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If you're seeing this in your podcast feed it means our first child has either arrived or is very nearly earthside!
Sammy and I greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and good vibes in this time.
The podcast will be on an indefinite (though hopefully relatively short) break, while we welcome our first child into the world and find our feet as new parents.
Thank you all for listening and keep shining your light.
-Casey & Sammy (and Tater)
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WHAT I DO: Create Resilient Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive Together
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Floating wetlands are a "new" old technology that is well worth looking into if you are doing aquaculture at just about any scale - from small backyard tanks a few hundred gallons in size, on up to multi-acre ponds and lakes.
Floating wetlands take the essential functions provided by wetlands and concentrated them into a smaller and more mobile footprint. Wetlands are the kidneys of the landscape, and floating wetlands amplify many of those beneficial functions, such as:
Integrated wetland (edge) functionality into an open water body = excess nutrient removal and water clarification Increased biomass production = more habitat and more food for livestock, wildlife and humans More "optimized edge" without reducing storage volumes in ponds Shade - decreases water temps, reduces algal growth potential by reducing light in the water column Shelter - fish shelter underneath and amongst the hanging roots some systems even have protected fish spawning beds hung underneath the island Shoreline protection / floating breakwaters - if wave erosion is a thing in your pond, consider a chain of floating islands to reduce wave action and protect vulnerable edges while also creating a highly-valuable living filter element Habitat Creation - floating islands contain so much edge in such a small space, they inevitably create habitat for many forms of life - from the micro (biofilms) to the macro (water fowl and fish) and everything in between. Waste water treatment - floating rafts with nutrient-accumulating vegetation are utilized to clarify and treat sewage effluentFloating gardens are great for the homesteader as well. They are self-watering (obvious, but worth mentioning), benefit from increased sunlight availability to crops (light reflected off the water's surface to crop plants on the island), pest protection (no burrowing or terrestrial garden pests are going to make it to your floating garden - unless you've got Navy SEAL gophers!). They make excellent floating hutches for water fowl. Some folks have experimented with adding solar lights, fans and wheedwhackers to create nocturnal fish feeders by attracting insects and knocking them into the water for the fish to eat.
There are many ways to make floating islands - from DIY to pre-made - this would make an amazing summer time home-school project - construction, design, aquatic ecology, observation, nature time...talk about stacking functions!
Show Resources
YouTube Playlist: Living Systems - Food Production - Floating Gardens Pre-made / Custom BioHaven Floating Islands Floating Islands International Floating Islands West Midwest Floating Islands Epi-59: Sovereign Food Systems - Pantry Ponds Epi-61: Up-Leveling Calorie Production Per Square Foot With Azolla Epi-64: Using Duckweed To Grow More Calories Per Square Foot Epi-62: 5 Tenets Of Carnivore Homesteading_______________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO: Resilient Human Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive Together
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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What do we mean when we say we want to "opt out" of the system?
Firstly, it's the system(s) - the means of production, transport, communication, value transmission etc that we have to interface with to acquire the things we need to live in the modern world. In general, the further the distance a product or service must travel and the more technology involved means you will have less control over how to source it, how much you pay for it, when (and if) it is available etc. If it is produced or provided closer to home you have more agency in how you obtain that product or service and it is more resilient to "disruptions"
Why are so many of us drawn to opting out?
We have no agency over the direction of the system(s) - they are by and large completely hijacked by parasites - the political technocratic oligo-corporate controlling class. If we want to have more agency, and thus freedom to live life on our own terms - in alignment with our innate intelligence - the solutions are found in living in closer connection with Nature and other decentralized/distributed systems based on Nature.
