Last Days of Fall

Fall has been keeping me awful busy. Not having to water, weed and pick pests has given me a chance to knock out some daydream projects. The state of the beds is strong. The front terraced beds are loaded with cover crop and the field pea tendrils are delicious when they still have the morning dew hanging. Last week I planted the last row of Music and Susanville garlic. The other rows have between 4 to 6 inch shoots. The radishes and oats have a strong showing on either side of the garlic rows; enough so that something decided to nibble on the baby radishes. The kale and mustard greens have been a welcome addition to all meals.

Yesterday I decided to pull the trigger on a new blackberry bed on the north side of the house. It is a gamble to put in on the side of the house, but I believe the plant will get enough sun during the spring and summer to produce. Once again, I am amazed by the soil I encountered under the turf. A hummus rich mixture from decades of grass clipping. The new bed is pictured to the top right. The sides are made from salvaged 4X4 s painted red. They are trenched into the ground past turf level and the removed soil was mounded in the center and covered in black plastic. This will be the future home of some root cutting I made last weekend. I snipped a mixture of old and new canes, dipped them in a hormone growth mixture, potted them and placed them in the green house. Hopefully they will root and like their new home.

In the back, I am trying to prepare for an awesome spring. The back raised bed was filled and seeded with a soil builder cover crop from Fresh Start Organic Supply Co. Steve Paradis, the owner and farmer, came out to the house and did some filming last weekend. He is gradually compiling a series of 3 minute videos that offer advice and know-how for small scale organic and sustainable agriculture. It was great to be able to share as well as see Steve's perspective.

Two weeks ago I worked with the twins for an afternoon. Besides stealing leaves from the streets to sill up the compost, we did some planting for the greenhouse. We made four flats of 6 three inch pots of red leaf lettuce, kale, mustards and spinach. All flats have seedling in each except mustard. They appear to be spindly due to lack of sunshine. I am not sure whether this is due to the structure, the location or the overcast weather we have had since they busted out.

The old herb garden received a makeover today in preparation for ducks. Sarah and I installed a pond. It measured 3 feet in length, 2 feet wide and a varied depth with the deepest at 2 feet. The main purpose of this pond is to be a water source for the Indian Runners in the spring. I also hope to plant cattails for their tubers and also because they remind me of my youth at 519 Old Skippack in Lederach. Mosquitoes will hopefully be eaten by goldfish I will toss in the pond. The problem of drainage was an issue. Sarah and I tried to resolve the problem by connecting the pond with the rain barrel on one side to fill it and by installing an overflow hose that is buried along the edge of the yard, ending 8 inches below ground in the 4 in PVC pipe that runs down the center of the first raised bed. This pipe is then covered in river rock. The plan is then to dig 8 in deep laterals off of this 6 ft pipe trench to fill with rock. These will provide water circulation underneath of the raised bed to deep rooted crops.

I have finished tanning 12 rabbit hides in two batches. They are tanned in a mixture of water, salt and aluminum sulfate which I found out not only preserve rabbit pelts but destroy brand new cell phones. After a week and a half, they can be washed, dried and broken. So far I have made a hat (pictured above) which I showed to my kiddos at school. The next day one of my favorite students showed up with a tanned hide of his own to have me show him how to make a hat. I am not sure you can even learn that in a private school atmosphere.

Other products are currently mellowing. The next rainy day I will take out a plug of tobacco that has been pressing out and reload the presses. It has an earthy sweet smell and taste but could use more honey on the next round. The wine which has been aging at Bryce's might be a failed experiment. The idea of crushing the seeds, instead of enhancing the nutrient value of the wine, released a massive amount of tannins which create an incredibly bitter after taste that barely make it worth drinking. My advice was to make some vinegar or possibly make a still and make some grappa. The cool thing about messing up is that you always get another adventure. When you get it right the first time, you need to find something else to mess up.

Fall Projects

Huge projects from the last week: harvested 18 rabbits, tanned 6 hides, completed my greenhouse/hotbed, moved a yard of compost into my planters, planted another 10 ft row of garlic and pressed two plugs of tobacco.

