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Ben
Ben
12 years ago

Great show and thanks for the good words Jack.

Wayne
Wayne
12 years ago

Jack–
Damn that was a good episode. Which reminds me; about a year ago I was trying to understand swales. I had read 2 permaculture books and had watched many youtube videos, I still didn’t get it.
Then, some months ago, you explained it on the podcast one day and it just clicked. It was so simple. That concept was a big barrier to my own progress. Thanks for all you do.

Olmec
12 years ago

Hi Jack, Enjoyed your summary of permaculture. I have more to learn.

You mentioned a DVD by Geoff Lawton. Do you know which website you purchased from…?

I especially appreciate Lawtons material seeing as Australia and New Zealand share metric system and southern hemisphere seasons.

mitko
mitko
12 years ago
Reply to  Olmec

Jack gave a link already but here is the page for the Urban DVD:

http://www.permaculturenews.org/store/cartview.html?id=69

cal
cal
12 years ago

Great show Jack. Would love to meet you when around Austin. Can show you some cool places. I’m working on some interesting permaculture concepts on my property.

cal
cal
12 years ago
Reply to  cal

Sure, and you’re welcome to carry when you come. It’s Texas by God.

Badger
12 years ago

“I wouldn’t walk across the street for another Holzer seminar, he’s an arrogant asshole.”

That was awesome.

Jarrod
Jarrod
12 years ago
Reply to  Badger

I missed that comment. When was that made?

Jarrod
Jarrod
12 years ago

Yup. Found it right around 38:47.

Dustin in PHX
Dustin in PHX
12 years ago

I own the urban permaculture DVD by Geoff Lawton and you’ll be amazed how much food these people are growing. In areas as small as an average driveway. Definitely a good addition to the collection.

Jasper
Jasper
12 years ago

Thanks Jack. I’ve also got the Urban Permaculture DVD, and am gonna implement a lot of the things I saw there into my own garden this winter, like the herb spiral.

Those ducks are good food, but darn funny too, flappin’ around with there silly feet. Luckily i’ve got a duck pond at about 20 meters from my house, so in a SHTF scnario i’ll be the first to grab a couple of those huge muscovy ducks from there.

bluprint
bluprint
12 years ago

Who is skeeter? just curious.

bluprint
bluprint
12 years ago

Cool, thanks for the explanation. My followup was why he didn’t like you…

Different topic, but I’m only a few miles north of you and I don’t need to water between Oct and May. I like the idea of “wood beds” but haven’t tried, but honestly I think the “needs no water between Oct and May” isn’t really that special, at least in Ark. I’d be more interested in how they perform from May to Oct.

One difference between us: You live on that mountain and have lots of rocks, I live in the Ark river valley and have lots of sand and clay in an old pasture. I have raised beds as well, but the underlying clay surely holds water better…so even though we’re both in the same climate, it’s still not totally “apples to apples”.

Just my two cents on that topic.

bluprint
bluprint
12 years ago
Reply to  bluprint

Not crotchety, I just tend be terse. It’s a personality flaw.

Also I tend to only offer comments when I see something I think I can offer (like a clarification or correction). That’s probably a personality flaw as well (probably relates to being concise in my language overall). That might make me appear argumentative but I’m just trying to contribute to the total knowledge.

I always enjoy and appreciate your show. Thanks.

Jarrod
Jarrod
12 years ago
Reply to  bluprint

Jack, if you ever come to SoCal, you are welcome in my home, but you MUST be carrying when you are on my property. Jack as a libertarian I’m sure you’ll respect my rights on my property. 😉

Jarrod
Jarrod
12 years ago

Done. I’ll provide the gun.

Surfivor
Surfivor
12 years ago
Reply to  bluprint

I often point out that the government has every known highly dangerous virus known to man stored away someplace not very safe, lots of nuclear weapons, drones, and is busy bombing people someplace. If guns are so bad, shouldn’t the police give up their guns ? The police take their orders from the state, and the state can be corrupted .. Based on all that, I’ll be happy to give up my pointy stick or whatever weapon that makes people cringe that I may have but I just let it be known if I live in fear, what I am afraid of may be something different than what they may fear ..

txmom
txmom
12 years ago

“unlike the anti gun crowd we DO IN FACT RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS, specifically on their private property.”

