The Beginning of the End For 2011.

My first year of gardening is coming to a close and I have learned a great deal. I expected to learn a bit about germination, indoor seed starting, transplanting, growing from seed outdoors, watering schedules, planting schedules and so on. I learned a fair bit about building raised beds and potato containers, and soil makeup and structure as well. What I wasn't really expecting was to learn so much about myself, and how uncomplimentary that could be!

I have a desire to develop a homestead on my property. Not just a garden, but a suburban homestead. I have well over 1/2 an acre of usable land. Certainly, having sand instead of soil is a bit of a set back, but poor soil can be overcome. It is true that the city council makes it more difficult to achieve my goal of self sufficiency, but they can be reasoned with, and in time, I am sure that we will work out some agreement regarding animals on the property. Almost everything that presents a problem is simply a part of the learning curve. I have voles tearing things up in the raised beds. I will learn how to be rid of them. I have more weeds than food in the garden. I will learn to limit their growth while promoting the growth of the plants I want to have in the garden. It is all possible.

The one thing that has me discouraged, puzzled and nearly defeated is my own character. I give up too easily. Maybe it is because I set goals too high to begin with. Goals do need to be achievable and reasonable. It started after we came home from our summer vacation. The garden was a wreck, and I wasn't prepared for what I came home to. Powdery mildew had killed off most of every vining plant in the garden. The weeds were choking out everything that the mildew wasn't killing. The deer had eaten the blueberry plants to bare twigs. And I responded by letting things slide, by being discouraged into inaction. That is a disturbing character flaw.

It is the beginning of October, and there is so much to do in the garden. I am just sitting here looking at it get worse and worse. It gets worse than that. The garden is only a small part of what I hope to achieve. I haven't built the smoke house yet. I haven't started on an outdoor kitchen. I put the rabbits and chickens on the back burner, and I haven't done more than lay out where I want the hoop house to be.

Here's a look at the devastation:

The Circle of Life

I'm Puzzled More Than Educated.

There is so much to learn when gardening. Some times I wonder if I've simply started too big. Maybe nine raised beds and all of those fruit and nut trees were just beyond my ability to learn. Things are going south fast! My paw-paws and cherries are looking pretty bad. The Three Sisters apparently had an argument and decided to duke it out. They are now in a shambles. Peppers are dying in every corner of the garden and I haven't harvested any tomatoes. The Melons have been poor producers so far, as have been the winter squashes. It looks like I have more diseased material in the garden than not. Powdery mildew is making an appearance and is threatening my butternut squash.

On the bright side, I've had a fair harvest of green beans, radishes, lettuce, garlic, peas, and zucchini. I'm looking forward to a fair crop of yellow onions, but the whites and reds will be less than good. I pray that the tomatoes and potatoes will have a decent yield, but I'm not holding my breath. I learned that dry beans need a lot more space to produce enough to hold my family for a year. I'll have to do a tally, but I doubt that I will have more than 5 pounds total of dry beans, and probably much less.

I've made an update video an will place it below:

Another Garden Update July 18,2011

If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another, And if It Ain't That, It's Somethin' Else!

The thing that the beginning gardener/homesteader will learn most quick, is that something is always going Mother Nature way instead of yours. How in the world do you stay ahead of every little crisis that rears up? Are they truly crises? Today, when I went to check on my garden, I noticed that the potato plants in the trash cans looked wilted. It was almost the kind of look a plant gets when they have gone without watering too long. It couldn't have been that because the soil was moist, but not wet. I noticed little critters flying away when I disturbed the foliage. So what did the organic gardener wannabe do? He temporarily saved his taters by using garden dust. Now I need to learn how not to resort to what another gardener referred to as, "the big guns." There are other ways to fight pests and diseases. I do hate thinking of losing a whole crop to an ideology though. I'll find my way. No doubt about that.

One Product That Works!

Shortly after I planted my fruit trees, I noticed that the deer had stripped the leaves clean off of one of my apple trees. I wasn't very happy about that. I started to make cages to put around the trees, but I wasn't too happy about that either. I went to the Garden Co-op, and they sold a product to me called Liquid Fence. It should be called Liquid Stench, but I digress. The point is, it works! I wonder if it is the same as the homemade rotten egg stuff I've read about? I may try that next year. Anyway, I spray it on the foliage once a week unless it rains heavily. The deer have not bothered the trees since. They still come in the yard and I have watched them grazing on the weeds in the backyard, but they have left my trees alone! The tree that they did eat has new growth so all is forgiven.

