Thanks, Patti. I don't want to discourage the kinds of things you're trying to push. The more people we can get to do the kinds of things you're doing, the greater the number of people who will survive the coming crises. But I have a thing about the word "sustainable". The word is attached to so many things today, to try to give them an aura of future proofing and greenness. However, "sustainable" has a fairly clear meaning to me. If it's sustainable, it can be done for as far into the future as you care to look.

Buying feed from a store or your chicks mail order is not sustainable. Providing only 25% of your own food is not sustainable (because you have to buy in the other 75%, and may not be able to do that indefinitely). Giving compost or food to others is not sustainable, unless they give you some of the nutrients from their land and the waste from the food you gave them.

So, you're doing some great stuff and I hope you encourage more people to do the same. But I'm uneasy about calling what individuals do sustainable, if it isn't.

Wonderful stuff.

Are you looking at a timeline for teaching various aspects of permaculture in the series? It's a fairly complex business and needs a certain pedagogic structure (IMO) in order to get the message across.

It seems you've learnt a lot over the years. You need to ensure it comes across in a progressive fashion (I hope I'm not teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here...).

Keep it up! You're already doing well locally, which proves that what you're doing is of interest generally. I'm sure it's only a matter of time (and a lot of effort) before you get to spread the word further.

I would think RFD-TV or Outdoors would pick this up right away. From there you could grow to HDTV
Very nice. I think if you keep with the in city theme, you would appeal to many more.
If it can be done in the city, the suburbanite will try it.

Tony, baby steps. Baby steps. If gas hits five bucks I gallon I'm getting a rooster! Take me to jail, remember how far this has to go it is illegal in most citys. Baby steps. I think that it is a path, and it could be fully sustainable in lets say fifty years. It'll take great minds to weigh in on this, but in the information age maybe it can happen faster

DogF: What is RFD-TV? Thanks for the kind words. Means a lot.

DaveP: I'm trying to approach it from my own instinctive way. I am open to suggestions and welcome them. I think I know what I'm doing to mainstream it. The real problem for me is finding simple language, to explain complex natural processes. Feel free to pitch in and do me a solid, post my link somewhere for me.

Thanks,

Patti

I have to interfere! The statement above might be true in sunny Israel, but not in colder climates. Europe dont manufacture the clothes it need on the continent anymore, and even in Spain they have cold days in the winter. Not to mention Germany. All historic evidence show that various aspects of "clothing" have taken more time than "food" in the 1600's. Clothes are a matter of life and death in a shorter time frame than food. It take a month or two to starve to death, but only hours to freeze to death.

I would wish for an EXTENSION of the clothing theme to include shoe making! You don't understand how important it is until you miss it.

Absolutely. Just remember that the aim is sustainability and that just using the word doesn't make it so.

[quote="FilmShack"]Hey All!

Shalom Bat-Tzion:
<snip>. It worked for me. The goal of my system is to get people outside and producing not consuming, even you Bat-tzion! Design your garden for your needs.
Patti, I am. Right now I am growing veggies on about 1/2 acre of land and am preparing another 1/2 for medicinal herbs. By hand. And I'm 50.
You pep talk is inspiring, though! I'm gonna use that kind of pep talk on my middle aged friends!

As I said before I think you have to convey a strong message that the garden is for (nearly) everyone, not just the young and fit. I know you have to look a certain way to get the mainstream media--will you feature various guests with gardens on the show that look every which way, is that what you mean?

Some of the best permaculture gardens in the world are in the middle east!

We have had a truly sustainable way of life here, in the past anyway.
Which gardens do you mean? Do you mean actual ancient ones or modern ones? Geoff Lawton did some good work in Jordan. I have neighbors here with a forest garden of sixty species of fruit trees.
I'd like to know what and where.

PS get the sound working on your computer.

Oh it works, but yesterday we had a big storm and the electric was out, so I was typing on my laptop and the big screen / sound was not working. I was watching your video by the light of a middle eastern oil lamp on whatever battery power was still left in the laptop. Now the power's back on I'll listen.

I love your descriptions of how your farmette has become the focus of a neighborhood community. Besides your positive outlook, the animals are what does it. I tried veggies and I tried animals and the charm of the animals (even worms!) draws kids to the place.

As someone else commented, it would be wise to point out the economic benefits of backyard gardening. Could you mention the profitability of any given project (how much food it yields, what value?) With trees this can work very well--the seedling costs, say, $10, but the tree will provide many hundreds of dollars of fruit over its lifetime.

You may also want to consider focusing (at least some shows) on how women with young children can do their backyard garden while watching their children, that doubles the benefit, and that children can be involved in growing and/or processing the food, and can learn science and math and business that way. There's a book called Microfarming that has a great chapter on this topic.

Do you know Sharon Astyk in upstate New York? She is active on the ROE2 list and is in the process of writing a book on the re-ruralization of America. She has a small CSA there. Might I suggest some kind of tie-in between your show and this book? To me, effective re-ruralization starts in the back yards of cities and suburbs.

