The Education of Axel Heyst

[AxelHeyst]

Is it fair to say that "identifying and avoiding ways of slowing [yourself] down is the process of self-actualization"?

I like that. Someone recently asked me how I felt I'd changed over the past several years, and I replied that it felt less like "I" changed and more like I'd scraped off several layers of accumulated gunk off of myself.

Your framing reminds me in chemistry of the concept of stoichiometry. Specifically, it sounds like you have a big stew of reactants (i.e. a system/WOG), and they all react with each other in different ways, and they make products, which themselves may react with other elements within the stew, and so on. And the way you've framed your question sounds a lot like trying to figure out and deal with whatever happens to be the "limit reagent" for the particular stage of the reaction you find yourself in. Is that correct?

With the caveat that chemistry was my weakest subject in stem, I like the frame quite a lot.

This is maddening stuff, though, because as the number of reactants goes up, the straightforwardness of any attempted solution likely plummets. Then the approach becomes, unfortunately, "tinker, then observe". Unless, perhaps, there is a really fundamentally limited reactant that is way too low and is holding just about everything back. I would expect the addition of that reactant to the solution would show strong, step-wise results.

My thought on this is for me to keep in mind that what I'm trying to produce isn't any specific predetermined result or even set of results, but rather a system that has the properties of resilience, tensegrity, etc etc, and tends to produce specific combinations of results more interesting than what I would come up with from my own imagination. I have specific goals (QH makerbase, the buried greenhouse, bikepacking, high quality friends, etc) but I hold on to them very lightly (see for example how quickly I dropped skillathon like it was hot when my system serendipitously presented me with a more interesting/fruitful endeavor).

In short, my aim is to spin up an entity that has more emergent intelligence/wisdom than my conscious planning-brain does. In this sense I think yours and 7's permaculture frame suits most aptly. (Random thought: from a security lens, it's not so much that my system allows me to respond to threats -- my system protects me from threats in such a way that I might not even notice them, in the same way a mangrove protects coastal areas from otherwise damaging storms.)

This is a perhaps a long way of asking, if you went ahead with your QH plans, would your Stuff Management naturally rise to the occasion (because it would have to), or would it actually be holding you and others back in the implementation/execution? How was your Stuff Management when you were w*rking with others on shared projects?

These are good questions, but the best answer I have is that I feel system friction around this and want to do something about it. I'll know more when I know more.

I suspect there's levels to it and I think there's gold down there somewhere. I also feel like it's a limiting factor/prerequisite to progressing with certain aesthetic skills, which I am very interested in pursuing.

Also, I'm not so much talking about clutter per se. I think decluttering is part of an overall process that I'm aiming for. I'm more concerned with e.g. the rat habitat and fire hazard I was accumulating underneath my studio, the old salvaged windows that were dissipating possibly lead-based paint flakes across my situation, the stove I ought to sell that is getting eaten by rust, the equipment I own that is not getting the preventative maintenance it should because of my lack of a good system for remembering to do it, storing the maintenance tools and consumables, etc.

That's actually a big one: I'm embarrassed by how many times my gear has let me down because *I* didn't take care of it in the first place. I rode the Full Enchilada with a blown rear shock and dropper in the full down position. I once unpacked my tent in Death Valley with temps dropping below 28F and realized it was still wet from when I'd last packed it in the rain. I got a flat miles from resupply on my bikepacking trip with b7 because I forgot that the last tube I'd put in there was max 2.125" in my 2.35" tire, and so it failed at the inner seam and my 20yo (!!) patch kit failed to seal it. (I stole b7's 27.5" spare tube and we pedaled on).

This is more what I'm getting at when I talk about Stuff Management. More akin to the attitude you'd want to have towards your gear on a boat crossing the ocean.

[AxelHeyst]

...Less annecdotal, I find it very hard to acquire skills if they are not being used directly in a project.
Maybe you should start a project that requires good stuff management if you want to learn it.

Good point. I actually am currently spinning up a project of sorts that is motivating me to declutter, organize my stuff, *and* improve my aesthetic skills, but that's a post for another day. Besides that one-off, though, it's not clear to me how to design a project that *requires* the skill of solid Stuff Management. Like, how to raise the stakes? I've got backups and safety nets, so e.g. when my stuff breaks or fails I historically just solve the problem with money or doing without or ignoring it further and feeling lame about it vaguelly.

[black_son_of_gray]

@AxelHeyst
Hmm...I see. Well I will be very interested in hearing what you and others manage to figure out, because I think I myself might have a touch of what you are describing.

Regarding the discussion of spinning up a project for motivation to address the issue, Mitch Hedberg had the one-liner: "I bought a seven dollar pen because I always lose pens and I got sick of not caring."