What Have I Learned So Far?

When you start something that is outside of your main experiences, you are bound to make mistakes. Heck! You're bound to make mistakes dealing with things you are well trained for. I think it is just as true that if you don't think about the mistakes you have made, and plan to not repeat them in the future, you are guaranteed to repeat them. This is a record of the things I've done so far this year that can be improved upon.

I started my seeds indoors on March 9th and 12th for many of the crops I was planning to raise this year, but I didn't get them planted in the garden until May 9th. I don't have a greenhouse nor do I have grow lights to use indoors. All of my seedlings became very leggy. I learned three important things. First, it is critical that seedlings get the proper amount and quality of light or they will not thrive. They do grow, but they become spindly and weak. Second, planting particular crops at the correct time is also critical to good growth. Cold weather crops are just that. I planted between a month and two months too late for many of my crops. Others that were planted at the proper time from seedlings are doing poorly because they were weak and leggy. Last, it is very important to harden off seedlings. My peppers are doing horribly because they got burned by the sun. They are weeks behind where they should be and don't appear to be growing at all. Hopefully they are busy developing roots!

I have also learned that you can't learn to garden organically by reading. You can read until your eyeballs explode, but it won't prepare you for those emergencies that crop up seemingly overnight. Only experience can do that, and in a pinch it is very easy to reach for a chemical. I didn't want to lose a whole crop of dry beans to rust so I went and bought a fungicide. The disease appeared overnight; I was weeding in the garden yesterday and the beans were beautiful. When I came out this morning, they were covered with little brown spots. Now comes the learning part. What are the alternatives to fungicide? Is the disease a crop killer, or does it simply reduce the harvest size? As a home gardener, I could put up with crop reduction if I had to, but I could not abide by a total loss. Perhaps the wisest thing for me to do is to find organic gardeners in my locale and meet with them.

I have grown corn for two years now. Both years saw the wind flatten the entire bed. I've had to stake and string up the corn so it won't fall over. Why am I having to do this? I thought it might be that I wasn't planting the seed deep enough, but I know I followed the packet instructions. I was reading the other day that some Indians planted their corn quite deep at 12 inches. I need to investigate this further. That seems like it couldn't possibly work. In Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening" he mentions that it is ok to plant seeds much deeper because the soil mix you make is very friable and lose. I should do a test and plant a few seeds at 3 and 5 inches to see if they come up.

My other great experiment resulted from a refusal to pay big bucks to construct a compost bin out of steel bar and cinder blocks or to build an eyesore out of discarded pallets. I remember piles of organic waste at a facility in Germany. It wasn't contained in walls of cement or wood. I am trying to see if I can do the same thing on a small scale. In fact, I should be turning the pile right now and wetting it down a bit. We'll see how it works.

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot. I will sit and reflect on this as I sip a beer and look out over my farm (after I turn the compost pile).

Day 86: A Homestead Tour and Various Thoughts

I've never been very good at journal writing. It takes a great deal of time to write anything, and if it is worth writing, I take the time. I tried earlier to link to a YouTube video I had made, but for what ever reason, the videos didn't appear on the list. It's time to try again.And it looks to be a rousing success! Well, at least it linked. The video itself still stinks on ice no matter how you slice it.

There is much left to accomplish for this season. I am still in the process of making gates for the fence around the garden and also considering the need for a fence around the blueberry bushes and all of the fruit trees. that is a high cost and a lot of work. I need to make a good compost bin, and I am beginning work on the herb spiral.

Homestead Tour: 13 May, 2011

Day 69: Time Flies When You're Procrastinating!