Fundamentally, this is about designing your life to create freedom from the system(s) via interdependence with Nature. We all have an ecological umbilical cord - we are completely and utterly dependent upon functioning ecosystems to provide us with ALL of the things we need and want to live well. The sooner we acknowledge this the sooner we can be FREE from pretending we don’t have an ecological umbilical and all resulting pathology that follows.What We Can Do To Opt Out By Opting In To Nature Connection
Create freedom from the system(s) by leveraging your interdependence with Nature - choose to ally your life with Nature - Nature is what "they" fear and cannot ever control. Harvest and use Nature’s gifts - everywhere nature gives us gifts for free Become ecosystem literate where you live - every place has something that wants to grow there - use analogs to find productive species to meet your needs Embrace Cyclical vs. Linear Cyclical = biology-based - slower, but infinitely more resilient and powerful - where how you grow & harvest can enrich the whole ecosystem. Trust in Distributed wisdom vs. Centralized “intelligence” centralization of decision-making authority and technical know-how is a hallmark of the technocratic system being pushed upon us the opposite of this is Nature - wisdom in every cell YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE CELLS - composed of trillions of other cells - each with it’s own innate wisdom Find your place and commit to it and it’s people - so much of the control system is commodification of the things that used to be provided via reciprocity by close human relationships.Show Resources
The Regenerative Agora - Counter-Economics For Stewards Of The Future Epi-73 - Debt, Wealth and Counter-Economics As A means to create a world worth inheriting Epi-009 - Green Is The New Gray For Thriving In The Dim Age Epi - 005 - Light, Water, Soil and Life - The 4 Pillars Of A Productive And Profitable Homestead Ecosystem DIY Soil Fertility series - ways to start engaging with more natural cycles that reduce your need to buy____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Light is an essential human nutrient.
So much of our modern built environment is built without regard to orienting and integrating natural light, and our health - physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and communal - suffers for it.
The good news is that you can design your structures (or retrofit them) to bring natural light back into them and create buildings and places within them that support human thriving because they are well integrated with natural light.
Join me for a dive into the patterns of human habitation design that enhance our relationship with light from Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language:
105 - South Facing Outdoors 107 - Wings of Light 112 - Entrance Transition 128 - Indoor Sunlight 135 - Tapestry of Light and Dark 159 - Light On Two Sides Of Every Room 161 - Sunny Place 162 - North Face 163 - Outdoor Room 180 - Window Place 181 - The Fire (there is NO substitute for fire!) 182 - Eating Atmosphere 199 - Sunny Counter 223 - Deep Reveals 238 - Filtered Light 252 - Pools of LightResources
A Pattern Language [WHOLE TEXT PDF DOWNLOAD]: PatternLanguage.com – website for the book and Alexander’s works Zone 0 Pattern Language Fundamentals - Designing Your Permaculture Kitchen ~Epi-076 Light, Water, Soil and Life - The Four Pillars Of A Productive And Profitable Homestead - Epi-005____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Join me today as we discuss designing functional kitchen spaces that people want to be in.
Lots of people are inheriting kitchens designed more for magazine covers than for function - and where there is a lack of function there is a concommitant increase in friction, which means more stress and less joy.
Kitchens are the Zone 1 of Zone 0 - Zone 0 referring to the space inside the home. Kitchens are the heart of human life - communion over shared food, shared work, a space for being together, conversing, and generally connecting over the daily activities that make up life. Poorly designed kitchens discourage healthy human interaction and bonding, and thus are a huge lost opportunity for not only creating a thriving, functional homestead, but can actively undermine human thriving.
In today's show we discuss some of the fundamental emergent patterns detailed by Christoper Alexander and company A Pattern Language - a seminal work on the patterns of human habitation that support and promote human well being. This book belongs on your shelf if you're serious about creating healthy human habitats. It is guaranteed to spark fresh ideas and perspectives for examining your space, even if you've been there for decades, and give you actual tangible design guidelines if you're starting from scratch or remodeling to build functional, beautiful places for life to happen.
