• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • r ranson
  • Nancy Reading
  • Anne Miller
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Nicole Alderman
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Rachel Lindsay
  • Jeremy VanGelder

how did you find out about permies.com?

 
gardener
Posts: 2491
Location: Ladakh, Indian Himalayas at 10,500 feet, zone 5
816
trees food preservation solar greening the desert
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I don't remember how I found Permies.com, but once I did, I was hooked! It was very appealing to the new visitor, crammed with sensible info, good discussion, all "nice" and no spam ever visible whatsoever.

I think I might have found it through the lawn article, because my sisters and I have a house in Massachusetts and I know we discussed lawn care and my sister was going on about minimum 3 inches etc.
 
gardener
Posts: 1842
Location: Longbranch, WA Mild wet winter dry climate change now hot summer
445
3
goat tiny house rabbit wofati chicken solar
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Somehow I received this link gear » should i buy this scythe? (Go to) 2/25/2012 2:05:04 AM I was interested in answering the question and the forum seemed interesting. Now that I have thought about it I think I was using Ask.com and it was listed as an unanswerd question.
 
Posts: 29
Location: NJ
2
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The Survival Podcast
 
Posts: 56
Location: Meade County, South Dakota
hugelkultur trees greening the desert
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was on Rareseeds.com, looking at some exotic corn seeds. One of the reviewers of the seeds that I was looking at, said that they would have some available for trade, and gave a link to their blog. On their blog, they said that anybody that wanted to trade seeds with them, should pm them, and gave a link to a seed swap thread here at permies.com. I was impressed with what I saw here, so I keep coming back! Coincidentally, there was an article on Rocket Mass Heaters in my Grit (or was it Capper's?) magazine in the same time frame, that sited permies.com.
The funny thing is, I have done a couple of seed swaps through the forum, but have never been able to get a hold of that first guy, so I still haven't gotten the corn I want!
Thank you Mr. Wheaton for creating this site! The value of the information that I have found here so far, cannot be calculated.
 
Posts: 7
Location: Tasman New Zealand, Temperate
3
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was after something more than the usual herb spiral, tiny fowl enclosure, keyhole garden stuff (not that there's anything wrong with them, btw!) so was scrolling through the internet, searching under "Permaculture". I looked at quite a few sites before finding this one. It caught my attention immediately. Character, life, and tons of useful information and interesting projects! I've been getting the newsletter for a while now, but have only recently registered, and this is my first post. Btw, I like the new format a lot.
 
Posts: 54
Location: Canada
9
books
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I heard about Permies.com through Jack Spirko's "The Survival Podcast".
 
Posts: 596
Location: South Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain)
14
forest garden trees greening the desert
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was googling for designs on rocket waste oil burners
 
Posts: 24
Location: Serra de Montemuro, Portugal
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was searching for Sepp Holtzer (I remember watching a video of Sepp magical farm some 10 or more years ago, on Italian tv, but I couldn't recall his name) some 5 or more years ago. I googled "high mountain agriculture" or "austrian mountain organic agriculture" and I got to one of Paul video with him. This is how discovered permies and Permaculture: a whole new world!
 
Posts: 14
Location: Northern Virginia
2
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I found the forums via the richsoil lawn article. I try to pass it on (or at least its info) to other Eco 0/1s--I feel like it's the gateway drug to permies.
 
Posts: 7
Location: West Midlands, England
dog forest garden urban
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi All,
I found this website through Youtube and a TED talk Paul Wheaton did about rocket stoves and energy saving. I'm presently doing an online PDC Course with Patrick Whitefield Associates so this forum has been a great find....very informative.

Thank you.
 
Posts: 618
Location: Volant, PA
28
goat forest garden fungi trees wofati woodworking
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
An Amish friend had a scythe in his barn and I asked him about it, he took it out and swung like a golf swing....I tried to explain it but it wasn't sharp so his technique did more.

So I peened his blade and when he came over I looked around for a video that explained the movement better than I was, after a few he got what I was trying to show him, when I got back home it was still up, so I watched one more and at the end it said some stuff about talking about things all the time...