Something I was trying to explain to someone who lives in an open carry state. Many of his family gatherings are at an aunt’s who doesn’t allow open carry in her home. It makes some of the other family members nervous, especially those with babies and toddlers when he open carries. He usually chooses not to go if he can’t exercise his right to carry. She has rights too. Nor do I think she’d have a problem if he had carried concealed. Most likely wouldn’t have even known unless he mentioned it.

damon Brooks
damon Brooks
12 years ago

Jack,

Keep calling me an kid, I’ll start calling you old balls 🙂

Great episode mate 🙂

Urbivalist Dan
12 years ago

so let me see if I understand you correctly…you’re saying you think we SHOULD get the Urban Permaculture DVD? 🙂

good ideas. interesting topic.

-Dan

Urbivalist Dan
12 years ago
Reply to  Urbivalist Dan

and for the record those Maine Lobster guys on shark tank were idiots…if they hadn’t been so arrogant in their valuation and negotiation, they might’ve walked out of there with a deal…love the show

persafe1
persafe1
12 years ago

Absolutely AWESOME episode!!! One of the top three things that I have learned from this podcast in 2012 is an actual layman’s understanding of permaculture. I really did view it as a eco-hippie, tree-hugger movement to “save the world” and didn’t really understand the practicality of it. I have also taken to heart your concept of making the most of where you are now and learning all you can rather than waiting until you are on your dream property.
On a side note..I am so pumped about the 13 in 13the challenge. Two of the skills i plan on learning are pressure canning and lacto-fermenting. Found a great website that has a plethora of info on both subjects, including how to make sauerkraut using masin jars. The site is http://www.nwedible.com.

Chris Harrison
12 years ago
Reply to  persafe1

@ persafe1: A great source for information on everything lacto-fermenting is Sandor Katz. His website is http://www.wildfermentation.com/.

Making sauerkraut in mason jars is so f***ing easy the only thing you’ll be confused about is why you didn’t start it much sooner. I did 2 batches this year off my meager cabbage harvest and it came out AWESOME. I’ve read it’s even better if you hold off harvesting the cabbage until after a few frosts, as it will make the kraut sweeter.

Happy fermenting!

Brendan
Brendan
12 years ago

Hey Jack,

I really enjoyed the summary of permaculture. It was good to be reminded of a few things. After you mentioned the fungal web under the ground, I got to thinking about a guest you might enjoy having on the show. I’ve heard him on one of my other favorite podcasts. His name is Paul Stamets, and is the author of “Mycelium Running”. He knows a heck of a lot about fungi. Also, while I’m on this subject of guests, there is one more person who you might be interested in bringing on the show. He is a guy by the name of John Liu. He is a documentary film maker who now devotes his life to restoring land to its natural state. His most known documentary is called, “Hope in a Changing Climate”. I’ll add some links for you to check out. Thanks again for a good show. Brendan

http://www.bioneers.org/radio/2012-radio-series/working-with-nature-to-heal-nature

http://vimeo.com/19661805

http://pdcastsusworldradio.libsyn.com/how_mushrooms_can_save_the_world

JohnR
JohnR
12 years ago

Jack,
I just wanted to take a minute to say “Thank you” to both you and Steve Harris. I live on the south shore of Long Island, New York and SURVIVED Hurricane Sandy because of you both. The episodes about blackout prep and generators helped me get through the last few days. I also want to add that I work at Home Depot and the days before the storm, we ran out of generators and I sold out all the 800 watt inverters we had and explained everything I learned from Steven Harris. I had some of those customers come in and thank me for helping them, therefore I want to extend those thanks to you both as well. I’m not sure if Steven Harris will see this, so if you could, please share this with him.
John Rosalia
Mastic Beach, New York

cal
cal
12 years ago

I’ve recently hooked into the benefits of fungi as well. Bought some mycorrhizal fungi off of Amazon. Put some in every time I plant a plant. It also works well with breaking down wood chips to turn it into fertile soil.