In this episode we will discuss the following patterns as they pertain to permaculture kitchens specifically and Zone 0 home design generally:
127 - Intimacy Gradients 129 - Common Areas At The Heart 159 - Light On Two Sides 139 - Farmhouse Kitchen 184 - Cooking Layout 182 - Eating AtmosphereShow Resources
A Pattern Language [WHOLE TEXT PDF DOWNLOAD]: PatternLanguage.com - website for the book and Alexander's works____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Today I interview Joshua Longbrook on real world applications of Private Membership Associations for creating systems of support - i.e. the parallel society - outside the jurisdiction of the public (State dominated) sphere.
We'll cover what PMAs are, what protections they do and do not offer, how they are best utilized as extensions of a larger unincorporated Church, and the types of voluntary interactions they enable within and between local communities.
We'll also get into Josh's personal experience with running the Agora Food Club and how the structure has enabled many home-scale producers to supply their wares or seasonal abundance to their fellow food club members in exchange for credits they can apply towards their own grocery bill. I think this is one of the "killer apps" the PMA structure can provide a network of homestead-minded people. Let's face it - even if you're just gardening for yourself, or have a small orchard with even a handful of fruit trees, it's very easy to be overwhelmed with the seasonal abundance from these systems. The PMA creates a way for these small scale producers to exchange their goods that doesn't require all of the licensing and legal hopscotch that becoming an official business does. The PMA literally enables the creation of circular, local economies without the energetic drain of taxes, licensing and all the things the State requires to be deemed "legal".
As Josh shares in the interview, a PMA enables the same dynamics that take place when you invite friends over for dinner - you cook food for them in your home (no food service business license, no health inspections etc), you might offer them a drink of wine (no liquor license required), and you might even offer them a bottle to take home for a few bucks. All of this is OK within the confines of your private home, but for some reason when this activity takes place in a business, and selling is happening, then it needs to be regulated (and taxed). The PMA is basically just a bigger dinner party with more friends all happening within the private sphere.
Resources
The Agora Hub - the Church that Joshua and company run, of which the Agora Food Club is an auxiliary The Agora Food Club The Agora Ministries - Christian ministry based in Hixson, TN. [VIDEO] Joel Salatin - Food Freedom In The Private Domain (PMAs) Rogue Food Conference David Edwards PMA Service Freedom Works - Mission Society-based Private Membership Association Josh's podcast - Our Foundations Josh's email if you'd like to contact him directly with questions: [email protected]____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
What Plants Crave T-shirts And Stickers!
Another fun way you can support the show AND start some fun and interesting conversations along the way. For those of you that have seen Idiocracy, you know what this is all about. For those of you that haven't...watch this.
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Today's show is for those of you lucky enough to have a spring on your property. We will cover the basics of spring morphology and function - including the way I really think they work vs. what the textbooks say - and then we'll go over basic spring assessment criteria, and the main components of spring water collection and distribution systems.
Show Resources
Past Spring Projects Rivera Family Ranch Spring Forestville Spring Retrofit Wilson Family Ranch Spring Retrofit Big Sur Spring Black Mountain, NC Spring YouTube - Spring Development Playlist Technical Manuals Springs - Their Origin, Development And Protection, Taylor, G.H., U.S. Dept. Of Interior Geological Survey. [PDF]: Basic Ground Water Hydrology - Water Supply Paper 220, Heath, Ralph C., U.S. Dept. of Interior [PDF]: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/2220/report.pdf NRCS National Engineering Handbook - Part 650 - Chapter 12 - Springs And Wells [PDF]: https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=46258.wba SKAT - Spring Catchment Vol. 4, Meuli, Christian & Wehrle, Karl, 2001. [PDF}: https://skat.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Handbook_Volume4.pdf____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
What Plants Crave T-shirts And Stickers!
Another fun way you can support the show AND start some fun and interesting conversations along the way. For those of you that have seen Idiocracy, you know what this is all about. For those of you that haven't...watch this.
