Libresults by Kolomona Myer – Page 5 – One mans journey to bring more liberty into his life

If you want to help support me on my travels you may send me some moolah via Paypal
I’m not working at a jobby job right now, so anything helps. Thank you.

If you don’t know anything about Paul Wheaton or Permaculture, see my last post Intro to Paul Wheaton and his Permaculture Properties

Dateline: About an hour outside of Missoula Montana.

Before I arrived I had a choice to make. I could join the Permaculture Bootcamp Program where for $100 I would be given a comfy place to stay in return for 40 hrs a week labor. Or I could use the SEPPer Program, pay some more money to rent a place to stay and wouldn’t be obliged to lift a finger to help.

I’m pretty cheap so the bootcamp program was very appealing to me but I didn’t like being obliged to do anything if I didn’t want to. So I opted for the SEPPer program $175 for 2 weeks to pitch a tent and not be obligated to work.

I arrived last Friday 9/10/21. When I first got here I had a good idea about what to expect from Paul as I’ve listened to 100% of his 570+ podcasts over the past 10+ years. I wasn’t sure about how the other residents would be. I half expected to be surrounded by a bunch of dirty hippies. Boy was I wrong.

This place is amazing, everything about it. The people are very kind, courteous and friendly. For the most part they are down to earth, very hard workers and a pleasure to be around. It turns out I was the dirtiest hippy in the bunch. Thankfully there was a shower available to remedy my situation.

The first thing I noticed was the berm-shed. This thing is crazy. From the side of the road it just looks like any old hill but when you look at the other side it’s hollow and is a place for storing things. I never in a million years would suspect such a thing existed whilst driving by on the road.

Another impressive thing is the junk pole fence. While I wouldn’t use these fences to try to keep larger livestock or even dogs in, they would work great for chickens, ducks, turkeys etc. They are simple to construct and easy to maintain. Plus they look cool, in a “Get off muh land” sort of way.

The place is kept immaculate by the boots. Everyone here is very conscientious. I was especially impressed with the “Willow Feeders” Not your everyday outhouse. These are by far the best off grid poo solution I have ever encountered. There is hardly any smell, they are comfortable to be in and the foot operated sink is way better than most automatic faucets I’ve used.

**Willow Bank at Basecamp. Many deposits have been made 🙂**

The more time I spend around Paul’s hugelkultur berms, the more I am in awe of their magnificence. The are 2 main hugels that are about 150 ft combined. The tallest one is about 16ft tall. There are a ton of things planted into them such as, many different squashes, peas, beans, rhubarb, comfrey, potatoes, kale, corn, broccoli, and many other things I can’t identify. Since this area doesn’t get much rainfall and the hugels are still getting established they have been irrigating them this year.

I spent the weekend just walking about the place, playing my guitar and taking in the sites. Come Monday I joined the other boots to help them as they worked. I figured that I paid only $12.50 per day to be here which is cheaper than most campsites and way cheaper than any hotel so the least I could do was to make myself useful and help out.

Things that I did with the boots

Participated in Sunday’s “Cleaning Blitz”
Put mulch on the huge hugelkultur berms
Moved a pile of pea gravel
Helped unload a bunch of bricks for the upcoming Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree
Chiseled a notch for a support beam for the solarium they are building
Helped irrigate the hugels
Shoveled a whole bunch of dirt (thanks Grey)
Learned how to properly sharpen chisels (thanks again Grey)
Cut some rebar
Helped change out batteries and SD cards on the game cameras at the Lab
Posted game camera pics on permies
Cut veggies for Taco Tuesday

**Dez moving a ton of bricks. Note: The mask is being used for it’s intended purpose, dust not virii**

**Grey cutting mortises in support beam for the solarium at basecamp**

**Shoveling dirt with Grey in ditch for installing water line at the Labs**

**Magdalene changing out batteries and SD cards at the Labs**

Overall I had a wonderful time here at Paul’s place. I am considering coming back maybe in the spring. I plan on leaving this coming Monday morning 9/20/21. The goal is to meander my way to Big Bear Lake CA to visit with some friends that I haven’t seen in over 20 years.

More to come…

Please Support Me!

If you find value in following my journey please consider giving some value back in return.

