#permacuture

[tinyshe]

Garden Report 23.04.29

Yeah, I don’t know what to say: bad germination rate, bipolar weather, lots of hungry bugs ...

Things in the little grow lean-to have a really slow germ rate Unless you be a little marigold (go babies go). I mean, 14 days for a courgette/zucchini to germinate? Ptsz ! I got rhubarb seedlings by then! Radishes did their radish thing. Popped their wee heads up and just as fast, had them taken off by bugs. Only about 15% germ rate for the peas and I pre-soaked those things to give them a head start run. I’m not sure I want to try another set as I came across a nest of micelettes in the hay I keep for the hens (they are heeereee... and hungry). The autumn raspberries are monsters! The blueberries and the eldest white currants are looking like they are anemic. Their leaves are very strange. Either I got a disease or another unappreciated aerial spraying. Like wtf. Just stop.

Days are nicer and getting longer so the hens get out a bit more but yet, they don’t want to be out. They just fuss and want their meal worms brought to them promptly at four (teatime for hens, you know). I literally have to treat them like the kids, being real stern ‘go play outside’ and run them out with a stick ... then the hens want in the big house with me and sit on the back stoop and whine bc that’s what they do. So I have to herd them down the walk to the other end of the garden and tell them to stay there which they are semi compliant.

Flowers are blooming. Most the early bulbs are finishing up. The last of the tulips are passing. The Forget-me-nots, coral bells, jupiter’s beard and iris are taking off, The camilas are winding down but the rhodie is starting. The quince and the apples are glorious! The roses haven’t started but you can see the Lady Banks is going to be a riot of yellow in a couple of days -- just in time for a week long rain! I’m working on the rose tunnel out at the farm this weekend and feeling the need to overwhelm the project with plants instead of working with Time. Yes, I’m impatient.

I still haven’t down loaded pictures. I spent a couple of weeks being obsessed with the cloud formations, literally, my head in the clouds instead of my nose to the ground. So maybe instead of flower or garden pictures, there will be a series of clouds and sunrises.

I hope no matter where you are, you can grow a little green for yourself to help nurture your well being. A lovely potted plant to bring you joy, growing sprouts on the counter-top to eat and nourish your body or a little container garden to spice up your life -- I hope you can. If I can encourage you along the way, let me know. I will try to do what I can :)

[stuartbramhall]

Insect Apocalypse: As Urgent as Climate Change

Insect Apocalypse: As Urgent as Climate Change

The Great Death of Insects

DW (2020)

Film Review

This documentary examines research into techniques for halting the decline in insect populations. Entomologists (insect specialists) warn that insect species have declined by 80% since 1800. They blame the loss of habitat due to urbanization, industrialized agriculture, excessive pesticide use and light pollution.*

Many scientists consider the…

[ciudadp9y10-1718-blog]

PERMACULTURA 

Continuando con la silenciosa revolución en esta ocasión comparto una serie de 12 principios sobre los cuales se diseña una auténtica revolución cultural que sustenta un  proceso abierto para proveer a las necesidades de la gente dentro de los limites ecológicos del planeta tierra.

Recuerdo antes las�� 3 bases de la permacultura sobre las cuales se apoyan los 12 principios que hoy comparto. Las 3 bases son:

•     CUIDAR A LAS PERSONAS

•     CUIDAR A LA TIERRA

•     COMPARTIR EQUITATIVAMENTE

Por si antes no lo habías leído, así comenzaba en este blog los…primeros pasos en la revolución silenciosa.

El proceso de proveer a las necesidades de la gente dentro de los límites ecológicos requiere una revolución cultural. En el actual contexto histórico, resulta atractiva la idea de un simple conjunto de principios guiadores que tengan una aplicación amplia, incluso universal.

AGROECOLOGIA

La Agroecología está orientada a establecer parámetros para el manejo ecológico de los recursos naturales incorporando una acción social colectiva de carácter participativo, permitiendo de esa manera el diseño de metodologías para alcanzar un desarrollo sustentable. Pretende plantear un enfoque holístico y una estrategia sistémica que reconduzca el curso alterado de la coevolución social y ecológica, mediante el establecimiento de mecanismos de control de las fuerzas productivas con el objeto de disminuir las formas de producción degradantes, que ocasionan daños a la naturaleza y a la sociedad, generando la actual crisis ecológica. 

CONSEJOS

En las siguiente imágenes, se pueden encontrar distintos consejos sobre la cosecha, los cultivos colaborativos o asociación de ellos y como el uso de algunos “bichos” pueden beneficiar a las plantaciones. 

[fal33]

Jour 6 - Matanzas

"Pas la peine se priver de tout pour manquer de rien" Michel

Permaculture et chaleur cub(Hum)aine

Avant de visiter le jardin solidiaire de la ferme de bellamar, nous faisons la connaissance des membres de l'association de permaculteurs et botanistes : Maria Antionia, Maria Teresa et Mariano. Leurs traits commums:  sympathiques, souriants et d'une grande gentillesse. Pendant que Michel se reposait après avoir affronté vaillamment un scorpion (coriace il le retrouvera dans son short plus tard), nous marchons avec délicatesse dans le jardin. Mariano nous dévoile avec passion l'ensemble des plantes et des fleurs présentes sur le site.

Il nous raconte l'histoire du jardin et les différentes techniques de permaculture: la technique des cultures en lasagnes ou bien les parcelles (épices, les arbres fruitiés, les céréales,...). Cependant la permaculture n'est pas seulement une activité de production agricole. Il s'agit d'une philosophie de vie qui (re)place la nature dans le quotidien de l'Homme. La permaculture invite à la limiter au maximum l'impact de l'Homme sur son environnement immédiat. Ce qui implique une réutilisation constante des matériaux présents à portée de main (bois, plastique...)

Dans l'intimité d'une famille cubaine

Marino nous propose de continuer la visite chez lui afin d'observer, son jardin urbain sur sa terrasse. Il partage la maison avec sa fille, son beau-fils et ses deux adorables petites-filles de 8 et 12ans. Elles nous offrent un succulent jus de mangue sucré accompagné d'une liqueur maison qu'il surnomme "vin". Comme tout cubain Marino nous expose les petites astuces de sa débrouillardise comme les rouages de sa distilliation maison (fleurs séchées de jamaïca et du sucre), son raccordement aux canalisations d'eaux publiques pour arroser son jardin... Il réoriente les principes de la permacuture dans son quotidien avec la réutilisation du plastique pour pallier au manque de bois, la fabrication artisanale de ses pots de fleurs, des pots suspendus sur les murs afin de gagner de l'espace... Les jeunes filles nous font découvrir leur petites ruches.