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How do we create a regenerative economy and all that entails when that work is arbitrarily outlawed, suppressed or actively disincentivized by the value systems that dominate our current culture?
HINT: We have to step outside of the current imposed power structure - no permission required.
My presupposition for this episode is this: Mainstream, state sponsored and enforced economic theory and practice has herded humanity as a whole onto a degenerative trajectory with respect to environmental integrity, social cohesion and individual well-being.
We are living in a debt-driven world - stealing from future generations so we can have more now.
If we want to live regeneratively, there has to be another way of meeting our needs today without destroying the ecosystems that provide them. In fact, we need to make them stronger and more productive!
That "other way" is Counter-Economics.
Counter-Economics is the theory and practice of all human action neither accepted by the State nor involving any initiatory violence or threat of violence.
Counter-Economics exists and can be practiced outside the boundaries of State power (the State being that institution that has a legal monopoly on the use of force within a certain arbitrary geographic border). State power exists at the intersection of three things:
Scope – laws on the books. Reach – boots on the ground. Will – what lives in the heart of the agent of the State.To engage in the counter economy is to engage only in moral actions (voluntary, without initiation or or threat of violence). They may or may not be legal as viewed from the perspective of the State Agent.
In order to get to a regenerative economy, we have to add one more layer - an ethical framework provided by the Prime Directive and three ethics of permaculture.
Prime Directive: The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for yourself and your dependents. Make it now.
Permaculture Ethics
Care Of The Earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. Care Of People: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their own existence. Setting Limits To Population And Consumption: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to reinvest towards the first two ethics.Once we have combined Counter-Economics with the ecologically sound guideposts from permaculture, we have created the foundation for a truly regenerative economy. One in which the 7th Generation Principle can come to fruition in act and spirit:
The 7th Generation Principle: A 7th generation systems creates socially and economically fulfilling lives for its inhabitants, whose daily activity patterns regenerate natural ecosystems and increase living capital year over year, such that the economic and social value of natural ecosystems is always increasing, and the value-ing of those systems is transmitted intact across generations.
Show Resources
The Regenerative Agora: Counter-Economics For Stewards Of The Future The Prime Directive, Ethics and Principles Of Permaculture The 7th Generation Principle: Designing Ecosystems For Continuity Across Generations Counter-Economics: From The Back Alleys To The Stars - by Samuel Edward Konkin III____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Today's episode is a short primer on live staking - what it is, how it works, what its good for, what types of species you can use to do it, and how to harvest, prepare and plant your live stakes.
If you have perennially moist soils in need of stabilization, or are able to irrigate certain areas to ensure adequate soil moisture for establishment, you can plant hundreds of trees for pennies per stem and create living structures that provide many layers of function while getting stronger over time!
Livestaking is a great way to establish living fences, plant and grow living structures, stabilize eroded stream or gully banks, establish large trees in pasture, plant living fence posts and much more. It is a greate example of how when we work with nature we can create landscapes that are exponentially more functional and abundant for us, both today and in the future.
Show Resourcesb
SHD Primer - All About Live Staking Expanded list of woody species that can be used for live staking - all but guaranteed that you've got what you need growing nearby Curated YouTube playlist showing live staking application across a variety of different settings and bioregions.____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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As within so without.
If we want to see changes in our external world (i.e. regenerating landscapes and ecosystems), we have to first address our internal state.
The older I get and the more I learn, the less I can say I know for sure.
This, though, is one of those things that I've arrived at as being one of those "indivisible kernels of truth" - something solid and constant upon which I can build a foundation for regeneration.
The external state of our landscapes is a direct reflection of our own internal states.
This has always been true in every consultancy I have ever done.
This is why I always have my design clients beging the process by creating a Minimum Holistic Goal. To start designing without first calming and clarifying your own internal landscape is basically the same as giving a bunch of apes spaghetti to throw at the wall and then seeing what sticks and saying "Look, design!".
We can do better than that.
