So, um, you're doing...what?

This is the "page" entitled "The Wherefore" in the column to the left--I wanted to explain a little more about why I'm doing all of this DIY business.  So, here are my thoughts:

 

I am sitting in my back yard, listening to the breeze in the tree branches and the peeps peeping in their pen.  It is a gorgeous Fall day of warm sunshine and cooler temperatures; the garden is quiet and green-yellow-brown and the world seems unutterably lovely.  Fat, floppy butterflies keep wafting by.  It is noon on a Thursday.  Shouldn't I be at work?


I am 33, unemployed, living in a house that I don't own, racking up student loans for a master's degree, I am legally single and entirely childless, I haven't contributed to my paltry 401K in two years, I don't have cable, and I live in a two-person household that only owns one car.  A small one.  I didn't eat cow, pig, or chicken for almost a decade.  I get irrationally angry with people spraying their driveway weeds with Round-up, and I once got teary at the sight of a wind farm.  Someone called me a hippie in a derogatory way last month, and it had nothing to do with patchwork skirts, dreadlocks, or BO.  Although, come to think of it, I am barefoot right now & haven't combed my hair yet today.  Uh oh. 

And now I am blogging about chickens and some intangible thing called urban homesteading (which, my overly-talkative neighbor must be thinking, is probably socialism with a new coat of paint).  Do you really want to know more about such a weirdo?  Aren't you worried that the children might come across one of my posts and go running out to join the Peace Corps?  Well watch out:  I hope that they do.  At the risk of embracing the hippie slur, come on people now, smile on your brother....  OK, OK, I'll stop.

The concept of urban homesteading is fairly simple--homesteading, or working to provide what you need from your own land (however you define own,) done in the middle of a city (ok, fine:  or suburb) rather than in a rural setting. There are obvious limitations to urban life that affect how viable it is to attempt self-sufficiency--and to be honest, the goal is to increase self-reliance (which is possible) rather than to be fully self-sufficient (which is neither possible nor desirable.) There are all sorts of common, ordinary ways to increase your ability to fend for yourself:  grow a garden, make compost, harvest rainwater, keep bees, cook, bake, sew, become a handy-person, collect well-made tools.  Find ways to reuse what you have rather than buying something new.  Be crafty.  Be frugal.  Be kind and build yourself some community.

Why?

There are lots of reasons why buying less and making more is a good choice (wow, I can hear the economists sharpening their knives & picking up their stones as I type this).  The biggest impetus for me is also the least tangible:  it feels satisfying and deeply human.  The whole point, after all, is to dig into this life in a manner that makes you feel worthwhile and alive.  I ran across a fantastic quote the other day by Howard Thurman:

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

...and there we are.  Finding ways to do it myself, to close the loop a little, makes me feel alive.

However, there are more concrete reasons for this exploration as well, ranging from the practical to the frugal, the ecological to the apocalyptic. Here are my thoughts on the first two of these--in the interest of length, I'll post the last two as a "part two" so it doesn't take all evening to muddle through my lecturing!

The Practical:

This is a simple one.  If you enjoy being outside (and particularly in the Spring, who doesn't?), then with some good planning, a small garden can provide you with great food without a ton of bother or time.  Honestly.  Good dirt, a soaker hose, a deep mulch, and some plants that like your area will only require you to turn on the spigot occasionally and remember to grab your harvest on your way to cook dinner. There are tons of books and websites out there for your winter reading--check out my reading list for some of my favorites, if you'd like.

Or what about healthy food?  Pre-packaged processed foods are going to be the death of us--it doesn't take brilliance to see that.  And yet cooking from scratch is so impractical, right?  Well, yes.  Sometimes.  But what if you set aside a cooking weekend with family or friends; what if cooking is a labor of love that you try to make fun?  Again, with some thoughtful planning, you can make and freeze easy, easy dinners for the many times no one feels like cooking.  It kills me to buy an organic frozen burrito for $3.99 or whatever, when there is a little voice in the back of my head reminding me that if I had just made a few extra the last time we had a Mexican dinner night & frozen them,I wouldn't be plunking down four bucks for something less tasty now.  Crockpots are beautiful things for busy cookers as well--not to mention how the house smells by midafternoon.  Another essential tool is sitting down and summoning the discipline to plan a weekly menu and grocery list.  I am lucky if I remember to do this--and yet it simplifies everything when I do!

The Frugal:

Frugality is a lost art, but more importantly it is a means to an end.  The less that you have to fork over in cash to live happily, the less you are dependent upon procuring more cash.  [--And from what I have read, it seems that as you become a more accomplished wizard of the homey arts, the more you are able to make money, if you choose, from the abundance of your garden, your hands, your time, your heart.]

I was in my herb garden the other day, realizing the money I have saved by starting perennials from seed last spring.  I have ten echinacea purpurea plants and two echinacea augustifolia plants, a hyssop, and several clumps of native monarda that will be blooming and vigorous next summer.  The seeds were $2.50 per packet.  Healthy, sizeable perennials are, what, $5-$20 per pot, depending?  There is the hidden expense of the greater difficulty of starting some perennials, not to mention the time spent nursing the babies all spring (which is better than Prozac, actually, for my winter blues and cabin fever)--and yet this is still one less reason to be in an office, working for a paycheck.

I am learning to look at being frugal as a way of paring away excess, of working to have a less cluttered life with fewer impersonal tugs on my emotions by marketers, and of being given the urge to more honestly prioritize where I spend money.  I am kind of amazed to say that I haven't been in a Target since the middle of June, at least according to my bank records--but I know at least one reason is that I've learned I can't go in there without spending a bunch of money on cheap crap that will be in the trash sooner rather than later. The Target people get me, and so I've been avoiding them.

Which, of course leads to the Ecological, and "Part Two."  I'll be back with that tomorrow....