Late last year I took a big step toward realizing a lifelong dream.
Anyone who knows me knows that my beliefs and lifestyle have always veered a bit left of center. One of those beliefs that I haven’t spoken much about until now focuses on the concept of the retirement plan and all that such a plan entails. It will probably come as no big surprise that my ideas about a plan for retirement are far different from what is generally accepted. Those ideas are what lead me to the next chapter in my life.
While reading last night I happened upon a quote that filled me with such utter joy, I wanted to share it with MEG readers.
"When you think of me, you must think of me as one who is truly happy. It is true, I want a great many things I haven’t got,but I don’t want them enough to be discontented and not enjoy the many blessings that are mine. I have my home among the blue mountains, my health, well-formed children, my clean, honest husband, my kind, gentle milk cows, my garden which I make myself. I have loads and loads of flowers which I tend myself.
There are lots of chickens, turkeys, and pigs which are my own special care. I have some slow old gentle horses and an old wagon. I can load up the kiddies and go where I please any time. I have the best, kindest neighbors and I have my dear absent friends. Do you wonder I am so happy? When I think of it all, I wonder how I can crowd all my joy into one short life."
from Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
A few days ago I was sent a link to a BCC documentary that I’d not heard of before. It was a social and anthropological experiment carried out in the late 1970s in England and by all accounts it may well be the first “reality show”. In it, the participants (6 couples and three children) were asked to spend 13 months living life as though they were in the Iron Age. Thanks to the Internet Age, the entire documentary can now be viewed online via YouTube.
I was fascinated by this experiment and have often wondered what it might be like to recreate a similar one, albeit from a different era. What would it be like to live life for a year like our ancestors did before they had power, plumbing or running water? Could we survive living as pioneers, like they did in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books? Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to find out. Yes, I’m just crazy enough to try it.
Please set aside some time to watch this documentary. It is broken into six parts, with each segment lasting about 10 minutes.
Fair Warning: While this documentary does contain incidental nudity, there is nothing of a sexual nature in it whatsoever.
Given the issues I have had with a certain family that shall remain nameless herein, I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the book Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living. When author Rachel Kaplan contacted me I had high hopes, but when it comes to books that talk about homesteading and sustainable living I tend to be perhaps overly critical as these are areas that are particularly close to my heart.
In other words I was a little nervous about reading the book because I really wanted it to be good. Thankfully, Kaplan and co-author K. Ruby Blume do not disappoint.
One of the strengths the pair draws upon is an ability to make the urban homesteading movement an intensely personal one, in which we are each able to define our own reasons for being where we are. The truth is that the entire book is focused on personal exploration and the importance of finding our place on this planet. Informative without teetering too close to being preachy, Kaplan and Blume cover everything from peak oil to biodiesel, growing it yourself, buying locally and even remembering how crucial it is to take care of our spirits as well as our bodies.
Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living is well written with photos, artwork and illustrations that are as enjoyable to look at as the book was to read.
As the month draws to a close I look back at all that has been accomplished and can’t do anything but smile. Sure, I would have loved to have grown a bigger garden with more veggies and a wider variety of herbs but I don’t know many folks who don’t say that regardless of the season they’ve had.
The time has come to pull up the beloved heirloom tomato plants and get the beds ready for some fall carrots, parsnips and greens. We will also be planning the layout of the gardens for 2012 so that we can get a jump on tilling and amending in plenty of time. Just because the gardens are waning doesn’t mean that things will be slowing down here on the MEG homestead, quite the contrary! Now is the time we get to look back on what we’ve done, and what we want to do.
Cooler weather brings with it the opportunity to do a lot of outdoor projects that the oppressive summer heat made unbearable. Construction and craft projects will be happening on the homestead throughout the fall and winter months right up until time to get those seeds started in preparation for spring 2012. There will be new raised beds and new permanent beds put in place as well as challenges to keep us thinking and growing.
What Did We Learn?
John & I were so busy this month that we didn’t spend as much time here as we’d have liked, but we did manage to share several great recipes including:
In the coming month there are some great posts and new videos planned including tips for how to overwinter your favorite herbs, how to plan your garden for next year (and why you need to do it now), plus more great recipes and ideas that will help you live a simpler, more natural life without the need to wear patchouli and tie dyed t-shirts.
"I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau, Walden In another of those difficult but necessary […]
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A few days ago I was sent a link to a BCC documentary that I’d not heard of before. It was a social and anthropological experiment carried out in the late 1970s in England and by all accounts it may well be the first “reality show”. In it, the participants (6 couples and three children) were asked to spend 13 months living life as though they were in the Iron Age. Thanks to the Internet Age, the entire documentary can now be viewed online via 
Cooler weather brings with it the opportunity to do a lot of outdoor projects that the oppressive summer heat made unbearable. Construction and craft projects will be happening on the homestead throughout the fall and winter months right up until time to get those seeds started in preparation for spring 2012. There will be new raised beds and new permanent beds put in place as well as challenges to keep us thinking and growing.
