WendyB
09-03-2008, 12:01 AM
I'm a homeschooling/Work From Home Mom of five great kids (two who are adults and out on their own), and I have one granddaughter. For a very long time, my dream was to have a small homestead somewhere out in the country, and in fact, when my husband and I first started looking for a house eleven years ago, the hope was to find an acreage. Unfortunately, that's not what happened, and we ended up on a quarter acre in the "suburban area" of a coastal, resort town here in Maine. For the next eight years, I looked and looked for a place out in the "country", to no avail, and finally, about three years ago, I realized this was it, and either I had to make my dreams of self-sufficiency work here, or abandon them altogether. Thanks, in a large part, to Patti, I've embraced the whole "urban/suburban" homesteading movement, and we're raising backyard chickens and rabbits and have one heck of a garden ;). We're that much closer to being self-sufficient, and I have to tell you, it feels great!
We've adopted a "locavore" lifestyle, and I'm a "regular" at my local Farmer's Market, where I purchase what I can't or don't grow from local farmers. I also tend to buy as much produce during the summer as I can and "put it up" for use during the winter. I'm also a forager and where I can find free food (mostly berries at this point), I do, which often ends up in our winter food reserves (there's just nothing like dropping a few Maine blueberries into my hot oatmeal and dousing it with some Maple syrup when the snow is howling outside ;). At this point, most of what we eat is grown in Maine, including all of our meat (some of which we raised ourselves on our quarter acre), all of our dairy, and all of our "fresh" produce. The only foods that aren't local are grains (rice and flour), olive oil, tea/coffee, some spices, chocolate, and sugar - none of which grow in our climate.
I'm very excited about your forum here, Patti, and I'm looking forward to following your discussions. In particular, the Peak Oil topic, as that's one I have been following myself for the past couple of years. I'd love to hear your take on it :).
We've adopted a "locavore" lifestyle, and I'm a "regular" at my local Farmer's Market, where I purchase what I can't or don't grow from local farmers. I also tend to buy as much produce during the summer as I can and "put it up" for use during the winter. I'm also a forager and where I can find free food (mostly berries at this point), I do, which often ends up in our winter food reserves (there's just nothing like dropping a few Maine blueberries into my hot oatmeal and dousing it with some Maple syrup when the snow is howling outside ;). At this point, most of what we eat is grown in Maine, including all of our meat (some of which we raised ourselves on our quarter acre), all of our dairy, and all of our "fresh" produce. The only foods that aren't local are grains (rice and flour), olive oil, tea/coffee, some spices, chocolate, and sugar - none of which grow in our climate.
I'm very excited about your forum here, Patti, and I'm looking forward to following your discussions. In particular, the Peak Oil topic, as that's one I have been following myself for the past couple of years. I'd love to hear your take on it :).