Besides the cabbage and brussel sprouts, the front is blasting with fall cover crops. An exciting experiment that turned out was intercropping oats and radishes in the chicken compost/manure mix. Thankfully the manure didn't burn the plants and hopefully they are breaking down the soil for some of the more sensitive crops of next spring.

The reason I am writing this entry is to discuss the pictures above. The construction of the greenhouse/hotbed (ghhb) was an ongoing project that changed as I read more and found things on the side of the road. Besides the paint and plastic, all of the materials are previously used materials. It currently stands at 6.5 ft tall, 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep and set 8 inches below the ground. I started building this structure to start my own seedlings and get a head start. As I researched, I saw the need for an independent heat source and connected my question to my studies in world history, especially the Romans, who made some of the first hot beds. These structures in Rome used mica for the panes and piled the floors with high nitrogen manure to provide heat as it broke down.

I placed a thermometer on the top rack of the ghhb which has a sensor on the main body and another which I have placed on the bottom rack. With this thermometer I have been recording the maximum and minimum temperatures without the manure to understand how the temperature inside compares to that of the outside. So far, my maximum temperature has been 101.8 at the top sensor while the temperature outside was 76. The lowest temperatures inside the ghhb, 38, have occured on the few frosts this fall.

My hope is to use the height of this structure to control the temperatures to which the plants are exposed. The problems that I already see with this design is not having a proper ventilation system. In full sun, which will occur in the winter and fall when the leaves fall, the temperature at the top of the structure could reach temperatures that will fry sensitive plants and possibly set them up for disaster when the temperature drops to near freezing at night. I am hoping that the chicken manure will be able to mediate those temperature changes. I do not believe this will be functional during December and January but hope to start seedlings in the second half of February and the beginning of March.

Update and Rant

The first frost is looming. My gourd plants turned black and wilted due to temperatures in the 30's last night. Cover crops are blasting and, with the first sun in a week, the radishes and oats I planted on last Saturday are pushing up through the soil. In researching natural pest remedies I realized that the big white grubs I have been finding in my softest and richest soils have been Japanese beetles in larval form so I have been diligent in picking them out and letting the chickens have games of grub football. I hope it isn't weird that I get a sense of satisfaction knowing that I am eating processed grubs when I make a sweet omelet.

The demands of livestock have been weighing on my mind. Each time I leave the homestead, my chores burden those around me, mostly Sara. I have decided to create a fowl rotation where I get a new set of chickens each Easter and keep two sets up until December when I process the older set which would be 1.5 years-olds. With this system I would have roasters (if they are tender enough) for the holiday and would most likely be able to find a chicken sitter for the break.

This system does not allow for rabbits though. I forget who said it when I started raising rabbits, but he said people who start raising rabbits rarely do it for long. At the time I did not think so but it proves so for me. I will not be able to process the two breeding pairs I have. They have been with me too long. Luckily I have been building a reservoir of favors through rabbit meat. The rabbit products have been pretty fantastic though. Paul has perfected a braised rabbit stew, and I have started the week long process of tanning pelts with the hope of making a hat.

Each day the tobacco hanging in the garage smells better and better. I have been researching how to make plug tobacco and decided to make a tobacco press which will consist of a wooden box with a lid in which I will layer the cured leaf moistened with a mixture of molasses/honey/sugar and water/bourbon depending on the desired flavor. I will then press this in my vise for up to 30 days or until it is like a block of wood. Hopefully I can execute this project before I head home for the holidays.

Rant:
My trip to SoCal made me think an awful lot about a culture that can create the American ideal of middle class in the middle of a desert. As I reflected on the green lawns in the developments and the South African oranges in the Louisville Kroger when I knew California oranges were ripe, I became disappointed. The concept of place which has defined lifestyles, architecture, knowledge, language, religion, nutrition and, in general, the foundation of our culture, has become a non-factor in American society. On account of this, I believe people have lost the cultural context from which to build a healthy personality and ego to function in society.