If you want to help support me on my travels you may send me some moolah via Paypal
I’m not working at a jobby job right now, so anything helps. Thank you.

Thank you

Thank you to Lora (Lori) S. for her $50 “Tank of Gas” Paypal donation!

All Walkabout Posts, in order
I’m Going on a Sabbatical
The Journey Begins
Intro to Paul Wheaton and his Permaculture Properties
Walkabout Update 2 Wheaton Permaculture
Walkabout Update 3 Wolf Flats Idaho
Walkabout Update 4 Great Salt Lake Area, Utah
Walkabout Update 5 Vegas and Fiddletown CA
Walkabout Update 6 Off Grid Living
Walkabout Update 7 Lots of Rain and a Deer Fence
Walkabout Update 8 I am Soon to be Homeless With a Mortgage

If you want to help support me on my travels you may send me some moolah via Paypal

I thought that maybe before posting about my experiences here at Paul Wheaton’s place I should post a bit about who Paul is, so here it is.

For those of you who don’t know Paul Wheaton, he is an iconic figure in the world of permaculture. He has done so many things to help advance, teach, and spread the word of permaculture to the masses.

He’s probably best known for permies.com, likely the world’s most informative place on the internet for anything you need to know regarding permaculture, homesteading, wild crafting, animal husbandry, gardening, and a whole bunch more. In a time when most forums have died, permies is still going strong, with hundreds, if not thousands of active users.

Pro tip: If you want to find the best info about the topics above, go to google and type site:permies “search term here”
Example: site:permies.com high desert

Paul, along with Ernie and Erica Wisner and others, are also known for their work with rocket mass heaters (RMH) RMHs are an innovate type of wood burning stove that when properly constructed and operated, can heat a home using 10% of the wood that a conventional stove uses with virtually no air pollution.

**Rocker mass heaters, rocket oven and water heater for the showers**

Building off the work of Mike Oehler Paul has designed and built several in ground homes that he calls Woodland Oehler Freaky-Cheap Annualized Therman Inertia structures or WOFATI for short. This is another amazing and innovative design that pictures can not do justice. Read all about WOFATIs here

Paul is responsible for popularizing Sepp Holzer’s hugelkultur. Hugelkulturs are a type of wood filled raised garden mound that when built properly can greatly reduce the amount of irrigation needed to grow plants. Read all about hugelkulturs here.

**Hugelkulturs outside of the Fisher Price House**

In addition to the research and development of natural systems Paul has also been developing an intentional community of like minded individuals to help realize his dream of a permaculture paradise outside of Missoula Montana. Paul has made great progress in creating a mutually beneficial community on his properties through his various residency programs.

The Bootcamp program
The SEPPer program
The Ant Village program
The Deep Roots program

Disclaimer: The lists below are of my creation and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Paul Wheaton or his associates.

Pro tip: DO NOT come to Paul’s place if you are:

An asshole
Lazy
Slovenly
Unwilling to be wrong
Always right
Impatient
Uncaring
Unwilling to learn
Unreasonably self important
Etc.

Pro tip: Please DO come to Paul’s place if you are:

Willing to work hard
Clean, outside as well as within.
Good Natured
Respectful of yourself as well as others
Love permaculture
Love to learn
Love to teach
Love to share wholesome experiences with others
Willing to be wrong
Sick of being in the rat race
Looking for a way to make the world a better place instead of being angry at bad people.

If you’re not sure if you have any of the qualities above then ask a good friend to be brutally honest with you. If you don’t have a good friend then chances are that you need to do some work on yourself.

I think that was a decent introduction to who Paul Wheaton is. He is a man who is bonkers about permaculture. He is a human and has flaws like the rest of us. He is not a super hero but he has done more super hero things than most of us have.

In conclusion I would highly recommend that you click on all the links above and immerse yourself into this world of permaculture, learn as much as you can and help us make the world a better place.

Please Support me

If you want to help support me on my travels you may send me some moolah via Paypal I’m currently not working at a jobby job so anything helps.

Another way that you can support both me and Paul Wheaton is to purchase any of the products below, The links are affiliate links, I will get a percentage of the money that you spend. THANK YOU!!!