Ce temps de partage chaleureux continue spontanement sur...un ordinateur. Marino nous montre avec fierté des vidéos de ses petites filles (elles sont à l'école de dance) et de tutoriels sur les biens faits de la permaculture pendamt que nous savourons son café sucré. Une fois les échanges de contact et de livres sur la permaculture faits, nous quittons sous la (grosse) chaleur ce petit havre de paix.

Une connexion internet groupée!

[solarpunks]

#002 “A simple set of tools” — Interview with Jesse Grimes - Pt1

Solarpunks! interviewed Jesse Grimes who is one of our favourite Youtubers, he is currently running a gofundme to take him to the The Ecological Landscaper Immersion program (details below). In part 1 we talk Permaculture, Ant Village at Wheaton Labs and Stand Rock. P2 coming soon! 

This post is mirrored on our medium here if you prefer. (it looks nicer)

SPS! Where did you grow up? What was your local/neighbourhood environment like as a kid?

I lived in Chandler, Arizona until I was 12 years old, in a pretty typical suburban tract home. There were lots of green lawns and a few people with rocks and cactus in their yards. I was a pretty normal kid, and I was really into science. My mom would take me to the public library every week and I would check out those books that showed the insides of airplanes or skyscrapers. When I was 5, our neighborhood was pretty much surrounded by corn and cotton fields, and a few dairies. One of the major cross streets was still dirt. By the time we moved in ’97, all but a few remaining farms had been replaced by more housing developments, and the edge of the city was ten miles further out into the desert. We moved to San Clemente, California, right at the southern edge of Orange County. It was a bit of a culture shock, but I was really happy to be by the beach, and I was really excited to have hills and green everywhere after living in the flat Sonoran desert. I started riding BMX a lot more, and eventually took up surfing as well. Towards the end of high school I became really interested in social and environmental issues.

Permaculture

SPS! Previously you said you discovered Permaculture back in ~2011 and it changed everything for you. Can you expand on that at all?

By that time I was well aware of the environmental destruction happening all over the world, and I still held the more traditional views of environmentalism that said we should try to preserve nature in its pristine condition by pretty much just leaving it alone. I had been working for a local water district as a meter reader, so I got to walk around and see all the front yards, and all the water that was being wasted keeping lawns green in the middle of the desert. I got promoted to collections crew, aka sewer maintenance, so then I got to see first hand the environmental nightmare that is our waste-water collection and treatment systems. I found out that I was part of an army of public utility workers who were working every single day to basically keep our civilization from collapsing. Working in the streets and neighborhoods, I also watched another army of landscapers burning gas and making noise all day just to keep the city looking a certain way. I saw that all of the systems our civilization is built upon are deeply flawed, so I started working towards an environmental engineering degree with the hopes of redesigning those systems to be more sustainable. All the while I was learning more about sustainable systems, things like rainwater harvesting and treating wastewater with constructed wetlands, but I was also learning more about how public organizations and government agencies operate, how resistant they are to adopt anything new unless it has been proven over and over. By the time I first heard the word “permacuture,” I was already starting to become a bit jaded by my experience at the water district, and getting more and more pessimistic over the way humans seemed to be doing everything they could to destroy the planet. There was a short intro to permaculture workshop, and the teachers basically just walked around a home and talked about all the different ways in which the home and it’s inhabitants could be connected in a way that would make things more efficient while having a positive impact on the surrounding environment. They were talking about techniques I had already heard about, but what was special was the way in which they decided how and why to apply them. They used a set of simple principles that helped guide their decision making, so that everything was put into a positive or neutral relationship with everything else. That’s when it kind of clicked, the problem wasn’t that humans were bound to destroy the planet, we have just forgotten how to create good relationships, with both each other and our environment. In permaculture, I saw a simple set of tools that could be used by anyone to create a good relationship with the environment around their own home. If individuals people could learn how to relate to the natural world, perhaps they could learn to relate to their neighbors in a positive way. I realized that real change would come one house, one neighborhood, and one community at a time. Moreso, I saw that instead of simply preserving Nature by simply leaving it alone, we could actually help nature become more abundant by choosing to participate in a good way. I soon lost all interest in environmental engineering, and started devoting myself to learning environmental relationship through permaculture. Lot’s of people talk about a paradigm shift when learning permaculture, but that’s really what it boils down to.

SPS! Mike Feingold has said that “Permaculture is a revolution disguised as gardening”. What does permaculture mean to you?

It’s that paradigm shift I just spoke about. Permaculture empowers people with the tools to be responsible for their own existence, to grow their own food, build their own house, and create their own economy with the people and land around them. The majority of people in the western world are completely reliant on external systems to enable them to live. When you are relying on outside systems to support you, you are giving over a tremendous amount of power to the people running those systems. Big oil and big agriculture have so much power and sway within our government and our culture because, consciously or subconsciously, everyone knows that without those industries we would freeze and starve. So providing your own food, water, clothing, and shelter is a hugely revolutionary act, because it takes that power back. Who care’s what the price of gas is when you don’t have to drive a car to work, or to the grocery store for that matter, because everything you need exists within walking distance of your front door? A big misconception about permaculture is that it means doing all this by yourself, on your own homestead, or with a few families in some imaginary ecovillage. In reality, the best possible place to do permaculture is often right where you currently live, with the people in your neighborhood, and it doesn’t necessarily mean growing all of your own food.

If you collaborate with the people right around you to discover, create, and cultivate positive relationships, there is a huge potential to build a local economy that provides nearly everything that you and your neighbors need to live. The late Toby Hemenway’s book, “The Permaculture City” really opened my eyes up to this concept.

The Permaculture City Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience By Toby Hemenway

SPS! What is the one thing people should know about Permaculture that sets it apart in people’s minds from being some kind of Aggressive / or Political Gardening?

