#permies.com

Thinking about getting some chickens? Already have some? Paul Wheaton of permies.com has a great article on what to consider when chickens meet permaculture.

So I am having some difficulty with our polyethylene covering the house. The dimensions for the structure are 14 ft 6 in. by 20 ft. 4 in., and I can only find 6 mil plastic sheeting in 20 x 100 ft rolls, which can't reach over the 20 ft 4 in side. I am hoping not to specical order what I need (25 x 100 would be great) so I am trying to think of other solutions. What do people think of overlapping poly going down the roof and back wall (which is where I need the 25 ft. section.)? Maybe I can figure out some way to seal the seam. But I do live in an area that gets on average 144 inches of rain a year, so this might not be a good idea at all. Any suggestions would be appreciated too. Also, for some photos we have a tumblr up. (Scroll down to the middle to see photos from putting up the frame of that building.) http://bit.ly/1ecI2hW via http://bit.ly/1ecI4Xk

I am new here and have some questions. I’d appreciate your helpful counsel…. I am in the process of building a raised vegetable bed using concrete blocks. It’ll be 4’ wide, 36’ long, and a bit over 24" in height. I’m using standard 8 X 8 X 16 blocks, and think I have a good method to hold the top courses together. I was going to fill the bed with the topsoil I scraped away in excavating a bit for it, and mix in some finished compost and mebbe some sand. Our soil is normally clay, but it’s been improved up in the garden. Anyhow, a few says back I sorta innocently stumbled upon this Hugelkultur business, and it’s really got me to wondering. I have more than enough rotting wood to fill the bed right handy. There’s also a huge pile of rotted power company trimmings which were dumped 2 years ago, and not only are the chips rotten and rotting, but they’re composting as well, thereby breaking every rule of the Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio that I’ve ever heard. I mean, no way should that stuff heat, right? Yeah, but it does! My horse farmer neighbor has plenty of fresh horse poo for me to haul. Now I wonder if I should combine the rotten wood chips and some fresh horse poo, put it all in my new raised bed, pile it high, and wait……. Mebbe add the topsoil back next year, after it’s sat all winter and compacted itself? What say ye? via http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/26965/211708

About 50 years ago, this piece of land was butchered for hardwoods without any concern for the mess left behind. It was left alone and recently chipped. This is different from clear cutting as a huge piece of equipment drove around chipping everything and removed it for engineered lumber. It’s a cleaner process than clear cutting and it leaves behind very, very little. The equipment compresses the forest floor. via http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/26943/211535

I am about to convince my boss to let me experiment with a hugelkutur raised bed for a school garden project... :-)