heh.... going to school to learn how to live on the land.

Sad it's come to that. I went out into a field with a shovel and hung out with some 80 year old dudes with no teeth that told me how to treat a spider bite or grow a tobacco plant.
Shame that generation is pretty much gone, ten years ago they were still sitting on the porch smoking a pipe.

good luck fellas!

holy crap.. $1500 to learn that?

Permaculture principles and ethics -You know this already
Reading the landscape -Thats common sense
Pattern and pattern application -What?!?!
Water harvesting -I'll get ya the bucket, and I'll give a pump
Swale building -Sounds swale
Zone and sector analysis -Ok, it's too cold here to plant some stuff
Climate and micro climate -It's colder in the shade
Mapping -Rand McNally is my bitch
Urban permaculture -N/A
Land access -Driveway 101
Community building -Like anyother building but bigger
Plant guilds -Is this like the thieves guild? I was 21st level yo
Food forests and agroforestry -Ever eat a pine cone?
The design process, principles, strategies and techniques -Buy a book
Bird language and nature awareness -dude, i'm not talkin to the birds
Soil building and sheet mulching -Composting 101, get some wheat straw, go from there
Pond management and ecology -Shoot the turtles and bloodfish, they eat the catfish
Earthworks and natural building -heres a shovel, practice
Grey water systems -Save water to reuse? come on... common sense


Yall can learn this stuff off the internet for free. If ya want to see a worm farm, ask, I'll take ya out to see Jack... he's got 50 acres of redworms. The rest is basic, you just need to get your hands dirty.

This seems to be the best bang-for-the-buck and the moment:

http://www.groundcontrol...tball_BGAN_Terminal.htm

Similar terminal:

I can appreciate where you are coming from (your list cracked me up btw) but the way the permaculture courses work is you pay to take the course and then you can charge to re-teach the information with the permaculture brand. This allows us to have free labor and income in one swoop.

It's a pretty comprehensive course and for first timers like ourselves, it allows us to get our hands dirty while laying a solid foundation built on the experience of others instead of by trial and error from possibly unreliable internet information. Granted, you learn a lot from trial and error but it's nice to have some theory to back up the lab work.

I personally see it as a pretty sound investment.

makes sense to be able to sell parroted information.

Still, I stick by the fact that no matter how you learn about certain things, every little area and every person will develop their own way... best to jump in and knock it out.

I'll be curious to hear of what you learned at this Permaculture thingy.

I would love to contribute to something like this in anyway possible. If I can provide just a little background info about my current situation and short term goals for the future (sorry if it gets lengthly). Right now im in the belly of the beast, wasting this gift of life sitting in a call center all day everyday. Ive been here for 4 years and havnt saved a dime, so im eating for my food as Ziggy Marley says. About 2 years ago I met the person I will spend the rest of my life with, and we have decided its time to escape. Now obviously im not good at saving money, mother culture is always there wispering in my ear, "consume, buy, eat, consume!" Ill get a little detailed here though to give you guys some confidence in my plan. I can get a 10% raise just for working night shift, wich would amount to about $160/month after taxes. My girlfriend actually works in this hell hole too, so if we both switch to night shift, and pretend we never got that 10% raise (direct deposit that into a savings acct) that would be $320/month we could save. So if we do that for just 6 months (im thinking 10/2012-3/2013) that would be just over $1900 saved by next spring. We also have our income taxes about that time as well, a very modest estimate of that based on previous years should be at least $1,000 between the two of us. So thats almost $3 grand we could have saved by next spring. Now I might come up with a better place to put that money between now and then, but I think I will use it to buy a decent camper. Then what we really want to do is work for the forest service somewhere, living in our camper all summer just saving more money (since there will be no rent to pay).
When the camping season is over I hope to have a work-visit organized with one of the many established intentional communities somewhere in the US. There is a website, IC.org that lists hundreds of communities like this in all different stages of development. Many of these communities are already established and thriving, and are offering free food and shelter in exchange for labor. This really would be a win win, we would be able to learn sustainable living techniques first hand while living the way we want too. Thats kinda where my plans end. After that im sure I will be much more confident in either purchasing some land and starting my own homestead or joining a community such as Next Us. If we have a camper anyway we would be able to live in the camper while we built our permanent home in the community using sustainable building techniques. It really depends on the climate and the location i spose when it comes to deciding what type of home to build, but im intersted in earhbag dome construction, earthship homes, or even shipping container homes would be a very affordable and versitile option.

Anyway, I guess the point here is I dont have much to contribute now but im working on it, and if this really becomes a reality I would be honored to be a part of it.

I would do this the second I finish college.

I really think we should all find an island and create our own peaceful anarchic society.

All we need is enough funds for seeds and staple foods to hold us over until crops come.

and a boat big enough to get us all there.

we can even bring pot seeds and mushroom spores and mimosa hostilis, and all sorts of great cacti, if they'll grow well on a tropical island.