So, I'm a bit slow, I ignored it and looked at another video that was interesting, at the end it said something about permaculture all the time.....I ignored that and looked at another on bees I think, at the end.. You guessed it come by permies where we talk about this all the time.....well by now my thick skull had accepted that all these videos were up my alley and I might as well go look.

That was how I found both permies and permaculture, funny I knew a lot of the basics but what was exiting was the framework and wholistic approach that permaculture has....hooked!

So even if I was a bit slow, and have a thick skull, the message at the end of videos and podcasts does work eventually!!!
 
Posts: 22
Location: PNW
18
9
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Jack Spirko's podcasts back in 2012.(http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com)... I just had to find out more about Paul.

I now listen to all your podcasts and watch your YouTube videos. I don't ever skip the adds either.

32 more podcast episodes and I will have listened to all of Paul's.
 
Posts: 39
3
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Kickstarter- World Domination Gardening
 
pollinator
Posts: 432
Location: Poland, zone 6, CfB
162
12
forest garden fish trees books writing homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Google - I was looking for information on plant guilds and forest garden if I recall correctly
 
Author
Posts: 81
30
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It was a long time ago, but I kept finding permies.com when researching stuff with on "Mr. Google Pants".

Not long after that, I started including permies.com in my Google searches when I wanted a genuine permaculture answer to my questions.
 
master pollinator
Posts: 4639
Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee
1976
6
forest garden foraging books food preservation cooking fiber arts bee medical herbs
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
http://www.homegrownfoodsummit.com/
By Marjory Wildcraft in which Paul was a presenter. I spent valuable spring planting time searching permies instead of planting. And I still come back every 2-3 days!
 
pollinator
Posts: 679
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
250
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Really interesting to read other people's posts

I first searched "permaculture" online in 2008, after watching a BBC documentary called A Farm for the Future, a film which changed my life! Pretty much the only substantial website about permaculture was permies then, but it wasn't such a good resource as it is now. There wasn't much else online about permaculture, and it wasn't until 2012 that I found Geoff Lawton's and Sepp Holzer's stuff, which lead me back here once more. In those four years, permies had really grown, with a lot more members and useful information. Thanks everyone!
 
steward
Posts: 3666
Location: Moved from south central WI to Portland, OR
944
12
hugelkultur urban chicken food preservation bike bee
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I found this site years ago searching on the term "hugelkultur." I can't recall where I first heard that term, but a tree in our front yard came down and I was looking for what to do with the wood, particularly all the brush. I had heard of a thing with buried wood, maybe Mother Earth News, maybe Wisconsin Public Radio? Anyway I found the hugelkultur thread here and was overwhelmed by the number of posts. Then I looked around and found there were lots of topics here I liked.

I'd been really active on a political site, but was starting to feel like it was better to improve the world by doing good things instead of getting angry at bad people (or something like that). . . I ended up joining here, and hardly visiting the political site.
 
gardener
Posts: 2371
Location: Just northwest of Austin, TX
548
2
cat rabbit urban cooking
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
For years I kept stumbling into these forums whenever I needed a fully explained answer about something that was related to 'organic' that went beyond the basic don't poison everything around me. It's not just that people ask the same questions and get answers, but that the people answering can explain the reasoning that got them to the answer.

I looked for information on a whole assortment of topics over the course of years. I know for sure I went through how to care for my cast iron pans, organic lawn care, hugelculture, chicken raising info (still not there, but either those or ducks in the future), forest gardening. I think I was sometime around forest gardening that I finally caved and signed up.
 
Posts: 24
5
6
food preservation bike
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Youtube while watching organic gardening videos, and videos from your channel were in the suggestion area
 
Posts: 15
Location: Germany zone 8a
1
8
urban bike woodworking
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Podcasts... I've been searching for "homesteading" in my podcast directory and found your podcast (BeyondPod, if it is of interest). Cheers!
 
pollinator
Posts: 2903
Location: Meppel (Drenthe, the Netherlands)
927
dog forest garden urban cooking bike fiber arts
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Sorry, I don't remember anymore how I found Permies. I remember finding the Dutch permacultuur website (probably in 2014) and then the two Dutch groups on Facebook (one with a lot of 'activists' and long -not always nice- discussions, the other about practicing permaculture i.r.l.).
I remember an American website on permaculture which seemed to be a 'free course' with videos of people teaching/explaining something. Because often I did not understand what they were talking about, I searched for more information. I think then I found Permies.

