Jolene Csakany

Looking for permaculture minded housemate in Nineveh, NY.  I am open to different sorts of trades, either some money and labor or possibly all labor if you're open to helping with more of what needs to be done here.  I can provide basic foods like the spices and potatoes, but I cannot typically provide meat and more expensive things yet.  I am also interested in living a more vegetarian lifestyle, however my neighbors hunt and I currently have a fair amount of wild boar in my freezer and am often gifted with venison that I'd love to share.  I would love to offer a free space to serious permaculture people here that includes free food and lodging someday, but I'm a minimum wage worker at the local deli, so I just can't afford that yet.  

Long or short term stays are welcome.  I think the ideal situation would be someone who wanted to come for a week or two to check the situation out, and then possibly stay longer if the situation seems right.  Maybe this place turns into a community someday.   For now, I have a small bedroom downstairs or a larger loft space to share.  The house is on the grid and has internet.  Currently, it has wifi, but if someone is sensitive to emf waves I am open to switching to ethernet cables.  I did this at my previous living situation and I've lived with housemates most of my adult life.  I can get old roommates to provide references if you want to hear more about me from an outside source.   I am a very quiet and introverted person, don't play much music or like bright lights on all the time.  Campers are also welcome, and if you are interested in coming next spring/summer please keep this posting in mind.

I haven't gotten too far with developing the property.  So far, there are chickens for eggs, bees, small vegetable garden, and I just planted some raspberry and blackberry bushes.  Next spring I plan to focus on mushrooms, both in logs and outdoor ground patches.  I would love to host someone experienced in permaculture or newly certified who would help me develop plans on how to move forward.  

The property is twenty beautiful acres with trails through the woods and a few small meadows. There are two small creeks and one has cascading waterfalls, although this one is typically a trickle, it's a beautiful place to relax.  During wet weather the trails are full of frogs, toads and red efts everywhere.  

The house needs work, it's only subfloors in living room/kitchen area and the kitchen is in need of remodeling- but everything works and there are no leaks.  I have a washer and dryer.  Anyone with home repair skills would be greatly appreciated, but nothing is falling apart and it's a comfortable space.  There is a front porch with a beautiful view of the neighbor's pond, where you can watch wildlife come and go.  
There is a post office, deli and bar/restaurant ten minutes away in Nineveh and more shops 15 minutes away in Afton, nearest grocery store is twenty minutes away in Sidney.  It's pretty easy to find a minimum wage job (which is $15 in NY)  at local businesses, things are always hiring around here.  There are state parks for hiking about 30 minutes away.

I heat with wood and keeping the stove going all day and night is quite the chore, so I am hoping for someone who is willing to help with this and it's a 24 hour job.  Last winter I wasn't working, so missing out on sleep wasn't a big deal.  I do have electric baseboard heat for emergencies should we both have to be away.  
I also have two dogs.  Both love humans, but one is dog aggressive and the other is extremely predatory and will attack porcupines.  I am hoping for someone who would be willing to watch the dogs occasionally so I can visit my family who live two hours away.  I would not be gone for more than a few days at a time.  Unfortunately, I can't host another dog or a cat because of my own, or I would be open to helping other animal lovers and hope to after these guys pass on but they're six and seven years old so it will be awhile.  They are calm dogs in the house and have lived in other shared housing situations without complaints.  If someone has a caged pet, goats or other outdoor animal companions they would be welcome and I'd be happy to assist with their care.  I love animals and have worked with goats before as a cheese maker and milker and am experienced with their care.

Please respond with a message (purple moosage)!  I do not always check my postings and will probably miss your response unless you send me a message.  

I've posted a fair amount here on permies.com, so if you want to know more about me you can read some of what I shared and see if you think we'd be a good fit.  I am not looking for a romantic partner, just like minded friends who love nature, animals, and want a life more in harmony with the earth.  I have a few business ideas that I plan to get started with and would love someone interested in partnering with me.
I have let my yoga and meditation practices slide in recent years, but would love a housemate with an interest in these things and I can teach yoga and pranayama practices.  I also used to cold plunge and do Wim Hof breathing and the creek sometimes has pools deep enough for sitting and soaking in.  I have spent time at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center, but typically find myself more drawn to Zen and Vipassana practices.  I am trying to live a more vegetarian lifestyle, but as I said, meat is often gifted to me and I eat what's provided.  I would also like to raise more chickens for eggs, which means more roosters than needed so if someone is experienced in their slaughter (or wants to gain that experience) that would be appreciated.  Vegans are  welcome and I'd be very happy to share vegan meals, but I cannot offer a vegan kitchen or home free of the smell of meat cooking although I rarely buy meat.  

 That's all I can think to share, feel free to ask any questions.  

Thank you for the tips, especially the apps, I have been thinking about getting a plant ID app and wasn't sure which to go with.