That it really isn’t about gardening, it is a decision making process. Permaculture is a set of tools that can be applied to pretty much anything. A garden is an excellent place to practice using these tools, because they are all based upon the patterns of nature, but you could just as effectively apply permaculture design to your business, or the way you organize the dishes in your kitchen cabinets. The aim is to create positive relationships between all the different elements in your life, from your garden, to your work, to your family, to your neighborhood, and beyond. In really excellent design, nearly everything is arranged in such a way that these positive relationships happen automatically, or with very little effort. Just like how a tree collects water from the morning dew and directs it to the roots with zero effort, simply because of the way it’s parts are shaped and arranged.

SPS! Permaculture has a well documented history and a lot of content out there at the end of a Google search. If someone wanted to get into permaculture, without knowing any details — What is the best entry point for them that you would recommend?

There is an incredible amount of content available under the umbrella of permaculture, and because of this it can be quite easy to get a skewed view of what it means to practice permaculture, based on the particular avenue you arrived by. I’ve been guilty of this myself over the years, and may still be at times. I think it is really important to start by getting a very clear understanding of the principles of permaculture, because these are the tools we use to guide our decisions and direct our actions. The results of permaculture design can appear quite different depending upon the context, but the principles are always the same. If you have a clear understanding of the principles of permaculture, everything else will be easier to understand, and your application is going to be better.

Ant Village

SPS! You have a plot in the Ant Village! How did you end up at Wheaton Labs in Montana?

After I took my first permaculture design course I was looking for more training and more experience, so I spent some time doing volunteer work at various farms and permaculture projects. Wheaton Labs was one of my stops in the summer of 2014. I really liked how enthusiastic Paul is about practicing permaculture, and experimenting with new ideas. A lot of the places I had volunteered for talked about doing permaculture, but really weren’t putting it into practice very much. Plus, I got tired of working on projects that I was never going to see the results of. I wanted to dive right into practicing permaculture for myself, but I knew I needed more skills and experience. I learned about the Ecological Landscaper Immersion program, and signed up for the 2015 session, excited about the opportunity to get a real working knowledge of permaculture by learning under people who were already doing it professionally. The ELI course ended up being canceled that year, so I was left with my $800 deposit and a strong desire to do something big involving permaculture. Paul Wheaton’s Ant Village Challenge was the only other thing that felt big enough. I figured that the next best way to learn permaculture was to just go do it, and the Ant Village offered the ability for me to practice on my own acre of land, with a very encouraging landlord, and the rent was only $800 for the next year and a half. On my previous trip to Wheaton Labs, I had greatly enjoyed being around so many people who were genuinely excited about permaculture, and I knew that lots of permaculture experts made visits to Paul, so that was a pretty big draw for me.

SPS! How is your house coming along? — Plans for next season?

Ant Village Journal #36 A Tour of the Ants’ Houses November 2016

First off, building a house from scratch is an incredibly humbling experience. It has taken a lot longer than I expected, but I’m thankful for every second because I have learned so much that will make the next one easier. This house is earth sheltered, and last fall I finally got the house buried. I did a lot of experimenting with insulated thermal mass using cardboard as insulation, since Paul’s guidelines prohibit rigid foam. It ended up taking a good two weeks to get all the layers of cardboard and polyethylene sheeting where they needed to be, and all the soil on top. I dug and dug with the toothless excavator, and then dug some more by hand, until I finally had enough dirt on the roof and all around the house. There’s a couple videos about it on my Youtube channel where you can see just how much dirt I had to move. There’s still some more that needs to be moved around. The house wasn’t ready in time for winter, and I was out of money, so I had to leave the house unoccupied for another winter. I’ve recently decided to enroll in the Ecological Landscaper Immersion again, so I won’t be spending much time in Montana this year. I am planning to go back for a couple weeks in May to put windows, doors, and walls in the two sides that are not earth sheltered. I’m going to use pallets stuffed with straw and plastered with cob. I’d like to get the house to the point where I could at least sleep in it comfortably next winter, if I choose.

SPS! What have been your biggest learnings from spending time in the Ant Village? Both practical and personal.

I think the biggest lesson has been in the power of collaboration. I spent so much time trying to do things on my own, and I just wore myself out. I got some things accomplished, but it really wasn’t very effective. For a long time we had the contest aspect happening. There was a potential to win ownership of your plot if it was the best, so even though there wasn’t a very strong sense of competition among the Ants, everyone kind of just stayed on their own plot and worked by themselves. Evan was the exception, right away he offered Kai, a volunteer, a piece of his plot in exchange for help, and together they got a lot of work done. Even having just one other person to help with a job makes everything go faster. The real magic happened in the second summer when we all started grouping together to help out on one project. My house wouldn’t have been buried before winter if I didn’t have the help of the other Ants and the volunteers I hosted. We got some big things done quite quickly.

On a personal level I learned that isolation in the woods has its benefits and its costs. I loved the environment, and I felt really healthy walking all over the land and breathing forest air. It’s an incredibly peaceful existence. At the same time, there was some stress involved because finding work that far from a city was pretty challenging, not to mention the hassle of driving and hour each way to get supplies when I could afford them. However, the hardest part was being so isolated from my family and the people I am close to. Looking back, it may have been poor design on my part to move to Montana when most of my friends and family are in California. Your social network is a huge resource, it’s all those positive relationship connections. You never know when a random friend on acquaintance is going to provide you with a missing piece of the puzzle. In permaculture we say the more connections, the more resilient the system. Outside of Wheaton Labs, I don’t have many connections in Montana. Right now my life is moving towards wanting to build a thriving permaculture design business so I can do more projects in the public eye, and have a bigger impact on the world. It’s bound to be much easier for me to do that in a place where I have many connections, so I will likely be settling down somewhere in California once my schooling is done. For now, I am holding on to my plot in the Ant Village as kind of a retreat, and a long term project to express some of my wilder ideas.

Standing Rock

SPS! You ran a go fund me campaign last year to support the water protectors and build a Rocket Mass heater at the Sacred Stone Camp at Standing Rock. What was the whole experience of being there like?

I’m going to borrow something from a friend of mine who spent months at Standing Rock: trying to describe the experience is like that old analogy of two blind people trying to describe an elephant based on the part that they can feel. There were so many different people with so many different agendas and opinions on what needed to be done, so there was a bit of chaotic energy, but there was also this huge sense of common purpose floating above it all. It was quite inspiring to be around thousands of people who all believe that we need to make some big positive changes in our world, who felt this so strongly that they dropped everything to travel out to North Dakota and try to do something about it. From my perspective, there was a lot of people who were just looking for a way to contribute to the cause, but there was no clear pathway to stopping the pipeline in the face of such opposition. For me and the group of people I ended up working with, the focus was on providing warm spaces to enable water protectors to stay the winter, and educating as many people as possible about the alternatives to fossil fuel based building and heating technologies.