I do remember when I first heard about permaculture. That was many years ago (in the '90s). Someone told me about herb spirals and other ways to grow herbs and vegetables in your own garden. He mentioned the word 'permacultuur' several times, and explained it (permanent culture). So I remembered. I was interested in those things, nowadays often called 'transition', since my youth (the '70s).
 
gardener
Posts: 3486
Location: Fraser River Headwaters, Zone3, Lat: 53N, Altitude 2750', Boreal/Temperate Rainforest-transition
680
hugelkultur forest garden fungi trees books food preservation bike solar woodworking
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A friend kept telling me to check out Permies but I was reluctant, partly because I was once a part of several online communities and I found that they took up a lot of my time that would better have been spent in practicing the techniques.  But, then I was youtubing and I found a video by Paul, and... I got lured in.  I checked it out a few times and found the site easily navigable, the community warm and welcoming, the rules to my liking (I don't know if I have ever appreciated being scolded in my life!-agreement on conduct is key to long term community survival), and the information invaluable.  
 
Posts: 121
Location: zone 6a, NY
10
duck forest garden chicken
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It took me quite a while to sign up here.

I got interested in permaculture as an extension of homesteading. When I first heard the term, I googled it and read the wikipedia page. The whole thing seemed way more complicated and overwhelming than it should have been and I brushed it off. In fact up to now, I still don't care much for talking about design principles, guilds, zones, etc. although I do realize how they have their place.

After a while I kept coming across the richsoil articles on pinterest. I didn't know they were connected to permies at the time, and was just interested in the articles, not exploring the site. This was more backed up by the fact that they were pretty basic(and still are) so even if the page has useful information, it isn't connected to much other useful info unless you decide to visit the home page, since it's all ads on the side.

It wasn't until I kept getting linked to threads here from other forums, google searches that turned up threads, and more pinterest pins, that I finally saw how much information the site really contained-I don't just make an account at first visit- and decided to join up.
 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
pollinator
Posts: 2903
Location: Meppel (Drenthe, the Netherlands)
927
dog forest garden urban cooking bike fiber arts
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Guerric Kendall wrote:... I kept coming across the richsoil articles on pinterest. ....

I did not know about richsoil articles on pinterest until now. Thank you Guerric!
 
pollinator
Posts: 133
Location: Pennsylvania, Dauphin County
15
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was looking at permaculture aspects and come across permies.  I have been a fly on the wall a long time but only recently vocal as I am a wee pup but I speak when I think it will help but likely I am just a kid trying to talk at the adult table.
 
gardener
Posts: 2167
Location: Olympia, WA - Zone 8a/b
1041
5
hugelkultur kids forest garden fungi trees foraging books bike homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have been a member of this site for almost one and a half years but been reading posts on here for so long that I don't remember how I found this site.

Might have been through Google searches - could have been YouTube... or from a link on a permaculture page. I spent a ton of time over the years reading and watching everything I could that was permaculture related. My guess is that this site showed up at some point during that process.
 
gardener
Posts: 950
Location: Galicia, Spain zone 9a
248
2
dog duck chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts pig bike bee solar ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Szme here - can't remember, probably googling something. But now it is my go to site for everything.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1140
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
492
6
urban books building solar rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at goofballs.

Like many others, I’ve ended up here after many a google search... rocket stoves, charcoal making, or compost heat...

...and most likely because of  “OneStrawRob” who at the time was in Wisconsin, doing “epic shit” and “being the change he wanted to see” in his own backyard. Here was a guy whose idea of fun is bringing home three loads of free wood chips from the town dump in BART (his Big Ass Red Truck) and mulching his fruit tree guilds and making compost, or trying to build a methane digester in his backyard.

The sorts of answers to “how was your weekend?” That make your coworkers say “Alrighty then...umm...hey, did anyone catch the game?”.
 
author and steward
Posts: 49577
Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)
hugelkultur trees chicken wofati bee woodworking
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Kenneth Elwell wrote:The sorts of answers to “how was your weekend?” That make your coworkers say “Alrighty then...umm...hey, did anyone catch the game?”.



