Dragonlaurel's journal- Community Garden

[dragonlaurel]

Trying to do a skills inventory to see how ready I am for homesteading.

SS - Skills I have already used:
Have "found" water & helped dig out a spring that was a good water supply for our home.
Spent over a full year living without electricity in a remote cabin. (more info on "SS-My Page")
Can cook on campfires with stones or grills, or use wood, coal, propane, gas or electric stoves.
Build fires well - whatever size is needed and safe for conditions.
Gathered and cut wood, sometimes with chainsaw.
Learned basic hurricane home prep & cleanup. House was fine but Hurricane Charlie laid 3 large trees down in the front yard.
Made strong bookshelves and could make other basic furniture.
Can do basic car maintenance. Chiltons & Haynes are great.
Can fix some household stuff myself.
Enjoy yard work- mowing, pruning, planting trees and small stuff.
Grew veg/herb garden, dried some, and saved some seed. Many compliments on garden!
Basic sewing skills.
Studied massage and various natural healing studies for self care. Made formulas that worked well for me.
Basic first aid for pets also.
Made disaster kit for use in hurricane area- most stuff would be good for other emergencies.
Can pick out good site and put up most tents with minimal or no help.
Can make basic pickles and learning to can.
Know how to bargain shop and barter.
Know how to be a friend. People helping each other is frequently the best way to do big jobs. (I still usually forget about asking for help.)

 

[Beekissed]

About time you got a journal going! Great start, too! Can't wait to read more...you have quite an impressive set of skills going into this, Dragon.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Hi Bee! Thank you! That's very reassuring coming from you. I never expected to live that way in Georgia but we didn't have money and somebody was trying to do an intentional community there. We went to check it out and stayed quite a while.
It's surprising how many times I've missed it. Modern life had so many distractions that really don't matter.
I think things through by writing them sometimes so you'll never know what may get into the journal or on my ss my page. Started with the my page then added the other.
BTW- Your Bettys are beautiful. Black Betty is hilarious too. Gotta love them. They are proof foraging and all that natural stuff works. They are lucky they have a Mama Bee that lets them live the way they should. I'm still figuring out which kind of sheep we should get, but I really want to raise them.

 

[Beekissed]

You know, you are right. After living off grid and off the land for 9 years during my formative years, I really miss the quiet simplicity of it all. The only struggle was against the elements, which is so basic as to not really be a struggle at all.

Living with the clock of the sun and by the seasons was just so natural that I really, really hate wearing a watch. Even to this day, I hate thinking about time. I liked living with the Earth's rhythm!

This is my first year with the sheep but it's turning out to be so simple and fun! They are such an easy care breed that it makes me wonder why anyone would raise other breeds. The folks in these parts stick with mostly Suffolks and they complain all the time about how fragile they are, how many die all the time, the coyotes getting them, etc.

I'm hoping, since I live by the road, that the people here will ask questions about them and get interested in the breed.

Can't wait until lambing time!

I'll be waiting for more tales of your living off the land....I like to hear about it even though I lived it. It still interests me how others do it. It's kind of rare now to find anyone doing such things.

 

[dragonlaurel]

I was about 25 when we were there. That was, . . . a while back.
I didn't realize you'd been off grid a long time. Cool. People are different inside once they know they can survive. My body loved running on solar time. It could care less about clock time though.

I'm glad you got good hardy sheep. They sound like a great mix for your needs. Summers are hot and sticky here so i have to think about that for sheep. I also want parasite resistance and want them to do well on rough land if needed. So far Gulf Coast sheep look good but I don't know if they have high fertility or not. They are rare too.
Any info would be welcome.

I want wool but it does Not need to be the fancy stuff. Wool prices are low here, so I would use it for our home or in products to sell. I could learn to spin or make felt. Low grade wool can stuff furniture cushions.

 

[dragonlaurel]

I did a great job of saving money yesterday! I am crazy about books- especially How-To and stuff like that. I got carried away again.

How about this bunch for some good reading material :

Everything You Must Know About Building Your Own Country Home- Homer Emery

Be Your Own Architect- Gene B Williams

Gaia's Garden A guide to Home-Scale Permaculture- Toby Hemenway

Backyard Seed Saving- Sue Stickland

Weeds and What They Mean- Ehrenfried E Pfeiffer

Small Scale Livestock Farming- (Grass Based) Carol Ekarius- Storey books

Backyard Livestock- Revised Steven Thomas - George P Looby

You Can Farm- Joel Salatin


:bun :bun

They were all at my local library !!!!

If you don't hear from me as much for a while - y'all know what I'm up to. I 'll still be on some though. Reading like this just reinforces my SS desire. Hopefully it will help me figure out ways to make it happen sooner and more easily too.

 

[Beekissed]

EXCELLENT book choices!!! I'd like to read a few of those myself...a few I've already read, like Salatin.

If you didn't want wool I would recommend any of the hair sheep breeds, they actually came from, and thrive well, in hot climates. The Gulf Coast breed sounds good but they do seem a little hard to get a hold of. Someone on BYH has some or are getting some.

I hope to write a short book on our off grid experience and found that we have plenty of pics of that time, so it should be kind of fun to read. Of course, we were totally without money, so it's not the off grid stuff you see in MEN now days. It was rawboned living with a lot of work and not much glamour.

 

[lorihadams]

I wish my library had those books!!!

I would love to try living off the grid. I think the biggest thing that I would have to have is the computer. We use it for soooooo much....my kids are homeschooling already and we use it every day to look up information about things they are interested in. We would have to have solar and wireless....I could live without tv if I had access to my computer. I would miss everyone on here too!!!

I'm glad to see you on here, looks like we could learn a lot from you!!! Wanna teach a class???

 

[Dace]

Wow what a great selection of books! I guess we'll here from you again around November

 

[dragonlaurel]

Hair sheep have definite advantages but my Mom in law has a nice loom and I could supply her with wool. She makes period costuming that is incredible! I could stuff cushions with the part that doesn't spin well and learn to felt. I found a how to article on it already.

Wool quality on the Gulf Coast sheep is not consistent but they were brought to the south by the Spanish explorers and adapted through the centuries to this climate. They are parasite resistant too. I wish they were more common though. I don't want inbreeding and would have to be careful there.

I wish I had some pics of the place in Ga. but I didn't have a camera when I was there. I will want to read your book.