SPS! The straw bale schoolhouse you helped with went up very quickly. How quickly do you think buildings like that could go up given enough hands and better weather?

Building a Rocket Mass Heater at Standing Rock Part 1 — Presented by OneHeartFire

It was pretty amazing to witness. I think it was all possible because we had a core group of experienced builders who were dedicated and willing to show up every morning and get to to work, combined with a steady flow of enthusiastic volunteers. At one point, with a blizzard in full swing outside, we had about 15 people working together to plaster the interior walls with cob. We had to thaw out water to mix the cob, and dig out clay from under the snow. I think with good project management, readily available materials, and an enthusiastic crew of 15 people, we could build a similar straw bale structure in less than a month, possibly less. Professional crews can build a modern stick frame tract home in a week, I think the same could be true for natural building. It’s just a change of techniques and materials, much of the process is the same.

The straw bale schoolhouse was recently bulldozed by the BIA after they kicked everyone out of Sacred Stone. As much as I am disappointed by this, I am still thankful for the whole experience, as it showed so many people how big things are possible when we decide to work together to improve our own communities. I think that example was more valuable than any building could ever be, and I also feel that’s why the building was torn down. Like I said before, empowering people with the skills and knowledge to provide for themselves is a truly revolutionary act.

SPS! What did the other people you went with get involved with during your stay there?

Building a Rocket Mass Heater at Standing Rock Part 2

My friends Evan and Carol-Anne came along with me, and they both did a few different things, along with helping with the straw bale and the rocket mass heater. One of Evan’s goals was to teach people how to build a simple wood fired rocket cook stove that he had designed using recycled coffee and soup cans. Everyone was using propane to cook with, and he wanted to show them that they could be cooking with sticks instead of supporting the fossil fuel industry. I made a video with him about how to build and cook with one of the rocket stoves. Carol-Anne helped me quite a bit with the rocket mass heater, along with helping many other people with their tasks. She cooked amazing meals for the build crew, helped with organizing donations, dug holes for pit toilets, and helped with organizing volunteers when Sacred Stone really ramped up their efforts to winterize the camp. She ended up staying at the camp and helping with a number of things. She was there when the people at Sacred Stone got evicted by the BIA, and now she is at another camp being set up to fight the Keystone XL pipeline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK94FW1oQ2w

SPS! Anything else you would like to say about Standing Rock and the situation now since you have returned?

In the months since my time at Standing Rock, I have had a lot of time to think about my experience, and the experience of the movement as a whole, and come to some of my own conclusions. One of my conclusions is that in order for our movement to be truly successful, meaning a complete paradigm shift in the way our culture relates to the Earth and each other, than we are going to have to do a lot more than protest pipelines and voice our opposition to ecological destruction. As important as those actions are, they are only addressing a small part of the picture. The truth is, the black snake is everywhere. It is in our cars, it is in our houses, it is in our yards, at our work places, and on our plates. The fossil fuel monster has woven its way into nearly every aspect of our lives, and our continued, widespread use of fossil fuels in our own lives is driving the demand for more oil wells, and more pipelines. If we want to kill the black snake we have to stop inviting it into our lives, we have to transition towards better alternatives, and we have to do it ourselves. If we wait for the government to change things, it will be too little too late. There is a lot of work to do in our own homes and communities, and we all have a part to play in some of the most important work in human history. Furthermore, in order to take care of our own needs, and to ensure we have the strength and energy to continue this work in the long term, we need to create ways in which we can make a living while healing the Earth. We need to start building an ecologically based economy to replace the extraction economy.

So, with this in mind, I have made the decision enrol in a professional permaculture landscaping training program, which will give me the skills to build a business that supports myself and others, while doing work that helps to heal the Earth, and creating large scale demonstrations of what is possible when we choose to work with Nature instead of against her. The program is called the Ecological Landscaper Immersion, presented by the Permaculture Skills Center in Sebastopol, California. I have already been accepted, and I am running another GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for the tuition.

Send Jesse to the ELI

The first time I ever heard the word permaculture was back in 2011, during a short introductory workshop. That day, a whole new world of ideas opened up to me, an entirely different way of looking at the people and environments around me. I saw that permaculture held the tools to create a better future, the possibility to teach us how to live on this Earth in a way that benefits not only ourselves and our communities, but all the rest of the natural world as well, all of our relatives here on this planet that is our home. My life was changed forever by this moment, and since then I have dedicated my life to learning more about permaculture and sharing this knowledge with others, in the hopes that they might have a similar life changing moment and join in the work of creating a positive future for humanity and the planet.

In the time since then, I have taken two permaculture design courses and various other workshops, gained experience and skills through many hours of volunteer work at permaculture farms and natural building projects, and dove head first into the world of permaculture homesteading by joining the Ant Village community at Wheaton Labs in Montana. Throughout all of this I have pursued my mission of sharing permaculture with the world by talking with people and hosting small workshops, but primarily by creating videos about my experiences and sharing them on the One Heart Fire Youtube channel. I have also started to build a right livelihood by doing permaculture design projects and installations for friends and family, turning my knowledge and energy into real soil, water, and permanent food sources for my clients.

The Ecological Landscaper Immersion: http://www.permacultureskillscenter.org/copy-of-ecological-landscaper-immer

Jesse’s GoFundMe Campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/sendjessetotheeli

Jesse’s Youtube Channel: Search “Oneheartfire” or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpTOy6AFv_Qqr9J8n50f71Q

Jesse’s Patreon, which supports the youtube channel: https://www.patreon.com/jessegrimes

Hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our interview with Jesse, Pt 2 is coming soon. We talk technology, bikes and the future! 

You can read our interview with Elly Blue of microcosm publishing here 

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

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Practical Preparedness – Planning by Prevalence

When we jump on preparedness sites, sometimes we’re immediately struck by the enormous loads of things to buy, do, and learn. We immediately start hearing about WROL, battle rifles, ammo counts in the thousands, pressure canners, INCH/BOB bags and locations, pace count, and primitive skills. World- and nation-altering events such as nuclear war, internet-ending viruses, Nibiru, Agenda 21 and NWO, and the like pop up. They all have their places, but sometimes things get missed and it can make for a very overwhelming introduction. It can make it hard to prioritize where to spend our time and financial budgets even for those with experience and years of exposure to the prepared mindset.

