Has PO and/or GW changed your career plans?

[peaky]

Love it Roger

Well, after 23 years as a programmer the effect of PO on me has been to seel my house and leave my job. I now have no debts at all which feels great. I also stopped my pension 6 months earlier. I'm coming to the end of a very well-earned 'holiday' and am now planning 'what next?'. I'm due to begin a Full Permaculture Design course in February and trying to shape other plans.

So far it all feels very uncertain, but right

[stumuz]

Could someone explain what permaculture is? When I first came across the word I read somewhere that it is a cross between permanent and culture, which made sense as the rhubarb I have in my kitchen garden was inherited from my great grandfather. It keeps going year after year, loads of pies crumbles and herbal recipes etc.
On my travels I stumbled across a permaculture taster session, so in I went eager to discover more of the things that resemble the characteristics of rhubarb i.e. no effort, great food, sling a pile of horse shit on once a year, but after 45 mins was at a complete loss as to what it is.
The speakers to say they were verbose would not adequately reflect the utter drivel that was coming from them. It was a cross between management speak jargon and philosophy that went ? do the right thing and not bad things?? yeh right.
The word seems to be popping up a lot as a panacea for the future and as I would hate to have missed something which would benefit me in producing lovely food, could someone who knows about this thing explain in about 50 words with a practical example what permaculture is?

Ta

[clv101]

Wikipedia is your friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

[Vortex]

Vortex, you say you changed from senior telecomms technologist to a lowly medical technician - can I ask why?

A combination of:
- wanting to get away from big cities ... the writing is on the wall for all sorts of reasons ...
- wanting to be self-sufficent for the same reasons
- being 49 in a 35 or younger office culture ... risky!
- wanting to be near home and not 32 miles ... or 1000s of miles .. away most of the time
- wanting a "portable" job ... mobile phone companies exist in only a few towns
- wanting to be my own boss so I can help my wife with the plants and animals at random times
- wanting a job which will be there as long as I can do it ... no risk of the Brown Envelope on my desk one Friday afternoon ...
- needing a job which matched some of my (rusty!) skills

It's not an ideal career move ... BUT ... it was a technically optimal choice .. and has worked out mostly as planned. I do miss having loads of money 'tho ... but that might not have continued for 2 or 3 years more anyway .... and what would I have done at say 54 having been made redundant?

As for being lowly ... I have met more decent people in the Real World than I ever did in high-tech! I can also go home for lunch ...wonderful!
My commute time is 15 minutes walking, or if wet under 2 minutes in the car ... and I no longer need to carry my passport at all times, just in case I need to fly abroad at very short notice.

[ianryder]

I set up my small computer comany and I sell computer systems for business' - small - medium sized. Hardware, software, networking and services (where all the profit is). I am bored with this work and hanker after a change. But I am still selling computers....

It is hard to change career, especially if you have dependents/kids.

We're similar to you snow - the only difference is that I'm applying a lot of what I've learnt to the business and I've got my enjoyment back again. We work primarily with charity & not for profit organisations (much nicer to deal with, always pay, will be affected last in a downturn / recession).

We're also developing our services to incorporate low energy solutions, we encourage people to extend the life of systems where we can and generally step out of the usual corporate must-sell-more-kit mentality. Doesn't mean we're hippies or wishy-washy - I'm hoping we've got the right balance but you never know.

I must admit when I first found about PO etc I did think of looking at other options but I've got some reality back into things and actually now think this is the best way to deal with it rather than just jacking things in. IT will be around in some form or another for a long time and I think we'll be in the best position if we're geared up for what might be coming. I also snuck off to Devon and now commute into London on the train to show my face once a week - definitely a good move for not getting dragged into things I shouldn't be doing but also not living in a city I can see going down the pan.

[aliwood]

I quit my job as a teacher and moved out of London because we figured GW would wipe us out anyway. Then found out about PO so have set about learning skills as we renovate the house - bricklaying, hedge laying, basic carpentry, putting up fences etc. Since then I have set up my own knitting and sewing repair business and we are beginning to grow significant amounts of food for very little effort - I am terrible at gardening so this is the only way. If we get desparate I can go back to teaching, but I'd rather not.

[Andy Hunt]

I am in a slightly odd situation in that I have gone from music promotion (great fun but no money in it unless you are really good/lucky), to working as a Sustainability Officer for a local Council.

I have gone from having no money or assets to speak of (except a terraced house) to having more and more disposable income. Handy because it enables me to buy my solar panels etc.

I seem to have landed in what may turn out to be one of the few growth areas post-peak. I count myself extremely lucky in that I have a job doing what I would be doing in any case, which enables me to finance same.

[stumuz]

Wikipedia is your friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture


Thanks for that, brought back memories of the taster session!

[PS_RalphW]

I am like a lot of this group in IT (for 22 years now) and hating it. I do
have a bicycle range commute, no debts and a good local community village life
and I am working for a small educational charity but it looks like going
belly-up in the next six months and I have 3 dependents to feed...

