideas are most welcomed.