Moonvalleyprepper
Moonvalleyprepper
12 years ago

Great show Jack!

I really like Skeeters’ videos, but that comment on guns has no place in a PDC. Issues like this have made me completely fed up with the permaculture movement in the PNW. Not enough nuts and bolts mechanics, and far too many feelings, opinions and personal baggage.

I completely agree that there is a huge opportunity for urban and suburban permaculture systems. I do have one thing to add about suburban protein production. While I do have rabbits, and they are great producers, they are not my most productive livestock, in terms of lbs/year. In my system Cortunix quail beat out rabbits almost 3:1 in lbs per year, all things being equal. I am currently producing 3.5lbs per year/cu ft of rabbit meat compared to 10.5lbs per year/cu ft of quail meat, that does not include the 20,000 eggs/year the quail produce as a bonus. Combined that’s roughly 1,200lbs of meat in 26sq ft in a 1 car garage, system is stacked 9’ vertical so ~234cu ft.

I have a shared driveway with my neighbor, garage is less than 20’ from their door, and he had no idea I had rabbits or quail until I offered him some quail eggs one day. I figured he knew, but nope, no clue. He thought it was pretty cool when I showed him, and I thought it was pretty cool that I have a cool neighbor.

I’m taking my PDC teacher training this summer at Midwest, and I assure you carrying will always be allowed at my PDC courses / events.

Love the show man!

Jarrod
Jarrod
12 years ago

I deinfinately want to hear about raising quail!

persafe1
persafe1
12 years ago
Reply to  Jarrod

Yes, please! Would love a show on raising quail. I have been looking into it more as my wife is iffy on raising rabbits right now. But I think that she would he okay with quail.

Moonvalleyprepper
Moonvalleyprepper
12 years ago

Wow, I would be honored to be on TSP. I am by no means an expert, but I have made a ton of mistakes I’m willing to share to help fast track anyone that’s interested. I’ve been meaning to start a thread on it in the livestock forum, I’ll see if I can get it going with some pics this weekend.

Chris Harrison
12 years ago

Jack, like pretty much all of your shows regarding permaculture this one gave me plenty of stuff to chew on. Not necessarily because it discussed individual strategies I hadn’t heard of before (I’m one of those people who consumes EVERYTHING permaculture, like you do), but because you put things together in ways that I hadn’t necessarily thought of myself. Which makes me THINK about these things, and I can’t think of any instances where thinking something over doesn’t lead to eventual positive results.

First, I agree with you that Skeeter was WAY, WAY, WAY off base with his “No Guns” comment. It’s unfortunate, because I really like a lot of the stuff he’s done that Paul Wheaton has put up on his YouTube channel. Why anyone involved in permaculture has to focus on the BS that divides us instead of the positive actions that we can unite around is beyond me. And let me be clear — I say this as someone who does not have a concealed carry permit and does not own a handgun (although both of those are on the to-do list).

Second, I took a PDC last year and was very disappointed with the lack of “hands-on” activities we did. This course was not a 2-week immersion, but was conducted over 5 months, one weekend per month. I showed up every weekend wearing my Carhartt overalls, Muck boots and old army gore-tex field jacket, ready to do some good manual labor — and we hardly picked up a shovel throughout the entire course. While I think that a lot of the classroom stuff IS valuable, I also think that many PDCs waste far too much time on it to the exclusion of actually DOING things that provide a tangible result at the end. While I’m no stranger to manual labor in my spare time, there were many other people in the course who probably didn’t even know how to use a shovel in a productive way. I agree completely that we at least need to be incorporating some manual activity into these courses just so people get a real feel for the kind of work that is involved in setting up these systems, even on an urban/suburban scale.

Last, I LOVED your comment at the end about doing what you can where you are. I dream about having my own 5-10 acres, but right now have 1.3. To be honest, I’m discovering that this 1.3 is quite sufficient for the kinds of things I have time to do right now, while still leaving over 1/2 of the yard as a recreational area for the kids.

Thanks for another great show!