FYI

My first is due in 9 days…and I’m totally looking forward to the kidding season! Yay!!

Blessings,
Jenna

Sara, I think I have a post about using a dibber to plant my onion plants: normally I use a pointy stick, but this time I went all permanent and use a 1′ piece of rebar. Indeed, it certainly is the consumerist mantra of being an expert only if you have the correct tools. Makes me kind of mad, because it hinders people from actually accomplishing anything.

Hi Jenna! Of COURSE I don’t mind your lurking, goodness! It makes me think I might need to clean up my language though because sometimes I veer off into PG-13 territory. So, does Twist have the same buck for her babies that Twix does? Her due date is the same so I kind of figured! Allegro is one BIG guy, and what a pedigree. Here’s hoping for lots of little doelings all around! And: congratulations on that calf, how fun for you all.

Ashley, exactly: even *I* couldn’t be where I am in a year, it took me a long time to get here. But this all starts with the first step or three. And then one’s confidence (or in my case hubris) builds and it becomes: what CAN’T I do, which is not necessarily a problem so much as…something will need to give. It’s rewarding in many ways.

Michele, you are quite welcome. I help run a program at our daughter’s school about food and use Slow Food as a model, which is good because I continually stress the “slow”! We don’t need to change the world overnight, just our habits over a few years.

et, no, you’re right, and what you brought up makes writing blog posts very hard. It takes a lot of work to write these things carefully, trying to convey the most amount of information in the fewest inoffensive words. Hardly anyone in the first world is out there trying to provide everything for their families, and I would quibble that even doing the littlest planting with complete ignorance of pests, predation and local conditions can still be a rewarding experience, and one with an edible payoff. But what you mentioned, the great “why bother” when we have stores full of food, is the biggest flipping hurdle we need to get over, the mindset most obstinate and most in need of change. Those stores might not always be there, or always affordable: what then?

Thanks, Serina! Don’t you love the pink trim?

Mike, even terribly pregnant goats are highly motivated to get food. (Actually, goats are very good at jumping, as they’re originally mountain creatures!) I think everyone takes lots of things for granted, even people like you who rely on your own strength to heat your house and gather your own food. Sometimes, though, it’s good to simply be thankful.

Esperanza, I go back and forth about finding a new zoomier template for the blog with star buttons etc. but it’s fighting with my notion that I like things super simple (no badges, few links, etc.) so…there you go. Ludditeville.

Hiya DGG! I am envying your jasmine at the moment: entirely too much white stuff out there for anything flowering, except maybe an indoor orchid or three. But thanks, goats are mighty fun.

Milkweed, thanks…and back at you.

I think that people sometimes forget how really good we have it in this country. I know that I catch myself taking things for granted all the time and sometimes have to stop and remind myself how very lucky I am. Thank you, this post was another good reminder.

but…
unless they come with (local) knowledge about weather, varieties to grow, how to put food by, pests and diseases it can take years for growing to become worthwhile. It’s one thing for us relatively affluent people to try and perhaps fail when a store is close by. If my family’s survival depended wholly on what I grew I would distribute my resources (time, space, effort, money) very carefully.

I’m not disagreeing with what you said just adding my 2 cents.