Hokay.

Do we have any homesteader/permaculture/not-quite-violent survivalists on here?

A time may well soon come when you need to grow all your food yourself.

Ice Age Farmer is 100% dedicated to sharing tips for thriving in the Grand Solar Minimum / Modern Ice Age. Take steps daily towards radical self-sufficiency.
http://www.iceagefarmer.com/

I grew up in an apartment in Philadelphia. Yeah, people threw candy wrappers on the ground, and the garbage collectors went on strike some summers, and it was crowded and kind of just, ugh.

That said, as a kid, I loved it there. I lived right off of Penn's campus, there were monthly school field trips to the art museums **with a docent** (we weren't allowed to run amok as was our wont - shout out to Lot's Wife). We had little folding chairs or rug remnants we carried from gallery to gallery, sat in front of amazing works and learned the stories behind them. We ran amok in The Franklin Institute, and I held a big ass snake at The Natural History Museum (I was five - I didn't know any better). We jumped in historic fountains. There's a lot for a kid to do there.

City living is out of my system. Nice to visit...

I moved to the PNW in 2012 (shout out to all the support I received from RfM when I decided to haul ass!), and I kind of like it here - the non-city parts. I would argue that Seattle doesn't exactly rise to the level of city status, but that's my colonial city bias showing ;-P.

Last October, I moved to a small, kinda dilapidated ex-logging town halfway between Seattle and Portland. It's way too expensive to for me to live closer to my job in SeaTac, but I'm allowed to work from home.

Alllright. Now. Anyone who has seen a Western WA lawn in August might wonder, "What's the point, and when is that thing going to set off the next multi-state wildfire?" I don't have a ton of land, but my lot hasn't been carved up since the town was founded. I have riparian rights that run with the land, and I have waayyy too much brown grass. I don't want to try to have a manicured lawn. Won't happen. The man who lived here before me used a trash pump to water his lawn and vegetable garden. Eventually I might use one for other reasons, but the fossil fuel component puts me off.

I've been reading about permaculture, and I'd really like to get rid of this grass. Dude's vegetable plot was tilled so many times that it's about 6"-1' lower than the rest of the area. Last April, I threw down some crimson clover seed and I'm letting the dandelion tap roots break up the soil. I'll chop and drop in September, toss down some soil amendments, cover the area with cardboard - basically sheet compost the hell out of it. I've already been working on the front yard. I can't wait for the 200 bales of straw... O_o

My fireplace insert is so ballin' (came with the house), that my need for firewood is low compared to the heat output, and I don't need to use much gas heat in the winter. When the tree guy comes at the end of the growing season, I'll have some green firewood for next year and wood chips for mulching this fall.

So, yeah. I'd like to learn how to grow most of my own food. I'd like to try to create close to zero waste. The hazelnut and apples trees are cool, but I'm going to do the zone thing, collect water (I have NO IDEA why water catchment isn't a bigger thing here), help keep the bank from falling into the river, dig a duck pond. Stuff like that.

In the end, if I plan this close to right, it will be less work than mowing, weeding, etc. that serve no practical purpose whatsoever (in my mind). NB This is like a 5- to 10-year plan. But there are local permies (and by local, I mean 45 miles away in the woods), who could come for a working party, who can sell and haul animal poop out here...blah blah.

This is the forum I frequent - there are sections for local permies as well as folks all over the world. Not everyone is all Silent Spring OMG we're gonna die. Some people just like the idea of making what you need and sharing your abundance, be that food, experience, information, time.

Permies: Permaculture Homesteaders and Goofballs: https://permies.com/

ETA: Compost pile need a kick start? Pee on it!



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2018 04:16PM by Beth.

Ugh. But if he has good tips, I'll visit through a tunnel while running an ad blocker.

ETA: NO, NO I WON'T



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2018 01:20PM by Beth.

We're in cycle 24 now, soon in 25. Unfortunately, we're so old that we can't start growing our food. We're going to see the more and more wobbling weather patterns, but not going to survive them into the nex more calm period. The growing seasons are going to be more and more out of order.

Nope, it's not the CO2, it's not you, it's the Sun.

Read for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Svensmark

We aren't survivalists but we do grow our own produce, raise our own meat, and have converted to solar energy.

My parents had "food storage" that consisted of food that was inedible, cost a fortune, and eventually had to be thrown away.
I can, dry, and freeze the food we raise.
Some things have to be purchased - I do buy flour, sugar, dry beans, rice in bulk. Fruit, bread, milk I buy weekly.

Last week I canned 50 gallons of green beans. Tomatoes are coming in and I will make tomato juice, salsa, spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes, soup. Today I am making blackberry jam. Last week I made jam and froze 20 bushels of peaches.
This time of year is hard - but my husband, kids, brother all work like dogs to help.

I think it is wise to have enough food for a year on hand. The food I store is 1000 % better than what you can buy. You never know when your financial status will change, or something will disrupt life as we know it.

Heck! Maybe instead of being frugal I am a survivalist!

I'll probably see what I can do with the Mystery Apples growing on a tree in my yard. Right now I'm cool with the raccoons and squirrels taking what they like - leaves fewer fallen apples on the ground for wasps.

But, yeah. Imma can, especially tomatoes. I miss NJ tomatoes. We can only kind of grow one type of peach here (breaks my heart), and the frost peach still doesn't have quite a happy life. I'm going to try my hand at huckleberries, proof that god loves us.

We are mostly on solar power here with generator backup. I raise vegies hydroponically in a greenhouse year round. Currants and blueberries grow inside the greenhouse and out in the yard. Apples are ripening on the trees. The pond
is stocked with large-mouth bass.

We still purchase necessities.