Roman Shapla, from Nature School Startup, joins me to discuss Nature Schools - where the outdoors is the classroom.

Roman recently shared on Twitter how he has taught tracking class: showing kids animal tracks in the dirt teaches kids about pattern recognition, thinking through timelines, as well as problem solving in their surroundings ("if this track is here, where did it come from, where is it going, and what is the animal doing?"). Definitely worth a Follow.

He teaches homeschooling parents and co-ops how to start their own weekend nature school or to help those looking to bring the outdoors into a traditional classroom.

Some of the benefits of outdoor schooling that we discuss:

• Engaging teenagers by giving them responsibility on tasks and even including them in mentoring younger children.
• Breaking the cycle of screen addiction and reawakening wonder through teaching outdoors.
• Teaching skills like pattern recognition, timelines, seasonality, and sense of place.
• Including marginalized or difficult children in a school outdoors significantly counteracts boredom, anxiety, and even ADHD.

He has more tips in his excellent Substack article on Valuing the Marginal - Designing for Children and Elders.

Show notes for this episode: Ep. 155 - Teach Kids Outside - with Roman from Nature School

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

In this episode I cover an overview of the different types of chestnuts. And why do customers prefer hybrids over Chinese chestnuts? I share what named varieties that I am growing this year. And I give you tips to start your chestnut orchard, including soil pH and how/when to fertilize your chestnut trees.

I forage buckets of chestnuts from local chestnut trees every Fall and store them in buckets of sand to sprout over the Winter. But in Spring 2024 my stored chestnuts were moldy and rotten - they had failed over the winter.

I learned a lot more as I have diversified my chestnut offerings in response to this loss, as well as expanded my knowledge through my in real life contacts. In this article I will share what I have learned so it will help you as well.

Varieties of chestnuts:

American, Chinese, Japanese, European.

Why are customers turned off by Chinese chestnuts? Why do they sell for less than hybrids?

Dunstan chestnuts and other hybrids.

Named varieties of chestnuts:

A named variety, or a known-parent, is a tree or seedling that is chosen for it's heavy production and larger nut sizes. That known (named) parent mother tree is open pollinated by the surrounding trees. It's nuts are saved and grown into seedlings. This is a common way to grow and sell chestnuts, much more than grafting.

Some sites call these named varieties of Chinese chestnuts Half sibs.

Qing, Gideon, Amy, Peach, and Resilient are examples of named varieties (known parent/Half sibs) of Chinese Chestnuts.

I am growing Qing, Resilient named varieties, and some Japanese hybrids this year.

I am sprouting from seed:

• Eaton, which is a Chinese, American, and Japanese hybrid.
• Gideon seed. This will produce large to extra-large nuts that are high in quality and flavor.
• Hope is a Chinese, American hybrid that is a sibling of "King Arthur", a cultivar from the Connecticut Ag Experiment Station's chestnut breeding program.
• Revival: a HUGE hybrid with chestnuts as big as my palm.

Tips to grow chestnuts:

• Chestnuts need moderately acidic soil, somewhere between 4.5 and 6.5 pH.
• Chestnuts need trace minerals like Boron, I have seen suggested that 1 tsp of borax, dissolved in water, poured on an 8x4 garden bed can help with this. I will experiment with adding boron this year.
• Do not put fertilizer in the hole when planting chestnut trees. You want the chestnut to grow out into the soil seeking nutrients. If you do fertilize, add some 10-10-10 fertilizer lightly to the top of the soil. Do not use long time released fertilizer.
• Foliar feed in the summer. This makes root growth and enhances the soil.

Show notes for this episode: Ep. 154 - Tips to Start Your Chestnut Orchard

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

Believe it or not, it's never been a better time to reinvent yourself than it is now.

Sure, the job market looks bleak. Stories of downsizing nearly every day.

But you can learn new skills, often for Free.

John McCoy of John McCoy Writes tweeted a few weeks ago:

"Friday reminder: you can just learn a skill for free off the internet and start selling your services and people will pay you. Nobody can stop you."

Tips to learn new skills

Use LinkedIn Learning. You can often get it for free by using the library. Topeka/Shawnee County offer it for free. If you are veteran you can get LinkedIn Pro and LinkedIn Learning for Free.

Get some training and a certificate, either through Grow Google, or take a class that guarantees you will pass the certificate at the end.

Start small, work for a small company (or the State), and then leverage that experience in a couple of years to significantly increase your salary. Working in IT for a manufacturing company is how I started in IT.

Build your experience portfolio by freelancing on Upwork.

Facing Downsizing? Build Something for Yourself

In the second half of 2024, it seemed like downsizing was on the horizon (when you know, you know). Like Justin Welsh says: Build something for yourself.

I got tired of the fear and expanded Grow Nut Trees, growing and selling more trees than ever before. I started Thriving Food Forest Design (see details below) and had my first really big customer.

Check out the show notes on our website:

Ep. 153 - It's Never Been Easier to Reinvent Yourself - with John McCoy

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnuts. Qing (pronounced "Ching") is a Chinese chestnut Half-sib from a named tree that was open pollinated by other trees, including hybrids. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

Graham Towerton of Permaculture Canada joins me to share about his Michigan farm and his permaculture plans for this year.