It's been a long while since my last post. The good news is that the raised beds are done the fence has been erected around the garden and weed barrier and mulch has been put down on the paths and around the garden perimeter. There is still a ton to do before I plant. I need to mix the garden soil for the beds. What? Oh, I should explain that. You see, here in Southern Jersey, we do not have soil. We have beach sand. In my yard I have about a meter of sand before you start to hit clay. So I am making what is called "Mel's Mix" in the book, Square Foot Gardening. It is roughly 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 vermiculite. Home made dirt! I've also thought of a good way to lay out a square foot grid over the gardens. Half inch plastic strapping held to the garden rails with thumb tacks should do it. Finally I have to build two gates to allow easy access to the garden. I am going to use PVC pipe and fence wire for this. The design is in my head, and I think I can make it work. It should be a fun project. I'll photo document it as I go along.

I've spent a good amount of time in the sun over the last week getting all of the beds and fencing done. Unfortunately, I am taking Cipro for a skin infection I got from scrubbing my arm with a kitchen scrub pad. I know, I shouldn't have done that. You'd think that a Microbiologist by training would figure that one out all by his lonesome, wouldn't you? Well, I didn't. Cipro makes you more sensitive to the sun and I can, by my crisply burned skin, attest to that!

What have I planted in my yard so far? I have one of the old beds devoted to Mary Washington asparagus, The other old bed has a couple of rhubarb plants in it and about eight horse radish. Half of that bed is still empty. I should probably plant peas in that area. I have also planted 3 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 paw-paw trees, 2 almond trees and two cherry trees. I had 2 hazelnut bushes, but I killed them before they got in the ground. I also planted 6 blue berry bushes of the "Duke" variety.

To the left is a photo of one of the cherry trees in blossom. I am very happy that I didn't kill them as well as the hazelnuts! The photos to the right is my garden with 9 raised beds nearly completed. Tomorrow I think I will do a walk around with the video camera and show off what I have done so far.

Day 28: Learning, Doing and Getting It Done.

No, the raised beds aren't done yet. I am in the middle of a two day headache. Who knows how far out it's going to go? I am not having a migraine, thank goodness, but it is keeping me down. I might finish up attaching the stakes to the long sides of the bed frame, and drilling the holes where the ends of the long sides screw into the braces. I don't think I'll get them put together and on the ground today. It  just feels as though my brains are bleeding out through my eye sockets.

Last week I sent a letter off to the Zoning Officer. I haven't heard back from him yet. Sometimes I think it is just easier to beg forgiveness than it is to ask permission. No one would have been any the wiser had I just gone ahead and gotten the chickens and rabbits. Now they're going to be looking at everything I do. Honestly, I detest living in a society that seeks so hard to protect its citizens that it smothers them. I would think my neighbors and I would be able to figure something out together. Perhaps that is just wishful thinking. Maybe we can't count on each other being reasonable anymore, and living in such close proximity to each other requires a person to be either reasonable, or regulated.

I have been reading a rather good book about seed saving and growing heirloom fruits and vegetables. It is called, Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. It is very complete, almost a text book on the subject. Unlike a text book, it is fairly easy to understand. Much of it I already knew from various biology classes I've taken, but it goes over pollination in greater detail. Also, population size has a great deal to do with successfully saving healthy, genetically diverse seed for future generations. I am not sure that I can overcome that hurdle. If I have to save seeds from 20 - 100 plants to ensure genetic strength, I will be using most of what I grow just to produce seeds, not for eating. Maybe I can make arrangements with other gardeners. I'm not sure another gardener would trust the seeds of a newbie though, and for good reason. It could wipe out everything they've worked hard to achieve.

As far as the raised beds go, I have the short ends completed. I bought 14 pieces of 5/4" x 6" x 12' cedar planks, 7 pieces of 5/4" x 6" x 8' cedar and a bunch of lengths of 2" x 2" cedar to cut 6" braces from. I bought a bunch of treated wooden stakes to help keep the long sides from bowing. I cut the eight foot lengths in half and drilled and screwed them into the 6" brace pieces. It was a fairly easy process, but I did break one bit, and an older bit seemed to be very dull and it eventually became so clogged with wood bits and sap that it no longer functioned. I already said what I have left to do, but with this headache it seems a bit daunting. My youngest daughter is going to help me tomorrow. That should make the task a bit easier and also provide some needed motivation to get it done. There's nothing like an audience to get you putting out an honest day's work! The photos here show the work I've done on the beds so far.

Day 19: I've Done It Now!