While every plant may be 'introduced" at some level, as in it didn't evolve in that region thousands or millions of years ago, that doesn't make it invasive.  Even plants that were introduced recently from afar are not necessarily invasive, even ones that naturalize- if they don't displace native plants- and I think much of the unhappiness about invasives has to do with how they aggressively outcompete the plants we use and are challenging to remove, more so than a locavore attitude problem.  Certain plants take over and outcompete everything else, and some of these offer little value to wildlife or humans, which is why they can often outcompete the natives and leave us with substantially less biodiversity.  Some do offer a lot of value as food or medicine, but still may change wetlands into dry areas or have other consequences that change the ecosystem and mean an end to other plants and possibly animal species getting to be in that space too.  
Maybe we need to label the plants we have a problem with as nuisances instead of invasives? so it's clear it isn't just the fact that they come from somewhere else.  This isn't an antiimmigrant attitude, but practicality.  And I get that some natives can become nuisances, and what is invasive in one ecosystem won't become invasive in another.  I plant daffodils and other non-native flower species, but I try to check that they won't take over the space the way an invasive will.  

Dandelions may pop up all over the place, but they don't take over and I'm happy people introduced them many years ago and they are now a common plant that people and animals can eat.    I am ok with things that don't grow over my vegetable and flower gardens at a super fast pace like Creeping Charlie will and the effort to control it never ends and gardening is so much more effort because of it.  If I don't cut back the multiflora rose every year I will have no more meadows to walk through and that would be a bummer.    It's not the fact that they come from some place else that I want them gone, they make the land less useable for me and are a lot of effort to keep cutting back that I'd rather put toward other projects.  

I saw another person mentioned nettles, and I would advise against this if you plan to use this spot for a veggie garden for many years.  I did this in my last vegetable garden and regretted it.  The first two years it was great, and then by year three it was a small pain in the butt and by year four I was constantly pulling out nettles.  
Unless maybe you will really use a lot of them and use the roots.  I love nettles and comfrey, but will now keep them a good distance from any place that will be used for growing vegetables.  
If you have the budget for pre-started flowers you can also hit up the local nurseries and find lots of annual flowers to plant and probably rescue some sad tomato, pepper and eggplants.  Bring the peppers and eggplants in for the winter to live as houseplants and you will be set for an early crop next year.  

You can also plant flowers.  If you plant French Marigolds and calendula they will self seed and it's always nice to have them popping up in the vegetable garden to help with nematodes.  Or so I've read, I don't think I've ever had a problem with nematodes needing help, but it's an excuse to incorporate flowers.  I think you can plant cosmos, verbena, sunflowers and zinnias now too- if you don't mind some popping up as weeds in your veggie garden next year.  Deadhead, chop and drop or bring in cut flowers to keep this to a minimum.  It might also be a good time to plant lavender, oregano and rosemary- I think those seeds like getting started in the heat and then you can transplant them to other places next year, or let them intermingle with the veggies where there strong smells and flowers will bring benefits to the veggies.    

I did this at my previous location, it started as an emergency solution for too many plants and then I realized it was a great tool to continue building my garden with.   I've planted potatoes in boxes this season.  I put some logs around the boxes to help things stay together and everything seems to breakdown and naturalize nicely into a slightly raised mound eventually.  Even without logs, I don't find the boxes breakdown too quickly and I was in western NC and am now in upstate NY- both are humid locations.  It has been an unusually rainy spring/ start to summer and the boxes are holding up ok so far.  

I just read Paul's thread about cardboard potentially having toxic chemicals and it's a bummer.  It's had me wondering if I should keep moving forward with this and that's why I delayed in adding my two cents to the topic.  After much soul searching, I think I will because I can't think of a way that compares in cost effectiveness and convenience.  I was about to purchase 5 gallon plastic pots or food grade buckets for my peppers, since I will bring them indoors for winter but then I wonder what will leach out of the plastic.  I think the plants will also need less watering and grow better if they are not so restrained at first, and so I'm going to continue with the boxes and move them into containers at the end of the season.  

I guess our bodies will be the experiment as to how safe this is.  It's just depressing that nothing is safe in this world and every time you think you've found a cool short cut, there's an unsettling twist you didn't see coming.  

Jennie Little wrote:Anyone add coffee grounds to their mix? Would you? Not? Why?

TIA.

I tend to use coffee grounds as a top cover when I can get them, so that it keeps the weeds out and slowly gets incorporated into the soil.  I drink more black tea than coffee, and I spread the used tea leaves around the most special plants, but don't produce enough to really make a significant addition to even my small scale soil production or mulch everything with it.  The neighbors I spoke to use Kerug coffee machines so they just have those stupid plastic cups.  I don't understand how that horrible machine became so popular, not only is it incredibly wasteful but I think it makes weak, not great tasting coffee that doesn't even give me energy the way coffee made in any other way does.

One local coffee shop was giving me their used grounds until early last month, then they closed.  I have asked at several other places but either someone else is already taking them or the shop owner just don't want to be bothered.  