[ertyu]

Oof, @mfg, that desk picture is like, a personal callout. But yeah, +1 for "stuff management." I wonder if it's coming up for everyone because JnG mentioned it and people went, shit, me too, or whether that's one of the things that naturally comes up for yall higher WLs as you keep ascending.

[Jean]

maybe stuff management is an attention sink that would block anyone to progress when given any attention

[AxelHeyst]

Infrastructure Asset Management might be a less ambiguous term and serve as a starting point for strategy.

The basic premise of infrastructure asset management is to intervene at strategic points in an asset's normal life cycle to extend the expected service life, and thereby maintain its performance. Typically, a long-life-cycle asset requires multiple intervention points including a combination of repair and maintenance activities and even overall rehabilitation. Costs decrease with planned maintenance rather than unplanned maintenance. Yet, excessive planned maintenance increases costs. Thus, a balance between the two must be recognized. While each improvement raises an asset's condition curve, each rehabilitation resets an asset's condition curve, and complete replacement returns condition curve to new level or upgraded level. Therefore, strategically timing these interventions will aid in extending an asset's life cycle. A simple working definition of asset management would be: first, assess what you have; then, assess what condition it is in; and lastly, assess the financial burden to maintain it at a targeted condition.

I don't need to have an IAM system as tightly dialed as a solo circumnavigator does, but I do live off-grid in a harsh environment. The entire tech stack and infrastructure for life support systems is my (our) responsibility. Homeowners who live on-grid have to fix their own plumbing and are responsible for having their wiring up to code, but if the electricity goes down they just wait for the energy company to fix it. The flows of resources, especially in a suburban area, are managed by others (electricity, potable water, gas, and waste streams). I am my own utility provider responsible for source and management of all flows, and in that sense IAM is at least a bit higher stakes than the norm, and I want my system to reflect that. When I talk about 'stuff organization', I'm not just referring to the stuff on my desk, I'm referring to spare parts and tools for my PV electrical system, a system for keeping an eye on the operation of the well, the infrastructure and SOPs for dealing with my shit (literally), etc.

Also, I'm strategically designing my system for a future scenario where it's less easy to solve problems with money than they are currently. Right now, if the generator goes out, there's a guy we can call. If we need a special part, we can order it on Amazon or mcmaster. When things break, we can order cheap replacements. I assume for my planning purposes that these solutions won't last forever at their current levels of ease and cost, and so spinning up a high functioning IAM now while it's easy to learn from my mistakes makes a lot of sense to me.

A fundamental part of a good IAM is to know what assets you have, what condition they are in, and to have a low-friction system for accessing, assessing, and maintaining them. At the household scale this might look like knowing what seasonal maintenance the evap cooler needs, and have those parts in a known location, and have the tools necessary for that maintenance in an accessible location.

A story: a few months ago the solar panels on Serenity started putting out 10% production. I didn't have time to troubleshoot what was wrong with them, so I went around the problem instead. I grabbed two extra salvaged panels from our salvage materials area, pulled out my electrical tools, grabbed a few spools of spare wire and extra MC4 connectors from my equipment locker, and within an hour I had patched in fresh PV panels to my system and could diagnose the old panels at my leisure. If I didn't know where all those parts were that process would have been a huge PITA. Honestly I lucked out because I'd touched all those components recently and could remember where they lived.

---
I'm also going to throw in Greer's white paper on Catabolic Collapse, partly because he also mentions Tainter's take (maintenance cost of solutions approach the value derived from said solution and leads to simplification). But Greer also points to the ecological succession process and how early seral species maximize production even at the cost of efficiency, while later seral stages tend to optimize resource use. The idea that a rapid crowbar into ERE praxis constitutes a major 'ecological' system disruption, triggering early/fast seral stage processes, resonates with my experience.

[2Birds1Stone]

Super random question, speaking of Catabolic Collapse......what's the weight training situation like at QH? Asking for a friend \_(o_0)_/

[AxelHeyst]

Ha! Currently its rings suspended from a beam (which also serves for e.g. toes-to-bar), two small kettlebells, and an infinite variety of size, shape, and weight of rocks. Also a few packs appropriate for rucking, and an infinite supply of sandy mountains to run up at varies slopes.

I'm currently satisfied with my bodyweight routine, but am keeping an eye out for prison-yard-style equipment (bar, bench, rack, plates).

ETA also my bff in town (25mi drive) has a fully equipped private powerlifting gym on his property. Emergency access could be arranged for those in need.

[AxelHeyst]

Can I demand more pics?

Pics!





















So much gratitude to @b7 for being an awesome adventure companion. I'd do another trip with him any day. I'm really happy it worked out for us to ride together.

--

We wound up riding from May 1 to May 22 with only one zero day on day 3 due to bus>train. Otherwise our shortest day was probably no less than 20mi, and that would have been techy singletrack.