Please don't neglect rooftops as good places for gardens. Even sloped roofs can be made into gardens. (Get a lawyer to help you avoid liabilities from people falling off roofs!). By including roofs you will vastly increase the number of people to whom the show is relevant.

Great video,

I hope to see more of them

All the best.

Patti
While potting up my Dead Sea Lavender seedlings I had more time to mull over your video. (including the sound).

The pace of the various scene cuts is a little too fast for oldster me. Maybe younger people are used to it.

I see you like worms. Great! So please try to include apartment-scale indoor + balcony permaculture, replete with under-sink worm bin, kitchen sprouting and herb growing, quail or rabbits in the corner of the balcony, and "hanging gardens" down the outside wall of an apartment, + trellises upward, dwarf trees hanging out over the railing, etc. Does anyone on this forum know of documented examples of well designed food-growing apartments? We could use that here in Israel, which is about as densely populated as Bangladesh.

Are you planning to include an episode on community gardens?

That's it for now. Will think some more==I've got lots more seedlings out there!
Bat-Tzion

Shannymara: You rock too! Keep posting my link for me.
MacG: You said it! As you know, clothing is critical, just wearing my "Rabbit Head" hat in the house allows me to keep the heat down a few more degrees. Not to mention winter is cold! I love the research too! Awesome, and re-inspiring to me personally. I was starting to think the fiberstuff wasn't being understood. Thank you for the re-inspiration.
TonyPrep: Fair enough. How about Low Impact living on a path to sustainability? Too wordy huh?
Bat-Tzion: Thank you for your thoughts. The show is a big project and requires hours of programming with plenty of room for those ideas. I was specifically thinking of The Crazy Palestinian in Nablus. I hope you can put war and politics aside and cross support each other.

Thanks Peoples! Patti

I thought that was amazing, and I would love to watch that on TV. I'm not a big TV watcher, but I'd tune in for that.

I live in DC, and I have a small back yard. We have a small raised bed, where we grow lettuces, radishes, carrots, daikon, herbs, etc. Then I have a mound, where I grew corn, squash and beans as a tandem culture. It didn't work out as well as I hoped, but unfortunately, the yard doesn't get very much sunlight on that side.

Anyway, loved the show. Would love to see more!

The sample is very high quality--better than many of the DIY type programs available on cable/satellite channels.

However, I tend to agree that references to certain buzzwords which are used to reflect an alternative approach may be offputting to some audience members. It may also set off a red flag to channels whose income may arise primarilly from petro-chemical based industries.

I realize that removing this can be perceived as dumbing down. However, your working dialogue is perfectly fine. It is the introductory material which could be made less "threatening" to those on the "right."

Approaching it as providing a way for individual independence...or bringing back the way people used to provide for themselves: that is a good approach acceptable by all folks. That was in your introductory comments and it works! Those who are concerned with dwindling resources and environmental damage will understand the necessity of going to local economies. Others may simply look at this as a more conservative financial move and a way to make their lives more secure.

No one would be bothered by dumbing down the message. The important thing is to give people tools to follow this path. They already get their reasons by other means.

One more concern: something I desire the most in any DIY program is something about the time, expense and effort of any project. For a person who works during the week and needs a good part of the weekend just to recover...and who has few daylight hours available for what time is left...time and cost management are essential considerations.

Outstanding indeed. I found your link over at FrugalSquirrels.com Patti. Very Neat! Then I found this site on google while searching for your website. Still looking for that BTW.

While I'm not at all convinced about Peak Oil, I am interested in self reliance and sustainability. I'm definately a prepper.

So where is your website located on the net? Can't seem to find one.

I'm a webdesigner myself so if you need one, I'd be happy to hook you up with a simple one for free until you get your feet grounded and need something more permanant.

Let me know and I can send you some links to my clients sites to give you an idea of the work I do. I often do sites for free or at an extreme discount for clients whos cause I believe in. Here is one I just completed that hasn't gone live yet. Its a survival type website. http://www.usrsog.org/test


Meanwhile I'll post your google link to another site I frequent and show my wife your video later. I think you have some good potential and hope shows like this will help people rely on themselves instead of the local X-Mart.

Good luck!
My email is in my profile.

Yeah, too wordy. Perhaps "Towards Sustainable Living?"

Sorry, I do get hung up on the sustainable thing, because that's what we need to head for. To call something sustainable that, by itself, is not sustainable, is wrong and will give the wrong impression, I think (hey, this is all we have to do and we're sustainable). Over half the world's people live in cities. If they could all do this, it would be a big step, but it wouldn't, of itself, be sustainable.

Tony

TonyPrep: Thanks for your thoughts.
AK47: Thank you for the kind words. No site yet. I'd like to get more content together, if you come up with a logo, that would be great too! Please just keep post'n my link and shareing it. We're starting to make some inroads to networks. I think I will have more first appointment next month, so please keep up the pressure. I learned to shoot an AK47 last summer. Scary thing.
Byron: Thank you for the input. The reason why shows don't leave budget numbers is because it dates the show, and makes reruns less apealing, but I promise the info will be available on my legendary website.
QueerRocket: Did you water with city water? I found that did more harm them good?

Do you think a temp website with the link and some pictures would be a good idea?