I could have been still working in aviation research, but I realised 12
years ago that making aviation more fuel efficient would only increase
total fuel burn by making it cheaper. I quit to go into medical research,
but left that after 1. being fired 2. not liking the comercialisation of
DNA research.

I have just reduced my hours to 4 days a week to give me more time
to get the house and garden (and me ) in shape for a PO/GW, post
IT world.

Incidentally, the central heating packed up at new year, proving the
value of the solar water and wood burner heating at short notice.

[simonrichards912]

I have not changed my job in the oil industry yet as a result of what I've learned about PO. I am going to try and weather the storm for as long as possible. In the meantime I am trying to learn as many different practical skills as possible. (Jack-of-all-Trades... comes to mind).

I am debt free and intend to stay that way. (This was done before I knew what PO was).

I am also into Permaculture as well. Although I am by no means an expert, permaculture is a philosophy rather than a definite plan or method. Put simply it is making the most of your own situation and also planning your life/ garden/ house/ etc so that you work with nature not against it.

Permaculture (and PO) have been the driving force behind me installing a wind turbine and solar panels in 2006 at home. This year will see a rain water harvesting system and a few smaller projects.

On the subject of wood burning, before I knew of PO and Permaculture I converted both my open fireplaces (I wish I had more!) to Rumford fireplaces. To those wanting to know what Rumford is http://www.rumford.com/. I do not believe that the rush to installing wood burning stoves is a good idea, and believe that you can get far more heat from a Rumford that a stove.

I am intending to start an Organic Farming Diploma this year and I would like to buy a small farm, smallholding or just some additional bare land someday, if I can get hold of sufficient cash without borrowing or robbing a bank. I am cautious of buying any property now until I see how the land lies after the forthcoming house price crash.

[kenneal - lagger]

Bare land is still quite cheap, as long as it is too big an area to be classed as horse land. It is also not likely to be effected by a drop in house prices as at ?4000 per acre it is a fraction of the cost of housing land. Also the rise in the production of biofuels is raising the value of farm produce and farm land prices will follow. The huge increase in US biofuel production is already having an effect on world food prices.

If you want to buy some land get in quick before biofuels really take off in this country as well.

[stumuz]

kenneal Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:26 am
'If you want to buy some land get in quick before biofuels really take off in this country as well'

4K an acre? for the last 10 years i have been trying, waiting to buy agri lands next to my fields. I would gladly give 20k per acre tomorrow.
The problem is no land comes up for sale.

[Vortex]

kenneal Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:26 am
'If you want to buy some land get in quick before biofuels really take off in this country as well'

4K an acre? for the last 10 years i have been trying, waiting to buy agri lands next to my fields. I would gladly give 20k per acre tomorrow.
The problem is no land comes up for sale.

... and when it does, the rural Mafia grab it.

Or the horsey set snap it up for ridiculous prices.

I especially like the For Sale signs that appear about 1 minute before the land is sold.

Some rural estate agents seem to have - err - unusual sales routes ...

Some people also seem to have a magic touch in obtaining planning permission ...

If you are not one of the "In Crowd", forget it.

[kenneal - lagger]

On the subject of wood burning, before I knew of PO and Permaculture I converted both my open fireplaces (I wish I had more!) to Rumford fireplaces. To those wanting to know what Rumford is http://www.rumford.com/. I do not believe that the rush to installing wood burning stoves is a good idea, and believe that you can get far more heat from a Rumford that a stove.

Having had a look at the Rumford website I don't think the above can be true. The smallest Rumford fireplace, a 24" wide x 12" deep, requires a 12 x 12" flue. The usual flue in a post 1900 house in this country would be 8 x 8". The extra air going up a Rumford flue would make it less efficient than an ordinary flue.

When you consider the controlled amount of air going through a woodburning stove, it is miniscule compared with an open flue Rumford fireplace. Most woodburning stoves will function with a 6" dia, 150 dia, flue but only need a larger flue diameter to carry smoke away when the stove door is opened for filling. Stick to the closed woodburning stove that will burn at a much higher temperature than an open fire and thus burn more efficiently.

4K an acre? for the last 10 years i have been trying, waiting to buy agri lands next to my fields. I would gladly give 20k per acre tomorrow.
The problem is no land comes up for sale.

That's what I was getting at. If you see any land for sale, buy it now.

Mind you, if the EU proposals on the sharing of land inheritance equally among siblings, as is done in France and Germany, comes into force, British farms will be broken up just as the continental ones are. There will be more land available then. They are also trying to ban land held in trust so not only will you find it easier to buy land, you will not be able to keep it in one ownership when you die, unless you only have one child or dependant.

Some people also seem to have a magic touch in obtaining planning permission ...

Some other people work bloody hard and suffer a lot of discomfort to get it.

[Vortex]

Quote:
Some people also seem to have a magic touch in obtaining planning permission ...


Some other people work bloody hard and suffer a lot of discomfort to get it.

... from my observations being a councillor seems to help ...