2 New Permies in town

[MFox]

Hi!
My fiance and I have just returned back to oz after volunteering on an eco village in Southern Israel for 6 months. We completed our PDCs while we were there and became absolutely obsessed with Permaculture, organic gardening, everything sustainable, and building things out of mud and rubbish. We are planning on building our home out of strawbvales and mud and designing our property following strict Permaculture methods.
We are also wanting more experience and work in gardening, building... anything that relates. We have just finished renovating a mates garden and we have a couple of offers to build things for various people.

Great to join a forum like this!

Get in touch, say hi.

Also looking for casual jobs for the next couple of months.

Thanks!!

Mish

[Grahame]

Welcome aboard Mish, It's always nice to meet new members of the Permaculture family.

[sun burn]

Hello mish, welcome home but where are you located.

Wonder whereabouts in southern israel you were. I worked on Hatzerim kibbutz in years past. Was this eco village once a moshav? does it have a history. What is the story behind the eco village? I mean how did it come to be a permaculture hub?

I would love to see any pictures you have taken out of the rubbish building things. Have you got them up anywhere. If not would photoblog.com do? Its a free and good site. Its where i put my stuff. see here... http://www.photoblog.com/ShangriLa/2010/09/17/

[Nain Dejardin]

Welcome! So happy you caught the "bug"!

Blessings

[purplepear]

Welcome Mish - it is great to have you join us.
I have a concern when you say
designing our property following strict Permaculture methods. (my addition of bold type).
For me strict and permaculture are uneasy partners. Follow your heart and local wisdom and employ Intent - Observatiion - Intuition in conjunction with the things you have learned overseas and in you PDC. Very good luck and bounty to you and your partner.

[grefattys]

Welcome, I'm new to here too. And I don't much about permaculture, but I start to think it's very interesting.

[DonHansford]

Welcome Mish & partner, and Grefattys, too!
Guess that makes 3 new Permies in Town (don't mind me, I'm just a nit-picking old fart :D)

A really good thing to do right from the start is to edit your profile so it shows "Location" - have a look at most of the senior members posts, you will see that you can immediately locate them to, if not a geographic, at least a climatic, zone. this makes it so much easier for someone answering your queries in the future. My reply to someones' question regarding "what can I plant to maximise summer shade/winter sun, will vary a bit depending on whether you come from the Florida Everglades, or Yuendumu.

Welcome aboard all of you - Kia kaha

Don

[MFox]

Welcome Mish - it is great to have you join us.
I have a concern when you say (my addition of bold type).
For me strict and permaculture are uneasy partners. Follow your heart and local wisdom and employ Intent - Observatiion - Intuition in conjunction with the things you have learned overseas and in you PDC. Very good luck and bounty to you and your partner.

Hey Purplepear,

I thought about that when I wrote it and you're right, 'strict' was not the correct word to use. I think what I meant was that we are very passionate about Permaculture and intend to use the principles in each step of the design process. We do follow our hearts completely, and that is very good advice. Thanks! :)

[MFox]

Hello mish, welcome home but where are you located.

Wonder whereabouts in southern israel you were. I worked on Hatzerim kibbutz in years past. Was this eco village once a moshav? does it have a history. What is the story behind the eco village? I mean how did it come to be a permaculture hub?

I would love to see any pictures you have taken out of the rubbish building things. Have you got them up anywhere. If not would photoblog.com do? Its a free and good site. Its where i put my stuff. see here... http://www.photoblog.com/ShangriLa/2010/09/17/

Hi Sun burn,
the eco village was part of a (slightly) larger kibbutz called Lotan, it is in the Arava valley about half an hour drive north from Eilat. Google Kibbutz Lotan, they have a beautiful website. The kibbutz has been around for 27 years, but the ecological part has been really strong for only 15 years. They are still in the process of turning the whole kibbutz in to it, but it is a work in progress. So far though they have become quite renowned for their building practices and the courses they offer, and students come from all over the world to study there and live in the eco village. Our boss, teacher and guru was a man named Mike Kaplin who has lived on the kibbutz for over 20 years, and the ecological village was his vision. They do all sorts of awesome things there- beautiful organic garden, various eco building styles, green apprenticeships, university courses, and PDC courses.

I have loads of pictures and I'll sort myself out with a photo website over the next few days.

Great photos! Well done. That is exactly what my fiance and I will be doing in a couple of years once we get married, make some money and buy a property!

Thanks for your reply

[graemepaul]

I'm really new to this forum and I think I really will enjoy staying here.

[PennyWA]

I am a returning user, have not visited the site for about 3 years.

[eco4560]

Welcome back Penny. Were you using the same user name back then? Tell us your story....

