Hands Across The Sand

Like anyone else who is paying attention, I'm sickened by the devastation that continues to mount in the Gulf of Mexico as both industry and government seem impotent to correct the damage they have wrought on the environment and the communities of our gulf shores. There truly are no words that can express the anger, fear, and disgust I feel as the true cost of our national thirst for oil becomes inescapable fact. And like so many of the major issues facing our society, there is little opportunity for meaningful action, no way to reach out and help to heal the wounds that are bound to fester for generations to come.

But the one thing that I can do is speak out, add my voice to the chorus calling for an end to the risky deep water oil exploration that led to this catastrophe in the first place. It may be too late to stop this spill, but there is no reason that we should go forward with business as usual, courting other such disasters.

Hands Across the Sand is organizing a nationwide day of protest against offshore drilling and in support of clean energy initiatives on June 26. Right now, there are registered groups in 43 states that will join hands on local beaches to make a statement about protecting our irreplaceable marine environments. Perhaps there is enough strength in our numbers to finally get the attention of our elected leaders and demand the changes we all know need to be made. I'll be at the event closest to me. Will you?

Adapting

Adapting is not something I'm especially good at.

See, I'm a bit of a control freak at times, and I tend towards discouragement and even despair when the wheels come off of a plan I've invested a lot of time and energy into.

I'm fighting through that this year with my gardens as we struggle through doldrums that feel like they'll never end. Business has never been this slow, and lack of disposable income has thrown a major wrench into so many of my best-laid plans. The fruit trees never got ordered, I spent the spring digging out sod rather than building raised beds, and everything has been scaled down a bit. Frustration has reigned supreme as I feel more urgency than ever before to progress down our path to self-sufficiency but have fewer means than ever to actually take the steps that come next.

Still, I know that I am blessed. Had we not started down this path when we did, not thrown everything we had into buying a home that is truly ours, we would be right there with so many Michiganders, looking down the barrel of foreclosure as the job market continues to unravel. Home is a powerful thing, and no matter how discouraged I get with the delays and corner-cutting, rounding the corner to come home never fails to make me smile. For better or worse, this is ours and no one can take it from us. The rest will come in time.

Its that time of year again...

When the seed catalogs start arriving like glimmers of light at the end of a long, cold tunnel to remind us that winter will indeed end eventually. Time to start dreaming and planning for a new growing season, making seed lists and sketching garden maps, and laying the earliest foundations of this year's harvest.

As usual, my own plans are continually in flux. What started as plans for 900 sq ft of garden space has expanded to over 1100, courtesy of my kids who submitted their own seed lists after flipping through the spectacular Baker Creek and Seed Savers Exchange catalogs.

With the increasing list of crops to sow, I'm rethinking my overall garden design, if only because cinder block construction really eats into the available growing space of each bed. I may end up with a much more mixed design with cinder block in place to secure my tomato supports, but wooden beds for the beds where no trellises are needed.

So what varieties am I growing? Almost too many to count!

The seed list:
Blue Lake bush bean
Purple Podded pole bean
Old Homestead pole bean
Calabrese broccoli
Long Island Improved brussels sprouts
Danvers 126 carrot
Dragon carrot
Purple of Sicily cauliflower
Snowball cauliflower
Honey N Pearl sweet corn
Strawberry popcorn
Round Mauve eggplant
Diamond eggplant
Rocky Top Mix lettuce
Petit Gris melon
Green Arrow peas
Oregon Sugar Pod peas
He Shi Ko bunching onion
Bronze D'Amposta onion
Yellow Finn potato
All Blue potato
Caribbean Red Habanero pepper
Ancho Gigantea pepper
Miniature Chocolate Bell pepper (potted)
Miniature Red Bell pepper (potted)
Miniature Yellow Bell pepper (potted)
California Wonder pepper
Orange Bell pepper
Quadrato D'Asti Rossa pepper
Quadrato D'Asti Giallo pepper
French Breakfast radish
Bloomsdale spinach
Early Prolific Straight summer squash
Black Beauty zucchini
Pomme D'Or winter squash
Sweet Dumpling winter squash
Connecticut Field pumpkin
Amish Paste tomato
Cosmonaut Volkov tomato
Copia tomato
Riesentraube cherry tomato
Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry cherry tomato
Andrina cherry tomato (potted)
Hahms Gelbe cherry tomato (potted)
Pendulina cherry tomato (potted)
Picnic watermelon

The plant list:
Mary Washington asparagus
Pink Champagne blueberry
Blue Crop blueberry
Duke Blueberry
Elliot blueberry
North Country lowbush blueberry
Kiowa blackberry
Navajo blackberry
Autumn Britton raspberry
Heritage raspberry
Caroline raspberry

The tree list:
Cortland apple (2)
Zestar apple (2)
HoneyCrisp apple (2)
Prairie Spy apple (2)
Moonglow pear (2)
Bartlett pear (2)

Written out, it looks almost overwhelming!