We have to do better than that if our goal is to regenerate the ecosystems upon which we depend for our sustenance and quality of life.
Every landscape ultimately becomes a mirror of one's internal state.
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WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Building Your Sovereign Homestead
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Adaptive Management: Observation-driven management for constantly increasing resilience and ecosystem function by employing planned, purposeful disruption.
Prescriptive Management: Labeling your observations so that you can look up a prescription that fits that label. This is a much more myopic way of managing a landscape, as you're automatically confining yourself to pre-existing solutions for truly unique problems or challenges.
Adaptation is Nature's way. Nature is always changing - things may rhyme but they are never exactly the same. Therefore our management needs to change with this constantly changing landscape.
3 Rules of Adapative Management
Compounding: every decision creates a cascade of compounding effects, these effects are never neutral, they are either positive or negative with regards to ecosystem function and whether or not they move you closer to your Quality of Life goals or further from them. Diversity: Greater species diversity is always better, and creates positive compounding effects. Disruption: Introduce planned, purposeful disruption in order to vary the stimulus that the landscape receives to continue making gains in ecosystem function, homestead efficiency and resilience, and enterprise profitability.Never assume you've got it in the bag! ALWAYS base your actions on observation - adapt to the feedback that Nature is always providing, instead of prescribing from a narrow field of pre-existing solutions.
Show Resourcesb
https://understandingag.com/resources/fact-sheets/ Adapative Grazing Webinar - 3 Part Series w/ Allen Williams: https://pastureproject.org/webinar-archive/adaptive-grazing-101-webinar-series-with-dr-allen-williams/ About Dr. Allen Williams: https://soilhealthacademy.org/team/dr-allen-williams/
VIDEO: What Is Adaptive Grazing?____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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When we design holistic ecosystems, we start with mapping out desired and required functions THEN search for, select and/or design elements/systems that provide those functions in a way that aligns with the site-specific context.
This is contrasted with how most people "design" systems - they see an ad or read an article and like the thing or the method/technique they see, and then say "I want thing A" or "I'm going to do technique B" on my land.
And then systems start being built around these sexy, cool things that are out of alignment with the context of time and place.
Today I hope I can convince you that starting your homestead design (or re-design) by first assessing your desired and required functions - and thus creating a map of functions and functional outcomes that you require to support your chosen Quality of Life - that you can then much more quickly and effectively design or select the appropriate elements to populate your design.
This is functions-first design, and I encourage everyone to at least give function mapping a try when designing their homesteads.
Show Resources
The Prime Directive, Ethics and Principles of Permaculture The 4 R's of Regenerative Hydrology____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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If you are serious about food sovereignty, you're serious about building soil.
In this episode I detail 4 methods for creating your own soil fertility inputs from what you are already growing, can source on your property or very close to home, or are already in the course of putting food on your table. They are:
Vermicomposting ------------------> good biology Compost Tea Brewing --------------> amplify biology Biochar ----------------------------> retain biology Plant-based Liquid Fertilizer --------> feed biologyIt is in the SYNERGY between these methods that the real exponential gains are to be found. I chose vermicomposting as a way to create good biology in the first place as it is relatively simple to get started with and will yield returns of worm castins within a growing season or less.
Next, utilize aerobic compost tea brewing to expand the amount of beneficial biology you have created from the worm castings. Once you have a tea you can spray it and cover large areas of plant bodies or soil surface with beneficial biology and nutrients. This is WAY more efficient than spot application of compost.
Next, use your aerobic compost tea inoculated with worm castings to inoculate charcoal and turn it into biochar! Biochar is a millennia+ soil amendment - it will outlive you and the next 20+ generations in the soil - and it will provide a home for beneficial biology and retain nutrients for the entire time it persists. This is as close to an infinite improvement as we can get in our human form.
