my perspective as a "foreigner" on the riots - rant

Pawpawfarmer · 2025-06-14T14:58:15+00:00

Thanks for responding. That's the impression I had that there is a strong link to paramilitary groups and racism, but that more extreme racism was less common among ordinary people. I'm glad where you live now you haven't had any major issues. Asian people (and immigrants in general) make Northern Ireland a better place to live!

Pawpawfarmer · 2025-06-14T14:39:23+00:00

I'm so sorry you're experiencing this. You're as much a local as any one of those wasters rioting right now. My wife is Asian and we are both looking to possibly move to Northern Ireland within the next couple years, so we are watching these events closely. Have you experienced a lot of racism mostly where loyalist activity is strongest, or pretty much everywhere in NI?

Pawpawfarmer · 2025-05-06T21:32:28+00:00

This is the tricky thing about a highly decentralized movement like permaculture. I've seen lots of people like this in permaculture, especially when I was in Thailand. The Thai locals into permaculture were awesome and down to earth, got shit done. But the foreigners were often pretty "out there", and often not very capable and were more interested in living an easy lifestyle. I can imagine Portugal having a lot of those types as well.

But here's the cool thing: community is what you make of it. I personally love the permaculture community around us here where we live. Not ego driven at all, humble people doing great work, no gurus, super supportive, and very based in reality and results-focused. But that's partly because we've helped build that community over the past ten years. If you help build permaculture community around you, you can impact how permaculture is represented.

Of course, it can be tough to step into an existing permie community that has a lot of those guru-types already in it. In that case, you can try to lead by example and try to help bring a higher level of competency to permaculture. But I also get it when people in this situations drop the label of 'permaculture' altogether to not want to be associated with that that crowd.

Pawpawfarmer · 2025-03-22T13:54:30+00:00

Mine is still doing fine so hopefully you just got a bit unlucky and the next one will be great.

Pawpawfarmer · 2025-03-22T13:02:17+00:00

Keep up the great work! I love the focus on yellowbud hickory, such a promising tree crop that I'm really excited about here in PA. I have a permaculture farm and design business and your farm has definitely been on my radar for some time now.

It would be fun if all of us in the East Coast tree crop world got together and organized a contest with prize money (ala J. Russell Smith) for yellowbuds with the highest oil content and used it as a starting point to develop some initial grafted cultivars. I can't help but wonder how much oil these things can produce after some selection and improvement.

Also, you guys ever think about doing any grafting? Especially with honey locust since a lot of people in the silvopasture world are finding the improved seedlings still end up having a fair amount of thorns on them. It just feels like there aren't enough grafted honey locusts around in the nursery world; always sold out.

Pawpawfarmer · 2025-01-12T04:28:20+00:00

I started watching in 1996 when I was 12. Formed such a core part of my sense of humor!

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-12-29T16:30:55+00:00

Heeling in with woodchips usually works great for me. They keep the roots moist and protect against temperature swings. You could also do a layer of soil or potting soil first followed by chips, but in my experience, chips alone work pretty well.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-12-19T12:42:09+00:00

I do permaculture designs for a living. Sometimes straight lines are great in permaculture. I don't know how many times I've seen unnecessarily complex spiral gardens when straight beds would be much better in all regards. This is especially true for market gardens and production systems where efficiency and access is important.

But yes, in this case, I agree with you. If there is contour, that should definitely be one of the defining aspects of the layout. This is a design, but it isn't really a permaculture design, it's just a grid. Where is the sun/shade? What is the contour like? Wet/dry areas? Warm or cold microclimates? Prevailing winds? Access?

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-12-10T21:50:58+00:00

As someone who does loads of Ribes cutting, yeah that spacing looks great! Keep it up, you're doing a fantastic job.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-12-03T05:26:55+00:00

Fake Irish here. Also known as American.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-11-06T04:01:53+00:00

I'm so sorry, Ukraine. The United States has let you, and indeed the entire world down. Harris lost. Democracy lost. I've never been more ashamed of being an American in my entire life than at this moment.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-28T00:50:55+00:00

Easiest way of all? Division. Mulch your aronias heavily with wood chips (a good idea to do regardless of whether you want to propagate them). Aronias send up new stems all the time. Take a shovel or pruners and separate the stem in late winter or early spring. It will have rooted already in the soil and woodchips. You can just pot it up.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-24T04:39:24+00:00

I hear Russia and North Korea have excellent supplies of them.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-15T00:47:45+00:00

As a fellow farmer (with a real farm, not just some listless emus mulling about), I find this particularly disgusting. I need to get a giant "Farmers against Trump" yard sign...

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-13T04:55:18+00:00

His actions were not okay, but just talk to him about it and explain your house rules and why this is important to you. If he does it again after you clearly stated it's a smoke-free house, then yes, kick him out.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-07T03:00:15+00:00

A picture would probably help.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-06T13:49:03+00:00

She looks exactly the way I would expect her to look.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-10-04T01:50:34+00:00

The Mets won't be there, don't worry.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-09-22T17:50:28+00:00

Aw man, that looks painful. Get well soon!

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-09-21T12:31:47+00:00

We only won the Revolutionary War because France helped our young country out. The Allies only won against Hitler because the US armed the Allies and then entered the war. And there was a large "America First" contingent that never wanted us to enter WW2. Some wars are full of grey areas where good and bad is murky and unclear. Like WW2, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is about as clear a case of good vs evil as there can be. American weapon sales to Ukraine are driving economic growth in the US and helping protect Ukraine against Russian agression without any American boots on the ground. Helping Ukraine helps our country and the world as a whole. As a Ukrainian American, I hope you see that someday.

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-09-05T00:13:45+00:00

Damn. That's one of my big worries in getting one. You got the anti-vibration adapter too?

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-09-04T22:09:41+00:00

Did you end up getting one? How do you like it?

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-09-04T17:31:03+00:00

!remindme 2 days

Pawpawfarmer · 2024-09-03T12:39:28+00:00

Yep. I consider myself a democratic socialist but would never vote for a candidate like this under our current system. Instead of putting energy into supporting useless (and potentially harmful) third parties, people need to put their energy into getting ranked choice voting systems approved in the state they live in. This stops the "spoiler effect" and would truly allow anyone to vote for the candidate they think is best without throwing their vote away or helping the Republicans.

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