Besides roofing materials, the houses which are quickly constructed in the growing suburban developments are mainly the same: stick construction, kitchen flowing into the over sized living room, 3-4 bedrooms, two baths, and a green lawn. Each house provides a place for each family member to define and become a separate individual while leaving out the past community architectural feature of a front porch. Little concern is given to the climate of the region as suburban houses in Tuscon, Arizona look the same as those in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Many people in my generation and my parents have been provided a mobility that has mixed up the regional cultural definitions to where the past rural practices are overwhelmed by the immigrant traditions of the American middle class mass.

My students at school every Monday explain how they spent the weekends playing soccer, pressing buttons on controllers and sending text over the internet. The small minority has been exploring the natural character of north central Kentucky. I am positive this trend is consistent across the country as children have little contact with the natural world around them and the synthetic world of technology that breaks down the regional cultural differences accepts them and connects them. The children reflect the lives of their parents who get in their cars in the morning, adjust the heater or AC and cruise to work with the windows up, spend the day at the office, and cruise home to cart their children from sports to playgroups and then home to the comfort of the living room and glow of the television. Most parents only interaction with nature is manicuring their lawns which contain some of the most exotic and intensive plant cultivation in the states.

The fall festivals during this time of the year are a remnant of the connection that tied people to a place, the bounty of the earth around them. Consuming what came of the soil on what you lived made you a part of that place. If we take that idea and look at what we are now, we are made from nutrients and minerals from across the globe. Let us not forget that many of the compounds that become part of us originate in fertilizer and pesticide factories.

As we try to standardize the surface of our earth to the American middle class ideal of existence, as accents are erased by text and region-neutral newscasts, as deserts are made into lush green lawns, we still have the weather to affect our lives. Although we have AC and forced air heat, in some places it still stays warm all of the time. In some we have seasons. In some we have snow, and in some we have rain. This is the last shred of the cultural context that "place" is allowed to have on our lives. Through this loss of a regional foundation, I believe that people are provided with a blank canvas in developing their own personalities. Without the guide of "place" which provided the sketch on that canvas, I believe we lose a sense of the past and the wisdom that resides there. We lose the food cultures and local traditions fade as people disconnect from the land. Without the connection to the land, people lose a sense of patience as nature grows, humility in the face of the majesty of the natural world and, most important, conservation as the American ideal of entitlement of wealth defines the new person and ego. I am not a Luddite. I do not propose dismantling the Internet, but I do believe in acknowledging the world around us in more than the role of an obstacle. In this recognition of something larger than ourselves lives our humanity.

Edible Schoolyards and Chicken Manure

As my plants seem to slow down and my body tries to hunker down as fall comes to the Ohio Valley, school and the people around me demand lightspeed movement. The contradiction has placed me on my couch under a blanket typing e-mails. Compromise.

On Sunday I returned from an inspirational trip to southern California where I discovered a story and a rant:
Story: Arriving in the dark at Rancho Cucamunga, I was pleasantly surprised when I woke at 6 to the beginnings of dawn and drank a pot of coffee as the sun rose and lit up Mt. Baldy behind me. The sunrise in the desert is always the best because even people can't mess up the feeling of morning in the dry and stark landscape. After trying to wake up my brother by busting in his room, I started my second pot in the sun while he unlocked, shook his head and joined me in the day. I was not sure what anything else looked like besides the mountains outside my brother's backyard since it is walled in with 7 foot concrete block walls and the whir of his sprinkler system blocked out any of the natural sounds that would indicate anything that belonged.
Our adventure began and my story climaxed as we drove out of his neighborhood in his gray Prius. Viewing the world though a cracked windshield, my brother pointed to a lone aged house tucked between the McMansion developments he had helped sell. In the front yard an old hunched man, resembling the worn look of his home, slowly made circles under an orange tree while, who I assumed was his wife, performed a similar ritual under the adjacent tree. Brian, my brother, explained how the man and woman had lived at the house an eternity, which in SoCal time is more than three years, and each year they tend their double lot of citrus trees and sell them to the residents in the developments as they begin and end their commute into LA.
I was amazed at this situation. This ancient married couple managed to find a life close to the soil, creating a home together and a creating functional market in their yard while the people who bought their fruits drove into traffic or out of traffic in their cyclical grind of life. Isn't the life of these old people based in companionship, wholeness, hard work and home what the commuters are searching for in the sea of traffic?

