Sile Ellison-NiChionna

It looks like you have plenty of volunteers already but I'll add my name just in case you need one more! I've been baking sprouted, sourdough einkorn bread for many years now as I don't tolerate other kinds of wheat well. I'd love to try some other recipes especially for cakes or cookies or crackers.

My husband and I moved to an old dilapidated farmhouse in rural Virginia almost 3 years ago. The house needs to be remodeled/rebuilt from top to bottom or I should say, from bottom top! Yet we've been living here all this time. When cleaning the attic floor, I was scraping junk from between the floorboards and found many beans. I'm not sure what they are - they're medium sized and brown - or how long they've been there. The house is 125 years old. I will try to grow them out this year and see what comes if them.

I think my first stop will be saving seeds and then Helen Atthowe's webinar but I might get sidetracked on my way to either of them by Paul's podcasts or Thermophilic Composting or Clothes mending (I have a basket full of clothes needing some creative help) or ... I've forgotten the other topics but most all of them could easily side track me! 😊

Thank you Justin. This is inspiring me in how to enrich my own observance of Lent.

Hi Justin (and Rebekah),

I was thrilled to read that you've written this book (I followed along from your emails and sometimes vlogs.) I look forward to getting my own copy in time. In 7 weeks my husband and I are moving from the western suburbs of Chicago to the Blue Ridge mountains in Independence, VA! We bought an old farmhouse (built in 1900) that needs complete renovation from head to toe. But we also have 2 acres of land in the midst of a cow farm. The house was the original farmhouse for the farm. I've dreamed for a few decades about having some land and being able to homestead. Now, as we're looking towards retirement (I'm 62 and my husband is 69,) it's happening!!!

So I'm busy packing when I'm not working full time and getting together with friends to say goodbye. (That was one thing I forgot to factor in time-wise - time to say goodbye.) But when I get your book, I  think I'll read chapters 6, 7 and 8 first to help me decide how to get started with chickens for meat and eggs, but probably not both at the same time. I have to allow for that learning curve.

We're leaving behind jobs here i.e. income, and will be living off savings and my husband's social security until we're established and earning again. So my focus is on growing as much of our food as we can while my husband is tearing the house apart to rebuild it.

The property is essentially a blank slate for me to work with and includes about 1/2 acre of marshy land. No shrubs to speak of, just two big old black walnut trees behind the house. The grass is pretty compacted as far as I could tell and I'm thinking those chickens will be put to work renewing the soil. Obviously I will be planting lots of plants.

But my big worry is the deer. Do you have a problem with deer and, if so, how do you handle it? I haven't had the time over the years to watch all your videos but I can't remember hearing you talk about it. It's one of the things I think over most as I'm lying in bed at night thinking of our future - how to keep them out of my garden without erecting an 8ft fence that doesn't seem to work. I was thinking of using the old fencing material left on our property (the farmer put up new fences for the new property line) to fence off the initial veggie garden and then have trellises 4ft inside that fence all around to make it harder for the deer to jump over. So essentially using my plant structures to keep them out. Do you think that will work?

I have so many questions but not sure what's even relevant at this point. I need to get down there and observe the land for the rest of the year and continue reading, watching and learning everything I can about homesteading and permaculture etc. It's an exciting journey and I'm so grateful for the example you and Rebekah are.

May "The Rooted Life" climb to the top of the bestseller list and stay there, inviting and enticing many to join in the revolution!

Sile

Hi Justin, welcome to Permies! I'm one of your Abundance+ peeps. I look forward to reading what you have to say and someday getting your book.
Síle

This post caught my attention immediately. I've just turned 61 and my husband is 67. We're both fit and healthy and love to work hard, especially in the garden. But my husband's  double bypass surgery two years was a wake-up up call and I have ongoing sciatic pain which is made worse if I lift anything heavy.

We live in the western suburbs of Chicago on a lot 50 x 165. We've converted about 2/3 of our back yard into growing space for food over the years. Last year my husband built me a raised bed 22in high and this year he created two terraces on our hill so that we could plant some fruit trees. I do find that working the raised bed tends to trigger my sciatic pain, while squatting down at ground level is OK as long as I change positions often. Perhaps I need the raised bed to be higher but then it's not useful for taller growing plants as someone has already pointed out. Since I started to mulch in earnest a few years ago, weeding has almost become a non-issue. That alone makes a huge difference. I also like to garden barefoot so that I benefit from  "earthing". I really feel the difference.

Once the terraces were finished and my husband saw how quickly I filled them with vegetable plants (it was too late to plant fruit trees) he said we should be in earnest about finding a place with a bit more space to grow things, something we have been talking about for a long time. So that's what we are doing - looking for a ranch house with a gently sloping yard (not the hill we live on - in flat Illinois!) where we can live out our days, nearer family, warmer (longer growing season and less snow shoveling) and we can design the garden with ease of care in mind. Probably North Carolina. Hence I am reading all these post carefully and appreciate all that people are sharing.

On a side note, one of my aunts is 96 yrs old, has lived in the same house all her life. It is a large property and she has been gardening since childhood - I learned a lot from her when I was young. Of course the amount of gardening she does has diminished over the years, but she still gets out there weeding, tending plants, digging a potato for her dinner etc. One thing she can do that I think makes all the difference is she can squat with ease, something most people half her age can't do. I couldn't really squat until an excellent PT I was working with about 10 years ago got me to do it.

The last thing I would like to say is how important it is to take care of ourselves - regular therapeutic massage, Physical therapy, yoga, Tai chi etc. I am a bodywork by profession, specializing in NeuroMovement  (Anat Baniel Method or Feldenkrais Method.) I work mostly with older folks (like me and older - wait, I'm not old yet!) and it makes a huge difference in their mobility and ease in getting up off the floor. Of course when I get busy, I'm like most people and don't do what I'm preaching. I need to do the work for myself especially now when I feel the need for it more than ever. Once our  house is ready for sale I'll get to it, I'm promising myself!

Thanks for all the other posts- great topic!

Here's my limited experience of sowing early crop seeds in fall. I did it for two years in a row with lettuce seeds and had great results. But then the next year we had a few early thaws that lasted long enough to germinate the seeds and then when it froze over hard again, the seedlings died off especially after the second thaw/freeze cycle. I live in Illinois and our winters have been more erratic the past few years. Self seeding plants such as cilantro did come up this year but were very late - it was early June before I could make use of it. Other years I've had abundant cilantro in April!  

I'm in! ... and so looking forward to learning about Rocket Ovens. I dream about building an aesthetically pleasing one in our small suburban back yard that is slowly becoming "permaculturized".
Thanks Paul for all you do and by doing inspire.

Sile Ellison-NiChionna

This is very timely for me. Welcome Dr. Tilgner! I look forward to seeing/reading what you have to share.
Thank you.
Sile Ellison