Bethany Brown

Makes total sense. When my kids were younger, we did get a bunch of “just in case” wheat berries- that was 13 years ago and we still have most of them. If things go down, we can feed them to chickens. Mostly what we try to do is keep enough of nonperishable stuff to last a few months or till the expiration date- like one person in my house goes through about a 28 oz container of peanut butter a week. It lasts about a year, so ideally I’d have 52 containers- I haven’t got there yet but that’s the idea. We keep a bucket of rice and plenty of oatmeal, just lots of things that we use on a fairly regular basis.

Have been away from permies for awhile. Bamboo! I was almost afraid to buy this property because of it. It does take a small amount of work to keep it from encroaching on our orchard, but it’s not too bad. Edible shoots in spring. Drops lots of leaves that can be used as mulch or an ingredient in animal bedding. We have used the poles as fence posts and they last several years, not a permanent post, but a free one. The poles can be used to make lots of other things that I haven’t yet experimented with.

Just threw a chuck steak under the broiler and steamed some broccoli. A couple of nights ago, a friend brought us salmon from his fishing trip in Alaska, so we had that with some roasted potatoes, carrots, onions, and the last of the zucchini.

Is it possible that you need electrolytes?

Wow thanks for all the info! I have lots of coffee grounds. I throw them on my compost pile or just outside around plants, but I’m not very intentional with how I use them. My doctor told me they worked to keep slugs away from her lettuce plants.

I think to do this, we need a tribe. The closest our family got was in I think 2011, we raised 60 meat chickens (store bought Cornish cross chicks fed store bought feed), had laying hens (super bought chicks and feed), raised beef with my dad, had a veggie garden, and drove over an hour a week to buy raw milk. Sometimes I made butter or yogurt from the milk. But we had a hard time keeping up with everything, and more I’m chronically fatigued and this year I didn’t even plant my own seeds, just bought a free plants and put them in the ground. We still having laying hens and a mobile coop, and we’re getting fruit from trees we planted in 2021. I’m elated when something I allowed to go to seed volunteers.

Anne Miller wrote:Deer will eat almost everything, except rosemary ...

Feral hog love Egyptian Walking Onions ...

Anne, have you had any luck with using Rosemary as a barrier to deter deer? When I first moved here, to deer country, I didn’t have a fence (I thought if I planted enough, I’d have enough to share- another lesson learned the hard way!) but the deer seemed to leave alone my rows of people basil and anything close to it. They also seem to spend less time around fruit trees that have lavender planted around them.

I’ve also done well with cutting one side out of  paper orange juice or other beverage cartons to make a container, filling with potting soil, and planting greens in it. Works fine in a partly sunny window. I save any kind of plastic food container for starting seeds.

Hi Jen! We’re practically neighbors. I’m in north Clark County. Some of my suggestions are: if you have a house: sign up for chip drop, use wood chips for mulch and improving soil. Wood chips can be left in a pile to make compost over time. Add kitchen scraps and yard waste to this. I think there is a seed library in Washougal. I would advise people to start small because there is a lot of learning through trial and error. In an apartment, maybe a small composter, but i don’t think you can’t get away from buying potting soil to get started.
Is your presentation open to the public?

I just wanted to share, this requires backstory. Between 2005-2008 I lived with my husband and tiny children I a little mobile home in an acre, which was owned by my in-laws and they let us live there for cheap because we were young and broke and they were nice. We had a big garden and at the back was a wood lot which was owned by the neighbors. I built a snake pit for the garter snakes near the back of the property. But before I got to see if the snakes used the pit, we ended up moving. My in-laws kept the property. I forgot about the snake pit. Father in law found it when he was mowing the grass and ran into the pallet I’d put on to. He called my husband ranting, “why the heck is there a pot of snakes?” I was proud. In-laws kept the property all this time, rented it out to some other people. In December, two of my kids, now young adults, moved in. One texted me this morning to let me know that the snake population is still doing very well. My heart swelled with so much pride and joy. Then my younger one texted to ask for advice on starting seeds. Made my day.