Excellent!

"I installed a few dozen fusion reactor radiation collectors.   And you?"

 
pollinator
Posts: 3847
Location: Marmora, Ontario
585
4
hugelkultur dog forest garden fungi trees rabbit urban wofati cooking bee homestead
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

paul wheaton wrote:

Kenneth Elwell wrote:The sorts of answers to “how was your weekend?” That make your coworkers say “Alrighty then...umm...hey, did anyone catch the game?”.



I installed a few dozen fusion reactor radiation collectors.   And you?



I'm sorry, what?

-CK
 
paul wheaton
author and steward
Posts: 49577
Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)
hugelkultur trees chicken wofati bee woodworking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Chris Kott wrote:I'm sorry, what?



Exactly.

Chris, how did you find out about permies.com?
 
Posts: 56
Location: Tampa area, Florida - zone 9a
14
4
cat dog trees
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I fell in love with Paul and Permies.com when I heard Paul speak a few years ago in an online food growing summit that Marjorie Wildcraft put together.
 
Chris Kott
pollinator
Posts: 3847
Location: Marmora, Ontario
585
4
hugelkultur dog forest garden fungi trees rabbit urban wofati cooking bee homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was just trying to figure that out.

I know I found you guys at the end of January, 2012 (I think it was the 25th of January). I am a dreamer, an avid fantasist, and a fan of science fiction. My earliest memories on permies have to do with watching Sepp videos and reading your articles on Diatomaceous Earth, permacultural lawn keeping, hugelkultur, and all manner of what people have taken to calling "life hacks," but of a permacultural nature.

I had just started composting in my parent's backyard, and was growing tomatoes, among all sorts of other things, so I think it happened when I found out about companion planting. In fact, I think I went right from the List of companion plants on Google straight to this site.

From tomatoes, I embraced the raspberry canes we had growing, neglected in the backyard, and turned the overgrown lawn into a space of perennial and annual food plants, and massive soil production. I made my first raised bed/hugelbeet hybrid using pallets that spring. And let me tell you, the plants that grew on that bed (18' long, 7' wide, and 7' deep, half in-ground) topped the 8 foot high fence easily; the Russian Mammoth sunflowers adjacent to it were like 12' tall.

So thanks again, from the bottom of my heart. I blow so much time on this site, it's appalling, but it never feels wasted.

-CK
 
gardener
Posts: 859
Location: N.E.Ohio 5b6a
591
food preservation homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was making compost tea and rocket stoves to melt glass back when I was young.  Many years later after watching a Geoff Lawton video with a friend I looked up permaculture.  I found out that most of my favorite topics where well organized in a format that makes sense.  I had never wrote in a blog before, but this sight is so darn interesting.  Its so nice to be welcomed from my first post on.  

It is also nice to be a bit geeky and not get made fun of.  I was cutting up some fusion reactor radiation collectors that died from the ash bore and used them to run the rocket to dry out the house last night.  
 
pollinator
Posts: 1279
Location: zone 4b, sandy, Continental D
373
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I like gardening and I had heard about a new thing called permaculture, so I googled it and came across some articles that I liked because  they mentioned not fighting Mother Nature but working with Her instead. At the end of one of those articles, permies.com was mentioned. I've been hooked ever since.
 
Chris Kott
pollinator
Posts: 3847
Location: Marmora, Ontario
585
4
hugelkultur dog forest garden fungi trees rabbit urban wofati cooking bee homestead
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I forgot to mention, when I was much younger, up at the cottage,  we had an old mother earth news book that detailed such things as methane digesters in India in the 70s. I didn't discover permies until much later, but that may have planted a seed.

-CK
 
Posts: 7
Location: Pennsylvania
1
foraging rabbit building
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:Same here - can't remember, probably googling something. But now it is my go to site for everything.



Same. I Googled "raised garden beds" and the rest is history. I was shocked to discover one place covered so many of my interests.
 
And tomorrow is the circus! We can go to the circus! I love the circus! We can take this tiny ad:
full time farm crew job w/ housing
https://permies.com/t/178213/jobs-offered/experiences/full-time-farm-crew-member
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic