Sell your permaculture labor off-site and get paid - PEP BB commerce.sand.labor

A local farm bought half a dozen sheep off me this winter.  As part of the deal, I would mentor them in sheep care, working with and marketing wool.  The sheep care was included in the price of the sheep, but the wool work was extra and charged an hourly wage.  Like me, they care deeply about minimizing their input on the land, improving the soil health, and finding systems that reduce labour.



I attended their shearing day and taught them to skirt (remove the compost from the good wool), prepare their fibre for the mill.

I also taught how to clean.  Attached is the handout I made for them for that lesson.  The goal is to clean the wool with minimal resources and to create grey water that is safe to use on the garden.

Lesson plan:

Day one: 2 hours.
Sheering set up.
Skirting and sorting wool.

Day two: 1 hour.
Washing wool - how I do with an emphasis on using as little cleaner as possible (the more soap you use, the more water it takes to rinse it out)

Day three: 2 hours.
Preparing wool for spinning
- flick carding
- hand carding (I used this document for the lesson as carding flax is very much like carding wool)
- picking (teasing the wool apart)
- drum carding

For the teaching part... does creating and selling an online course about permaculture or a permaculture topic count?

Daron Williams wrote:For the teaching part... does creating and selling an online course about permaculture or a permaculture topic count?

Bumping for Daron's question.

Daron Williams wrote:For the teaching part... does creating and selling an online course about permaculture or a permaculture topic count?

Talking with Shawn on the phone about this.   After a bit of discussion, I am making the executive decision that this is to prove to Otis an in-person transaction.    So, no, online stuff does not count for this BB.

I taught a class at the local technical college earlier this month on canning applesauce.  It's part of their community outreach and I'm working with the coordinator to bring more homesteading skills to their list of offerings.  This was the first class and it went well.  I was able to do a presentation in one room and then we moved next door to the culinary arts kitchen (humongous commercial kitchen) and we canned up 25 quarts of applesauce.  My focus was to both teach people about safe food preservation but also to show them how quickly they could do it with some special but not expensive gear.  So I think it's permaculture related since I was helping teach people how to preserve their bounty of autumn food in a safe way.  And it was helping build a program to share more homesteading skills with the region.

And I got paid!!!

I was able to sell hugelkultur to some business owners and they have had me do the whole place!  Total sales of maybe $6000-$7000

It began when I noticed they really needed some help landscaping, AND had the "open-minded" kind of vibe that would allow them to consider letting me do "the permaculture".

At first I probably sounded crazy but like I said, they needed help!  And I got permission to use buried wood gardening and eventually, remove the drip irrigation altogether.  

The first project was ten rolling planters.  3' x 10'  

The gig was to death-proof these puppies , so I sold them hugelkultur


lined them with black plastic and added plastic bushings on the inside of the drrainage holes.  Blocked off large holes with rectangular scrap lumber (mostly pine) I was able to fit a couple layers of sawed-up scrap planks, and then placed the plants

I chose perennial shrubs which would be good insect fodder - sweet olive, gardenia Jubilee, some fragrant white vining roses.  Later added moonflower vines from my own naturalized seed.

IT IS permaculture because I don't use or allow use of any bug killer nor weed killer.  I use cardboard under the mulch so the guys agreed to stop using Roundup. as long as no weeds come up.

The stuff never needs to be watered, duh, it's hugels!!  Bigger is definitely better, but small works too. Amazing and such a joy to witness

The housekeepers, bar staff, and maintenance guy, as well as many customers, all got to learn about the process while watching the process take shape.  Plus they have enjoyed mint, rosemary, and plenty of green foliage for floral arrangements.  As far as employees, I had 7 different people help me with the work and they also learned a lot.  Prior to my involvement, only 1 person at the company had a notion of permaculture ;)  now they all do plus so many stories as the people and plants connect and interact.

Hi Arella, that's a great project.  Two of the requirements for the BB are:

Photos of you doing the work

Proof that you got paid at least $100

Can you provide those as well?

Mike Haasl wrote:

Photos of you doing the work

Proof that you got paid at least $100

As far as I know, it doesn't have to show your face--just your hands doing the work or a picture of you working  that doesn't show your face, etc.

Mike asked me to pop in and say something.

I think there is a lot of huge positives in what Arella has accomplished!   And, to be respectful for what we are trying to accomplish and to set precedent for the future, we do need:

   - something that suggests that Arella did the work.  Something strong would be strong!   But something flimsy would be "good enough for now."

   - something that suggests that Arella got paid.  Something strong would be strong!   But something flimsy would be "good enough for now."

Open to all sorts of wacky things.  Let's see if we can get this wrapped up.

I run an "Urban Homesteading School" in my small town. For several years that included Spring and Fall "Bootcamp" weekends with multiple workshops in two tracks over a full weekend. In Mar 2016 I ran three tracks, one of them dedicated to permaculture classes presented by local PC teachers Ron Berezan and Erin Innes.

It's a bit difficult to separate out the amount I earned just from organising the permaculture workshops since my numbers are calculated over the whole weekend. However, the whole weekend netted me about $680 (for over 100 hours of work, so not exactly a great hourly wage!) so if you take 1/3 of that for the PC track that would be well over the $100.