//

To make it a little easier to prioritize, we can work in stages. We can look at what is most likely to occur in the near future and our lifetimes, and use that information to help us decide where to focus our time, efforts and resources.

Zone-Ring Systems

In permaculture, planning is based on zones. The basic premise is that you start at 0 or 1 with the self or home, and move outward through 2-4 and eventually into Zone 5. The inner rings have the most immediate contact with the resident, while the outer rings are visited less frequently. Other systems also use similar ring concepts of involvement, frequency and impact.

The same can be applied to preparedness, just like we modified a Health Wheel to fit our particular interests and needs. In this case, instead of looking at the frequency with which we’ll make contact with an area, we’ll be looking at the frequency with which things occur and impact our worlds.

Like permaculture, I’ve gone with five general categories. In this case, they are: Daily, Seasonal/Annual, 5-10 Year, Generational, & Lifetime/Eventually/Maybe. There are some examples for the average Western World resident. Later in the article there’s a few tips for planning for and around those most and least-prevalent scenarios.

Zone 1/First Ring – Daily Occurrences

A layoff can be just as devastating as a zombie invasion if you aren’t prepared.

Daily emergencies are those that strike somebody somewhere every single day in our English-reading modern life. While some affect larger groups, these tend to be personal or family related items. They’re the kinds of things the neighbors might not even notice. Some examples are:

Layoff, cut hours, cut wages

Major bills (roof, medical, HVAC, veterinary)

House fire

Major injury/developing disability

Theft, burglary, mugging

Vehicular accident & malfunction (temporarily removing transportation)

Temporary power outages (hours to 1-3 days)

Personal physical altercation (mugging, home invasion, the drunk at a bar, date rape)

Missing person(s), family death

When considering the financial aspects of preparedness, also consider the things that might not affect jobs, but do affect our income and-or our ability to offset daily costs. For instance, an injury that prevents gardening and picking up overtime or a second job as a stocker, pipe-fitter, or forklift driver, or a developing disability that renders an arm/hand weak or unusable and prevents needlepoint, canine grooming, or weaving.

Zone 2/Second Ring – Seasonal/Annual Occurrences

These are the things we can consult our Almanacs and insurance companies to consider. They regularly tend to affect a larger number of people. It might be a block or a street in some cases, parts of a town or county, or might impact a whole state if not a region. They’d be things like…

River ice jam flooding

  Busted water mains

Boil/No-Boil water orders

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes

Wind & thunderstorms

Wildfire

Significant or extreme snowfall

Summer drought

Temporary outages (2-5 days)

River ice lockups and floods

Active shooter or bomb threat, terrorist events

Let’s hope that last stays firmly in the “annual” category or shifts back to the third prevalence ring for most of us. Let’s also acknowledge that in some places and nations, it’s already more common to be caught in crossfire of some sort than it is to live peaceful lives, and for some of them, it’s as or almost as common as paying monthly bills or going out to eat.

Zone 3/Third Ring – 5-10 Year Occurrences

These are the things that happen regularly, but infrequently. Some occur on cycles. Some, as with the natural disasters above, are a nearly predictable cycle. Some aren’t really predictable, per se, but as with tornadoes in one of the nations’ tornado alley or hurricane-prone areas, you learn to expect them. We can expect them to affect a larger area or more people in many cases.

Natural Disasters from above

Mudslides

Major industrial or business closures/layoffs

Drought (personal & widespread impacts)

Widespread livestock illnesses (such as the avian diseases that pop up regularly)

Temporary outages (3-14 days)

Changing life phases (child-birth & toddlers, school-age kids, driving-age youths, empty nests, retirements)

Fuel cost cycles

Zone 4/Fourth Ring – Generational Occurrences

The span covered by the term “generation” tends to change if you use the strictest definitions. Most account for a generation to cover about 20-30 years. Some examples of things that very much tend to be generational include:

Major wars (mental & physical disabilities, income effects good & bad)

Recessions, depressions

Fuel cost cycles (more extreme)

Serious multi-year “weird” weather (droughts, floods, late or early springs)

25- & 50-year flood levels

Some diseases

Zone 5/Fifth Ring – Lifetime/Eventual/Possible Occurrences

A lot of these are going to affect not just a region, not just one nation, but many. In some nations and regions, they may fall under the fourth ring of prevalence instead of the fifth. Some of these are also the big-fear “gotcha’s” or clickbait types that seem to draw folks in. Some are truly believed in, and I try not to judge people on what they believe. Poles have shifted in the past, Yellowstone has erupted, we’ve had serious solar effects on power, and asteroids have struck our earth. Will they happen again in our lifetime or eventually? Some almost certainly. Some are a firm “maybe”. Some are … possible.

Great Depression

Devastating Midwest seismic activity

National or global pandemics in the Western world

Major Ring of Fire activity

Significant volcanic eruptions (the atmosphere-blocking ash type)

Major global climate change (for the hotter or colder)

EMP, devastating solar activity

Nation-crippling electronic-based virus(es)

Alternative Scale Systems

Like permacuture’s zoning, the business world can also give us some scale systems to apply. High-probability, high-reward, urgent-response items are given priority, while lower-chance and less-likely risks are tended to later. We can create the same for our preparedness.

Another way to look at the five rings would be to apply a timespan for event duration. Perhaps 3-7 days, then 3-6 weeks, 3 months, 6-12 months, and 18-months+.

Like using prevalence, using time spans creates a measurable scale that works off a “most likely” basis. Most of us, at some point inside 1-5 years, will have some sort of financial upheaval or power outage that makes the supplies in the first few rings useful.

Ensuring we have everything we need to cook, clean, stay warm (or cool), and pay bills for those periods will keep us more balanced in our preparedness, and make us better prepared for the things that are MOST likely to occur in our near future and our lifetimes.

Applying Prevalence Rings

It’s inarguable that if you’re ready for the New World Order to freeze the planet and then send out FLIR drones to drop nuclear bombs in the midst of a planned or unplanned foreign-nation bank account hack while satellites are inaccessible due to solar storms’ interference, you’re pretty much good.

That’s not a particularly practical place to start and it might not be the best plan for resource allocation unless everything else really is covered.