Here is where procrastination meets terror. I have all of my plants ordered, including 13 fruit and nut trees. The only things I have not ordered are raspberry canes and blueberry bushes. What I have not done, is terrifying. I have not got the raised beds constructed, nor have I physically gone out into the yard to place where the trees will be planted. And I have not started my seeds yet. This is the ugliness of my adopted nature. I am a terrible procrastinator, or Terribilis cunctatrix in Latin. I absolutely have to finish the beds this week. Even if I don't have everything I need for the fence, the beds must get done. I also have to start the seeds. I hope they all get here today.

I spoke to the local Zoning Officer for my township and found out that I cannot have chickens or rabbits on my one acre. It seems some few years ago, before this draconian ordinance was adopted, it was perfectly legal to have farm animals on your property. Now you must be the proud owner of 6 or more acres of land. What happened to make the council adopt such a drastic piece of law? Apparently a resident decided that they wanted to operate a hog farm on their one acre plot. He had 50 pigs at the time the council put their foot down. The Zoning Officer did tell me that all ordinances are written to have variances considered, bless his heart! So I have to write a letter to him the describes exactly what I want to do, and he will deny my request. That is what then gets the ball rolling on a variance. I am relatively certain that I can argue for a limited number of chickens and rabbits on my land. Then again, you never really know how immovable people are until you try to reason with them.

I have thought about the design for my smoker and have settled on using our old chest freezer as the "house" part of the smoke house. I bought some of the piping and fitting that will be needed. I even bought the cutest little chimney cap for it! I need to find some screen material to keep bugs out of the house, but that is all I need to get it built. Oh! I need something for the fire containment, but I haven't found that yet. I'll try to post photos of the project or maybe a video. It should be fun!

It's supposed to rain for the next few days. I expect that means I'll be paying the price for putting off building the beds for my garden. Terribilis nego Cunctatrix!

Day 15: Thinking Out of the Box For Daily Solutions to Problems.

I hate to admit it, but I am agreeing with liberals on something. We are living an unsustainable lifestyle. I have been groggily pondering this for several years, but I didn't wake up until my iPod Touch died. Rather it suffered from reduced usefulness. The battery is going bad in it and it no longer holds a charge. I had heard that Apple has a program for refurbishing old iPods and then selling them for a reasonable price. Apparently reasonable is a term that takes meaning in the mind of the individual considering its meaning. To me, charging nearly the same price as new was not my definition of the word reasonable. They have purposefully engineered their product to die and be useless after 2 - 3 years. I refuse to do that anymore. And then it struck me that for years I had been joking about planned obsolescence, and now I was clearly seeing it in action. What else do we commonly buy that follows roughly the same pattern? I really don't want to play that game anymore. I don't want to make myself poor in order to make some twit rich, all for the purpose of filling my life with crap that I can easily do without.

The difference between the liberal and conservative method of dealing with the problem is that a conservative will say that it is up to the individual to wake up and stop doing stupid things. The liberal will agree with that but go one step further. They will form a committee which will suggest that a new Government agency be formed that will have the authority to make people stop doing stupid things. Gah!

Now that I am well off of the path I wanted to take for this post, I will try to swing it back on target. What the heck does all that have to do with thinking out of the box? Just this: The other day I was on a forum lamenting the fact that I had just spent close to $400 to buy materials to make the raised beds for our new garden. One person reply to my post and asked, "Why'd you do something so stupid?" That's a paraphrase but his point was that I should have gone to the junk yard and found stuff I could have re-purposed. You know what? He's absolutely right! I could have saved a fortune on lumber, that in 5 years time will need to be replaced. Here's a video link which he sent me. I am looking for free stuff now, on Freecycle.org. I hope I can find flagstone and cinder blocks. I am also re-purposing an old chest freezer. One of my projects is to build a smoke house. This chest freezer will make an outstanding smoke house! And that is what thinking out of the box really is! I could easily have used the old freezer as a root cellar as well. These are simple examples of what we can do. And they can be made to look nice as well, if there is a need to do that.

And now I am off to do some work in the yard!

Day 15: Homesteading Book List

Gardening:

All New Square Foot Gardening

Mel Bartholomew

Cool Springs Press

Companion Planting:

Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Garden Successful

Dale Meyer

Atlantic publishing Group, Inc.

