Implement permaculture without overwhelm or analysis-paralysis! Join 36,000+ growers and build freedom for yourself by establishing your own self-reliant systems. Think of me like Tim Ferris for gardeners: every week, I take a complex subject and boil it down to step-by-step guides or plug-and-play tools like calculators, workflows and permaculture calendars.
Saying no is ok
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Besides focus, the hardest part of having a homestead is accepting that saying no is ok. I got a ton of replies to “The acre I should never have cleared” email I sent last week. So I think I’m going to circle around this topic for a few more emails. Speaking of which, today I want to feature something that one of my subscribers, Michael, sent in (emphasis added): ===== Hi William, You shared a lot of wisdom in that one post. We started on our homestead a few years ago after decades serving in corporate America. 40 acres right out of the gate. The home was in place. After setting up a composting system, we focused on creating a garden … building a high tunnel one season and having a mediocre yield but it was ok. This year, we added a greenhouse to get multiple seasons. A yield somewhat better than last year but now we tried to preserve and store. We also used or zero turn to cut and maintain a grassy 2 mile walk/jog path around our property so we got out at least once per day into all the zones and forced ourselves to enjoy them on our daily walks and jogs. As silly as that sound, it may have been our best investment because it focused us to get out of zone 0 and zone 1 and truly enjoy the space we had. But … All the while we did not do power. We did not do water. We did not clear a 5 acre plot we wanted to do. We did not improve our steep gravel access. We did not build the wood shed. We did not invest in anything that growled when you turned it on. I could go on and on. Besides focus, the hardest part of having a homestead is accepting that saying no is ok. A homestead will eat one's time, money and energy faster than any urban/suburban home can do. So we plod on. One day at a time. One addition at a time (a food processor and water canning container this last stage). It's not near as exciting as all the cool homesteads we see on youtube. We always scratch our head cause we are in no way short of means but we look at them and scratch our head how they do it financially and time-wise. Three years in. We plug on. Little wins we appreciate and accept a life of limits. Michael, Bluegrass Kentucky ===== On the YouTube homesteads: most of what you are watching is a media business, not a farm business. The camera pays for the infrastructure. Comparing your pace to theirs is comparing a farm to a film set. his is why I always tell people: never scale or extend before you’ve closed one complete loop. Of course, that itself begs the question: How do you define one loop? I had a bunch of subscribers write in with that exact query, so let’s break it down. My thinking is this: a loop is a circuit with three parts: production, processing, and use. Grow it, process it, then actually use it. It is only closed when the output has a real end point: a jar on the shelf, a meal on the table, cash from a market stand, or finished compost going back onto the beds. Two tests I use:
If a step is missing, you do not have a loop. What you have is…umm... production plus a problem. You can keep adding once the first loop is in… and under control… Once those first loops are in and running without drama, adding is easy and even fun. Add before that, and every new thing borrows time from something already struggling. So here is what I suggest: Pick ONE loop. But pick the one that matches the time and energy you honestly have, not the person you plan to become! If you want some inspiration on what your next loop should be — or guidance on which of the dozen loops you have in mind would be easiest/best to “close” first, I have a product that could help: The Regenerative Loops Database. It’s a searchable database with 1000+ examples of “closed loops” you can create where the outputs of one regenerative component supply the inputs of another. You can pay what you want. I didn’t put a fixed price. If you’re interested, you can explore the product and purchase it here: https://permaculture-apprentice.kit.com/products/regenerative-loops
Best, -William |
🍀 Permaculture Apprentice
Implement permaculture without overwhelm or analysis-paralysis! Join 36,000+ growers and build freedom for yourself by establishing your own self-reliant systems. Think of me like Tim Ferris for gardeners: every week, I take a complex subject and boil it down to step-by-step guides or plug-and-play tools like calculators, workflows and permaculture calendars.
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