Happy Christmas Eve & the 2010 Plan

First of all, a wonderful, blessed, magical Christmas Eve to all who celebrate. To those who do not, a wonderful, blessed, magical holiday season to you.

And now for The Plan (in no way related to the Cylon’s plan). I have big ideas in the works for next year, big as in wide-ranging and life-changing, if all goes even remotely as I’m imagining it.

What’s the plan? I’m going to start my homestead/farm. Yep, gonna start it right here in this little suburb with the blah soil.

Am I nuts? Well, of course, but that’s beside the point. I’ve wanted my own house, bit of land, mini-farm for pretty much all of my life. I grew up in a typical suburban house but my mother always had a huge garden that she fed us out of, and I spent most of my days off at the local barn with horses & other livestock (riding bareback into the lake was a favorite summer activity), and I loved going to summer camp where I could spend time in bigger barns, around more animals, and play in new streams & lakes. Of course, having my own place and running my own little farm is an entirely new ball game from what I grew up with, but it’s always been in the back of my mind in that “one day I’m gonna…” kind of way.

But what in the heck am I waiting for? “One day” is now.

Life is short, no matter how much time you actually spend on the planet. I’ve thought a lot about that this year after my mom’s passing, and every time I hear of a celebrity dying I think of it even more (RIP Brittney Murphy). This year I have started, very tentatively, to do some of the things I always wanted to do, such as make & sell my own stuff. I *love* making & selling Geek Bliss items, but it’s merely the tip of the iceberg. I want to fully support myself with my own work, and I want to be able to support myself with the fruits (literally) of my own labors.

Ultimately, my dream is to find a bit of cheap land somewhere in the west (most likely), build a house on it (as in build it myself), and live mostly self-sufficiently. I say “mostly” because I do admit that I must have consistent internet access, lol! I love my pixel art too much, and I love reading other people’s blogs and finding like-minded souls that way. TV I can easily live without, but internet? Nope. I want to have chickens, goats, sheep, and a horse or two, maybe a milking cow. I get giddy just thinking about such a life, all mine and created & sustained by my own effort, and by the effort of any friends who end up joining me on the ride.

Alas, I cannot make that jump yet. No funds for buying land. But over the past few weeks, I stumbled over some homesteading websites & blogs that got me thinking (as well as scouring my fav sites like Mother Earth News, Seeds of Change, and Countryside mag as I start amassing reference links & making notes).

I don’t need the land to start homesteading, as I can use what I currently have access to to begin learning skills I’ll need when I do acquire land. I am lucky to live in a house, and there is a small yard. It’s my roommate’s house & yard, but she doesn’t mind if I start some gardens. She doesn’t mind if I begin a compost system. She doesn’t mind if get a couple of rabbits so that their manure can help fertilize the garden (and they’re such adorable pets!).

So the other day I was hit by an epiphany. 2010 is my year to start homesteading, right here where I am, using what I have and going from there. I’ve got a *huge* list of goals for the year, and I’ll be starting a new widget on my sidebar here on the blog to display the list and my progress with it. Of course I plan to blog about the entire journey, as this will serve as my “farm journal.” I still laugh to myself when I think “farm journal,” considering I’m smack in the middle of a cookie-cutter Florida suburb/development…hehehe.

The basics of my plan so far:

• Create several raised-bed & container gardens, growing all the veggies & herbs that I typically now buy; I would like to, by the end of 2010, be growing all my own veggies/herbs and not need to buy any at the store. I know there are a million factors that can interrupt this plan, but that is my ultimate goal.
  • The gardens will be 100% organic, of course. This is actually a natural extension of my concern over food issues, the only political hot-potato I still care about (because it’s one of the only ones I have control over). My interest in it started years ago when I developed a peanut allergy and had to became a voracious label-reader. Once you become aware of what’s in most “food,” it’s almost impossible to forget. I switched to a natural/organic/non-MSG/non-hydrogenated/non-hormone/non-HFCS diet, which was merely a first step for me. I am now itching to produce my own organic food.
  • I will only grow non-GMO plants.
• I will create & use rain barrels, and acquire & use clay pot irrigation. The gardens are going to require a lot of water, especially during the Florida summer, so finding ways to reduce city water use is essential.
• I will start a compost system and my ultimate goal is to compost/recycle 100% of the organic trash generated by the household.
• I will create recycling bins for all other trash from the household and make periodic trips to recycling centers.
  • I already save a lot of glass jars instead of throwing them away, but I know at some point I’ll have more jars than I can reuse.
• I’ll learn to can. My mother always grew tons of veggies & canned a lot, and she always had yummy homemade stuff to eat. I’m thinking of starting with tomato sauce, salsa, pickles, and saurkraut.
• I’ll broaden and increase my cooking skills by cooking as much as possible from scratch. Learn to make bread, butter, cheese, etc. Cook often for friends to improve skills.
• I want to find local, organic sources for dairy, meat, and honey (or keep buying from local natural food store if their sources are local; find out).
• In the midst of all this, I will create more homemade products to sell, selling online as well as starting to branch out to local farmer’s markets.

I know I’ll add to this list as new ideas come to me, such as building my birds a new, large cage/coop (they’ll be the happiest cockatiels around!), building bird feeders & nest boxes, building various garden items…all with found/repurposed/scrap materials. Since my income is and will remain limited, I’m seeing that as a challenge—but I’ve seen so many other people doing so much with so little that I know it’s possible to build this dream of mine without much money. Waiting for the “right time” or “enough money” are just excuses that postpone a dream. The time is now.

A new farm has been born, and I’m going enjoy every minute of developing each cell of it and watching it develop & grow. If you’re along for the ride too via this blog, I hope you’ll enjoy it as well. I promise to keep the journal entertaining whenever I can.