After an intense week arranging my affairs, packing, and sewing a framebag, we pedaled out of QH on May 1st. We rode 90 miles over two days to Lone Pine, then got on a bus to Reno.

At the Reno Amtrak we were told that our tickets to Green River, Utah, were no good for bikes.

“Well, where are the nearest stations we can go with bikes?” I asked.

“Salt Lake City or Grand Junction,” she said.

I knew there was a bikepacking route from near Grand Junction all the way to Moab, so it was a no-brainer.

We did the first half of the Kokopelli Bikepacking Route. We ditched to highway just before it would go up into the La Sal’s because a cold front was coming in, there was obvious snow up there, and neither of us were packed (or psyched) for wintry hellbiking. (foreshadowing alert!)

This was the first trip I’d done that depended on the kindness of strangers. Several stages of our route had no water for longer distances than we could carry, so the strategy was “find some RV’ers or vanlifers and bum water off of them.”

We only had to ask for water once. Typically people approached us to see if we needed anything. One woman and her daughter pulled halfway off the side of the highway, hazard lights on, and handed us bottles of water. Another family caravanning in Sprinters pulled off and filled up our canteens and chatted for 20min about their family bike tour across the states, years ago.

Hell, we once rode up on a guy with a severely busted Toyota in the desolate wasteland between Moab and Green River, and he gave us water. People are nice.

More text, nerdy details, and some more pics here.

[Bicycle7]

So much gratitude to @b7 for being an awesome adventure companion. I'd do another trip with him any day. I'm really happy it worked out for us to ride together.

You too man! You're a great person to ride around the desert with!

If it wasn't for AH's invitation to go on this trip, I don't know how long I would've waited to go on an adventure like this.

Now, all I can think about is the next time I go bikepacking

[thef0x]

Tarp nerds unite! Cold soak life! #weightwatchers

Stunning photos. Damn I love the desert colors. Glad you found that beautiful spot to 'pray'.

The best water is thirsty water re that puddle from your blog post. It's hard to imagine wanting that water until you've wanted water badly enough.

How did the new MYOG gear perform? Would you do anything differently?

Jealous in the best way and inspired as always. Thanks for the pics!

[AxelHeyst]

Nah the framebag was perfect, I honestly wouldn't change a thing. So glad I went rolltop vs. zipper. The tarp and bivy did great their second season out. Next trip in the desert I'm going to try to find something I can bring with to use as a pole for the tarp just in case a storm catches me out away from lashable trees/tall things. I used my bike tire once last year but it wasn't great (not tall enough), wind will push the tarp down onto me.

By the way, you kept me warm at night more than once this past month. On a couple of the cold nights I remembered your story about pounding 500cals to get some thermogenesis going and followed your example.

Next myog project is a rolltop backpack with double-duty on the rear rack in mind.

[mountainFrugal]

Hell Yeah! Great write-up. I am glad the frame bag worked out so well. You got the full tour. Hike-a-bike through snow for miles. Classic. .

[sodatrain]

I think if you're trying to read permaculture to be able to design and implement a mature polyculture in year 1, yes, it's too far up the CCCCCC scale. But if you're trying to learn how to approach site design from a systems thinking perspective, it's possible to get started.

I've been interested in the ideas of Permaculture for a while. And I've studied swales, general design with zones makes sense, etc. All at a high level - never implemented it. Almost went to a PDC (with Geoff Lawton in Morocco!) but covid killed it.

I keep wondering about how to actually garden in a permaculture context. Like I want the outputs of a "standard" home vegetable garden. Do I still build raised beds somewhere and as long as that's mindful of the bigger site design, water, etc etc...is that still consistent with tge practices of permaculture or am I supposed to interplant my carrots, tomatoes amongst the other layers of a food forest?! So I guess I don't get what proper gardening in permaculture is actually supposed to be like. Tidy rows seem unlike permaculture. So many YT videos etc say "permaculture garden" but that feels like abusing the term.

And then I go cross-eye. And lost steam.

Thoughts?

[Slevin]

I keep wondering about how to actually garden in a permaculture context. Like I want the outputs of a "standard" home vegetable garden. Do I still build raised beds somewhere and as long as that's mindful of the bigger site design, water, etc etc...is that still consistent with tge practices of permaculture or am I supposed to interplant my carrots, tomatoes amongst the other layers of a food forest?! So I guess I don't get what proper gardening in permaculture is actually supposed to be like. Tidy rows seem unlike permaculture. So many YT videos etc say "permaculture garden" but that feels like abusing the term.

And then I go cross-eye. And lost steam.

Thoughts?

Well different people are implementing patterns / designs at different skill levels and with different desired outputs and different local ecosystems, so you have noise in the direction of skill and noise in all the people growing in tons of different types of ecosystems (which may or may not apply to you). And on top of this, permaculture really isn't largely about growing annual veggies.