Rant: Will have to wait till next time.

Update:

Since my last post the fall/winter transition continued. I tore out the dried bean vines in the former potato patch, composting the vines and saving the beans for planting next year. Working around the kale and mustards that grew along the edge, I used a leaf rake to pull the old straw mulch from the top of bed, broke the bed to a depth of 6 inches by using a potato fork (thick pitchfork), and hoed the top two inches into three raised rows. In between the rows I placed four 20 gallon tubs of chicken manure enriched compost from my coop and broke up the clumps. In these compost gullies I broadcasted a mixture of hulless oat seed and radish seed in hopes for the oats to penetrate deeply into the bed and provide conduits for future root and for the radishes to feed my rabbits a last bit of green before the winter. In the three raised rows of the prime topsoil of the bed, I plan to plant a pound of garlic cloves as fall progresses. I ordered 8 ounces of Susanville and Music garlic and plan to plant 8 cloves of each every weekend for the next two months starting at the southside of the bed. The desired result of this planting is to find the prime time to plant garlic in the fall for the area. After having the first 16 cloves in, I covered the row with six inches of straw to insulate from the winter cold.

The cabbage and brussel sprouts continue to blast along in the top bed. Three early dustings of Dipel, an organic fungal insecticide, seemed to knock out the cabbage worms which slow the growth of many seedlings. I look forward to these cabbages after pulling out two gallons of ruined cabbage that should have been beautiful sauerkraut, one a which should have been a red wine kraut. The problem with the two ruined gallons was a low salt content which lead to hastened rotting and sliminess. On the upside, the gallon that turned out used jalapenos harvested on the property.

Today was a massive gain in momentum for the edible schoolyard at my school. It is encouraging to receive the support and more plans will be described as the parameters are set.

Don't show you are happy when it rains.

After 4 weeks of the dry breath of late summer, the fall rains started on this past Sunday morning while I dozed in bed. Smiling, I slapped the snooze button as the rain pittled against the black plastic that had been stretched out the front door a day before. As the water trickled down the water spout into the Rubbermaid tub for my irrigation system and soaked into the new mulch on my beds, I could almost feel the relief of everything green in Kentucky and imagine the plants putting out their tongues like children with the first snowflake of winter.

Monday morning ended this moist euphoria as I stepped through the automatic sliding door designed by the Honda company. In preparing for my habitual fake nap which saves me from having to speak early in the morning carpool, I couldn't help but overhear the more than usual negative tone coming from the front seat. "This rain ruins everything." "I can't wait till it stops." "Oh great, the weather here is miserable. I can't wait till vacation when I can get a break from rain and kids." Squeezing my eyes tighter didn't quiet the voices, and my restless fake nap was only redeemed by the fact we had to run through the rain to get into the school building with the negative voices screaming and covering their hair.

It is Thursday night and it is still raining. The hulless oats have sprouted. The fall green manure that I planted the 12th is blasting. Everything else on the property seems to be giving it a second go. Life is good.

It has been a month since my last blog post. I will confess some failures. My radishes were too spicy and bitter to eat. I did not keep the ground moist enough and those that did not bolt were thrown aside by the rabbits. A opossum got into the hen house due to a board that warped in the rain. All of the chickens are safe and they think I am the man since I climbed into the coop shirtless at 6:00 am to take out the big bad 'pos. My beans in the former potato bed look terrible most likely due to inconsistent watering. Both of my rabbit does did not drop litters even though I bred them on the 22 of August. I am not sure of the reason for the malfunction. It could have been stress that caused miscarriages when I left them in the care of Dr. Chaos for three days. It might have been too soon for Big Momma since her last little and possibly too early for Sleigh who is about 6 months old and on her first litter. Breeding will cease until spring.