There are a world’s worth of things that occur on a small-scale, inside homes and towns, that happen a lot more frequently than the dinosaurs and mega-mammals die out.

I see an awful lot of people hyped on one thing that can go wrong and might one day go wrong, but they exclude all kinds of things that do actually happen.

They forget that we sometimes have disasters that mean daily life is taking place all around us, or in the rest of the county, state, nation and world. They neglect fire extinguishers and smoke detectors for the sexy-cool aspects of preparedness like the rifles and Rambo knives.

Fact is, most of us will experience something from the first tier or two in our lives at least once, and for some of us, they’re regular parts of life.

In many cases of upheaval and crisis, we’re still going to want electricity, most likely.

We will still have a job or need to find a new one, will still be expected to present ourselves showered and with money to receive services, will still have doctor’s appointments, hunting and squatting in county-state-national parks will still be frowned on, and combat gear in the streets will still be the exception rather than the rule.

In some cases, the duration of our life-altering events might only be a few hours or days. However, in many parts of the world, those hours or days can be seriously inconvenient if not downright deadly. The ability to keep a CPAP machine running, repair a down or wrecked vehicle, and continue on with life after a squirrel invasion or a tree comes down is just as important as defending the home from looters and making beeswax candles.

Being able to repel the zombie horde does me little good if my vehicle is in poor repair on a daily basis and leaves me stranded on my way to work. 5K-10K rounds of ammo times my 7 platforms sounds nice, unless I don’t keep oil, coolant, jumper cables and fix-a-flat or a mini air compressor in my vehicle so I can limp my way home to them safely – on a daily basis.

Prioritizing instead of jumping willy-nilly – and tracking instead of continuing to add to whatever my favorite prep stash is – can help prevent daily disasters from truly causing upheaval.

Overlap Between Rings

The nice thing about seriously assessing what is likely to go wrong based on prevalence in the past is that we can sometimes make just little twitches.

We don’t have to be ready for all-out neighborhood wars over food, grazing rights, and tickets to the Earth Arks to create that overlap.

A bug-out bag serves as a shelter-in-place kit as well as a “standard” wildfire or hurricane evac kit. Having a month or two of food (or far more) means we can also weather a big bill because we can skip buying groceries.

Image: How’s your insurance coverage?

Preparing by Prevalence

Resources like the Ready.gov site and our insurance carriers can help us determine what goes wrong in our area. We might be well served making maps using the information they give us about regular, fifty-year and hundred-year floods, wind storms, and snow/hurricane routes to apply to our walk-out and drive-out plans.

We can also use their information – like, what is the number-one thing that causes job-loss or vehicle and home damage in our area – to make sure we’re buffered against it.

Pat’s preparedness arc and the article about a balanced wheel (especially the comments) may help even longtime preppers better assess where they stand, and focus or refocus on any gaps between normal daily life and the return of the Ice Age, Dust Bowl, total economic collapse, and other extreme events. They – and the standard FEMA/Red Cross recommendations for 3-7-10-14 days of supplies – can be excellent starting places for beginners.

The post Prepping Priorities – What Should You Be Prepping For? appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[archipermabellamar-blog]