In keeping with my goal of detailed accounting of the costs, income, and yields from this year's garden efforts, the breakdown for all of the above, including shipping when applicable, looks like this:

Seeds - $151.40
Plants - $154.89
Trees - $238.01

Big outlays to get started this year even before we get to building the beds, supports, and pathways, but the plants and trees are long term investments. To some degree, the seeds are as well, since I'm growing mostly heirloom varieties and will save seed from the ones that do well.

New year, new goals, new approach

And a new post on my long-neglected blog.

We finally got moved into the new house at the beginning of July, and life has been busy-busy-busy ever since!

The house is everything I'd hoped and then some. Granted, there have been hiccups - we spent the first month chasing down plumbing leaks, then found at the start of the heating season that the boiler had been improperly winterized and needed replaced - but we're making progress. We've gotten a start on replacing the windows and insulating the basement, and overall I've found the house to be far less drafty than I'd imagined it would. We still have a long way to go - lots more windows to replace, walls to insulate, and of course, walls to paint, trim to hang, and assorted other cosmetic work, but it is coming along.

House goals for 2010:

Finish living room interior - the windows will likely have to wait for cash-flow reasons, because matching the existing wood will not be cheap, but the paint, stained glass, and other decorative elements can be finished anyway.
Renovate dining room - Cosmetics and electrical, replace the 80s chandelier, add outlets to make the space more practical
Add more shelving in the office - Decluttering has only taken me so far, and I still have more books than bookshelves
Finish insulating basement - Ceiling, floor and walls in the room that will be finished, along with rebuilding storms & screens for basement windows.
Remodel the main floor bath - the major project for the year, the room needs gutted and rearranged to go from an oversized half-bath with a lot of wasted space to a more functional 3/4 bath with a shower stall

Unfortunately, moving in the middle of the summer really derailed my garden plans. I only had a couple tomatoes and peppers for the season last summer, planted here and there among the existing landscaping. This season will really be the first attempt at gardening here, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm starting off with big plans.

Garden Goals for 2010:

Build beds - An obvious place to start! My design for the yard has undergone one last revision, and to start I will be cultivating a 900sq ft area at the western property line.
Build seed starting space - Since this is our permanent home, it is time for my seed starting supplies to have a permanent home, dedicated space instead of taking over some garage shelves each year.
Set up a tracking system - One of my more challenging goals for this year is to be better organized, so that I know what I planted & when, how it did, how much it cost/saved, and how much of our produce I'm still purchasing. Information is key, and this year I'm collecting it!
Make room for plants indoors - I've never been good with houseplants, but they have so many benefits that I'm determined to branch out and learn to grow indoors as well as out.

In reflecting on 2009, I discovered that in all the focus on home and family, I allowed some more personal, self-focused goals to fall by the wayside. I'm going into 2010 conscious of that fact and determined to do things a little differently. The biggie that I was disappointed with myself for letting go of was my resolve to run a 5K in 2009. For 2010, I will achieve that goal, which I view as a major milestone on the path to a healthier overall lifestyle and a stepping stone to a half-marathon in 2011. My weight loss and fitness journey will be a big part of the path I walk for 2010, because what good is a more sustainable home without a more sustainable self?

Holding Patterns and More Plans

We are still in a holding pattern, waiting for the closing on our new home with the growing season slipping away one warm day at a time. I'm disappointed, but there's no point in dwelling on my frustration. So I've turned my attention to reading books, blogs, magazines, and anything else I can get my hands on and working my plans down to finer and finer details.

In place of the progress reports I had hoped to have to share by now, I've decided to share my thoughts on some of the things I'm reading and how they are shaping my path even before I take the first step. So a few times a week, I'll be posting about something I've read that has given me pause, added a new idea to my homesteading plans, or brought my attention to a previously unnoticed facet of the issues that set me on this path.

One thing that has been taking shape in my mind even longer than the idea of personal self-sufficiency is shopping locally. The economy in Michigan has been struggling well before the recent housing and credit crises pushed the issue into the national spotlight, and I've long felt that buying from local business whenever I can is one way to show support for the people around me and the community I am a part of. It is extremely gratifying to see more and more people latching on to the idea of supporting local business, and in keeping with that I'm also going to be sharing some of the baby steps we've taken and some of the businesses we're supporting as we shift a growing percentage of our money away from the "big boxes" in favor of spending locally.

In this vein, I'd like to link a flyer I came across on another Michigan locavore blog, One Acre Farm, highlighting businesses and products made in our great state and the impact buying local can have on our troubled economy. It is far from all inclusive, but it is an excellent starting point and illustrates the remarkable diversity that can be found right here at home.

