Greetings!
I'm from rural Michigan and just started WWOOFing by bicycle this summer. I had been living in Ann Arbor and after two years there decided the city wasn't offering enough time outdoors. Everything lined up so I was able to leave my job in good standing and so far I love my new lifestyle. I want to travel and learn how to farm and live in concert with nature and others.
My background is art based and I make a small income selling prints, books, and teaching workshops. I expect to make my way around the states until I find something worth sticking around for. I'm a big believer in sharing knowledge and so this place seems like a good place to contribute and participate in.
With warmth,
Kevin K.

Bumping this thread because I want to go back and read all of the posts.

Hi all.  I'm just getting the hang of the site.  I spend most of my online time at LibraryThing.com and, like Jefferson, "but tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener."  Except I'm an old woman; not quite retired, but eagerly looking forward to it.  I've got 5 ridgetop acres in Kentucky that I've been developing for almost a decade on weekends.  (Still work in West Virginia.)  I bought the place for the view - Daniel Boone Forest starts at the next ridge over.

The house was new but unfinished, and everyone always asks how that project is going.  But frankly, I worked on it just enough to make it livable to my standards and it'll never be up to anyone else's.  My focus is the outside.  I've got a small meadow that I've been developing into a mixed orchard and gardens.  Most of the property is young woods, and the rest is trying to return to that state.  I have to regularly chop volunteers that begin to block the view.  The open downslope is covered in blackberry brambles and poison ivy, honeysuckle and cat briar.  They all try to take over the world.  I've made a deal with the blackberries.  They have to stay out of the yard, but I'm cultivating them elsewhere in preference to the other three, with lots of mulch and hoeing.  I put up 20 plus quarts of cordial each year that seems to be popular with friends; though only two family members have joined me in the summer heat to harvest.  Sipping the final product tastes like sunshine to me in the dead of winter.

I'm widowed; two grown daughters and their families are reasonably nearby.  The grands used to fight to come and help me, but their interest has waned as they get older and involved in more stuff.  Oh well.  They'll be back.

The isolation was also a big draw, and I acquired a very near neighbor last year.  I'm not sure how that is going to play out.  It's been mixed so far.

Winter heating is still the big question mark, and it was rocket mass heat that brought me here.  Considering how I might retrofit my frame-on-crawl-space house.

Passive food sources fascinate me.  Is that the term I'm looking for?  Perennials, self-sowing veggies, etc.  I brought in Yucca for the edible flower, though I think the plant is terribly ugly.  

I'm looking forward to learning more and meeting great people here.

Ruth

Welcome Ruth!

I love passive food sources too, and really enjoy fruit trees, berries, perennial vegetables and self seeding ones too!

I think it's great to get a good harvest with minimal work!

Hello! I was born and raised on a farm in the central Minnesota lakes area. We purchased our own farm 4 years ago and are working on making the most of it.

Sending a hearty welcome to Kady, Ruth, and Kevin! Best of luck to you all.