Sancti Spiritus

Les premières planches de culture étant prêtes, nous avons réalisé des semis : de l'acelga (entre la blette et l'épinard) et des concombres (pepinos) dans des petits sacs en plastique. Ils sont entreposés sur la table a marée puis transplantés dans le huerto. Nous avons fabriqué un arrosoir avec les moyens du bord, en attendant les outils que nous avons commandé à la coopérative locale, dont des arrosoirs. En plus du fait que la plupart du matériel horticole est réservé aux fermes d'état, les démarches pour se procurer les outils prennent du temps. Ceux que l'on ne trouve pas (bêche, rateau, sarclettes, voile d'ombrage), seront certainement apporté de France par les prochaines personnes qui viendront à Bellamar. Nous avons tout de même pu trouver une masse (mandaria) pour finir de casser la bordure à l'entrée du cantero et les pierres affleurant au niveau des planches. Le trou que nous avons creusé pour remplir de terre les planches surélevées commence à être conséquent. Nous avons pensé à en faire une mare, qui se trouvera sur le chemin pour rentrer dans le cantero, atout pour la biodiversité et l'irrigation. Jorge Felix nous a invité à aller voir una partida de pelota (baseball), au stade Victoria de Gíron de Matanzas. Le baseball est le sport national, très apprécié des cubains. Nous avons vu la rencontre de Matanzas contre Granma, deux équipes nationales. Intéressant mais long, une partie peut durer jusqu'à 4 heures ! Nous avons fait une très belle rencontre, un couple de québécois et leurs deux enfants, Caroline, Jean-Christophe, Malaïka et Ovide. Il ont passé deux jours avec nous à Bellamar. Ils ont prêté main forte en travaillant la terre avec nous, ont partagé leurs expériences et leurs rencontres réalisées au cour de leur mois de voyage à Cuba, et nous ont parlé de leurs vie au Québec. Caroline a étudié l'horticulture et le maraîchage et permet avec l'aide de Jean-Christophe, l'autonomie de la famille en légumes grâce à la culture de leur jardin. Jean-Christophe lui est apiculteur, et au cour de leur séjour à Cuba, il a rencontré Roger, un vétérinaire généticien cubain, spécialiste des abeilles, qui travaille à la finca Luna, une ferme a Javanellos, près de Matanzas. Jordi, un très bon ami de Raykel qui prend par au projet, est passionné par l'apiculture et aimerait se former pour s'occuper des ruches au sein du huerto. Nous l'avons présenté à Jean-Christophe et ils ont longuement échangé sur le sujet. Il se trouve que Lazaro (voir article précédent) connait bien Roger, et va lui demander de venir faire une étude de faisabilité a Bellamar, et on espère, permettre la formation de Jordi. Ces rencontres illustrent un bel exemple de permacuture humaine. Dernièrement, nous avons passé 4 jours dans la région de Sancti Spiritus, à 5 heures de bus au sud-est de Matanzas. Nous attendions cette excursion avec impatience, car c'est un lieu remarquable en terme de permaculture. Nous avons été reçus par les représentants de la Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la naturaleza y el hombre (FANJ), l'association avec laquelle nous collaborons à Bellamar. Edith Romero et Edison Ramiras nous ont concocté un programme bien chargé. Vendredi nous avons visité la maison de Maricella, qui l'a pensé et construite sur 3 niveaux plus un toit terrasse de plantes aromatiques et médicinales. Sa maison fait 56 m2 et a été aménagé de façon à tirer profit de chaque espace. Ensuite nous avons visité le jardin d'Edith Romero, "Linda Flor", elle produit des fleurs coupées ornementales, dans un ancien organoponico urbano (production maraîchère urbaine dans des canteros, planches surélevées). Elle cultive dans les anciens canteros, mais également dans des espaces de culture au design permaculturel. A coté de la ferme d'Edith, nous avons visité l'organoponico d'Alberto Gorin, un espace de production maraîchère classique mais conduit en agriculture biologique. Alberto cultive de part et d'autre de ses canteros une grande diversité de plantes auxiliaires qui vont favoriser la biodiversité et limiter la pression des insectes ravageurs. L'après midi nous sommes allés visiter la ferme d'Edison Ramiras. Cet ancien coureur cycliste a créé un avre luxuriant sur une ancienne friche infertile. Le design de son jardin, "Mi huerto" est mûrement réfléchi, il cultive des légumes dans un mandala en forme de bicyclette et dans un autre à la forme du drapeau cubain. Il produit ses amendements grâce à un lobricompost qu'il alimente avec les déjections de ses animaux (chèvres, lapins, cochons d'Inde, poules). Il a une une grande diversité de plantes médicinales et d'arbres fruitiers, dont le Noni, un fruit (qui sent le fromage bien mûr !) qui a 101 propriétés bénéfiques. Macéré dans de l'eau pendant quelques jours, il produit une boisson bienfaisante qu'Edison boit tous les jours et cela ce voit : il a 79 ans et en parait 15 de moins ! Le lendemain nous sommes allés visiter la ferme de Casimiro : la finca del medio, un très bel exemple d'autonomie. Casimiro et sa famille produisent tout ce dont ils ont besoin : entre autres viande, oeufs, fromage, riz, yucca, légumes, une myriade de plantes aromatiques et médicinales et de fruits, du savon, de la canne à sucre dont ils extraient le jus, le guarapo, que nous avons goûté fraîchement extrait, délicieux ! Ils sont également quasi autonomes en énergie, ils puisent leur eau grâce à un moulin à vent, produisent du biogaz grâce à un biodigesteur alimenté par les eaux noires des toilettes et les déjections des animaux. Le sel est la seule chose qu'ils sont obligés d'acheter. Nous avons ressenti beaucoup d'énergie dans ce lieu, et une union remarquable entre les membres de cette famille. Nous pourrions en parler des heures ; ils ont réalisé une vidéo qui pourra compléter notre récit : Youtube - "Leidy Casimiro" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=_WMrncShOw0. Le même jour en fin d'après midi nous avons fait une randonnée à Banao, dans des montagnes non loin de Sancti Spiritus, accompagnés de Gilberto. Président de la délégation Sancti Spiritus de la sociedad de espeleologia de Cuba, anthropologue, géographe, géologue, biologiste... un personnage. Il nous a guidé dans la naturaleza en nous a nommé chaque pierre, chaque plante, chaque oiseau. Nous avons passé les deux jours suivants à Trinidad, une des plus belles villes de Cuba. Ancienne cité coloniale, riche d'un patrimoine architectural et culturel, cette dernière est inscrite au patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco.

[sojamfresh]

06/02/2016 - kill time on left and 9 hours later. Mower took a lik'n but in the end - kept on tick'n. 3 tanks of gas. 1 air filter replaced and fresh oil added. After adjustments, mower ran like a charm. Tremendous amount of residue left on surface. in addition to the winter rye, the Japanese knotweed added another level of difficulty to the plough down.

[tinyshe]

And the topsy turvy winner for first tomato of the season goes to the late start Volunteer, coming out two months later, and out from under the plum tree!

Same type, same viariety, different out comes!

The taste and texture of fruit from this Volunteer plant was prize winning: sweet with just a touch of tangy, not too much acid, nice clean finish. Flesh was firm and fine grained, just a squirt of juice to prime the taste buds. Skin was not tough and not too tender but just right.

From this experiment, I think it shows for my micro clime, that fancy ‘permie tricks & tips’ just can’t compete with nature. Its pushing the boundaries to get good toms and having them up in the air and full sun but it still didn’t get it done. Maybe this would work in some other vertical garden but for me, its a non-repeat: You can’t deliver, I’m not going to put the effort in again for a scientific method of spinning my wheels on an empty plate. Maybe for crops like lettuce that are quick come and go but the effort to get these watered and cared for just wasn’t worth it compared to the volunteer plant. They get pollinators in the vertical but I think with the weather, it wasn’t prime for these plants having their feet in the up and I was not going to make insulating booties for the jugs at night.

I have done strawberry troughs up in that area and again, too much effort for the amount of minuscule yield. The earth is a perfect place to grow the best tomatoes in my garden. I’ve done other containers of this variety (large tree tubs) that are ok but again -- more work involved than the earth nurtured plants. This variety is a repeat of its own accord (I also save my seed). This is the fourth year that volunteers have come back. My last toms of the season (if I get out before the real heavy days of rain) is about first half of November. The volunteers are what is left behind either because the fruit is split or moldy or water logged. Its a variety that just keeps giving: Sungold.

Garden Report 20.08.22     Cherry Tom Experiment

[122trees]

First Listada Di Grandia eggplant flowers. Seeds from @thediggersclub. They look like little fruit themselves. #eggplant #grownfromseed #urbangarden #gardenlife #gardening #garden #December #permacuture #flower #growyourownfood (at West Brunswick)

[ziodome]

[garden2mabelly]

The rains woke up the slug army

I'm not new at battling slugs, my Mom used to have it on our chore list as kids, since we ate from our yard growing up, no mercy "take the box of salt out there and get them!"

I've learned a lot more about them the last years, and find I can effectively reduce the population to manageable numbers in just a couple years of gardening at a new place.

Here's the thing about slugs: That slime trail that they leave is how they navigate, it's critical that a gardener patrols the perimeter of a garden area during the rainy season once it's warmed up.  If you can get the slugs before they create a slug trail highway into your beds, half the battle is won.

They hide during the sunny days, and forage at night or when it's raining.  SO get out there at night with a flashlight and get them!