And finally, to charge up naked charcoal and give all the beneficial biology something to eat, we make anaerobically fermented weed tea (though animal products can be used too) to create a mineral and nutrient rich solution. Use your compost tea brewing set up to hyper-aerate this solution to kill all of the anaerobic organisms, leaving a nutrient soup, and then introduce naked charcoal and beneficial micro-organisms (vermicompost) to create a nutrient-rich, hydrated, beneficial microbe hotel that will provide increasing benefit to your growing systems year after year without you having to do it year after year.
This is about getting off the treadmill of annual inputs. Don't give your money to the big fertilizer companies when you can make a way better, site-specific product on your own for very cheap that doesn't have a long-term downside like typicaly salt-based fertilizers and centralized, commodity soil amendments.
Food sovereignty can be acheived when our food systems build soil by default. That is what this synergy can do for you.
Resources
DIY Soil Fertility - Part 1: Vermicomposting DIY Soil Fertility - Part 3: Compost Tea Brewing DIY Soil Fertility - Part 6: Charcoal & Biochar DIY Soil Fertility - Part 8: Fermented Liquid Nutrient Fertilizers - write up coming soon!____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Today is an expose about one of America's dirty secrets - we're talking about the nation wide biosolids program.
Supposedly its a great way to beneficially cycle a "renewable resource" to help fertilize crop fields, protect water sheds and keep people healthy.
In reality, its anything but - and we know from first hand knowledge because we lived with it right across the street from us for months.
For any would-be homesteader looking to re-locate to the country, be aware of the potential for biosolids in your watershed and potentially right across the fence (as in our case).
This is a huge problem, one that has resulted from a society and civil infrastructure built around the assumptions of a perpetual and never-ending supply of cheap energy. Now those chickens are coming home to roost, and its on us to fix it. First things first we have to learn just how extensive the problem of dealing with our own shit is so we can wrap our heads around what will be required to retrofit existing systems to make them work for a lower energy future.
Show Resources
Actual EPA Laws & Regs: https://www.epa.gov/biosolids/biosolids-laws-and-regulations Plain English version (its 175 pages long - don't get too excited): https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2018-12/documents/plain-english-guide-part503-biosolids-rule.pdf EPA Propaganda Page for National Biosolids Initiative: https://www.epa.gov/biosolids PFAS Guide Doc: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-07/Joint-Principles-Preventing-Managing-PFAS.pdf The EPAs sheet on PFAS: https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained EWG PFAS Factsheet: https://static.ewg.org/ewg-tip-sheets/EWG-AvoidingPFCs.pdf
https://thesovereignhomestead.com/soil-fertility-for-homesteads-vermicompost/ Home Bio Gas Toilet - turn your sewage and food waste into methane gas for cooking and valuable and SAFE fertilizer for your garden: https://www.homebiogas.com/____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Today's show is all about the things you have to do to get yourself onto your land quickly without shooting yourself in the foot withe improperly located or oriented structures and roads.
Vehicle access is basically an absolute necessity in today's world. By their very nature, roads are a break from the inherent landform, and thus ALL ROADS CAPTURE AND MOVE WATER. This is just part of what a road does.
If you put in a road, or are inheriting a road without understanding that fact, you will pay for it later - all it takes is one good storm.
So today, in this first installment of the Making Landfall series, we're zero-ing in on Water > Access > Structures - the three primary design layers that have to get sorted out quickly when you move onto a new landscape. Where am I going to live? How am I going to get to it? How will this affect and be affected by water moving through the landscape?
This show is about the essential things you need to do to get it right and not create a Type 1 Error that will hamper your efforts to create your sovereign homestead as long as it exists.