On the positive side though, I have added two new beds in the back yard. Together I will have 200 more square feet of prime planting with direct sunlight for the months of March, April and May. These will be perfect for potatoes and greens for the first stage and vines for the second half. The two front hills have also been prepped for next year. Both the front and the back are covered in black plastic as seen above. The reason for this is to kill grass and weeds underneath and provide a nitrogen boost to the soil as they decay. The beds in the back will have the plastic removed, and the soil will be spaded to break up the clay and allow deeper root penetration in the spring. In the front, the plastic will remain to prevent erosion. Cultivation will occur in 6 in circular cuts through the plastic in which seedlings will be placed and supported with mulch. An irrigation system for this hill is still in the works.

After removing the summer garden, I tilled both beds and added 50 lbs. of compost to each by double digging (digging a trench in two layers and placing the top of one in the bottom of the adjacent trench). On the top layer I placed a fall green manure mix containing winter rye, cow peas and hairy vetch which should act as nitrogen fixers, an anti-erosion tool and future compost to be mixed in during the spring.

With the help of Dipel, an organic bacterial/fungal dust, I was able to take down an infestation of cabbage worms. My brussel sprouts and cabbage are some of the most beautiful plants that I have seen. My fingers are crossed to get some cabbage before it gets too cold. Another couple gallons of sauerkraut would be uber-fantastic.

On Saturday, we harvested 8 rabbits totalling 16 lbs. of local organic tender rabbit meat as well as 8 more hides to be tanned. I never receive outspoken support for my raising of rabbits but it always seems that all meat is spoken for before the first swing of a cleaver. Tanning the hides will begin when the temperature is consistently 80 degrees or lower. The solution of aluminum sulfate will not be effective at higher temperatures, and the last thing I want is a bucket of rotting rabbit skins in my backyard.

Chickens are producing. Since the last blog post on the 18th of August, an average of 2.7 eggs a day has been achieved. This number would increase if double yolk eggs are counted as more than 1 and the size of the eggs, which is too large to fit in standard cartons, is adjusted for. The integrity of the eggs is amazing. I take pleasure in feeding the chickens grubs knowing that they will convert it into something that is not only edible but is delicious.

The most awe inspiring event on the homestead is the picture of what looks like a twig at the top of this post. Look at it again and turn your head to the left. That's right. The larger stem is the apple root stock and the twig coming off to the right was the grafted bud from a Pixie Crunch tree. Based on the qualities of the root stock, the tree will be semi-dwarf, resistant to scab and cold hardy. Based on the bud grafted to the stock, it will produce sweet crisp apples that contrast to the crab apples that would have been produced by the original stock. In February I will cut off all growth above the bud and force all growth to go out of the graft.

Until next time, enjoy the rain in your fake and real naps.

August 18th- My First Egg!!

In the past week I have experienced some more firsts. I had my first school day of my forth year. I had my first meeting where I imagined I was the Hulk and smashed the tables in half, storming out in a cloud of dust (this happens about four times each school year). Shortly following that first, I found, cooked and ate my first egg. It was a brown egg. It was a delicious egg with the whitest white I have ever seen and the deepest orange yolk that screamed "I am rich in omega 3 fatty acids and beta carotene." I interpreted that as fry me in butter over easy and enjoy. Life is good.

This past Friday, the 14th, I went straight to my garden to decompress from the second day of school. After cleaning up some of the unused portions of the former potato patch, I continued planting my fall garden. Based on the relation to other crops in the patch, I planted the following based on their heights: Winterbor kale, spinach, Savoy Tatsoi (mustard greens), and Royal Red lettuce. The kale and lettuce have already started to pop up. In the same patch, radishes are about to be pulled in another couple of day.