Root Cellaring:

Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables

Mike and Nancy Bubel

Storey Publishing

Seed to Seed:

Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

Suzanne Ashworth

Chelsea Green Publ. Co.

How to Grow More Vegetables*

(and Fruit, Nuts, Grains, and Other Crops)

*Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

John Jeavons

10 Speed Press

Animal Husbandry:

Chickens in Your Backyard:

A Beginner's Guide

Rick and Gail Luttmann

Rodale

Keeping Chickens

(Self-Sufficiency Series)

Michael Hatcher

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Barnyard in Your Backyard:

A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep and Cattle

Ed. by Gail Damerow

Storey Publishing

The Hive and the Honeybee

Ed. by Dadant & Sons

Dadant Publications

General Self-Sufficiency:

The Backyard Homestead

Ed. by Carleen Madigan

Storey Publishing

Back to Basics:

A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

Ed. by Abigail R. Gehring

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Self-Sufficiency For the 21^st Century

Dick & James Strawbridge

DK

Food Preservation:

Cheesemaking

(Self-Sufficiency Series)

Rita Ash

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Putting Food By

Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan

Plume (Penguin)

Independence Days:

A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation

Sharon Astyk

New Society Publishers

Charcuterie:

The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing

Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn

W. W. Norton

Miscellaneous:

Good Meat:

The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat

Deborah Krasner

Stewart, Tabori and Chang

Day 13: Another Day, Another Expenditure.

It's been 13 days since I started this homestead endeavor in earnest. If I am honest about it, I would say it is all proceeding at a snail's pace. That is good enough for me! Actually, in not too many days, I will have far too much to do all at once. Why is that? To begin with, I ordered a lot of vegetable seed from Victory Seeds. Then I ordered some plants from Burpee Gardening. And today I ordered fruit and nut trees from Jung. I am sure there will be a few more plants I will want to add to the garden over time, but they will have to wait. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew with what I have already ordered. I will suffer the Wrath of Hera should that happen. Translated: My wife will be miserably vexed and flayed!

I must begin construction of the raised beds tomorrow, rain or shine. Once those are completed, I will need to raise the fence around the garden area. Then I'll lay down the weed barrier cloth and cover that with the shredded hardwood mulch I have yet to purchase. A lot of what I have already done and am still doing is planning. It seems the more I read, the more my garden layout changes. At some point, I will just have to say, "Enough!" and just do it. Then I can make needed changes to next year's garden.

One of the books I'm reading right now deals with companion planting. Yes, I know it sounds sort of hippy-dippy, but I think there is some merit to it. And you really never know about something until you've tried it and worked at it a bit. Another gardening technique I'm reading about is succession gardening. When a crop dies off in the garden, you can follow it up with another crop, but you need to make sure that they are compatible. Apparently certain plants perform better or worse if they are planted after other plants in the same patch of garden. I suppose they shouldn't be planted next to each other in a bed either.

There is so much to consider in starting a homestead. The garden is actually the least of our challenges. What I really need to work on is energy considerations for both running electronics and energy for heating sources. If we can't keep the house warm in the winter, then we are in bad trouble. If we can't keep the freezer and refrigerator running in the summer, we are in moderate trouble. Later this summer I will start looking at options in earnest. Hmm... I seem to like the word, earnest. It's the second time, third including this time, that I've used it in this post. I suspect we are looking at solar power and maybe a wind powered back up. There are other things as well, but further down on my list. If the goal is to be as independent as possible, then we need to move away from a sceptic system and to a composting toilet. I'm not sure what that looks like, but the idea of the radical changes to our home scares the heck out of me! I'll have more to say about these other things later.

It's been a good day today! It's time to make dinner for my family and cart my youngest off to piano lessons after that. God is good!

I Guess It's A Start!

Today, or rather yesterday by the time I publish this post, I will have begun the physical work of transforming our humble patch of sand and weeds into a homestead. I went and purchased most of what I need to expand the current two raised beds into nine raised beds. I have all the lumber needed, which was not inexpensive, and most of what I need for the fence. I hate having to spend money on a fence, but there are almost as many deer in southern Jersey as there are people. All I need to do now is buy the mulch for the paths between the beds and the soil mix for the beds. Oh! And seeds would be good too! And a few plants here and there, like rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries, blueberries, apples, and so on...

