My Background

I grew up in a small farming town as the daughter of two teachers. However, I had enough friends who lived on farms and who I could visit on a regular basis to get the feeling of both subsistence and commercial agriculture.

In such a small community, everyone knew each other (sometimes far too well!) and everybody joined everything everywhere. We all knew the dairy farmer and the egg farmer and the butcher and the banker and the man who owned the green-grocery that opened once a week with fresh fruit and vegetables from the market. I saw sheep getting slaughtered and helped with the birthing of a calf, I ate raw sugar cane and played on cotton bales. I know what it is to travel far to buy clothes and do bulk shopping. I also know that life was simple, without the Internet and Facebook and debt and lots of TV. We kids entertained ourselves and the grown-ups spent time visiting each other and socializing.

As a grown-up myself, I yearn to go back that simpler lifestyle, before technology changed the world into a place where people almost have no place any more. I want to rediscover my roots and start living the way my ancestors did, making do with what they had and innovating what they needed. I want to be on a first-name basis with my neighbors again, and supplying in as many of my own needs as I can without having to cripple myself with debt.

I have decided to slowly but surely wean myself from my current lifestyle, by learning and applying some cottage crafts from way back when and becoming increasingly self-sufficient, until - ultimately - I am ready to cut ties from where I am working now and work a small Permaculture farmstead full-time. I want to be able to live life on my own terms and not on terms dictated to me by society and the Jones'. Frankly, I have no ambition to "keep up!"

This writing challenge by LiveYourLegend is the kick in the pants that I need to set up a proper blog for documenting my journey towards that farming goal. You never know when a simple daily piece of writing could evolve into a whole different income stream. And Permaculture is all about creating income streams from everything one does - or at least letting nothing go to waste.

So...

Instead of letting the things I learn along the way go to waste, it would be an excellent idea to document them, and help someone else to make similar and better decisions than what I have.