I used to just step on them, only to find that by the next day there were a half dozen other slugs now eating the one I'd stepped on, or flies rolling in to lay their eggs.  The best method, and it might seem gross, mean or extreme....is to use bamboo kabob skewers and spear them, load up the skewer and toss it aside in you compost or garbage.

Be diligent in the spring, when the eggs that may have been laid in your beds are hatched and the tiny little bastards start going at your greens.  Use slug bait when you've planted out seedlings, and keep on your nightly patrols.

In a couple years you'll find yourself buying less slug bait, and shedding fewer tears over losing plants.

Good luck garden warriors! <3

[kaisular]

The Botany of Vulcan

Plants on Vulcan What fragments of endemic plant life remain on Vulcan support the geological evidence that a great natural disaster occurred around 10 thousand years ago. 1, 2 Some plant orders are endemic to the planet in a way that would not be possible given limited means of transportation of progeny across continental deserts. There is also a fossil record of the ancestors of current plants in locations that would not support them now. 4 Populations on oases would behave almost like those on islands in the ocean, causing divergent evolution and unique forms of plant life. Plants confined to large oases are surrounded by deserts that are difficult to traverse, and populations would begin to evolve and fill niches in that location, becoming different from populations in other locations with which they would not cross-populate.3  However there is some limited transfer of plant material across and through deserts. Animals that carry seeds in their fur, feathers and dung are of course important. Many plants rely on shavokh to first consume and then carry seeds to new oases.4 Subterranean plants are a little known order on Vulcan, which take advantage of relative moisture and compensating for reduced levels of light in caves, lava tubes or just underneath the soil. Those who know the signs can gain emergency supplies of water  from subterranean plants by knowing where to dig.4 Carnivorous plants are more widely known about such as the d'mallu (vine) and sir-soss'im (tumbleweeds) 1 The soils in deserts can be rich simply because materials important to life decay, and then are not used due to a lack of water. This is no exception on Vulcan, which also has relatively young soils throughout the planet, renewed by frequent volcanic activity, even in the face of elevated levels of ionizing radiation from Vulcan's star as compared to Earth, which does damage soils somewhat. 4 Carnivorous plants are after nitrogen and copper that can be available from animals but even more importantly the water that is needed to unlock those resources. Almost all plants on Vulcan are adapted to elevated levels of salts in the soil that are of great interest to scientists on Earth. 4 Herbs, Poisonous and Medicinal plants 5 Gal-en-du'un - dream moss, a lichen that produces a smoke when burned that is narcotic to     inhale Birkeen - a sweet Vulcan herb, often used in flavouring water Saya - which makes an intoxicating beverage D'lechu - a fruit which is used ceremonially for it's narcotic juice Food plants 5 Barkaya marak - a peanut like legume made into soup Fori -  a vegetable Hirat - grape-like vine Kap-yar - a wheat-like grain Kaasa - a blue-green fruit Khara - a desert bush with edible fleshy stem cores Mashya - a tuberous vegetable Pla-savas  - the famous bluefruit Savas dukal-yel-travek - Globefruit Yon savas  - firefruit

Some more interesting plants can be found here: http://kirshara.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/the-dzhaleyl-script/

Due to the hostile nature of the planet's ecosystem and careful screening at customs there are no known invasive plants species from other planets causing problems on Vulcan. Few introduced crops are able to be grown intentionally either for food or any other industry except under closed-loop systems with higher humidity levels than background. 4 1 The Way of Kolinahr Sourcebook Paramount Pictures 2 Spock's World Diane Duane 3  the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 4. Headcanon :) 5 Vulcan Language Dictionary www.starbase-10.de/vld/

[natureisthegreatestartist]

Help yourself to some lovely heirloom tomatoes.

[themisseducation]

26 More Tonka Trucks

We went to two other construction sites. I like the idea of permaculture going into the real estate development business. But today was rough for a number of reasons. I'm reading this book called Parting the Waters. I'm reading about King's struggle to align his philosophy with his personal actions and I am struggling in fact, I am retrogressing in that area. I am really troubled. I'm finding that I have less than zero tolerance for this conspiracy theory kid. I'm trying to figure out what it is within myself that takes such offense to pretty much every word that comes from his mouth. And by that I mean, if someone else said the exact same thing, I'd give them the benefit of," hmmm, Imma think about that one."

Anyway, today I snapped at him. I kinda said that I wanted to avoid any protracted conversation with him, and I could see that he was hurt. I meant what I said. I do want to avoid those things, but there is a right way to treat people and there is a wrong way. And I was wrong. I should know how to honor the difference in others, not tear them down.I'm not that person. I need some fresh air.  I just miss not talking solely about mother earth and other worldly things. My feet are still firmly placed is the struggles of right now and I find these philosophical-metaphysical debates to be exhausting. I've got work to do...In this "realm." It's starting to make me question my intentions coming here. I should be interning in Washington, or maybe risking arrest protesting Stop & Frisk. Agh. 

Today was rough for another reason. I'm becoming extremely discontent with the content of the course I'm taking in "earthworks." Watching trucks do things is not at all interesting nor does it feel like it will be helpful to me. I have learned to bite my tongue as I don't know what the future will hold or what will come in handy. I know this, but it doesn't change the fact that I think my time would be better spent reading books and independently researching these things. I know my learning style. My Canadian friend did relieve the worst of my anxiety/annoyance. He said something to the effect of, " You know, this isn't a course where you learn elaborate calculations and things like that. It's a place were you're shown how these things are done and you just figure it out." This was comforting because again, this isn't NYU. I have to know what something is before critiquing it. My expectations always bring out the worst in me. Maybe this course is something other than what I though it was in the first place. Agh. I need to go apologize, and then, I need to go to pray and go sleep. 

[sojamfresh]

03/27/2016- Second greenhouse rooftop rig setup this morning. Eggplant and peppers started to germinate and I was able to get the trays in and on the roof. Should have no issues with legginess. First unit setup last week had significant buildup of condensation on the interior and it was time to ventilate. Starts that were leggy have fell over but look healthy. I will support with a bamboo skewer in a few days. All other starts appear healthy and stout. Raining this morning - (heavy winds forecast for tomorrow morning) -the units held up well, with no evident leaks or damage to the plants. Vented the first unit with squirt bottle tops inserted into the sides and left in place. Will vent the Second unit in a few days. Second unit is all peppers and eggplant.