Changes

Much has changed since we moved into our new place (and in the immense gap between posts), both locally and globally. We welcomed our new baby daughter in October, a great joy. In January I started my PhD in Systems Engineering in earnest and am almost halfway through a year of full-time study. If approved, my research will focus on complexity theory and energy availability and perhaps even have important conclusions applicable to Peak Oil.

Around the farm, much has changed. We’re entering our second growing season here and are much better prepared than last year. I’m focusing on no-till methods and more than doubled the number of beds from last year. We are trying to focus on rare varieties and unusual crops for a local market niche.

Many more perennials are in the ground now. Including the few things here when we moved in, we now have on the order of 60 berry bushes (cranberry, blueberry, raspberry, tayberry, loganberry, boysenberry), 6 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 1 apricot, 1 nectarine, 3 pear, 2 sweet cherry, 2 hardy kiwi, 2 paw-paw, 2 filberts, 1 elderberry, 3 grapes, 60 strawberry plants, 20 asparagus crowns, and many wild raspberries and blackberries. After gaining inspiration from attending a class at a friend’s farm taught by permaculture designer Mark Stephenson, I plan on adding quite a few more food forest elements, including nut trees, currants, grapes, and filberts.

Our few chickens have lived in a prototype mobile coop for a year, and in the next few weeks we’ll be adding 15-20 turkeys (Narraganset and Narraganset/Bourbon mix) and 20 more chickens (10 Dominiques and 10 Speckled Sussex) which will means I’ll need two more mobile coops. Goats and sheep are still down the line, but our plans for them are developing.

I’m starting to experiment with grains, with the primary goal being for animal feed since it is such a pain to get things like wheat cook-ready (although we’ll still do some of that for ourselves). We have a 20 x 20 patch of winter wheat going right now, a smaller (and less prepared) patch of spring wheat, and buckwheat will go in soon.

Infrastructure-wise, we now have a hay loft, a hand pump for the well, a movable poultry processing stand, and a wood shed. Inside, we have added insulation, installed a wood stove, and we are updating other parts. I have permanently parked the (craptastic) mower, and switched to the scythe full-time. (Note, however, I still will have a farmer friend bale the back couple acres). I’m also building a respectable collection of old saws, and will try to put them to the test this year.

While I believe very strongly that these adaptations could make the difference between surviving and thriving – or merely surviving—the decline ahead, much of the motivation for these efforts is to show that folks with no prior experience, a full-time job, and a full-time family can make these changes. Changes that reduce consumption precipitously, reduce carbon footprint, improve health, reduce bills all around, and produce happy kiddos – without unplugging from society.

Change is coming. The trick is to change yourself before things are changed for you.