The most obvious example of “obtain a yield” is to grow food.  You do work planting, growing, maintaining, and harvesting a garden to get a yeild.  Amazing food that you can eat and then store the excess to eat through the winter.  Simple, right? We can make it a little …

The second permacuture principle is catch and store energy.  When you think of “catch and store energy,” solar power tends to be the first thing that comes to mind.  This is a great start, but energy that can be caught and stored can be so much more than just solar. …

The first of 12 permaculture principles is observe and interact.  This is about sitting back and looking at what you have before you interact.  Take a walk, sit on a rock, get a portable hammock so you can set it up in various places so you observe your land in …

The permaculture design principles are a set of tools that we are using to design a more efficient and sustainable homestead.  While we are using these principles in a certain way, according to what we have and our climate, these principles can be universally applied to create systems anywhere you …

My autumn season has been incredibly busy.  Cut firewood.  Haul materials for new garden beds.  Along with all the regular chores of course.  I am preparing beds now so that the compost can start to rot in its new home and because the leaves are so numerous in the autumn.  …

This is the fantastic pile of rich yard waste we have to work with: The purpose of this post is to demonstrate how a pile of twisted up “waste” can be useful for so many different things.  The pile is tree tops left by the logger and pushed aside, twisting …

I have many areas around the house that are suppossed to be the yard.  However, being fresh cut forest, the wild field plants have taken over.  I plan to turn these wild plants and excess of trees into mulch.  The majority of our lot is wooded, so I don’t feel …

We have chives growing in the garden, not only because they are tasty, but also because they are wonderful pest deterrents and great plant food.  After a couple years of growing, the chives start multiplying into a huge clump and need to be spread out so they can continue to …

Last week, I shared some of my spring preparations.  Well, it turns out that all we have done in the past month or two was prepare for spring.  So this week I will share more of what we have done to prepare for this year and some pictures around the …

  I haven’t done any real interesting projects lately due to the urgent need to improve the soil for the gardens this year and every year to come.  We are focusing right now on cleanup and garden soil.  I have been raking leaves, building compost piles, cutting the logs that …