The back yard in also in the process of transformation. Apples trees turned out to be a bad idea in the back. Through the combination of aphids, fire blight and less than 8 hours of sun, on had died and the other was sick. In comparison, I have a 1b apple stock tree in the front parking strip on which I grafted Pixie Crunch bud that is kicking butt even with some aphids. There is nothing quite like smearing aphids on you fingers from the tips of your plants and watching the ants that herd them for their butt nectar flip out. So, getting back to the back yard. After pulling up the apple trees, I created a 10x10 box out of 2x6 untreated boards with pointed 2x4's at the corners. I laid down black plastic in the area of the box to kill the vegetation and set the box on the ground. My plan is to let the plastic sit on it for at least a month or maybe through the winter and then double dig the earth beneath, adding compost and topsoil to bring the level up 4 or 5 inches. This area gets full sun in the spring because the trees are bare, it will be perfect for some greens and early crops that will appreciate the shade from the hot sun when the leaves grown in. I am not sure what will grow during the height of the summer but will do some experimenting. I am planning to put another raised bed box closer to the house where the tobacco is now growing.

I will also add a note to my tomato and pepper plants who are producing at maximum capacity. I have been able to give away some massive green tomatoes and a bag of tomatoes and peppers to the neighbor across the street. My jalapenos also aided me in winning second in my BBQ competition. After drying them in my oven, I crushed them and mixed them into my pork rub. It gave me the bite that set me above the rest.

August 10th-In the Midst of Massive Education

As a teacher, I sometimes wonder what I am doing in a classroom. Over the past 5 months I have taught more and engaged to a deeper level my two 11 year-old neighbors. Each evening when they see me in the backyard they ask permission to help. After scampering over, we usually pull some weeds and feed them to the rabbits and chickens or eat some ourselves. Tonight we munched on some lemon-tasting clover and ate toothache plant flowers which makes your entire mouth like it has pins and needles (like when your leg falls asleep). We then checked the gourds for powdery mildew and mold, the tomatoes for blossom end rot and pulled up this Frankenstein carrot. As we posed for pictures with our monster, a discussion looking into why the carrot didn't look like the ones from the super market ensued. The reasons for this, we decided, was that rocks and clay didn't let it grow straight and caused it to shoot out in all directions. We decided that next year we could make a mixture of sand and compost to put in 2 liter soda bottles with their tops cut off for the carrots, solving the problem of rocks, clay and space. It is seldom that learning, as seen in the picture above, is experienced in a traditional classroom. Possible homesteading classes or farm camp in the future?

For myself, I am trying to educate myself on fall and winter gardens while at the same time keeping my plants producing. My peppers are beautiful but have no idea when to harvest them. The cayenne peppers are 6 inches but still green. The jalapenos are swelling but not cracking. I might resort to taste-testing them but my heartburn from starting school tells me it would be a terrible idea. After losing one gourd to powdery mildew, I placed the others up on wood blocks. Luckily the gourd vines are in my deceased neighbors lawn so I don't look like a complete maniac. Radishes are blasting up in the former potato patch. Having never grown them before, I have little idea of what a healthy radish looks like and will aim to pull them around the 20th of this month, about 30 days after they were planted. They will hopefully become a gallon of Sauruben, fermented diced radish, similar to sauerkraut.

On the sauerkraut note, I processed my first gallon on traditional sauerkraut. It was a simple recipe of brine, caraway seeds and cabbage. The mixture fermented for 10 weeks in my cellar undisturbed in its gallon glass jar sealed with a plastic bag filled with more brine. Pulling the bag out, the sharp odor was amazing although the strings of mold that formed around the edges of the sealing bag were not as appetizing. I sterilized the rim and interior of the jar with a vinegar solution and packaged the kraut for distribution to friends and freezing. Following the traditional kraut, I processed my second gallon of Turkish kraut which is a mixture of fresh ginger, crushed red pepper, fresh garlic, cabbage and a brine. This is only aged for 10 days, making it relatively quick to make with few of the mold worries. I took a pint of this in to school for lunch yesterday with unforeseen benefits that no one wanted to talk to me on account of the potent breath and it also woke me up through the intense and warming consumption experience. The Rio Verde cabbages I planted over the weekend should grow to 5-7 pounds and should put my fermented cabbage production into orbit. I am glad a I grew up in a Pennsylvania Dutch area because it sounds like I have my Christmas gifts taken care of.

