Elyse Guarino

2-day Ethnobotany Trip exploring the medicinal, useful and edible plants of the Greater Yellowstone Eco-system

I am sharing this with Permies because I know we are all working to create sustainable and self-tending plant communities, or at least share a love for all things permaculture. Knowing what is growing and how to use it is extremely useful. I went on a trip with John last year and my mind was blown. We couldnt walkt more than a few steps without more knowledge tumbling out of the man. Not just I.D. and ideas of what people used to do with it—active compounds, current pharmacological uses, how to best grow it, why it grows certain places and not others, preparations and best time to harvest, I.D. techniques for all season, and the list goes on. We also harvested a Lightning Root and were taught how to prepare it within the first 15 minutes of the trip....See more below.
Book here 2- Day Ethnobotany Float Trip

Join Wyoming River Trips on a 2 day journey with Ethnobotanist, John Mionczynski. We will travel by river and on foot along the North Fork of the Shoshone River corridor, exploring the intersection of plants and human history on the North Fork of the Shoshone on this 2-day float trip. The evening will be spent studying our finds, enjoying delicious cuisine and Q and A with John. Participants will have access to John's collection of dried plants and library of resources. WRT will do our best to make sure guests booking together get to stay together, however most rooms are shared and you may be spending time with other guests for the night in bunks. The main lodge, deck, game room and bar of UXU is open to us after hours. All meals included, alcohol and other beverages are the responsibility of guests. Bring cash or card. WRT will provide a list of what to bring/pack and provide bag drop and pick up to and from the ranch.

If you or someone you know is passionate about the useful compounds in the plants all around us, agro-forestry, regenerative agriculture, native plant food and medicine, survival foods etc this is one you do not want to miss!


John Mionczynski has worked in the Wyoming backcountry for 50 years as a wildlife biologist, technician, and outfitter, always supplementing his diet with wild foods, mostly plants. He has taught ethnobotany and edible/medicinal plant classes for The Teton Science School, Central Wyoming College, National Outdoor Leadership School, Earthknack, American Wilderness Botanicals, and the Family Practice Residency Program for medical professionals through the University of Wyoming. Currently he functions as an ethnobotanist for the group, “Restoring Shoshone Ancestral Food Gathering” on the Wind River Indian Reservation and continues to lead Natural History tours in the Red Desert and Wind River Mountain foothills. He is also co-founder of [The Native Memory Project](https://nativememoryproject.org/) which produces archival video footage of tribal elders and other native people in the west speaking of pre-reservation life ways, ancient foods, and other knowledge in danger of being lost to time.



July 21st - 22nd

Day 1:
9am to 4:30pm

Day 2:
9am - 3:30pm

Matt, John, Toko,

Thank you for all the input. It is helpful on a lot of levels. Matt, I appreciate asking the hard question about preference vs. practicality. I have thought about this and still don’t know. We have thought of pouring a slab after the fact (like next year) but also don’t have another way in and out of the cabin and would need to find somewhere else yo sleep or commit to camping for a bit. The main reason for coming up with what we were going to do, was it’s free and we can do it now or later. There is a portion that would be stone and leave us a way in and out while the rest dries. I’ll keep thinking on it though, as I have wondered if it is actually a good idea at all.

Toko, thank you for the detailed interest and explanation of post and beam building. I know the language I use is not always what a builder would say so I think I gleaned some info on how to be less confusing in the future from your response. The main questions aren’t how to build post and beam, but how far and what kind of deviations are acceptable—Assuming that the piers are built correctly and that the main support structure is the piers. The largest span between piers is 9.5 feet. The stone wall was referenced as “infill” because that was one of the main questions. It won’t really be a support structure as the plate will be on the piers but it will also be sort of support because it is filling the space between them and under the piers. Does that make more sense? I can share a picture if I can get it to upload.

Thank you for all the thoughts on straw bake and the useful information regarding combustion. We have considered light straw clay in addition to some other kind of insulation behind it as well. I’ll have to write down the other works you used for that because that was new to me too.

Thanks for all the input so far and the welcome to the community.

E

Hi, this is my first post, and I can’t seem to find anything relating to this in your forums or on the internet. I am looking for some thoughts on our plan to enclose a round wood framed structure on piers and make it a sunroom, with earthen floor, in Wyoming.

structure is/will be tied into existing 288 sf shed/cabin. addition is 140 sf. The addition is currently being built on concrete piers poured from below frost depth (48 inches).

We were unsure if we would get to framing in walls before our snow really started falling but it looks like we could. So the question is more of a what are my options/is the following a bad idea.

The piers stick out of the ground 4-6 inches.  We have an abundance of small to medium sized rectangular granite blocks. We were thinking of building a stone and lime mortar
“Walls” connecting the piers and putting our base plate on top of that, also tied in directly to the supporting Timbers, then framing as normal with straw bale insulation and cob and lime plasters. We were then thinking of utilizing mesh to screen critters out and putting in the natural floor over that with some kind of insulation as well, building it up 6 inches or so to match the height of the concrete and keep everything level. Do we need to dig a trench for the stone walls and do gravel first as a drainage solution if we have good berm and slope away from the exterior on all sides? Is using the existing piers and essentially stone “infill” beneath the base plate an acceptable support structure if there will be windows and strawbale insulation ( these will be cut out o 9 inches not 18) ? It is primarily a sunroom, so more windows than straw or insulation…

Just looking for some guidance. I have been reading lots of posts by others and the answers seem all over the place but not to specifically hit on what I am worried about (shifting of the walls or windows/stability). Again the main frame is to the appropriate depth for a foundation but I am not finding info on building walls on this type of timber framed “porch” that don’t involve building a deck. A deck would also tie the walls to each other. But we are hoping to do a natural floor and avoid a wooden deck/floor structure. Hopefully that makes sense. If floor joists of some kind are necessary to tie the walls to one another, would burying them in the earthen floor be acceptable?

Thanks I’m advance for any and all help. We are trying to be creative here with materials we had on the property. I realize it’s unconventional, and that is what we are going for. But, we do want to make sure it lasts and is sturdy. Again, thanks!