I Feel Blessed

I really do feel blessed. My grandparents on both sides lived during the great depression. Although they didn't realize it, the skills they learned just to survive, would become a lifestyle for at least one of their great grandchildren.

My mother and father passed down the skills they saw their parents use to survive during a time when farmers and the rural poor were struggling to keep their land, feed their family, provide medical care, and keep themselves clothed. I saw the sheds full of canning jars and the many hand stitched quilts (that were unfortunately ruined by decades in an attic.) Ginger and honey not only tastes good, but it is good for a sore throat too. So is salt water. My mom would make me a hot toddy when I was ill and feverish. Those, just to name a few. There was the onion in warm oil treatment but I never would let my mom use it on me. Apparently, it gets rubbed around your naval area? I didn't like the smell or the looks of it.

Today, I enjoy canning, cooking from scratch, wild crafting, gardening, and foraging. Some of my friends used to think I was silly. Especially since I am a widow and am cooking (mainly) for one. I prefer a jar of home canned, home grown tomatoes over store bought any day, However, with all the uncertainly that has arose in regards to supply chain issues, health, and general degree of mistrust of those in power, my neighbors are coming around to my way of living. My neighbor across the street is getting a flock of chickens and another is installing solar. Several are starting gardens for the first time!

My goal is to plan my two acres with trees and shrubs that will minimize mowing (I live in a neighborhood on two acres. I will at least need to maintain the front yard area.) I hate mowing. It is a waste of time and resources. It is a money pit of sorts. I want trees and shrubs that provide natural beauty and a source of food for myself and the animals who live in the woods behind me.  Native plants such as oak, maple, honey locust. Native shrubs that provide for birds such as hawthorn, spicebush, and viburnum.

It is just me here. I am 60 years young and am doing much of the work on my own. It is slow going as they say. Eventually, I will hire a landscaper when I run out of steam. But I have a dream to create two acres in the permaculture fashion. And I am going to do it.

Most of the plants I will incorporate will have some type of food value- either for me or wildlife, but mainly for both of us. As I said earlier, I have learned some skills for survival. Producing ones own food is a great thing to do. Having it grow naturally, in the form of trees and shrubs without needing much intervention sounds great to me. It will be beautiful.

Sounds perfect. I, sadly, grew in a home where everything old was unnecessary in the new shiny modern age.
I have had to study hard to learn all those forgotten skills.
You truly are blessed ❤️

That is quite the blessing to have learned those skills early on! I agree that mowing such a large expanse feels like a waste of resources, and I hope to eventually do something similar with the acres around me.

Two acres is a lot to manage by yourself as well. Maybe you could make some of the lawn into prairie planting/meadow and mow for mulch? Even just cutting a bit longer and gathering the clippings can produce quite a bit of 'greens' to feed the soil.

Yes! I have started doing just that and the back end of the property! Bonus: I have maple and black walnut seedlings growing and I think oak too. They are wild from native, nearby trees!

Your lucky in the terms of learning the skills already.  Me I was grown up in Apartment complexes or areas that were to small to have any sort of growing space.  But when my father passed away in 2007 and I was in Army I just used the insurance money to pay off the 30 acres he had recently bought to allow my mother to have a solid place to live.  in 2013 I moved back to it as well and have been working on the acre mainly around it and here and three been spreading seeds in different areas of it.  I am in the process of digging out basins down to the caliche layer to have more water soak into the ground and change the place.

Mowing the front yard as you say can actually be your source of vegetation to cover and feed your other projects.  My soil was non existent in the beginning and I would go to areas that I hadn't gotten to yet and cut down the weeds growing in those areas and took them to the areas I needed more soils to grow better things.  in 3yrs time I have really transformed the areas so far.  The picture below is a recent aerial map showing how green my changes I have made in the short time and mainly by holding back water in basins from the rains and me moving cut vegetation to lay around to cover the ground.  Mesquite that only grew knee high in the beginning ar now around 12 ft or more in the 5 years of doing the changes.