Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Your mileage may vary. Ours often did.

We were both raised to garden on a fairly large scale.


My dad grew up in a half-starved sharecropper family; he had, and imparted, a wide range of homesteading skills and what could be called “hunter-gatherer” skills as well. He always reviewed anything he saw on television or in the newspapers as to how it was or was not of any use according to his subsistence yardstick, and was acerbic in his references to what others called “civilization.” We thought his approach had a lot to recommend it, and from 1977 to the present have tried to live his ideals.


Capital-intensive industrial society consists of brittle gestures toward “efficiency” but true efficiency is in the realm of robots. We here have instead focused on “resiliency:” flexible, low tech, high redundancy subsistence, on the theory that if abandoned by the “system” we could flourish, at least enough not to be a burden to our neighbors.


We held Permaculture principles and no-dig as appropriate models but sometimes had to diverge a bit to meet our food goals, because there was never quite enough organic matter in the labor or money budgets to do it to others' standards.

The quality and quantity of our efforts faded after 2016, as we entered our mid-sixties. Health concerns mounted. Therein lies a tale.

If you want to try this life, whether on the lawn or patio or balcony, there are plenty of resources in print and online, or in the reminiscences of relatives, etc.

For those interested, here are the online folders of eleven years of photos of microfarming at Stony Run “Farm.” They are offered in case they contain any ideas worthy of emulation.

But remember: your mileage may vary. Ours often did.


2007-8 


https://goo.gl/photos/k6XNtk9pb8uaif5c8
https://goo.gl/photos/k6XNtk9pb8uaif5c8

2009


https://goo.gl/photos/8ZAPzqTd735XkEmk9
https://goo.gl/photos/8ZAPzqTd735XkEmk9

2010


https://photos.app.goo.gl/bziS1FNyibte1Fvq8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bziS1FNyibte1Fvq8

2011


https://photos.app.goo.gl/yWW9iUxdKowYNCeX9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yWW9iUxdKowYNCeX9

2012


https://photos.app.goo.gl/DKKMbi3goP5EuoDQ6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DKKMbi3goP5EuoDQ6

2013


https://photos.app.goo.gl/4ZmWnYnZDMAuHHvR6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4ZmWnYnZDMAuHHvR6

2014


https://photos.app.goo.gl/F5D71LneGWyVBzEd7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/F5D71LneGWyVBzEd7

2015
https://goo.gl/photos/6zaVGLeR9gR2wQH19
https://goo.gl/photos/6zaVGLeR9gR2wQH19

2016
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BKLMEPHsJ9hY1tnF8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BKLMEPHsJ9hY1tnF8

2017


https://goo.gl/photos/E8YQod6V7xpv7GZL8
https://goo.gl/photos/E8YQod6V7xpv7GZL8

2018
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NkkeU3jQBidSkhBn6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NkkeU3jQBidSkhBn6

2019
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tioMwtnrhRi7yZXx5
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tioMwtnrhRi7yZXx5

1 comment:

  1. 2020: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DUjm6MJaKGBh2hnQA

    ReplyDelete

Stony Run Farm: Life on One Acre