Gail, neither are we, good thing the first few snows usually melt after a few days!
randi, isn't it always an incredible rush from first frost to first snow in the NE! Seems we've just barely had time to ripen the crops and it's time to batton down for winter! I'm always amazed at the amount of snow we get here, and it's promising for another snowy winter...
We actually got our first snow on October 15th! We had about 2" of wet snow. I have a picture of my still ripening raspberries tucked under one of my sheets!
Now we're enjoying freakishly warm temps of nearly 70F. for the last day of Oct and the first of Nov!
My squirrels are seriously tucking away nuts. I wasn't able to collect any hickory nuts from my own trees but found a collection when I was out checking out a surplus store. My dad and I have also noticed the wasp nests are really high in the trees. He claims that both things mean a snowy winter in the area! I guess we'll see. I know I've felt the need squirrel away more supplies myself.
We believe that growing our own food is the most radical and effective way to promote social justice, equality and sustainability. Everyone, to some extent, can grow their own food. It makes even more sense for communities to grow their own food, sharing responsibilities and costs. It requires a restructuring of values, the kinds of values that are necessary for a consumer culture to wake up to the exploitation and poverty we perpetuate throughout the world. Our socially and environmentally exploitive food-culture perpetuates the very resource wars and poverty that concern so many of us. Growing food brings our environment sharply into focus; we learn how much we rely on healthy food, healthy soil and an healthy ecosystem. On our homestead, and in this blog, we practice and advocate human-scaled food systems, with an intimate hands on approach, as a way for everyone on this earth to be nutritiously and sustainably fed, from the first world to the third world. Our diverse, closed-loop homestead is to us, a relevant form of protest, as well as a constructive way to build a sustainable future.
We are all in this together. Not one of us lives on this earth alone.
Just in case you are curious about the way we live... We produce enough income from a half-acre market garden to live a simple, debt-free lifestyle. We are off-grid and produce our power from an 80 Watt solar panel to run the things we need. We hydro-cool our perishables, and can, dry or cellar our food instead of running a fridge or freezer. We cook and heat water with wood, year-round, which means getting a fire going each morning, even in the heat of our two week long summer, and doing all the cooking and washing before the heat of the day. We ride bicycles to get where we need to go, especially to the Community Internet Access Center, and barter for rides into town for shopping a few times a year. In our Northern garden, Zone 4, we produce and preserve our own vegetables, herbs and most of our grains in a half-acre garden and acre grain field. We keep a small herd of goats, and a small flock of hens, to produce our meat, dairy products and eggs. We live seasonally, our daily life in the spring centers on planting and cultivating, our daily life in summer centers on harvesting and preserving, our daily life in fall centers on preparing for winter, and our daily life in winter centers on reading, learning, writing, philosophizing, planning and crafting. We are always looking for ways to innovate the tools and techniques for growing food on a home-scale. And we are always looking for ways to strengthen the effect of our lifestyle choices by connecting what we do with the larger community.
5 comments:
I am not ready for snow!
as gorgeous as it is can't we have and extra month or two of bare ground? We've yet to get anything here but it truly is just a matter of time...
Gail, neither are we, good thing the first few snows usually melt after a few days!
randi, isn't it always an incredible rush from first frost to first snow in the NE! Seems we've just barely had time to ripen the crops and it's time to batton down for winter! I'm always amazed at the amount of snow we get here, and it's promising for another snowy winter...
We actually got our first snow on October 15th! We had about 2" of wet snow. I have a picture of my still ripening raspberries tucked under one of my sheets!
Now we're enjoying freakishly warm temps of nearly 70F. for the last day of Oct and the first of Nov!
My squirrels are seriously tucking away nuts. I wasn't able to collect any hickory nuts from my own trees but found a collection when I was out checking out a surplus store. My dad and I have also noticed the wasp nests are really high in the trees. He claims that both things mean a snowy winter in the area! I guess we'll see. I know I've felt the need squirrel away more supplies myself.
Snow... it was inevitable.
Tammy, critters usually have a keener sense about these things. We've got a bit more snow headed our way this week... almost ready for it.
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