Most mortgage and affordability calculators are designed for fixed-rate bank loans. They break the moment you try to model anything creative. I built this calculator specifically for creative financing of land and homesteads. It is designed to be bookmarked and reused anytime you are evaluating a deal. This calculator supports: • Step-rate payment structures • Subject-to existing mortgages • Seller financing with custom terms • Transitional and blended payment scenarios • Full amortization schedules so you can see exactly what happens over time This is not just about figuring out how to buy more. Creative financing is powerful, and if you are not careful, it is easy to over-leverage yourself. That is exactly why this calculator exists. Instead of asking “What will the bank approve?” it forces the real question: What can you actually afford without putting yourself in a fragile position? You can reverse-engineer deals from income. You can stress-test payments before making offers. You can clearly see when a deal works and when it does not. This tool is part of the system I lay out in my book, but I am sharing it so you can run real numbers on real properties and avoid mistakes that look smart on paper and fail in practice. Bookmark it. Keep it saved. Use it every time you structure or analyze a creative deal. Calculator link :https://calculator.permaresilience.com/

When it comes to growing anything there has to be a healthy environment that's feeds growth. In our lives that "food" is our beliefs, our support network, values, and motivation. For plants and animals, both in the wild and in our spaces, that healthy environment starts in the soil. All livings things get their nutrients from the soil what we tend to forget is that soil also needs nutrients to thrive, to live. In regenerative practices we call this space the Soil Food Web. We build and feed soil through compost and teas, cover cropping, biochar amendments, foraging livestock, and no till practices. We get these concepts through observation of nature. In the tag along video I explain one way nature builds soil.

What’s one belief about self-sufficiency or homesteading that you had in the beginning… and that you no longer believe now? Sometimes letting go is just as transformative as learning something new.

I keep coming back to this question and I want to hear real thoughts, not hot takes. Is 2026 the last relatively normal year before things start breaking in a visible way? Not apocalypse. Not end of the world. Just systems failing faster than they are being repaired. Jobs that look stable until they are not. Food and housing that keep getting more fragile. Debt that only works if nothing goes wrong. Institutions that assume compliance instead of trust. I am not saying this to scare anyone. I am saying it because I am watching people who did everything right still feel cornered. If 2026 is the last year where you can still move, still buy land, still learn real skills, still build community while the lights are on, that matters. So I am genuinely curious. Do you think we have more time than that Or less Or do you think nothing meaningful is coming at all Comment your take. I read them all.

Good morning! We are in Orange County CA, zone 9A. I'm wondering if anyone has found anything that will stop St. Augustine grass? I don't mind letting things grow wild in a food forest way, but the St. Augustine chokes out everything. We have about a half acre in the city (front yard space) that we've planted more than a dozen fruit trees, kiwis and elderberries. We've put down cardboard and newspaper and deep mulched it, but it keeps coming through. It is impossible to pull it out because of the underground roots. I'd love to hear ideas on how to handle this invasive beast!