Reflections

I've been remiss in posting updates here, mainly because our closing got postponed once again and I've been throwing myself a bit of a pity party over getting such a late start with my gardens and my home, but the news today has my mulling over the reasons I've started on a path of greater personal self-sufficiency.

Here in Michigan, the news about Chrysler and now GM is nothing short of terrifying. It doesn't matter that neither DH nor I work for an automaker or automotive supplier. This hurts us all.

Our old house is quickly becoming an oasis in a sea of darkness. There are now 4 homes still occupied on our block, and another 5 vacant in some stage of the foreclosure process. Every time I open the door, I get a reminder of the stakes in this little gamble we're taking - if not for buying the new home outright, we'd be one bad season away from joining the ranks of those families who have moved on, often in with relatives, selling what they can and leaving so much behind because they have no place for it to go.

We're hopeful that we can find a tenant for the old house, but if that fails, the home we worked so hard to buy will go dark as well. We've already spoken with the mortgage company about short sale and deed in lieu of foreclosure options, just in case.

I'm eternally grateful that we have the ability to buy this new home. It is a dream in so many ways, not just because it is the type of home I've always wanted, but also because it is a home that is ours, that no one can take from us no matter how bad things get. It is a giant step towards true security for my family, the security of knowing that we'll never have to worry over providing a roof over our children's heads, something few blue collar families can attain these days.

But the house alone isn't enough.

There is so much more we need to do.

It isn't just the economy. The energy crisis may have taken a back burner as economic chaos dominates the headlines, but it is still there, looming on the horizon, threatening so much of what we take for granted.

I'm only one person, acting on behalf of one family, and I don't kid myself that what I do has any measurable impact in the big picture. Still, I have to try. What is the alternative? Burying my head in the sand and going about life as usual, or obsessing over CNN and allowing myself to be paralyzed in the face of issues bigger than any one person can solve?

Our house is our own, once we close. Now it is time to turn my efforts to other ways to make my family more financially and practically self-sufficient.

I've always been drawn to a different way of life, the life my grandmother lived in her childhood on the family farm. At her side, I learned to grow the foods I loved, and can the harvest for the winter. I'm really excited to start applying those skills to providing for my family and adding to them as we walk this path.

I want to sleep easy at night knowing that I've done all I can to reduce my family's dependence on volatile economic conditions for survival.

I want to know that I have food stored to get us through tough times.

I want to reduce our essential expenses in any way possible, through insulating and upgrading to energy efficient appliances, putting natural resources like collected rainwater to practical use, and using energy more conservatively.

I want to know that my energy and my money are being spent in environmentally and economically responsible ways, reducing food miles, growing food without the aid of chemicals that further damage our precious environment, supporting local producers and small business.

It is sure to be a long road with many bumps and course corrections, but it is a journey well worth taking. Maybe time will prove me to be a pessimist, in which case my only reward will be sleeping a little easier at night now and having the money saved to spend later. That is the beauty of responsible, self-sufficient living. There is no downside - if the S hits the fan, we'll be more prepared than we would have otherwise. If it doesn't, we have lower routine expenses and more of our money can be spent on things we truly enjoy.

Delays, Spring Fever, and Moving at Last

After endless delays that have kept us in our old home for two agonizingly long months, we finally have our closing date! On Thursday, our new old home will officially be ours, and just in the knick of time.

This weekend will be spent building garden beds, because I need to get my veggies in he ground as soon as possible. Our last frost date was last week, and with the beautiful weather we're having, it feels like we're getting a terribly late start.

I've finally decided on a design for my raised beds.

This is something I've agonized over and experimented with and researched until my head spun. I want to steer clear of treated wood because of the chemicals used to make them rot-resistant. I've tried non-treated lumber only to find myself rebuilding beds every couple years. I ruled out cedar and paver stones because of the cost.

Then I stumbled upon a garden blog with photographs of a raised bed design I'd never even thought of - cinder blocks. Less expensive than decorative block and more durable than any wood, it is the perfect solution! I plan to use 12" x 6" block and use the holes in the blocks to plant herbs and ornamental companions like marigolds to form an attractive border around the main vegetable beds.

So on Friday, I'm off to the local lumber yard to buy a hundred or so cinder blocks to get a start on my first section of garden in the new yard, a 9' by 34' area outsid my kitchen window that is just begging to become a kitchen garden. Two 3' wide beds will run the length of the space with a path between them, ending at a strawberry tower at the fence. At the entrance to the space will be raspberry plants trained upright on a system of 4' x 4's and galvanized wire.

Now all that is left is to build an attractive, inexpensive gate for the area, to keep my over-eager Lab puppies from digging up my precious plants.