It Keeps You Running

Life continues to throw stuff at me.  I'm not complaining.  This time around life threw me a new grandson.  Max Quilan Bascom.  He came early compared to his Dr. set due date but he was more then fully cooked.  Max was a very red baby.  He set a new standard for a nice glow in the dark red when he finally decided to cry.  Something he doesn't do much of.

I've also spent time at the neighbor's place.  We have been putting in fence.  He lost half of his land in a divorce and a dividing fence needs to be gotten in.  We figure one more good day and we will have it licked.  In the meantime, it seems that my own work is going wanting.  My time at home is being taken up by christmas preparation.  I don't seem to be making much headway though.  Nor am I feeling festive.  I just feel busy.

The weather has been consistently in the forties, which is very weird for winter weather in Iowa.  Because of this I will go ahead and plan on methods of drought gardening next summer.

Planning.  I'm very big on planning.  My kids like to plan, as well.  I have a daughter who wants me to get the little farm ready to sell.  She thinks we should be prepared for the worse and we should go ahead and get the little farm on the market.  Be proactive, she says.  I like being proactive.  I don't like giving up.  This is the life I have dreamt of for as long as I can remember.  It's too soon to let go.  Losing the farm.... I might as well go ahead and die myself.  The kids don't see that.  They think they are taking care of me.  That's not in my plan.

I am thinking of appealing for farm sponsorships.  I have to find a way for the farm to start paying.... and the sooner the better.  Because I just don't know what life is going to throw at me next.

Louie

Sorry, I've been away...

The latter half of November was far more eventful then I would ever like.  There was the usual stuff.  Deer have been thicker this year.  They have wiped out a number of trees.  They ran through the back pasture fence to get to the horse's salt lick.  So the back fence, which is electric, had no zap.  I got some quick repairs made to the front arrangement and moved the horses back up close to the house, which is where I would rather have them when it is hunting season.  Then there were issues with tracking down hay.  Neighbor saved me with one big bale.  The rest of winter remains uncertain.

But the real climax of the month was Mac managing to have not one, but two, heart attacks.  He is trying to get back to work.  Right now he is having a cold that seems to be the last straw for him.  I don't know if this will be the last school year that he can work.  I have spent a lot of time wondering if we will lose our home.

Then there was news that overshadowed everything..... well, maybe not the heart attacks, but it was close.  Last week while watching the PBS Newshour there was a lady being interviewed about global warming.  She said the predictions for the the amount of global warming were off.  The scientists had figured on an upward trend but not the accumulative effect.  She said it was possible that the polar ice caps could be gone by 2015-2020.  This would mean that many areas would be under water.  More extreme weather patterns.  Some areas would no longer be suitable for agriculture.  Oceanic die off due to rising temperatures.

I will continue to do my very best to take care of Mac, but I need to put my own problems on the back burner, because it is time to save the world.  If there is a concerted effort from the entire world, then we could be entering an era that is miraculous.  If people continue to be greedy, if people continue to be wasteful, if people continue to breed families too large to be able to find sufficient resources for, then we will be in for tragic times.  I will work for miraculous.  I will believe in miraculous.

Until the little farm is taken away from us, I will work to make it the best little farm that I can.  I will try to post additional resources so you can see where I am getting and evolving some of my ideas.  You can start here with Paul Wheaton's site.   www.permies.com   Specifically check out the hugel kultur link because there is going to be a lot of this going on here this next spring.

http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/list/80/2413#160695

I know I have mentioned this before, but please take a look.  It is the first segment of the BBC special titled "A Farm for the Future"  I don't have much streaming capability so I have to watch it in the ten minute segments.  Here's the first one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShCEKL-mQ8

It's a start.  There will be more later... and it will be exciting.

Louie