A big thing in permaculture is to use the local limiting factors as a design parameter to make the whole thing. In central / northern cali, you have a wet / dry season problem where the time where plants grow best, it is very dry. So you design the earthworks to store large volumes of water for the dry season, and then you design compost systems to feed the soil to keep it healthy as it produces veg for you to eat. So you might have your annual veggies growing in a hugel bed next to a swale which allows for long term water storage while keeping the roots above the area that will end up too wet, and then have a tree on the hugel as well for some summer shade (many veggies want some shade during the day) and built-in effortless mulching. Then elsewhere you might have a bunch of nitrogen fixing plants and high amounts of nutrient dense biomatter growing, which you cut down and break up and spread as a mulch over the hugel bed that will eventually break down into the humus which will feed the veg, etc.

Another option in rainier areas is literally just raised beds or in-ground beds with mulch and then the biomass growth for composting and mulching happening elsewhere, which feed the soil in a different way. This looks a lot simpler, and it is, because it removed many degrees of freedom (don't have to design for water capture, not layering "veggie garden" into a design of a whole ecosystem.

Obviously, the end goal matters here a lot. If you want a veggie garden, you can just make a veggie garden. If you want a complex ecosystem which produces perennial foodstuffs, you can choose that as well, and end up with a good amount of veggies in there, or a small section dedicated to veggies. Permaculture is about designing the whole system of an ecosystem, whereas the annual veggie bed is just one output in one small part of the system. If you walk into an architecture office and ask for a house with a cozy reading chair, you are also going to get overwhelmed in the details of the whole thing (which you may or may not care about), because designing a house is only a little about the placement of the chairs.

[7Wannabe5]

When you're working with only very small acreage under your direct control, your permaculture project may very well initially resemble a collection of bio-intensive vegetable beds. However, starting from scratch every spring with a defined production goal in mind is akin to bringing a factory production mind-set to gardening, no matter how small or independent your plot. Akin to starting with a very rigid Zone 2 in permaculture. I think the best way to get into a permaculture mind-set is to start out with Zone 5: The Wilderness, the realm you don't manage, where you may lightly forage or simply appreciate nature and all that each species or system has to offer. In fact, while you are still in Principle 1: Observation mode, you are kind of gaining an appreciation of your property and its surroundings as the-yet-untouched-by-you-Wilderness, even if it's currently a typical suburban backyard with popular ornamental plantings or a vacant city lot full of compacted soil, common weeds, and trash.

For example, there's little point in planting an only moderately productive of edible yield guild of natives in your front yard if the same can be found surrounding the public park down the street. Processing and storing foraged or harvested food is also a very important aspect of the cycle. So, simply purchasing and processing local produce as it comes into season is another important first step into permaculture mindset. Determine whether or not there are any existing farms within biking distance of your current residence or range-of-roaming and investigate what they have to offer. Visit any community gardens and associated groups. IOW, try to avoid re-inventing the wheel in your quest for resilience and self-sufficiency, because you will actually be more resilient if your understand the stocks and flows throughout your region or community as they are beyond your project(s.) Even knowing what the Save-A-Lot next to the gas station usually has in stock at what price point may inform your practice.

[Jin+Guice]

Is there a simple and practical guide to what permaculture is? Like the principles and the zones and maybe some steps to get started?

P.S. IME, Save-A-Lot ALWAYS has a dumpster. Look out for heroin needles!!!

[theanimal]

Is there a simple and practical guide to what permaculture is? Like the principles and the zones and maybe some steps to get started?

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren

https://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Pri ... 0646418440

[jacob]

Is there a simple and practical guide to what permaculture is?

I'll go with the possibly controversial opinion that the answer to this is: no, there isn't. Permaculture is the systems theoretical idea that the stocks and flows of nutrients and resources in an ecology are interconnected and so it makes sense to design for these connections as opposed to just ignoring them and thinking about them as a set of unconnected plants, like e.g. carrots in this row, roses over there, fertilizer here,... However, applying permaculture in practice requires a lot of domain knowledge about each and every plant and animal that goes into that system in order to become more than just a gimmick that sells lots of pdfs and training courses.

In WL terms, permaculture design is WL7. It is therefore not something one jumps into without understanding several different types of plants and animals (WL6) and how to optimize each one in isolation (WL5) ... or even how to grow a tomato plant in the first place (WL1-4).

[AxelHeyst]

The simple and practical guide to what permaculture is is the post above this one.

FWIW my ERE education helped me recognize permaculture in the way Jacob just described it, and so while I know a little *about* it I get that to *do* it I have little choice but to start where I’m at, which is approximately “how to grow a tomato plant’ and go from there. I can hold my know-about permaculture as a sort of North Star.

…makes me think that the more WL -domains you tackle, the less friction/dead ends you’re going to run in to with each successive one, having a sense for how the progression does and does not go.