Web page for that specific event, with class descriptions
http://uhspr.ca/classes-and-events/previous-events/spring-2016-bootcamp-food-production-and-more/

Home page for the Urban Homesteading School, with a pic of me
http://uhspr.ca/


Following docs show the class schedule, number of people signed up for the different classes, and Income/expenses for the weekend.

Note:  The BB requirements have been updated a bit

Wondering if an equivalent barter would meet this?  IOW, if I do a day's labor on an organic farm and they pay me in produce, does that work?  Or, would I need to have them pay me for the work, and then me pay them for the produce to qualify?

Julie Hoolie wrote:Wondering if an equivalent barter would meet this?  IOW, if I do a day's labor on an organic farm and they pay me in produce, does that work?  

We asked Paul about it, and it seems like if the barter were worth at least $300, we would feel comfortable certifying it. It's really hard to gauge barter value for evaluators.

I have a feeling--but I honestly don't know--that we might have barter-related badge bits in the Straw Commerce badge.

Or, would I need to have them pay me for the work, and then me pay them for the produce to qualify?

I think this would be a lot easier to certify!

barter is awsome.

I suspect for this badge we need a quantifiable number to make sure that it has the same value for everyone.  I like the idea of showing the money exchange even if it is in actuality barter.  

Question: If i trade my services for a good that has $50 worth of value, would that count?

Good question!  I know Paul answered this somewhere and it took a bit of digging.  On the Commerce badge page he says in a reply that it has to be for money, no trades or barters.

makes sense. Are there any other badges that involve barter?

None that come to mind.  Maybe something in Community like organizing a work party could be a fit (trading donuts for labor).

 - a description of your labour and how it relates to permaculture
i built a friend a garden at his new house. This relates to permaculture because I turned a huge part of his lawn into a productive garden complete with annuals, berry bushes and mushroom logs. I had to fence it in because of rabbit pressure. He watered and harvested it himself once i set it up!

I do volunteer work with a community garden, teaching classes to kids, growing plants to sell, tending bees, etc. (the business is run by a friend & fellow vet.) I volunteer in a position that would normally be a paid staff position (I don't need the money and am more than happy to do it. My kids can join to learn and help the other kids there, so occasionally I turn it into a family event). If I could get a cancelled invoice for my services, would that count?
Veterans Employment Basecamp and Organic Garden

I think we'd need to see a check or some proof that they paid you.  If you don't deposit it, that's totally fine.

I taught a Kombucha Workshop at the local library, charged $5, and 12 playing students. For a Total of $60

Below is a link the local news did on me teaching the class.

https://www.wvva.com/2023/06/15/craft-memorial-library-teaches-kombucha-brewing-basics-class/

I have a Permie client who wanted us to add compost to an existing garden, create a raised bed below the runoff of a gutter and divert/save the water for reuse in her raised bed.  Created a couple small swales and berms.  Filled the swales with cedar mulch because she doesn't like snakes (I did explain how beneficial they are ... to no avail).  She purchased way too much compost so wound up top-dressing her lawn with the remaining compost.  


This is the uphill swale and berm.


This is the swale and berm just uphill from the new raised bed...still working on the raised bed in this pic.


This is the materials payment for mulch.


This is the payment for the work.

Submitting for BB certification

I picked up some work at Burnt Ridge Nursery & Orchards (check em out they're awesome https://permies.com/wiki/78724/Burnt-Ridge-Nursery-Washington-USA)

My duties have been weeding, planting trees, and clearing new beds for planting.  Today I've been sheet mulching the mulberry/blueberry/fig field.

My husband told his coworkers about how bonkers I am about permaculture so the coworkers asked if I would stop by and give them some guidance. During the site visit, they asked me to work a design for them on paper. It took me ~20hrs to pull it together. I put a timeline together and provided a ton of resources. I'd love to get to the point where it would take me <5hrs to do this. I really valued the opportunity and it felt soul building to do this work. I haven't set up an LLC yet so I was happy to ask for a donation of what 'felt right' and some feedback for me as payment. My daughter took a photo of me in action reviewing the design with my clients. I wonder if I'll ever feel like less of an imposter, am I really qualified to tell people what to do!? I also gifted the couple Paul's Build a better world in your backyard book that I pointed to in the photo =)

I could get a photo of the design I did but it's now out of my hands and in the hands of my clients. I suppose I misunderstood the "- Photos of you doing the work" instructions. Should I have submitted photos of the design I drew instead? My clients are now out of town so I won't be able to get the additional documentation I need until the end of the month but more likely in August.

However, coincidentally, today I finally received payment for teaching the topic of Appropriate Technology to the latest Pike's Peak Permaculture PDC class. I never submitted this teaching event for the community aspect BB cert because the photos I got don't clearly see all the heads required -- so at least now it can be used for this BB submission.

As a solution to the edge case above, I'll resubmit for other paid work that I did and withdraw the permaculture consult submission (and resubmit it later for the straw badge, I suspect). Hopefully there aren't any misunderstandings for the necessary documentation this time.

Cheers!