I know not many people are reading this right now, but it would be appreciated if we could brainstorm on how to incorporate this homesteading into the classroom to knock down some of figurative walls in modern education.

August 8th 2009- Return to the 'ville

My return to Louisville had some strikes and gutters. The sunflowers got blasted by 6 inches of rain in an hour. The cucumbers died due to bacterial wilt brought on by striped and spotted cucumber beetles. The chickens got a chance to do some swimming also. On the upside, the gourds are going strong. I ate an amazing tomato today. Grape vines, hummingbird vines, artic kiwis, toothache plant and black berries are explosive. I also got to sex my new litter of rabbits today (split them up based on gender).

In removing the sunflowers and other damaged plants, I prepared the soil for my fall crops. After using my pitchfork to break up the soil, I planted 6 seedlings of Rio Verde cabbages which should grow to 5-7 pounds and 6 seedlinds of brussel sprouts. I purchased a package of kale, spinach, mustard greens and red lettuce to start from seed in the next couple of days.

Due to the craziness in the new growth, I also trellised the blackberries and rasberries in the front using five metal posts and mason's string. Hopefully this will allow more air to circulate around the canes and at the same time make them easier to cultivate, prune and harvest.

July 29, 2009- Manifesto

Since the first warm days of the past spring, a culmination of passions has led me down a path of urban homesteading. These passions developed into cultivating my front yard, installing rain water catchment and irrigation systems, sustaining a herd of rabbits and a flock of chickens, pickling various fruits and vegetables and voraciously researching modern modes and past practices of agriculture, sustainability, community, and self-reliance.

The first passion pulling me towards these activities is enjoyment. I get a kick out of eating rabbits I raised and processed. Engaging the neighbors' kids in the changes happening in the garden and teaching them to squash striped cucumber beetles and seeing their excitement makes me feel whole. In the morning, when I can go to my front lawn and choose the potatoes and onions for my hash browns, it is the best high I have ever had.

My second passion is the quote, "Think globally, act locally." Coming of age in a society of entitlement, I am daily confronted with a world of shrinking resources, demands of instant gratification, and a constant faith in "growth and progress" where hyper-individuals have eschewed the concepts of sacrifice, patience, temperance and moderation in the face of dire consequences. Through my recent activities I have attempted to provide food for myself that does not require petroleum for fertilizer or transportation with the hope of reducing my impact in the largest petroleum using field in America, agriculture.
My garden has become a source of interest and interaction in the neighborhood. As each neighbor stops to share a memory of food or farming, offer a tip or explain amazement over their realization that potatoes don't grow on trees, he or she is recreating a community and experiencing nature's patient pace as each plant grows. This community and experience in patience provides a contrast to the digital world of instant information and impersonal "personal" relationships.
As seen in the examples above and unlisted others, I am trying to confront the emotionally and physically unsustainable system by ameliorating my role in American society that exists in the larger world.

History is my third passion. In the last three generations, human society and existence has changed drastically in many parts of the world. As each day passes, our lives grow farther away from how humans spent the majority of their past in the paleolithic as an integral member of a relationship-rich band and, more recently, tied to the land in cultivating our own food.
Growing up in a rural Pennsylvanian Dutch region the remnants of the tight agricultural community offered a glimpse of a different world. The stories elders shared created a world which offered a salve for some of my own societal longings. I believe that my generation and possibly others have these "societal longings" which we constantly try to fill with More: cars, clothes, facebook friends, McMansions, etc. Being close to others while tied to the soil has a power that is unmatched by any of the More.
Also present in these generations is the loss of a heritage. Whether one of the first immigrants on the Mayflower, a forced migrant from Africa, or one escaping a famine, most traditional food cultures and the community it has created have largely been forgotten and replaced by a broken food system. In my present activities, I am trying to reach back and reconnect to my own past.

In writing this blog, I am not trying to trying to change the world but document how I think I should be living my life. More importantly than that though, is to have an accurate calendar for my crops and harvest. Please respond with your thoughts and comments.