Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Urban Homesteading

If I had even just a nickel for every homesteading, gardening, preserving, "lost homemaking arts" book I have read I would be a rich woman. We live in the city. I mean, really, the city. I can walk to our state capitol building in about 15 minutes. I believe cities are a good use of community resources. I think having humans live in close proximity to one another is good for the environment and good for community. I also think that it is valuable to know how to make your way in the world. Thus we are urban homesteaders--learning to live a self-sufficient lifestyle in the city.

There is so much inspiration out there, a Google search will result in hours of good reading. One of my favorite reads is The Path Project. Following is a list of what we are doing and some of our plans for the future. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, I will be returning to it with more frequency as I try larger scale gardening for the first time this year (except for the TOMATO YEAR but that is another post!)

Current projects underway
backyard chickens
buring 100% wind power from our utility
biodiesel car
local eating
home energy monitoring
gardening
composting
food preservation
cob building

For the future
rain barrels
solar water heater

I would love to hear from others. I hope to join the Homesteadin' Unschoolers Blog Ring soon, I have received so much information and inspiration from those awesome families already!



I never get tired of looking at our chickens! Flicka is the darker (Rhode Island Red), Ricka the lighter (RedStar).

2 comments:

denise said...

Yes, I am addicted to those books too, and those blogs!

We are constantly expanding our gardens and foods, preserve foods, live in a green built home, have many things in place in the home to conserve energy, etc. We buy and eat local as much as possible, are establishing relationships with local farmers to help them market themselves and remain successful using organic and sustainable practices. We use all home made or earth friendly cleaners, body products, and laundry products. Blah blah blah. Always something, trying more, working on this and that. Love it. It is a big part of our lives and we are always looking for ways to improve.

Now, if I had about 5 more feet of a yard I could have chickens, and I'd be set. :)

Meghan said...

We're moving out of our subdivision house this week, to a fixer-upper in town with a big yard (nearly an acre.) Expanding our garden, fruit trees, chickens, and maybe a goat are on our list, too.

I read homesteading/gardening books like some women buy shoes, LOL!