I'm glad this thread got highlighted by a new reply because yesterday I was tempted into buying four pepper plants that I want to keep in pots.  My project is on a much smaller scale than Hugo's, but it was interesting to read his experience.  I like to bring in a few peppers inside as houseplants for the winter and keep them for years, and I don't want to buy soil to up-pot these.  I have made my own stuff over the years with no recipe and with mixed, but mostly good, results.  I want to get a little more systematic about things and have these peppers off to a good start.  

I have access to lots of rotting old trees on my property.  It's said decomposing wood chips use up the nitrogen when they decompose, but the wood is already soft and you can break it up with your hands- so I'm guessing it's past this stage?  After reading this thread, I feel better about using it.  
The leaf mold here is always full of fern and other roots, and not the fluffy stuff I easily collected at my last location, so I will be relying more on the rotted wood.  To this, I will add deer/porcupine manure and perlite since peppers tend to need better drainage than other vegetable plants.  (I don't add perlite to outdoor beds or potted tomatoes.)  After reading this thread, I will see if I can collect some sandy dirt from the creek bed to add to the mix.  

The soil here contains a fair amount of clay and a lot of rocks.  It's not all clay, like my last location in NC, but it's not loam like what I experienced growing up in the Hudson Valley.  When I plant things in the ground I remove the rocks and not much dirt remains to put back, so I make up the difference with soft rotted wood I break up fine with my hands- which is currently my most abundant and easily collected resource.  In the past, I relied more on leaf mold, but I can only find a few places where this is easily collected because of the abundant ferns.  This thread is giving me more confidence that this should be ok, unless I'm just hearing what I want to hear.  

I was thinking about purchasing Azomite or compost to add to the potting soil just to be sure the peppers have everything they need, but I really want to rely on weed teas and not turn to outside sources anymore.  But I don't create enough organic waste to support a worm bin or produce much compost.  

I've started a flower garden in front of a small length of stone wall that borders the road.  My sister was surprised I didn't weed out the dandelions, purple clover, wild asters or broadleaf plantains but I don't see them as weeds.  She disagreed, and I could tell is not super impressed with my flower garden but those plants feed the bees, feed the soil and could feed me if I were more motivated to harvest and prepare them.  I know some people think it's terrible that they are 'stealing' nutrients from the things purposely planted, but I make weed teas, chop and drop, or compost so everything gets put back in the system-  so we permie people don't suffer from that feeling of nutrient scarcity that afflicts other gardeners not striving for closed loop systems.

While I hope to eventually fill this space with more exciting flowers, I see those as beneficial plants that hold the space from getting occupied by the "real weeds" like grass, goldenrod and mugwort that want to invade and will smother potential flowers.  As I'm sure many here know, things with a long taproot like dandelion bring up nutrients and I've heard that they will naturally decline once they have shifted the nutrient balance in the soil. I'm curious to see if this is true.  Since I'm gardening on a budget, I can't just go out and buy big plants to fill the space and am waiting for bare roots and bulbs to come up and than spread and multiply and eventually come into balance with each other.  I haven't had the best of luck with things I've seeded in this space despite soil staying moist with all the rain.  Maybe birds and chipmunks are eating the seeds.

I think it's one thing to bring in invasives that have food or medicinal value, and to make the best of invasives that are beyond control at this point; but I research every flower I plant to be sure it isn't invasive and have said no to some old favorites because they are such.  I even tore out some free plants given to me after research revealed they were invasive, and it was hard because they were looking good.  I know we can't save the whole world, and invasives aren't going to be eliminated, but I want to manage my little space in a way that benefits local wildlife, as well as feeds me and feels right to me so not every potential plant is welcome.    I do worry a little or choose to have some control rather than welcoming any bit of life and leaving it all to chance.  I guess I have a spiritual belief that humans were meant to be stewards of the earth and part of that is taking time to learn and exerting a little control over how things unfold and doing our best to help local species of plants and animals get a chance to keep existing.  
I worked as a biologist on the Brown Tree Snake project on Guam, where these snakes had eaten every last native bird on the island by the 1980s after being brought over accidentally during WWII.  It was heartbreaking to kill those poor snakes, they didn't ask to come to another island and can't understand the situation, but it would be awful to see them conquer another island where native fauna is naive to snake predators and with military people coming and going... their numbers needed to be put in check.  I used to joke that Guam should just be turned into a giant animal park since most of it's native animals were extinct, and they should just bring even more cool exotic animals over and turn it into a live in zoo experience.  but I was joking, and I think we know deep down that nurturing the natural ecosystems that evolved to be in a balance over millennia is what creates the greatest diversity on our planet and so the greatest resilience for us and all beings that are tied together in a web of life and doing so nurtures our souls.
I guess it feels like western culture is homogenizing everything so only the most aggressive, dominant species will eventually be left- and maybe that's ok, change is inevitable; but to me it feels like diversity is more beautiful and resilient, and so fostering diversity by trying to keep invasives from eliminating the native plants seems worth the effort.