I'm in East TN, a transplanted Californian.
Most people don't realize that most of CA was always rural - and I did grow up on farms and ranches both there and, since moving out here, as far out into the country as I can get.
I could be very happy on a million acres in the middle of nowhere, but I would fill my home with guests as often as I could. LOL
My goal was always self-sufficiency, as far back as I can remember.
A good work ethic is also my heritage.
Working smarter and more efficiently with thoughtful beginnings and low maintenance is my rule of
common sense.
I also always knew that leaving things better than you got them was part of being an honorable person.
All of these things lead to natural living and
permaculture fairly easily.
Growing up we raised almost all our own food; meat,
dairy, eggs, produce, also raising as much
feed for the animals as possible.
I've spent many a time moving
irrigation pipe on my shoulders across the alfalfa fields, and listening to the amazing sounds at night of the crickets and the distant "chink-a-chink, chink-a-chink" of the irrigation sprinklers in the acreage down by the river. And we bought up old equipment, spent hours prepping and painting, then had gleaming colors of rakes and balers as we cut, raked, and baled our own hay for the year.
My parents paid cash for everything, so we lived frugally, but when you invest in your
land, it will always pay you back.
I am grateful to have come into a time when I am the beneficiary of renewed knowledge; the power of the natural healing plants God gave us; research explaining why older ways of feeding ourselves worked, such as kefir, komboucha, and other fermented foods upon which our modern society had turned it's collective nose for a long time; learning that just because it is modern, doesn't mean it's better. My first child was born in a typical manner, by the time I got to my fourth, I had a home birth.
So my goal has remained self-sufficiency in material needs and I was blessed, for a time, with several acres with which to pursue this.
Gardening in the west transferred to learning how to garden all over again out here in TN. LOL Lot's different. Organic in the west is soooooo easy compared to here.
I'm always trying to think of better and more efficient ways to get things done.
I've helped my dad build houses and barns and greenhouses and such throughout childhood. We dismantled army barracks in the blistering CA sun for reclaiming the materials and used them all over the ranch, from everything fencing to a
greenhouse made of army windows. I've roofed, dug ditches, operated a caterpillar and a backhoe, cleared the ranch of rattlesnakes every Saturday morning, and rode my best horse bareback til the sun went down, or sang on a tire swing under an oak tree eating the strawberries I picked from the hillside as the tire went back and forth. All kids ought to grow up in the country!
As an adult I bought an old trailer and renovated it down through the joists and studs, including plumbing and some electrical. I built a studio for my arts projects. Decks for my home and pool. And sheds from scrap - if it's cheap, it's good.
Been wanting to learn alternative building for a long time. Being put in a position of having to start over makes you resourceful and I began looking for frugal ways to have a home, but ended up getting started with that small mobile home fixer-upper. Now I have had to start over again and I love
cob, cordwood, straw bale, rammed earth, etc. techniques. I am in the middle of moving this month and I can't wait to get started learning how to make earthen projects. I'm especially looking forward to trying some plasters, such as
tadelakt. I have some great ideas I want to try.
Kind of a jumbled response, sorry. I keep thinking of something else I've done. I
should have just made it a simple list, rather than a series of paragraphs that developed.
On my little farm, I hosted small fruit seminars with the acre of small fruits I put in. My fruit
trees were not large
enough yet to do large fruit seminars. I had all sorts of plans, but my goals were interrupted. I would rather have a cow, any day of the week, but my little farm did not have enough room unless I crammed it all in and made it messy, not enough pasture. So I went with goats. Not a fan of goat
milk, but I loved the cheeses I made every day, as well as the money it brought in.
I am an avid learner. I ask lots of questions of people. I think some of them think I am either stupid or just trying to make conversation, but I believe I can learn from anything and I am always looking to learn and be able to do more things - and then share with others what I know.
I will try stuff that no one else tries, and I will always ask WHY something works. If no one can
answer me thoroughly, I try to figure it out by experimentation. So I had 112 grapevines in my vinyard, with 33 varieties to try to succeed. I learned a LOT! I learned more than I wanted to. LOL A beautiful kiwi arbor, bush cherries, berries of all sorts, figs - how I love figs and miss them. I like to plant wide varieties of edibles, have huge herb beds, and am interested in every form of
gardening that reduces labor and increases production. Forest farming to French Intensive and everything in between.
sigh.... sorry. I love this stuff. I could talk all night.
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