I spent some of the last few weeks breaking ground on a garden here in Yellow Spring. Since we’re in a rental, I can’t make the garden quite as big as we would like, but I’m grateful that the owner is flexible enough to let us dig one at all. It should be a great learning experience for gardening in Ohio and prepare us for larger-scale operations when we find a permanent farmstead.

It will also be an experience in growing in soggy soil, the exact opposite issue from what I faced in Florida. It turns out that our yard is not a swamp merely due to the recent heavy rains, but our neighbors informed us that there is a natural spring under our area. It is one of the many springs that gives our village its name, and is already proving to be a bit of a gardening headache.

Wow, moving is hard enough as it is, but for the sustainably-minded it can be torture! The past three months were very fortunate for us -- I got a new job, we moved back to the Midwest, and we sold our house -- yet extremely stressful.

I know I’ve lost quite a few regular readers and I hope to earn them back now that we’re getting settled. So, I’ll get right back into sustainability topics starting with the one at hand, which is the eco-crappy process of moving states! In October, I learned that I was selected for a job with the Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio -- a dream job for me both in terms of the working environment and the location. But first the big news -- the house we found to rent is in the village of Yellow Springs, Ohio, which many of you may know from the Community Solutions Conference held every year on Peak Oil! The village is by far the closest thing I’ve seen to a sustainable community, and is far better able to weather some of the challenges ahead than anywhere we’ve ever seen. I’ll have much, much more on Yellow Springs as time goes on, but for now I’ll get back to our moving story.

We have arrived in Ohio and are in the midst of finding a place to live. I'll get back to regular posting and updates on our adventures once we don't have to steal wireless from Panera Bread anymore.

There is a lull in the moving craziness on the Florida end at the moment, so I was able to discipline myself enough to post. We still need to figure out where we're going to live in Ohio, and we'll likely be renting for a year or so up there, which could present some challenges in trying to continue our development of a sustainable homestead. For instance, we need to figure out a way to keep gardening if our landlord doesn't want us to alter the landscaping. We also need to sort out what sustainable solutions we could carry with us to a permanent homestead.

In Florida, we're enjoying the winter gardening season. I pickled 8 jars of hot peppers out of the garden for Christmas presents (and for our own use) and I'm waiting for tomatoes to fruit.

If you have noticed a slowdown in activity in this site recently, it's due to a couple things: our rascally 5-month old and preparing to pack up and move states! I just got the word recently that I was selected for a job with the Air Force in Ohio, and I start in January. So, please bear with me as we uproot and resettle -- hopefully I'll be able to re-energize the blog with projects and pictures from our new farmstead :)

Systems Engineering is a poorly-named field -- it's not so much an engineering discipline as a structured process for producing a design. Just as we can design a homestead , we can apply the Systems Engineering process to develop lasting documents.

The experiment I propose is this: can we apply the elements of the Systems Engineering process to create a constitution that ensures a sustainable and open community?

I was out with some other moms today and the topic of soy came up. They were telling me about how it can cause sterility in boys and has other adverse effects. I decided I should do some research on my own and found two very interesting websites. I am going to post them both as they both have very different opinions. One talks about how soy is horrible and the other site refutes the first. I was most concerned about how soy would affect my 4 month old boy, but most of what they talk about is based on soy formula (I am breastfeeding exclusively). I do eat some soy since I have cut out all dairy products from my diet (again because of the breastfeeding, it hurt his tummy!) I eat tofu, edamame, and soy ice cream. I don't drink soy milk though I drink almond milk. Basically what I have decided is that soy is not bad as long as you eat it organically as is the case with most other foods! Also I don't think that you should eat too much of it, again the same as most other foods!

Anti-soy article
Article refuting the first article

On a recent trip home to Iowa, a minor basement flood at my parents’ in-town house presented the opportunity to stay at their newly completed off-grid home out in the country. As living on a self-sufficient acreage is of course our dream, we took this as a chance for a taste of sustainable living (well, minus the homesteading aspect).

This picture shows the solar array, wind tower, propane tank, and top of the septic system. If you look in the background you’ll see the line of semis waiting to accept their load of industry-intensive corn being harvested that day. I felt it was a nice contrast between viable sustainable practices…and modern farming techniques.

Over the weekend we discovered 10 ripe lemons on our lemon tree! While PE entertained PE JR. I decided to make lemonade! According to Rachel Ray if you heat up the lemons it will help the juices flow and make the lemons easier to work with. Since I don’t have a juicer of any form except my hands, I thought it would be a good idea. I heated the lemons up in the microwave for 30 seconds first and then decided it wasn’t long enough, so I gave them another 30 seconds. We were trying to think how you would do that post peak oil and first thought maybe you would boil them but then thought maybe warming them in hot coals or setting them out in the sun for a while might be a better way. So after I heated them I rolled them on the cutting board for a while to get them even jucier! By the time I had juiced all 10 lemons I had one cup of lemon juice. I thought it would be more but I think I had small lemons.

The next step is to make a simple syrup. To make a simple syrup you heat equal parts sugar and water, for this recipe one cup of each. Once you dissolve the sugar you combine the syrup and lemon juice in a pitcher. Then you add 4 cups of water and serve over ice. I have to say it was fabulous, tart and sweet and quite refreshing! I was quite proud of the results… The one strange thing was squeezing all of those lemons made my fingers wrinkly and they were kind of sore from all of the acid! It also started dissolving my nail polish! Strange, I guess I know what to do if I ever run out of nail polish remover! PE is going to try and get some of the essential oils out of the rinds when he has a chance. You can also compost the rinds, or you can throw one down the garbage disposal to freshen it up!

The horror stories emerging from Zimbabwe following its economic collapse and hyperinflation may provide a glimpse of one possible future for a post-Peak Oil world. An article published today illustrates how desperate the hunger is becoming inside the country. Keep in mind that the government has taken totalitarian control of all the media and there probably many even more terrible happenings going on.

From the article:

Pets are being slaughtered for meat in shortage-stricken Zimbabwe and record numbers of animals have been surrendered to shelters or abandoned by owners no longer able to feed them, animal welfare activists say.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it could not feed surrendered animals or find them new homes and was being forced to kill them and destroy the corpses.

Animals, like people, are being hard hit by Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, with official inflation of more than 7,600 percent, the highest in the world. Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it will reach 100,000 percent by the end of the year.

Just for your own personal reference, remember that dogs (and other pets) can eat a fairly varied diet (i.e. don't panic if you run out of Purina).