Let me know. I'm all for this Idea. Have been since I was a small child.

Just didn't know how to choose my like minded community.



Down with governing. I say freedom. Vote "Isolated Island" today!


I love you.

There has been some talk of this before on the Nexus. I think Vovin posted about something similar (in a forested area in North America) and a lot of people were up for it. Have a search for his posts and see if you can find it.

It's here where I moved it too.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

I'm all about a place in south america, I would rather have a place that is ok with ALL of the plants we would be growing.


Has anyone seen earthships?

Houses created from old tires and whatnot. I believe the info on youtube is earthships 101.

Used tires make extremely good insulators when packed full of dirt, and if you dig your house partially into the ground it's much easier to keep your dwelling at a reasonable temp. and the roof can be built to funnel water into a cistern.

If there was alot of rain where we set up, we could really prosper from this. Water creates food, and we can create compost with all our waste to help keep the soil fertile.

I'm wayyyy more than down with this.

A field of earthships.

ahh we have our own little La Honda/Millbrook growing infront of our eyes ))

im delighted to read these plans and will be more than up for getting involved in what way i can in the future.

I stayed at a small eco village close to Kew Gardens once, and learned of the social realities that come from such an undertaking. There are many challenges, but the rewards are beautiful.

I wish only the best for this project's outcome

So we need to figure things out.

I'm assuming that the land in peru is still the choice location, if so then we need to find out the following things.
the weather.
annual rainfall, the times of the seasons, What are the humidity level and average temperatures through the main growing season? is the water on the land flowing water or still water? can we develop a gravity propelled plumbing and irrigation system if rainfall is not sufficient? Does the land have fertile soil?

All of these factors will aid in determining whether or not the actual land is capable of feeding us without over growing on our land. I would be willing to research this, as I have 5 days off right now, are there any pictures of this property? is anything else known about it?

I'd really like to put in some think work for the project, as I don't have too much money to contribute at the moment.

I will say provided another 3 months I could provide at least 3,000 dollars of our fund, I hope other people could pull similar contributions.

I personally would be residing in the community for the rest of my life, if the next us allows it.

I think if anyone else plans on dedicating their life to this project, in a really serious way, money is going to be close to useless out there in peru, after that first big investment, but the land is definitely cheap, and it would be well worth whatever you were able to contribute.
I'm going into saving mode.

I love you.

GREAT idea

I feel that this thread should be in the dmt nexus projects section, because it is a project. And would probably get more attention from people who like projects, and people who like projects, are good to have around our project.

Just a thought.


I love you.

I'm looking at a small piece of land in San Martín Province, Peru. It's approximately 2.5 acre which is roughly 1 Hectare or about 100,000 sq/ft. It has a couple of already built structure from what the owner says it's habitable. I'm looking to fly out to see for myself since it is not currently occupied so I can stay as long as I want (provided there is no electricity or running water). The property sits about kilometer from a lake with plenty of fish, and a small village nearby more or less modernized(still third world). The closes major city with an airport is about 15-20 miles and one hour by air to Lima from there. The owner also mentioned over 40 hectares of land for sale by neighboring locals, not sure for what the prices are but I'll be sure ask around. The climate in the area: Average high: 88F, Average low: 79F, Average Precipitation: 45 in/yr. I will try to stay there for few weeks and see the conditions are and get some sort of reality check on this whole idea.

I'm down.....

Obviously I have no money to contribute but I can provide some of the entertainment.



-Elijah

Whats up with this?!

I'm so excited to see this project pick up speed again!
So many ideas. Can we unify them into 1?

I am particulairly attracted to the idea of a South American Community.
I am also very excited about an Island Freestate community, but I know less
people seem open to that kind of isolation & independance.

In any case I find a Tropical/Sub-tropical climate absolutely essential.
Overloads of sunlights for animals, people & plants to thrive.
A big year-round available body of water is also a must, obviously.
Ocean-water, Lake-water, River water, Ground water....anything will do.
As long as the supply is plentyfull & constant in volume all year round.


An independant island settlement is defenitely possible.
I too have thought about a big ship to get us to a suitable, desirable island.
But what about a Caravan of smaller ships housing 2 to 4 people each?
Smaller ships are easier to build. People who want to join this community
all across the world could each build their own ship. These ships could
join up in a Caravan and travel to an agreed uppon island. Once landed
on this island the hulls of the ships could be turned upside down and placed ontop of stone/sandbag/
rammed earth-tire walls to serve as roofs. Like Vikings did.

The engines of these ships could be converted into generators as a powersupply for
the houses. Then off course the quest for clean, drinkable water & food begins.

Has anyone thought of a practical trade (if going land route)?


Something we could grow/ construct/ produce to take to town and sell for a few dollars for the essentials (toilet paper, buy cloth for repairing clothes, maybe a new book, etc)