Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The yurts are cool though, yes?

Well, yes. In fact one of our members would love to have a yurt.

Wowow, hadn't heard anyone talk about yurts since about 1980.... didn't think you youngsters would have ever heard of them

I would love to have an AP yurt.

Well you know DD, you could plan on moving down here to the ecovillage, and you and I can run the AP system for the community ourselves. Fishies in the yurt, plants in the greenhouse, maybe.

sounds like a plan

OK, I'll need a guaranteed salary from the "combine" though.

Yeah, me too. I think I have to keep my day job for a while yet.

That is the way it goes; it seems if you work at what you love you go broke, and if you work to survive you hate it. In the end it seems like a lot of us end up working night and day and don't seem to get to the point of reaching our dreams. Hopefully, Janet, you won't end up in that last group!
Kevin

Is that because the business side of things is not done in a business type of way?
Most businesses fail because the person running the business is not trained in business systems...
However if you have a group there is a fair chance that the skills required
maybe somewhat covered by the group knowlege.

Maybe, maybe not, C1. I very nearly went broke a couple of years ago in a business venture (franchise), and the group knowledge and resources said there was nothing more I could have done to avoid it. The company assessed my shop as being well-run and having the expertise and abilities to survive. Market pressures and demand proved otherwise.
Many times, the hobbies and passions we have are admirable, but not many people are willing these days to pay hard cash for things that don't immediatly gratify, or can be obtained elsewhere for less (albeit usually in a cheaper quality), or just don't hit the mainline appetite. I make stained glass windows as a hobby, (My business venture was food) and occasionally do commissions, and the part of my pricing that customers balk at most often is labour...usually hundreds of hours at a pittance. Well in excess of material costs. As a society, we usually don't value the things that really matter.

Go ahead and have courage to live your dream, but be careful!!!

End of rant!

Guess it depends on the market you are trying to niche.
A lot hate them but looking at the maccas empire, the one thing Vos was doing was to create a business with a split market mix.
He was selling frachises that sold hamburgers but the business he was in was real estate.
Not many ppl realized that!
Now he has realestate in the most sort after areas with hamburgers paying the way, nice model!

True, true. I, for one, don't intend to build any empires. Contentment is the real goal, and that can be different things to differing folks. That seems to me to be the underlying theme in AP, and indeed the grass roots sustainable living lifestyle. I have lived the frantic and pressured life, and am in the decelleration phase at the moment. Relationships, family, good food! It all looks good. The concept of "working to survive" is the thing we all want to avoid. AP and the associated ethics of sustainability are all pointing in the right direction.

That sums it up well SNAG

Janet do you know about the aldinga eco-village near Adelaide?
http://www.aldinga-artsecovillage.com.au/
Similar idea I think. Although I'm sure there are lots of similar models.

Its a sort of low density sub-division.
All houses have to built according to sustainability principles which are defined.
So most of them are rammed earth or strawbale.

The street trees are all productive (all fruit I think).
There is a wetlands and a communiity farm where residents can apply for space to farm but I think they are still sorting out exactly how to manage that.

All cats have to be enclosed.

So its not like a hippie commune ... it more like a yuppie green dream.

Samantha