Seven Quick Takes
1. I stumbled on this blog sometime last week and totally cried when I read this post. To clarify: it was a good cry. So go read. Seriously, just do.
2. Ever wondered why people bother with the whole eating local thing? Wonder no more. I, for one, am feeling deeply convicted. And hungry.
3. Speaking of eating local, I’m going through my semi-annual I-think-I-could-be-a-gardener-someday phase. The main impediment to me actually BECOMING a gardener is that I don’t like taking the time to work outside, and I REALLY don’t like how bad I feel after I spend a day digging in the dirt. I know that once I put in a few longish days of hard work, I’d only have to put in a few hours here and there to maintain what I’ve already done, and (theoretically speaking) the more I work outside the less crummy I’ll feel when I do it, what with the getting back in shape and all, but so far I haven’t been able to translate this inner dialogue into actually doing something. I did start a (very sad) little garden when we first bought the house and had some success (honestly, eating fresh basil from my own yard was something of a religious experience) but Garrett arrived in June the following year so of course that was out and I don’t really have an excuse for why I slacked off in 2011 and 2012 but I’m sure I’ll think of one later.
ANYHOO. I’m looking forward to next year, and even though we’re going to have a new little bambino (maybe even BECAUSE of that) I want to start thinking about growing my own food again. I suppose some of you might be thinking, “Girl, you done lost your mind,” and perhaps I have. But right now I haven’t committed to anything, I’m just thinking about it.
I’m waiting for the latest edition of Square Foot Gardening to become available at the library, and until it does I am making use of the free tutelage of the internets. Here, have a nifty square foot gardening infographic, courtesy of Frugal Dad:
4. One of the reasons I haven’t succeeded at gardening, I think, is that I have this romanticized image in my mind of a frugal, self-sufficient pioneer-type-woman (let’s call her “Elsie”) and I really want to be that woman. You know, gardening and raising chickens (which is illegal in my city anyway, buttheads) and composting and canning and preserving and grinding my own flour and churning butter LIKE A BOSS (all while still holding down a job and keeping house wrangling two small children and occasionally having time to kick back and read a good book HAHAHA I AM INSANE). And if I can’t be Elsie, you know, the perfect version of Elsie that exists in my head, I don’t even want to bother trying to be an imperfect version of Elsie. I don’t want to grow a few tomato plants and call it a day. I want to grow FIVE HUNDRED TONS OF TOMATOES. But of course Elsie isn’t real, and five hundred tons of anything is just stupid.
5. This is related to my documented problem with sewing. I WANT to sew because I like the idea of sewing, but I do not like actually sewing. Or rather, I don’t know if I like it because I haven’t done it enough because it intimidates the hell out of me.
6. At times I am convinced that the only reason anyone would ever read this blog is because they are fascinated with the trainwreck of logic and fantasy that is my thought life.
7. Anyway, back to the chickens. Since I got onto my latest urban homesteading research kick, I decided to actually look at my city’s zoning laws, and I found a series of articles about this lovely lady, who has been fighting the good fight against the bastards at City Hall for awhile now. Not quite sure what the whole back story is, but it seems that even though this woman’s neighbors have no problem with her (very quiet and well cared for) chickens, the city has still made a point to cite her for zoning violations. Now you can say, “Geez, what does she expect, she’s breaking the law,” but it seems to me that laws should serve a purpose – in this case, to keep the peace between neighbors and to ensure that animals are not being mistreated. Well, since the neighbors aren’t mad and the chickens are thriving, it seems that the law is a moot point and it just annoys me. Keep it up, Chicken Outlaw! We got your back!
All righty, that’s it! Go see Jen for more Quick Takes.
I grew up with a garden and we canned and weeded and made our own tomato sauces and froze vegetables and pie fillings and make pickles and more pickles, and all the zucchini bread you can eat. I was just telling my husband yesterday that i wanted to garden. I’m becoming afraid of a total global meltdown/zombie apocalypse and feel the need to grow my own food LOL. My SIL is a helicopter pilot so I keep thinking that when the zombies come we only have to make it to the small airport and steal a helicopter. Then we can live off the land utilizing my awesome, but rusty, food preservation skills. However, in reality i’m too lazy anymore.
I worry about the exact same thing! Not so much zombies but some sort of pandemic or revolution or resource scarcity that makes people just as creepy and scary as the walking dead. The good news is that our house is pretty well armed (the benefits of marrying a gun nut) but as far as food stores go we’re SCREWED. I figure if I get to a point where I’m pretty self-sufficient and we DO see a global meltdown in our lifetime, yay, I saved me & my family. And if we DON’T experience said meltdown, yay, at least I figured out a way to eat good organic food all year long for cheap
Also on my list of things to learn: hunting. And as even though it’s super gross, cleaning/butchering dead things.
#5 & 6…. are we the same person!? YES, I totally know how you feel. I want to be ALL these things, then I do nothing because I’m overwhelmed, and then I feel inadequate lol. I love #3!
I guess neither of us is as unique as we thought in our craziness! It’s nice to know I’m not the only person who overwhelms herself and then says, “Eh, screw it.”
My husband is the one that loves to garden. Our little garden gets bigger every year. He does all the work and then I get all of the bounty. Which is sometimes annoying because then I am the one that has to do something with all of the bounty. Unlike you, I have no desire to be a pioneerish woman but I do love, love, love homegrown tomatoes and have fresh basil and oregano all summer long is a wonderful thing!!
See, I think my husband would be great at gardening because he manages to keep houseplants alive or coax them back from the brink of death… I, on the other hand, kill even the hardiest of plants. Maybe once I get a garden established he’ll feel compelled to join me playing in the dirt (and then I can palm the whole job off on him, mwahahaha) but I don’t feel quite right saying, “Hey, I want some homegrown veggies – hope to it!”