13 skills challenge

Several months ago, I was listening to a podcast by Paul Wheaton who (regardless of how you feel about him personally) knows an awful lot about permaculture.  He kept referencing the name Jack Spirko in his podcasts from time to time, so I eventually googled the name and discovered a community built around Jack's podcast: The Survival Podcast or TSP.  In addition to being a voice for permaculture and homesteading, Jack provides a libertarian perspective on the happenings of the day, and does a lot to promote his philosophy of modern survivalism.  One aspect of his philosophy that grabbed my attention about a month ago was the 13 in 13 challenge.  This was a challenge Jack issued to his listeners to better their lives by learning 13 new skills in 2013.  I am a latecomer to the challenge, and I strongly doubt that I'll master all 13 of my goals before the new year, but I'm excited to track my progress and build my skill set.  The idea isn't to prepare for the apocalypse and total collapse of our civilization; it's simply to live a better life that is less dependent on the system in which we currently live.  I'll be blogging my progress on each skill here and hopefully be finished sometime in 2014.

Fall has arrived!

So, I've taken a short break to post on the fall happenings on our suburban homestead.  Right now I'm growing patience, kale, spinach, cabbage, turnips, patience, rutabaga, collards, snow peas and more patience.  We're still hoping to move, and we crossed a few more properties off the list this weekend.  

Now it's all about living in the moment and building our permaculture

Back again...

Random Updates to the Simple Life:

• We still live on .08 acres having had 26 acres bought out literally from underneath us by having someone else see us checking out the land, realize it must be for sale (though it wasn't on the market), and then insta-calling the seller and making an identical offer to ours a few hours before we had ours ready to submit.  Frustrating - but praying for contentment in our situation.  We've decided to wholeheartedly live where we are right now rather than waiting to start living until we arrive at our "dream property" sometime in the future.  
• We're learning to use permaculture principles on a small scale
• I'm working through a PDC right now, and implementing as much as I can before completing a full on design to our property.
• Rabbits as a meat source are on the horizon
• Our family is stronger than ever, having come through 6 months of impatience being changed to patience, hope giving way to trust, and a growing realization that we really are on a course to a better future as we simplify and break away from so many of the mirages that American culture says are "normal"

Right now I am sitting at my desk at school planning out a math lesson.  I for a long time this spring, a robin has attempted to breach the window of my classroom by repeatedly launching himself at the glass ALL day long.  He was just joined by another robin doing the same thing at the other window.  I'm contemplating letting them in, but then I think they'd be trapped and I don't want them to get hurt.  I guess I'll enjoy the company and pray the don't get hurt.

Alright,
It's Wednesday.  Last night I put a few more plants in my garden, and started to harvest the last of the Spinach from my winter garden.  It's started to bolt in the recent heat, and I have a feeling that when I get home from school today it will be time to pull out the rest of it.  Which is ok, because that means I can get my beets, turnips, and other root crops in and growing.

Monday, I tried something I've never done before - I made dandelion root coffee.  I've known for awhile now about chicory coffee (both New Orleans style which is 50% chicory and 50% coffee) as well as straight chicory (not coffee) in the style of a starving southern family circa 1860.  I watched the video (embedded below) and promptly gave it a try.  Who knew?

I have currently run out of dandelions in my yard and I'm leery of harvesting elsewhere unless I can verify that no chemicals have been used on the lawn...maybe it's time to start cultivating them just for the root?  Maybe a raised bed of dandelions?

So, narrowly escaped losing new plant starts to two nights of heavy frost.  I actually got up out of bed last night and put all of my seedlings in the garage.  I NEED a greenhouse so badly!  On a major positive, we've got people coming to see our house this weekend; maybe they'll make an offer and these seedlings will be planted in a different place.  Well, off I go.  I've got a food dryer to build, a compost cage to construct, and a garage door to paint. I think tonight I'll settle in for a bit of work whilst listening to as many podcasts I can squeeze in to further my permaculture indoctrination, I mean EDucation...whatever

Urban Permaculture Trailer

I am super excited about this video coming out.  If you haven't seen his other two videos about permaculture you ought to check the out.  You kind of have to look past the titles of the other two (surviving the coming crisis) and realize that he's not a crazy American underground prepper who thinks that he's got to bury guns every twenty yards in order to defend what he has from the have-nots.  He's really about stewardship and getting people back to taking care of creation rather than fighting against it.  I'm excited to see the full film about this urban setting since that is what I find myself in at the mo...

Rainy Day Planning

It's raining and 47 degrees outside.  My cold weather greens are safe for a few more days, but we've had several days of warmth that I fear will cause my spinach to bolt.  I plan on putting in some variety of New Zealand or Okinawa spinach that will give me a yield through the hot Kentucky summers, but I haven't ordered seed yet.

Today's plans include...deciding on my plant guilds and ordering seeds/bulbs to plant them; discussing with my wife more places to plant so we don't lose too much play space for the wee ones; and drawing up plans for a downdraft food dryer/dehydrator.  I probably won't get all of it done, but I always try to overplan rather than underplan.  I don't know how much food we'll have to dry this summer, but it'll either be tons of tomatos and nothing else, or it will be tons of tomatos and a smattering of other things.  Or...we'll find our land in the country, and sacrifice a season of gardening for changing locations; only time will tell.

Starting out...not starting over

Friends... followers... curious blog cruisers who happened to land here by accident...

Those of you who know me well, know the deep desire I have to escape from the suburban status quo and the concrete maze in which I live.  I was born here in the Kentucky bluegrass, grew up in rural Michigan in a family that lived simply and raised sheep until my teens.  I moved back to the commonwealth and began living out my dream (with the girl of my dreams by my side): teaching, owning a home, raising a family, etc.  I was (and am) happy, but I always missed the country and the simple life of being in constant, intimate contact with the land, with family, and with a few good friends.  Now, my wife, my three kiddos, my dog, my cat and I are all attempting to achieve the dream of a simple life once again.  Our long term goal: get out of the city limits and live in the wooded hills of southeastern central kentucky, plant a food forest, raise chickens, and spend a lot of time in nature with family and a few good friends.  Our present situation: we live on .08 acres on a busy street in the suburbs of Lexington and we're not going to wait for the simple life to come to us once we move; we're bringing it to ourselves right here, right now.  Sure, our options will be more diverse once we move outside the city limits (our city zoning commission doesn't allow sheep and goats), but I'm choosing to be content with my present context and practice permaculture principles no matter where I live.  

I don't know if anyone else will read these posts, or if anyone else will even care.  I do think it will be meaningful to me to log our progress towards simplicity.  The steps we take to reduce clutter in our physical space as well as to declutter our schedules may inspire some of you to try out your own simple life.  The permaculture principles I'm implementing in my yard and garden (and someday on a country homestead) may give you reason to pause and reevaluate your own methods and expectations.  That's all for now.  I've still got a wonderful job to tend to and right now, I'm going to simplify my desk by grading some papers and decluttering my workspace.  Happy permaculture people...seriously if you haven't heard of permaculture, look it up - it's awesome.