So tomorrow, which will be today by the time I post this, I will construct the beds, and go buy the ingredients I need for the soil as well as mulch for the paths. How does one make soil, you ask? That is a very good question. You are very bright. I will simply follow the instructions in Mel Bartholomew's book, "Square Foot Gardening." He recommends a mix of equal portions of vermiculite, peat moss and compost. It is light, holds water well and is packed with nutrients needed by the plants. I must admit, in my experience with it from last year, it was a pain in the neck to mix, but it started the plants out well.

Although I have most of the seed I will be planting, there are a few last minute things I want to buy. This is where I can redeem myself in the eyes of my darling wife, or DW. If I can produce a good crop of Waltham Butternut Squash, I may be forgiven for spending half of our childrens' college fund on materials for the garden. There are other treasures I hope to coax out of the garden this year. I think all of my vegetables will be of the heirloom variety this year. I am a little bit concerned about this, because I don't know if I can grow different varieties of the same species only separated by a couple of yards distance. Once I figure that out (sources should be easy enough to find) then I can plan what to plant in each of the 9 beds. This is only a problem if I plan on saving seeds to plant again next year (which I do plan on) or if I want to trade seeds with other gardeners. I think that is more critical, because I don't want to gain a bad reputation among my peers.

I have to admit that I am really excited for this gardening year to get into full swing. I do hope that I will have enough produce to pickle and can and dehydrate. These are all skills I want to practice, and it would be so much more meaningful to practice on my own produce rather than items from the Farmer's Market. I am looking forward to tomorrow, or would that be today?

What Part of "Survival" Do I Not Understand?

I will be the first to admit that I am not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but neither am I brain dead. So why did it take so long to realize how detrimental to survival and self sufficiency being out of shape is? I have slowly, over the years become less and less active, and increased the amount of food and beverage I consume. This is not a good prescription for health and long life. About 15 years ago I quit smoking. It took a great deal of will power, but I was able to do it. But how do you stop eating? I understand it is a matter of caloric intake and the types of food consumed, but I can't imagine eating all the crap I can't stand every day. It's also about moving around a lot more than I do now. It's got to be more than just going for a daily walk, but I guess that will do for a start.

Heretofore I have not taken very good care of one of my two most important tools, my body. Since I know that my survival depends upon my health, and the survival of my family depends upon my health as well, it only makes sense that I try to improve it. Again, it will be baby steps. If I could lose 2 pounds a week, I would be near my ideal weight in a year. Here is what I am going to do. First, I am going to try to do more around the house. This would be good for my weight and also good because it is taking care of my family. I will also go for walks and bike rides. It would be great to ride my bike to the supermarket instead of driving there, especially with the price of gasoline going through the roof. Second, I am going to better control the portion size of my meals and snacks, and really try to eliminate the bad snacks. I will also eliminate eating after 8:00 PM. That should be my two pounds a week right there! Last, I am really going to start making an effort to get to bed much earlier than I presently do. More sleep means more energy the next day which means I'll be able to do more.

This coming week I need to lay out our new gardens, and build the compost bins. That includes going to Lowes to buy all of the posts, sakrete, fencing and chicken wire I will need for the enclosure, as well as the lumber for the beds. I also need to order seeds and plants, as well as the fruit trees we'll be planting. I have the final layout for the backyard mapped out. I need to get my hands on some rock for making the herb spiral and Kari's medicinal herb garden. There's a lot to get done in this next week. I hope I can do it. I may extend that out a bit. As long as I have the materials on hand, I can work a bit at a time. I can't plant until mid April anyway. Baby steps.

OMG! I'm a Survivalist?!?! And Other Thoughts.

Hmm... Let's see here. I believe that people should pretty much take care of themselves, and should NEVER demand that someone else takes care of them, or anyone else. Thought interruption here: Small children are not included in this. Diapers don't change themselves! I believe that it is wise to store up some food in the pantry and make sure you have a source of water just in case nature comes calling with 100 mph winds, earthquakes or unnatural amounts of snow, or for changes in employment status. Even the unthinkable can happen. Societies do collapse from time to time, and we seem to be pushing ourselves there from both ends. I like our Constitution and think it should be followed more closely to the Spirit in which it was written. It's time to stop playing games with it. It is not a "living" document. It is a contract between sovereign citizens and the Government they elected to protect them from people who would limit their rights (the Government). I believe that the Second Amendment is an acknowledgment that we have the individual right to keep and bear arms, and that this right shall not be infringed. OMG! I'm a survivalist!

