Charolett Knapic

My friend is living in a year round tent on an 11 acre pasture from her family and is gradually building a homestead. She was donated a high tunnel and I suggested that she put her tent inside the tunnel for the winter, since last winter was so cold that the mini wood burning stove couldn't stay stoked enough to get much sleep. She got a little bigger stove and we're working out details for the chimney without melting the plastic but has anyone experienced this? You can see the tent inside and we're setting up the stove chimney.

In working with city ordinances, I had to pursue and pay an additional $50 to be allowed to keep a goat, and they required me to petition my neighbors for approval, which turned out to be quite fun and rewarding. Some of my neighbors take their walks along my fence lines and like to feed the goats and chickens.

I'm slowly getting involved with local nutritious food availability groups. Things move slowly. And even if my idea of asking the parks department to plant urban fruit trees was negated as a project because of messy fruit drop and believed over need of pruning and spraying, the idea is still planted in their minds and germinating. I'm thinking of contacting the park board myself with my request and also supply them with a source for plants and maybe even a simple guild planting layout. The easier it is for them, the more likely it will happen. I would ask them to plant pecan, plum, cherry, serviceberry, sand plum and currants. Some of these are native and they all have small fruit that won't attract flies.

It's important for me to remember that I'm a pioneer with these new/old fashioned concepts and change happens more slowly with groups of people. It really helps to stay connected with my permie friends so I don't feel discouraged.

My goats love to eat them throughout the winter if you can store them dry.

Make the most of little waiting periods.
I take a nap or two a day, but before I do, I usually make tea or a meal. I've come round to making a game out of how much little stuff that I can get done or cleaned up while waiting for water to boil or food to cook. I've found that there's a lot that can get accomplished in only 3 minutes. And then I don't have to look at the mess until I FEEL like doing it.
Caution: stay near your area of waiting. I've burned food by leaving the kitchen for ' just a moment' but then I forget what my main focus was.

I'm learning more and more about the microscopic critters in the soil and how, if you feed them composted stuff and keep the soil moist, the critters, bacteria, fungi, ect. will draw in the needs of the plants and the plants gift them with their sugars and such.

If you want to get a general pH of your soil, you can stir 1 part of soil into 2 parts of the water that you use on the garden, and let it set and settle. Then pour of the water and blend the water up with some purple cabbage leaves. If the water turns reddish it's on the acid side and if it turns more blue, it's on the alkaline side.

You might want to practice holding the soil in your hand and be curious about what all's in there. Squeeze it in your hand. Does it hold together? Smell the scent of it. Does it smell sweet and clean, does it smell barren, is it sour? Taste a little, The humic acid is beneficial and also gives you clues about your garden space. Sit on and lie down in it and just rest and notice your land space. When you do these things, as you do your testing and enhancing, you'll learn to feel what the earth needs. And maybe adore your space, it gives so much with little appreciation back.

I've read in 'The Ringing Cedars' series that if you share your saliva, sweat, and touch, with seeds and plants that they, then get to program to your needs. Just like nursing mothers milk is engineered to the saliva exchange from the nursing child.

I know, I know, some of this is a bit "out there" but, what magic it adds to life! And why not? And what if? It's good to open up and just pretend play.

'Queen of the Hood' is what I sometimes think of myself as. I've managed to purchase 3 consecutive lots on the edge of a low income district in Wichita, KS. My neighbors are great and I have very little trouble with transients passing through. I also don't enjoy the lights or noise but I'm here and it's paid for and as I interpret Anastacia in the 'Ring Cedars Series', "Start where you are and learn before you move to a cleaner place". I'm 69 and probably won't be moving again.

The lawn gets pretty relaxed with seed heads but I try to keep the bulk of the paths and easements at our 8" or below height. It's getting more difficult to find a mower that you can raise the blades up high but I don't mow any more than I have to. Planting Dutch clover helps though I have to replant it now and again in my zone 7a after dry summers. And I'm trying different low growing plants to add to those mowing areas. The more you keep defined areas of low and then taller plants, the more people feel comfortable with a fuller landscape. And neighbor opinions are important.