Show Resources
Vehicle Access For Regenerative Landscapes - First Principles ~ the basic principles that guide planning and implementing vehicle access that has a regenerative effect on your site hydrology and ecosystem function. Vehicle Access For Regenerative Landscapes - Essential Terminology & Guiding Questions For Watershed Assessment ~ all the things you need to know and consider when assessing your landscape to plan efficient, low-maintenance, high-function vehicle access. Water Drainage Elements Index - blog post index of lesser-known cross drains and drainage elements more suited to regenerative water management. Don't install 'not my problem tubes' unless you absolutely have to! Yeah, I'm talking about culverts here - I rarely see these done well, especially with regards to what happens with the water after it leaves the culvert. Perhaps try a rolling dip instead!____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
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New Year's Evolution. This show is about doing the most important work first - your own internal visioning - an rooting that vision in your heart to create a WHY strong enough to bear any HOW. If you haven't done it yet, give yourself the gift of creating your Minimum Holistic Goal. It is the ONE THING that will make everything else that comes after easier, more fun and more effective.
Creating a legacy worth inheriting starts in you.
Let your life be a love letter to future generations and leave beauty in your wake. That's how we create a world worth inheriting.
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WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Duckweed is an amazingly productive floating aquatic plant that is highly palatable to a wide variety of small and large livestock (ruminants, pigs, poultry, fish etc). Duckweed is a tremendous ally for those of us looking to create independence from centralized commodity food systems. You may not want to eat duckweed (though you can) but what you eat is very likely to benefit from having duckweed in its diet (and your wallet will thank you for it!).
Show Resources
Feedipedia Page for Duckweed Duckweed Cultivation YouTube Playlist____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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In this episode I am sharing what I have come to call the 7th Generation Principle - a principle guide post of sorts that I've been refining for nearly 10 years now to help guide my design work (for my own life and for others) in the direction of inter-generational regeneration.
Basically, it seems like throughout human history we've actually lived in a truly sustainable fasion - i.e. regeneratively. Some of those examples even persisted for quite some time, but now we are left with very few intact cultures that can successfully transmit the cultural values of regeneration through time from one generation to the next. Even those that still exist are struggling to keep it up.
This principles is my attempt at refining design imperatives such that we prepare fertile soil for the values of regeneration to once again take root in the hearts and minds of the up and coming generations, and for them to have the tools to successfully transmit those values to their descendants.
We'll break down all the context and various pieces of it in the podcast, but here it is in full:
A 7th generation system creates socially and economically fulfilling lives for its inhabitants, whose daily activity patterns regenerate natural ecosystems and increase living capital year over year, such that the economic and social value of natural ecosystems is always increasing, and the value-ing of those systems is transmitted intact across generations.
In this episode I'll walk through the questions that led to me writing this principle this way, and the ways to apply it in your own lifestyle design using the Regenerative Triple Bottom Line - Economic, Social and Ecological to create guiding criteria and questions to assess if you're on target or not.
Show Resources
BLOG POST: The 7th Generation Principle - Designing Regenerative Systems For Continuity Across Generations VIDEO: The Living Root Bridges Of Meghalaya (4 min) VIDEO: India - The Living Bridges - ARTE.tv documentary (24 min)____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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In today's show we discuss the idea of the Carnivore Homestead.
For those of us that eat a mostly animal-based diet, we want to produce mostly animal-based calories from our homestead production systems. I got news - just because we like to eat steak doesn't mean we aren't going to grow plants - in fact, we've got to grow them in greater quantity and quality in order to feed the animals that become our food.
