I'm 43, married with 7 children and one on the way. I have a Bachelor's in Fine Art, and painted Murals for 20+ yrs. We are originally from the West Coast (Southern Oregon and Seattle, WA) and moved to Missouri 3 yrs ago when we bought 3 acres, built a Straw Cabin (with many successes and failures), aquired a property in town, and began a small Plant Nursery. I recently finished Geoff Lawton's Perm Course, and we are on course for establishing a Perm endeavor here in mid-Missouri on our original 5 acres, or something similar nearer to town.

Our interest in Perm. began with eating healthy- (organic/ bio-dynamic/ raw milk/ real honey...), discovering many films, books, ect. on alternative endeavors. We got serious about aquiring land to use for ourselves, as we had more children (and a greater need).

We took the plunge from theory to practice when we moved everybody across the country and began persuing agricultural/ alternative building experience. We desperately needed the info in the Perm Course to be steered in a successful direction. Meanwhile we've learned a lot with garden, plant nursery, and all of our experiments, and are ready to invest in a functioning site for ourselves and a potential Demonstration/ Education site for others in this area.