My Dwarf Nigerian goats are shaping my planting focus as well as a food forest for me too. I was required to petition my neighbors to get permission to have 'a goat' (I have 2, shhh, they're dwarves) and ended up having a great time meeting my neighbors. They stop by to pet or feed the does, and kids love them. Some high school girls helped me herd them back in once when the does escaped. The goats love bagged leaves to eat and I cover the deep litter mini barn with bagged leaves that I pick up or that my gardening business brings back. I also supplement with hay, alfalfa and minerals. Their milk is so sweet and creamy, not goaty at all.

3-5 chickens are plenty for me. They work up the whole 3 lots that equal 150' x 150'. It's divided into 5 paddocks for the goats and chickens to graze. I supplement them with a little grain and may expand to collect food scraps for the chickens and maybe goats from local cafes or smaller grocery shops.

Bridgit and I also trade one day a week with each others land projects. It helps keep us motivated and actually get things done. We shape our land, build infrastructure (though it's a little crooked sometimes), process fruits, veggies, herbs, and animals together. What ever needs done, we try to do it ourselves. Otherwise, we call for help.

My Toyota Highlander SUV works great for hauling chickens, goats, or 5 bales of alfalfa. The Highlander helped to relocate 35 coons and possum from the live trap last year, which is getting really old. I'm toying with the idea of tanning their hides while I watch YouTube in the winters. I need a new seat cover anyway but those animals are really tough to skin. Any tips on that would be appreciated.

This is my 'Healthy Aging Plan" and I'm teaching homesteading classes and slowly starting a community garden and working with other organizations with similar interests.  The land is being titled as a non profit for feeding people and helping them learn about aware connection with their spaces. I think that my SS check with me working the land is a good model for families interested in alternative lifestyles. So, that adds purpose to my life and helps to make it worth the city noise, lights, and the blowing trash that I pick up regularly.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet
and the winds long to play your hair.
Khalil Gibran

I'm wondering if it would help to add native tree chip mulch to the soil to help get a mycelium network throughout the soil layer to help keep that soil from sliding/washing down over time. You might need to add some form of nitrogen at first since the mulch breaking down uses nitrogen, but that's easy to accomplish. I've never done it though.

I'm definitely and introvert and love country life and yet I've ended up in the middle of Wichita, KS. with almost an acre of food forest, home and a cafe building. I've also managed to have goats and chickens with paddocks. All paid for from my gardening business, which worked great as an introvert. (My Beautiful Day Cafe went down with covid, of which i relied on extroverts to do my socializing. )
I'm "retiring" and folding my businesses into Green Street Urban Homestead Sanctuary, a non profit 508c1a spiritual ministry, reverencing nature as an expression of Creator. I'm not advertising, in order to keep interest slowed down.
Yet, still, people, one at a time, come round and admire or offer to volunteer in the gardens. I'm keeping my boundaries by setting 2 mornings a week for classes or homesteading with people. Eventually, there will be a person that can garden with people or give classes without me being there.
If people come to my door unscheduled, I don't have to answer it. I also have a camera set up. When I'm out working in the yards, teenagers, mom's with strollers, rough looking guys with grilled teeth, even folks in their cars stop to say how they love seeing the animals and gardens. If I don't feel like socializing, I don't make eye contact and I keep portions of the yards hidden from view. And I've learned to excuse myself gracefully or not as needed.
Rather than going out for community, they come to me. So far, so good!

If you lay male Buffalo sod, it doesn't go to seed. It's more expensive, though.

I have a friend that seals her chinaberry soap up in small jars while it's super hot and it keeps very well.


Have been making really effective psoriasis 'poo by boiling up chinaberries (in the neem family), straining then using.
Works soooo much better than any store bought 'poos, even all then natural ones and it's effects last days longer.
Doesn't seem to keep well (week without refrig) but I just make smaller batches.

Everyone around here hates the chinaberry (invasive) but I'm finding many uses for it. Nice wood that cures up very light and is strong. Coppices and pollards like crazy and super fast grower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melia_azedarach