Carnivore homesteads have to be regenerative by their very nature if they are to be sustainable. Join me as we discuss the ins and outs of what I'm calling the 5 tenets of carnivore homesteading:
Maximize Calorie Production / Unit Area - this means growing a better solar collector, which means growing lots of plants. We do this by managing the 4 pillars of any productive ecosystem - water, soil, light and life (biology/living organisms). Extend Calorie Production Throughout As Much Of The Year As Possible - extend the growing season, and no its not just about greenhouses, though those are great. Livestock Species Selection & Integration - select species that WILL thrive on what your land is innately good at producing, and integrate them with other species that improve the habitat for one another (non-competitive niches). Preserve Seasonal Abundance With Long Term Storage - we need to employ a variety of methods to preserve fat and protein during times of abundance for the times of dearth - freezers and canning are great, but there is so much more! Build relationships with other producers - don't go it alone! Animal products are high-value, and if you are producing one you probably have an abundance greater than you can use. Trading, exchanging or sell to or with other local producers creates stronger, healthier, more resilient communities and allows us to create our own food systems parallel to the mainstream commoditized, centralized and controlled industrial food system.Show Resources
Epi-058 - Sovereign Food Systems: Silvopasture For Sovereign Meat Forests BLOG POST: Silvopasture - Sustainable Food Systems For The Era Of Energy Descent BLOG POST: High Value Livestock Fodder Trees For Temperate Climates Epi-007 - High Value Livestock Fodder Trees For Temperate Climates YouTube Channel: Farming With Trees Epi-059 - Sovereign Food Systems: Aquaculture Pantry Ponds Epi-061 - Up-Leveling Calorie Production With Azolla Permies Thread on Carnivore Homesteading____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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Today's episode came out of a Permies.com thread on Carnivore Homesteading. The seed questions for the thread was, for those of us enjoying the benefits of a carnivore lifestyle, how can we produce more high-quality animal-based calories for our own consumption from well designed and integrated systems at the homestead scale.
Basically, there are three main focal points that need attention here:
First and foremost we need to maximize is the number of calories grown per unit area (per acre, per square foot, per roof, whatever space one has) if we are to be eating primarily animal products coming from our own properties. This means optimizing the landscape/whateverscape to the fullest extent possible to maximize our use of those freely available resources that go into growing and producing calories - namely water, light, and soil minerals. Second, we need to optimize the distribution of those calories throughout the year (this includes preserving seasonal oversupply/abundance for leaner times) such that high quality nutrition is available to whatever form of livestock we might be keeping or tending. Third - select and stack livestock species that are appropriately suited to the given unique context (i.e. ruminants where pasture forages are plentiful, fish/water fowl/invertebrates where water is plentiful etc). Generally, at least in my own limited experience, that when faced with a repetitive task or "problem" that has to be backfilled with my own labor/time/energy, I'm almost always missing an additional living system - i.e. the solution almost always seems to be to "add more life".With these focal areas in mind, we arrive at azolla - an incredibly productive free-floating aquatic fern that fixes its own atmospheric nitrogen, yields a high-protein vegetative crop that can be harvested DAILY, is incredibly simple to grow and propagate indefinitely for almost no cost after the initial system set up, and can be stored fed to practically all classes of livestock, fresh or dried!
Azolla truly is a super plant, and if you haven't come across it - or even if you have - this one deserves your attention. It, along with other highly productive and nutritious aquatic vegetable crops, deserve a spot on the roster in your homestead production systems - especially if you're trying to raise nutrient dense animal products for your own final consumption!
In this episode we will discuss...
General plant characteristics - what makes Azolla so darn special Azolla's history in agriculture as well as its significant role in creating the current earth climate. Livestock pallatibility - cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, fish, worms, insects - you name it, it'll probably eat azolla! Digestibility Growing Requirements - light, temperature, humidity, ph, salinity, nutrition, pests - everything you need to know to set up a successful azolla growing environment Propagation Methods - different small-scale systems for growing azolla on the homestead Harvesting and processing Other Applications of azolla beyond animal feed and more!Show Resources
https://www.feedipedia.org/node/565 https://www.agrifarming.in/azolla-farming-project-report https://theazollafoundation.org/ https://permies.com/t/40/226880/Carnivore-Homesteading#2060792 Takota Coen VIDEO - How he uses duckweed to feed pigs, chickens and cows on his family farm - the same process will work for azolla ~Epi-13 - DIY Charcoal and Biochar For Home Use ~Epi-59 - Sovereign Food Systems: Pantry Ponds For Perennial Food Production____________________________________________________________________________
WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
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