With that out of the way, I can concentrate on more important matters. What have I done today to make any of my hopes, dreams and aspirations come true? Have I done anything to make me closer to God, be a better husband or dad, or to provide for my family? Well, in keeping with my promise to not be too blatant with you in regards to my faith, I'll remain silent in that area. Besides, I was lazy again, and didn't follow through.

As far as being a better husband and father, I did all the carting around that I needed to do and cleaned and cooked. It seems that the life of a stay at home dad is 20% driver, 15% errand boy, 3% IT services, 30% Cook/Butler and 32% figuring out how not to be bored by the other 68%. I think our decision of having me stay home while my wife pursued her career was the right choice for us on a family level. It may have been a less right choice on a personal level.

What did I do to provide for my family? I went shopping and bought quite a lot of extra food stuffs and then vacuum packed them when I got home. I also spoke with some people from our church who mill their own flour and corn meal. I'm getting advice from them on how to start up doing that myself. It wouldn't be very expensive to buy bulk grains and pack them in mylar bags in plastic buckets. This keeps the grains safe from rodents and moisture, and by using O2 absorbers in the bag, insect infestation in kept in check. Most grains can be stored for 20-30 years this way. I think Brown rice is shorter than that because of the high fat content.

These are the baby steps I am taking to become self sufficient. Things always seem to start out slower than we want them to.

The Single Step

I think of a journey home as something that will never end in this lifetime. Home is a place where you are safe and content. That cannot happen in a fallen world. That is where the journey comes in. It's a great action word, journey is. It evokes feelings of movement, adventure, discovery and for the optimist in me, it can even mean progress being made. I don't very much care for where I am in life right now, and so I journey home. I am seeking to be in a better place when the journey is ended, and a better person. If you'd like to come along, I wouldn't mind the company. Life without companionship is not as vibrant as it could be.

What is prompting this discontent with my life and my self? First, I realize that my relationship to God through Jesus is not what it should be. There are maintenance items I need to be doing, and have, through laziness, chosen not to do. How can you claim friendship with someone and not act like a friend? Second, I am a frustrated old man who feels quite inconsequential. That's pretty arrogant when you stop to think about it. Last, as I look out at my country and how it has changed over my lifetime, I am sure that whatever direction we take, we are in for a world of hurt. Both the political parties are controlled by very powerful people and organizations that do not have the common person's best interests at heart. I truly believe that the solutions we seek will be found on the individual level, not the community, federal or global. If we as individuals are not self reliant, hard working, honest and compassionate, then we can't expect our communities or other organizations to be better. They will in all likelihood be much worse due to group dynamics.

So how am I going to go about turning discontent into contentment? Therein lies the journey! For me, all things begin and end with God. I rededicate my life to the Triune God, and I will read the Bible more and pray more. I will seek to be more like my Lord, Jesus the Christ. This blog isn't about that part of my journey, but I want you to know from where I am coming. I am sure bits and bobs of my spiritual life will enter in here, but it isn't my intent to open it up to you. As far as feeling inconsequential, well I suspect that it is an attitude thing, and that will improve when my Christian walk straightens out and the last thing is underway. And what is that last thing? I am having trouble finding a word for it. Self sufficiency isn't right (nor is self reliance for that matter). As a Christian, I have to know that I am not sufficient in myself. I need God. But I guess that self sufficiency is the most understandable way of putting it. I want to grow and make and fulfill as many of my and my family's needs as possible. Certainly there are things I cannot and will not do for my family. I am not likely to perform an appendectomy on one of my kids. But I do think I can learn to grow and raise most of the food we eat on this one acre of New Jersey we presently call home. I think I can reduce the negative impact I have on this world and increase the positive by getting off grid for my energy needs. I think I can prepare my family to survive through a major weather or geological event and even thrive through it. I think I can learn all kinds of interesting, useful things on this journey.

Backyard Homestead