Bee~ Journal of then...

[Beekissed]

I think that's the case with most SSers nowdays, Me. Unless you are hard- core, off- grid living, then SS living has so many degrees. Some are quite content with living frugally and having a garden and a few chickens. Some want to go a little deeper and explore alternate energy sources. Some of us are trying to go as deep as we can with limited resources. Its all a learning curve.

I cannot go off grid, like I was raised, in the place I am today. If I had to do so again and make do in the woods again? Yes, I could. The property that I rent has no woodlands available and it is a rental, so this limits me right off the bat. So....needs must I live as close to SS as I can here.

That means creating more food sources, selling more produce from my property, and getting everything in place for harder times to come. Like the hand pump for the extra well on this place. Or finding better resources for firewood. Or getting honeybees, geese, lambs, chickens for an on-hand food source. Developing my soil to grow more things, laying away more in the cellar than I think I will need~just in case, developing my grasses in order to feed more livestock from my limited space.

All of these things are things that I hadn't had to try before, so I am reading up, trying it out, learning from other folks who have had success in the past. And, last but not least, participating in a forum with others who are striving in the same direction...more or less.

 

[me&thegals]

If only there were 48 hours in the day! During winter, I would spend half of them reading up on all the things I need to learn yet! You must be so excited about how many things are starting to fall into place for you!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

The only thing new I am trying this year, for now that is, is a small raised garden. I think I'm going to build a raised bed just for my lettuce first. See how it works for me, and if I am pleased with the results, I'll build more for next planting season.

Good luck with all your plans, Bee. I wish we were closer to eachother. It would be fabulous to work together on some of our goals!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm ecstatic! I always wanted to be a farmer but never got there. This will be like having my own little mini farm all to myself....an experimental balloon, so to speak.

I am so close to the road and people really check out my property as they go by...the folks around here are nosey in that way. I'm hoping that some will ask how my grass stays so green and lush, after I get it more developed through rotational grazing. I'm hoping they ask about the bees and the chickens when they buy the honey and eggs. About the garden that manages to stay lush and full with the use of mulching. I'm hoping they ask about the hair sheep breeds and start using them more around here.

People around here are very set in their ways about all these things, so I'm hoping they will see a difference in what they have been doing, and what I will be doing and want to learn. They already asked a lot of questions about my garden last year with the raised beds and permanent pathways, the trellising of tomatoes and the mulching that kept everything green without my having to water the garden.

I want others to see how simple it can be to grow more, produce more, to live more healthy and cheaply than they can right now, with just a little effort! I feel people are going to be scrambling for that information soon. Some people are visual learners and hardly ever read, so my place just might be the stimulus they need to make changes.

I guess you could say its sort of like a ministry for me. I'm trying to get the church to see the wisdom in having a food ministry, but the people aren't worried enough yet. Not enough to want to work for their own food, or to provide others with food. Soon, though.....

 

[Farmfresh]

I get some of that already! The fruit trees in my front yard are my "interest earners".

Our lot is 40 feet wide (Yes you heard it here - 40 feet wide!), so the fact that I raise my own fruit amazes the "townies". I have three strategically placed dwarf fruit trees - a Red Haven peach (cost $5.00 at a discount store), a grafted Fruit Cocktail tree (produces plums, peaches, apricots and nectarines and cost $19.00 from a discount seed catalog) and a young Lapin cherry tree (this on actually cost some bucks from Miller nursery) - all in the front yard. In addition to them I have a Latham raspberry bush (which did not do so well last year), a Nanking bush cherry (sour as all get out, but makes awesome jelly) and a Niagara grape that I use to screen my front porch from the neighbors house. I mixed all of this fruit well - added lots of annual flowers, a old fashioned lilac bush, Iceberg roses and lots of bulbs and it is really quite a pleasing picture and produces LOTS of food.

In the summer we have lots of walkers on the sidewalks and people are constantly stopping me to ask about the fruit trees. Most people tell me how the have to "keep checking on them" every time they pass by to see how the crop is doing. They ask a lot of questions about spraying (I use a dormant oil, but seldom anything else) and how much fruit do I get off of the trees etc.. Some people reminisce about the tree in their youth. They are fascinated about harvesting - "Do you actually eat it?" - they ask. People are SO detached from their food. If it is ripe I usually give samples. I always offer to help them get started if they decide to grow a tree of their own - but so far no takers.

 

[Beekissed]

Its kind of sad, really, how accustomed people are to the foods in the supermarket and anything else seems exotic and strange! Makes one feel like they are living on a strange planet and you don't speak the language.

I get a lot of questions about my chickens and people asked alot about my garden....I can't wait to hear the questions about my paddocks for the rotational grazing! It is sure to spark the gossip but I don't know how long reaching it will be as an educational tool for the local farmers.

But....I'm hoping!

 

[freemotion]

Never underestimate the impact you can have. You often don't know when and where a seed you planted in someone's mind will grow.

Maybe a local who sees what you are doing will tell a friend in another state who will be motivated to do research and make changes 5 years later.

I have been lurking on forums for a couple of years, and sometimes it takes me that long to research and plan and decide and get up the courage to spend the time and resources before I finally add a new project. I don't even remember where I saw or read or heard of it first.

My chickens went from mini-industrial model to au natural in the space of a few short months, when I discovered Harvey Ussery's site. It fit right into my thinking, but gave me the framework to put it into practice. And much more research gave me the courage to experiment on my own.

Wow, we are trained not to think for ourselves. Thank you, public school system. Thank you, too, to my parents for breaking out of that way of thinking and living when I was a child, and teaching me to think for myself on occasion!

 

[Beekissed]

Yep! If my parents hadn't started reading MEN in the 70s and got a wild hair to go and "live off the land", I wouldn't have the mindset I have today. Life turns on a dime and gives you two nickels in change sometimes, doesn't it?

You know, I tell my kids the same thing about how life and people can be affected by even the littlest things. I once made a joke to a pharmacy delivery guy and it got a weekly delivery of candy to a place that I had worked.....for the next nine years!!!! And nooone ever knew why the pharmacy was bringing candy....except me, when I hired back on 9 years after the fact! I was amazed to find out the legacy I had left behind....cavities and calories!

 

[freemotion]

Still trying to get up the guts to make a beeswax/cloth sandwich wrap.....figured if I typed it here, it might hold me accountable to try it.....

What was the candyman's joke? Must've been a good one! Tell it to the hay or feed guy, maybe you'll get feed for 9 years? Or the wood guy? or the fuel oil guy?????

 

[Beekissed]

Well, we usually got a huge pharm delivery each Sunday night for the whole facility and it was my job to check in all the meds..... One night a younger, chubby, fresh-faced fella came on the delivery and it was fun to see him blush, so I was teasing him a little. Well, anyone who knows me will tell you that I do joking with a deadpan face and so did my nursing compadre that I worked with. We told him the usual guy always brings candy and where was our candy? Well, the poor fella started sputtering around and said he didn't know that and was sorry! We burst out laughing and told him we were joking and just trying to get his goat.

The next Sunday night the sweet, dear boy showed up with a huge bag of peanut M&Ms!!! I left that job shortly after and only went back there to work around 9 years later. The first day I walked in I noticed little bags of candy at regular intervals at the nurse's stations. I asked if there was a special event or something and one of the gals pipes up and says, "The pharmacy guy brings them." Well, my breath caught in my throat for a minute and I asked her why the pharmacy brought candy. She answered, "Oh, they always do it~we don't know why!"

I started laughing and didn't stop until the tears ran! That poor,poor little boy! I felt so baaaaadddddd!