Skip to main content

Welcoming the new year....and setting up success

When I started this blog, now going into it's third year, I wasn't sure what I wanted it to do.  It lacked focus and intent.    

I had a rough idea that I wanted to be a homesteader?  However at the time I really had no way define it.  On TV you see people isolated to a great extent, trying to be off the grid and self sufficient.  To a certain extent that's where I would like to be too.

That's really is the basic definition of "homesteading" and even that most basic of definitions means different things to different people.  Generally however, we can all agree that it means trying to be a little more self sufficient.

In some ways I consider that lifestyle to be the ultimate goal.. For now however I am just trying to reconnect with with nature by growing a garden.  The more I learn about some company farming practices, the more concerned I become about the food that I eat.  Being able to grow your own food is never a bad skill to have.  

Although I'm not interested in raising livestock one never knows what the future brings.

I want to reduce, reuse and recycle more. Sue surprised me the other day by buying us a garbage can specifically for metals.  We are just trying to live more simply.

My dream is to slowly make this property a native oasis.   Sadly however I also know that climate change is real, if you believe in it or not, and it's going to affect us in a variety of ways.  If this is going to be my legacy, and I think it is, then I have to prepare my property for the next generation the best way I can.  

 

Long story short is that Pennsylvania is expected to be wetter and warmer than it was in the past.  Which means anything that I plant in the coming years will have to be adapt to that reality after I'm gone.

To do anything however requires a plan.  And I am planning for a future that I may never see.  I just don't see the "future" as being a very bright one for people in general.

That's the ultimate goal - to somehow set up an oasis for the future, then my question becomes:   How to get there?   

That's one of the reasons this blog will most likely be moving to another server in the coming months.  I'm going to need feedback, expert help and advice and, in order to do that, I need reach the largest audience possible.  No, we will not have a You Tube channel or Twitter account anytime soon.   No need for it really.  There is a lot of good info out there and I will always share those resources with you. 

I'm still panning on keeping the blog advertising free, I'm still planning on keeping politics off the blog as much as possible; however when you find yourself talking about the environment your bound to talk about politics.   Lately I've been commenting on sites that are either propagating misinformation or spreading falsehoods.   I think that will continue in the coming year.

So it may be political? 

In 2023 I think I'm going to concentrate more on that journey towards....the individual's role in saving the environment.   

So again...heading into 2023 I've a vague idea of what I want to do, and not any clue on how to get there.   Just a mist covered mountain path to trod and the belief that I am going in the right direction.  

I hope you join me on that journey.

Labels:
Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

Maybe it's time I got serious about solar

  When my wife and I bought this house nearly 6 years ago, we made some upgrades.   We put on a metal roof, replacing the original shingles, replaced the floor in the kitchen, both bathrooms and the downstairs den.  We ended up upgrading the pellet stove (twice!) and added some insulation; one of the jobs I want to do in the coming year is to insulate the garage, mostly to keep the freezers we have in the garage from becoming damaged. It's only in various home improvement shows that the work to improve your home is done all at once and somehow in 1 hour.  For most of us its an ongoing never ending project. One of the important improvements that I've been wanting to make but have kept putting off for various reasons has been solar panels.  Now, I'm thinking that it may be time to least do something. The main reason we have been putting off this improvement was cost and how long it would actually take us to pay off the panels.   I'm 60 years old now...
Post a Comment
Read more

When it rains....

Bad things they say; happen in groups of three.  Lately we feel that this has been multiplied by at least three, then that by three.  Nor was this the article I was hoping to publish this week, but here it is warts and all! Thankfully there is nothing seriously wrong with my family health wise, and this is nothing that some more hard work and dedication will get us though.  There is one big personal item that I can not go into details on to protect her privacy but what is affecting us right now is that we are again faced with decisions on what to do concerning some major purchases.   I've already written about having to buy a "newer" car but I'm not going to bore you with details about replacing the water heater or unexpected tax bills.  At the beginning of May, our riding lawn mower died.   This in itself is not that big of a deal because I got a good five to six years out of a used machine, and the fact that it has started to give up the ghost ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Honoring the past - Thinking more about "invasive" plant species.

 Recently I've been giving some thought to invasive species.  I had received both positive and negative feedback on the blog post concerning kudzu and recently I came across a very well hidden, and very small, wild cherry tree while doing some yard work.  Since it's against the house it would have to be removed since the root systems could damage my foundation.   A buddy of mine at work was asking if I was going to transfer it, his logic being that it was a fruiting tree that would not only attract a variety of pollinator's but that the deer would eat the bark and cherries, keeping them away from the garden (which Sue and I swore we were not going to do this year).  It occurred to me that I was going to have to do a slightly better job of identification, since black cherries are native to America , where as other types of cherries are not.  Being able to make a precise identification would be helpful.   I used to be able to identify all these tre...
1 comment
Read more