Stacking functions

[dave brenneman]

[matt walker]

Oh man, I'm hooked Dave. It's really a nice addition to a lot of dishes, and fun to make. I totally wowed my guest this weekend when I just whipped up a little cheese round to go with our homemade bread and the albacore I caught and canned last summer. We just had little tuna, cheese and cracker snacks, but made it all here in between building the stove. Great stuff. I've made about four batches so far, and can't help myself from adding coriander or rosemary or whatever each time. Thanks again.

[dave brenneman]

glad you're liking it - it works really well as a queso blanco for mexican or tex-mex kinda dishes too. And yeah, adding herbs is a great idea.

[matt walker]

I've been having a bit of a function stacking epiphany these last couple days. I made my outdoor cooker by digging a long overdue drainage ditch around the garage. I just figured, I'm going to dig up mud for this project, why not do it in such a way that I accomplish multiple functions. So, yeah, dug a ditch, used the diggings for cob. I was overjoyed at the results, I totally dried things out around the garage. It got me thinking, and I'm really excited about what's next. I've been planning a root cellar, and also a new greenhouse which will be right near the root cellar site. Guess what I'm going to do? Yep, cob pony walls for mass in the greenhouse created with the diggings for the root cellar. Win/win/win/win.

[George Collins]

There are some Permaculture principles that the icons of the movement have uttered over the course of my own personal study that have been of exponential benefit on this journey:
1. Geoff Lawton talks about "seeing the world through design eyes".
2. Sepp Holzer says that we should start many projects simultaneously.
3. Bill Mollison says, and I'm paraphrasing, "just do it, any well-intentioned effort would be an improvement over the way things are currently being done."

Taken together, those three principles have emboldened me to try WAY YONDER more stuff than I otherwise would have. And by trying much, much can be learned. Even if every single plant I plugged into Mother Earth dies over the course of the year, several people have learned much that would have otherwise remained unknown.

That is to say that had you, Matt not attempted many things simultaneously, those opportunities to stack functions would have never materialized. Kudos to you for having those "design eyes", the metal to press several issues simultaneously and the smarts to make the relevant connections and act accordingly.

[dave brenneman]