He is growing heritage raspberry and asparagus in permaculture with strawberries as the herb layer. Also Olive Leaf Arugula that is essentially perennial. We also share about chestnuts and our other tree plans for this year.

In the last 10 years Graham has transformed his farm from regular corn and soybeans to a permaculture oasis!

Go to the show notes on our website to see the amazing before and after pictures of Graham's farm.

Can you integrate permaculture with a solar farm?

Graham discusses what it's like when a solar farm moves in next door, and how he used that to his advantage, incorporating permaculture as much as possible to best use the bordering zones.

Graham also shares about his mulching and compost strategy to build up fertility without having to bring in outside chemical inputs.

You can connect with Graham on:

Permaculture Canada

Permaculture Adventures Michigan

Graham's Instagram page @GrahamTowerton

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnuts. Qing (pronounced "Ching") is a Chinese chestnut Half-sib from a named tree that was open pollinated by other trees, including hybrids. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

A former colleague of mine posted a Remote job that got 500 applicants.

I will share some tips with you on How to Find a Job in This Tough Economy.

You Must Know Someone on the Inside

When there are 500 applicants, they are either using AI or a HR-level1 person to filter through the submitted resumes based on keywords and skills. Even if you are a rockstar, your resume is being looked at by someone who doesn't even know what those terms on your resume mean.

You know people who you have worked with in the past. Some of those people are now in leadership positions or are influencers.

Contact them and have them give a heads up to the hiring manager: "I worked with him and he is legit." That's sometimes all it takes. The rest is up to you, but you won't get the opportunity to tell your story if you don't make it over this hurdle.

You need to connect in Real Life.

Say it again: You need to connect IN REAL LIFE (IRL)!

Call that person up. Offer to get together for coffee. Sure, it will seem awkward since you haven't talked to them in 2+ years.

Your resume needs to fit the job

Employers are looking for "what can you do for me?"

Remote work is dead. Position yourself for the "right" return to office job.

If you are still working remotely, or you went back in the office but you still dream of working remotely.

As I said at the beginning, most remote jobs have >100 applicants. The one I interviewed for had 500 applicants.

Side Hustles R Us

In times like these, your side hustles can bridge the gap.

Look, we are moving toward a multi-income stream economy by necessity. Build yours now.

Episode website:

Ep. 151 - How to Find a Job in This Tough Economy

Sponsors:

Thriving Food Forest Design: This is your chance to grow exactly what you've been dreaming of. Like walking down a grocery store aisle. Let us create an edible foodscape for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me.

Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.

Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall)

Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.

Our reality is choked out by thoughts, static, noise, and by the "cares of this life". (not to mention the electronic noise of being "always on", "always connected".

The other night I went to Vespers service at church. Vespers is my favorite service. The candles, the dim lights, the hymns, the "Now that we have come to the setting of the sun." It recognizes a cycle in the day and in life. It is much needed.

Afterward, I told my priest, Father Nikolai, that it took 45 minutes for the noise of the day to fade away and for me to be immersed in the service - the candles, the hymns.

He replied, with a smile, "That is why our services are so long."

There has been a lot of talk lately in my circles of influence about Signal vs. Noise. How we are bombarded with "noise" to the point where we don't even hear the signal anymore.

I give an update on Perpend. He has been on a quest to become an Orthodox monk. He was "clothed as a novice" monk in May at the Monastery of St. John in Manton, CA.

I share thoughts from one of his letters about this "noise":

We think of static as the white noise and pops between radio stations. If I say "noise", people respond with "sound" and "volume" as their points of reference. Yes, a neighbor's loud music is a potential problem, but I mean more than that. The term "inputs" also doesn't quite fit; it doesn't connect. Maybe "Static" is better.

"Static" is interference in your attempt to bring in the radio signal. In my case, the signal I want is God, Grace, the life of the Church, silence, prayer - a real life. These are the things that actually matter. Static is anything that hinders that.

My thoughts, emotions, perceptions, desires are a static producing mechanism. The added static from those mechanisms is other people entering my life is a lot also. How I choose to react and think about them changes my perceptions of them and those interactions. That is what thoughts determine, what life is about.

Episode website:

Ep. 150 - Decrease the "Noise" in Your Life

Sponsors:

Thriving Food Forest Design - We can create an edible foodscape, a perennial paradise so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.

Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall)

Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.

This year has been the best of times and the worst of times. Okay, maybe not the worst. (after all, I am still employed).

But this is the dichotomy (or is it a contradiction?):

It is performance review time at work. It will be another "Meets Expectations".

But my Goals and accomplishments in real life were off the charts!

This year I:

- Built 4 web sites/side businesses

- Got my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) from Midwest Permaculture.

- Gained my first 2 paid Food Forest design clients, including a huge 3 acre orchard design and implementation that is a several thousand dollar gig.

- Grew 10x+ trees

- 5x my revenue from last year

- Learned to use a mini-excavator

Come along with me as I share my wins (and losses) and get encouraged!

Sponsors:

Thriving Food Forest Design - We can create an edible foodscape, a perennial paradise so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. We use fruit and nut trees and perennial plants adapted to the Midwest to create a low maintenance food forest.

Grow Nut Trees - Chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, elderberry - all adapted to the Midwest.

Permies digital marketplace is YOUR source for all things permaculture for your homestead, side hustle, and designing your intentional life: from video courses, to blueprints, to books.

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall)

Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.