[PennyWA]

Was using penny , but there is another user of that name now. I have 106 acres about 100km from Perth. I and my then partner bought it to develop using organics, but she was killed in a car crash. I am now retired from my teaching position and am now starting to get it up and running. We have an aquaculture system set up and are establishing an orchard and planting native trees for the other occupants of the property to share. Our PET sheep (because all my friends name them so I cant eat them) are very happy and healthy (supplementing paddock feed with hay because we had so little rain this year.) We have had a small straw bale home designed and as soon as we have all the drawings we will start building with the aim of moving there to live.

[purecajn]

hey mish and friends

[eco4560]

Wow - new beginnings! When you build can you take lots of photos and share them with us. One day.... I want to do some straw bale construction too. Love the natural imperfections in the surface. What fish do you use in your system?
Are you close to Tezza and Kimbo and the other WA permies from the board?

[PennyWA]

I don't know who I am close to but would love to find out. We have silver perch at the moment but would rather have a WA native if possibl

[sun burn]

Cheers mfox. I never heard of Lotan before. Probably because i didn't have a lonely planet guidebook when i went there. Oh well. Not many israelis there by the sounds of it. Nevermind. Good luck with your quest to buy some decent land.

[PennyWA]

I will load photos of the house from start to finish- if I can work out how to do it!

[sun burn]

Penny can i suggest you do it on photoblog. I think there is a limit on this site as to how many pictures you can upload, so after a bit you will have to delete photos if you want to upload more. Here's a link to photoblog which is a free site. And its easy to use. http://www.photoblog.com/shangrila Note that the daily limit is 5 pictures but you can load more than one day at a time by changing the date. You can backdate if you want. Mine has more pictures because one year I took out a subscription and although i haven't kept it up, they haven't changed my plan, so lucky me. When i put up pics, i just attach a link to a post here. A few of us are using it. I've been using it for years and find it really good.

[ecodharmamark]

G'day Mish (and grefattys, and graemepaul, and Wendy... did I miss anyone?)

Welcome to the PRI Forum.

Cheerio, for now, Markos

[PennyWA]

Thanks for the info sunburn will try it when I have photos

[MFox]

Cheers mfox. I never heard of Lotan before. Probably because i didn't have a lonely planet guidebook when i went there. Oh well. Not many israelis there by the sounds of it. Nevermind. Good luck with your quest to buy some decent land.

The volunteers and members were about over half Israelis. A lot of American, Australian and British people in the other half. Only 150 people there all together.

[PennyWA]

Are there any permies near me who would be interested in helping in the construction of the house I am building? I would appreciate suggestions and advice and would exchange labour to help others. I also have LOTS of tools including air tools(nail Gun etc.) That I am willing to take with me.

[sun burn]

Penny can i suggest that you start a new thread and better yet introduce yourself and your situation on the intro threads. Everyone reads those.

[MFox]

Are there any permies near me who would be interested in helping in the construction of the house I am building? I would appreciate suggestions and advice and would exchange labour to help others. I also have LOTS of tools including air tools(nail Gun etc.) That I am willing to take with me.

Hi Penny,
my fiance and I are moving to Perth for a few months at the end of April, and we would love to help you! We have just returned back from living on an eco village where we recieved our PDCs, and learnt all about eco house construction, sustainable technologies, med building, composting toilets etc...
We will be in touch.
Good luck!
Mishi

[PennyWA]

Thanks-look forward to meeting you. I hope to do a straw bale building course and have started a PDC by correspondence but think I will do a practical one closer to home.
Cheers

[MFox]

Thanks-look forward to meeting you. I hope to do a straw bale building course and have started a PDC by correspondence but think I will do a practical one closer to home.
Cheers

yay! I'm excited about meeting you and helping you build your house, and about your future permaculture life. I strongly suggest finishing your PDC before you start building- what we did was we used the PDC as preparation for our house design, used our future house as the subject for our design project. It really prepared us. It also means that if you already have the land and have not started building yet, you can use the time while you are doing your PDC to live on the site in a temporary shelter, and observe everything- essential before you start building with any permie outlook.

[PennyWA]

We have had the property for 10 years and spent a lot of time there so know what happens in different seasons. Also have the house designed by an old friend who has had experience all over the world in this type of building. We have also attended bale raising and I have done an owner builders course in preparation. I am also taking Carpentry lessons and can tile (was offered a job when a tiler saw mine) Anyway I am gaining as many skills as I can and seeking help from others in the learning journey.
It may be a while before we can get to the walls because the harvest was so bad in the area, not enough rain. Still it is really exciting to be starting out.
Cheers

[MFox]

Sweet! You sound pretty sorted. We would love to help you, in any way you need it. I'll get in touch in a couple of months when we are in Perth. Good luck!
Mish