Every Time You Do That Thing You Do~
Mar. 13th, 2011 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Today... I was not very successful at the cutting and sewing thing.
On the other hand, we have a dining room table again. And the 13-pound half ham in the freezer got turned into dinner for four. And three refrigerator dishes* full of ham. And the bone in the freezer, eventually to be turned into split pea soup. All my ironing is done, and the laundry is put away. The compost bin is heaped high with two of the old borage bushes, everything got watered, I started corn and chard and calendula, I planted more radishes, carrots, parsnips, and (finally) garlic. Plus after dinner Wonderful Husband levelled a couple of cinder blocks in the odd-shaped bed and assembled the fountain atop it. Mind, it still doesn't have water or power, but it's in place and I can start amending the bed around it and putting my herbs in there. (Plus yesterday he did wonderful and esoteric things to the lawn, which will hopefully succeed.)
And we had a discussion about why I do some of the things I do. I've seen it called gardening, and urban homesteading, and mindful living, and a few other terms. What it boils down to, for me, is the fact that I don't trust the oil supply that makes cheap living the American way to last forever. I don't think it'll all up and disappear at once, but let's just say that I don't think we'll ever go back to $.99 9/10ths per gallon petrol prices, which I remember from when I was a teenager. Fuel will only keep going up, and as far as I can see the "race" to alternative fuels isn't going fast enough. Which means that things which rely on cheap fuel will get markedly more expensive. Little things. Like the laundry detergent that's made with petroleum by-products. Or the food that gets hauled across multiple states to get to the grocery store to end up on your table. When/if this happens, things will get tight. People will get unhappy. Riots may or may not break out. And hey, I live in California, breadbasket of the nation, right? Except that I look around and don't exactly see any wheat fields in my neighborhood.
So I garden. I learn how to grow different plants and save their seeds to grow another year of food. I learn how to take one chicken and stretch it to seven or eight meals for the pair of us (roasted, two meals of leftovers, and then made into a pot of soup that fills up four or five quart jars, each a meal for two). I look at plans for solar cookers in case the gas lines go down. I stockpile rice and flour and sugar to last quite a while, and make my own vinegar, ginger beer, and sourdough starter. I plot rainwater cachement. I fill odd corners of the yard with decorative edibles, and learn what "weeds" are actually quite tasty. And when and if things start looking tough, I'll be knocking on doors all up and down the block introducing myself and offering seeds. Because it's not enough to be the only one with food; you have to build a community.
And that's part of why I do some of the things I do.
*Refrigerator dishes are an older alternative to Tupperware and Ziploc. They're essentially Pyrex dishes with clear Pyrex lids. I pick them up at thrift stores when I find them. I no longer trust plastic, as it has a nasty habit of leaching BPA and probably other things into foods, so I'm slowly switching us over to something inert. Which has the advantage of not being stained by the turmeric when I make sabzi. Though I grant it doesn't work as well for taking leftovers into work.
On the other hand, we have a dining room table again. And the 13-pound half ham in the freezer got turned into dinner for four. And three refrigerator dishes* full of ham. And the bone in the freezer, eventually to be turned into split pea soup. All my ironing is done, and the laundry is put away. The compost bin is heaped high with two of the old borage bushes, everything got watered, I started corn and chard and calendula, I planted more radishes, carrots, parsnips, and (finally) garlic. Plus after dinner Wonderful Husband levelled a couple of cinder blocks in the odd-shaped bed and assembled the fountain atop it. Mind, it still doesn't have water or power, but it's in place and I can start amending the bed around it and putting my herbs in there. (Plus yesterday he did wonderful and esoteric things to the lawn, which will hopefully succeed.)
And we had a discussion about why I do some of the things I do. I've seen it called gardening, and urban homesteading, and mindful living, and a few other terms. What it boils down to, for me, is the fact that I don't trust the oil supply that makes cheap living the American way to last forever. I don't think it'll all up and disappear at once, but let's just say that I don't think we'll ever go back to $.99 9/10ths per gallon petrol prices, which I remember from when I was a teenager. Fuel will only keep going up, and as far as I can see the "race" to alternative fuels isn't going fast enough. Which means that things which rely on cheap fuel will get markedly more expensive. Little things. Like the laundry detergent that's made with petroleum by-products. Or the food that gets hauled across multiple states to get to the grocery store to end up on your table. When/if this happens, things will get tight. People will get unhappy. Riots may or may not break out. And hey, I live in California, breadbasket of the nation, right? Except that I look around and don't exactly see any wheat fields in my neighborhood.
So I garden. I learn how to grow different plants and save their seeds to grow another year of food. I learn how to take one chicken and stretch it to seven or eight meals for the pair of us (roasted, two meals of leftovers, and then made into a pot of soup that fills up four or five quart jars, each a meal for two). I look at plans for solar cookers in case the gas lines go down. I stockpile rice and flour and sugar to last quite a while, and make my own vinegar, ginger beer, and sourdough starter. I plot rainwater cachement. I fill odd corners of the yard with decorative edibles, and learn what "weeds" are actually quite tasty. And when and if things start looking tough, I'll be knocking on doors all up and down the block introducing myself and offering seeds. Because it's not enough to be the only one with food; you have to build a community.
And that's part of why I do some of the things I do.
*Refrigerator dishes are an older alternative to Tupperware and Ziploc. They're essentially Pyrex dishes with clear Pyrex lids. I pick them up at thrift stores when I find them. I no longer trust plastic, as it has a nasty habit of leaching BPA and probably other things into foods, so I'm slowly switching us over to something inert. Which has the advantage of not being stained by the turmeric when I make sabzi. Though I grant it doesn't work as well for taking leftovers into work.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 11:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 11:43 am (UTC)Gardening is a new thing for me, and I'm in my third year of attempts. I've finally found things that work for my area, and figured out what my family will and will not eat. Now comes the fine tuning! :)
Thanks for being an inspiration. It's wonderful to read how you do the things you do!