The kids’ll be up soon and looking for breakfast. The cow needs milking and the calf pen needs cleaning. I just have time before all that starts, to show you some pics of the new calf, our recent veggie garden harvests, and the chickweed in the lawn that we’re putting into salads.
Practical Skills for Sustainable Living - Intro
I define a “sustainable lifestyle” as one that's regenerative for ourselves, our families and communities, and our ecosystems. Everything is connected; good health for any one of these elements relies on good health for all of them.
We must do the work ourselves—here and now—in our own kitchens, gardens and communities.
If you are reading this, most likely you're at least a little concerned about the trajectory that we modern humans have been on. Maybe, like me, there are moments when you're terrified about it.
We're living in a house of cards.
We're outsourcing our needs to production methods that deplete our atmosphere, soils, water, ecosystems, and communities, and that are reliant on rapidly shrinking reserves of fossil fuels.
The apparent affluence on the shelves of supermarkets and superstores is part of an illusion.
At the risk of stating the obvious, something needs to change.
Exactly what needs to change, how it should change, and who should do the work, are topics that continue to be flogged to death in discussions at every level, but discussion is much more valuable and productive if we also take action.
Small actions are best, that we can learn from, that we can build on. Action at a level that we can sustain.
And since governments, institutions, and corporations are too busy squabbling over details and profit margins to take meaningful action, its up to us to get on with the job.
Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up."
David Orr
Its up to us, in our own kitchens, gardens, and communities. Here and now. To get on with providing for ourselves and living in ways that regenerate, rather than depleting, the web of life we rely on.
This topic—Sustainable Living—is all about getting on with it.
Sustainable Living Post Collections
Use the links to jump to a post collection. Many posts appear in more than one collection.
DIY BATHROOM BASICS
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GROWING WHAT WE NEED
We grow all of the things we put into salads (greens and other things, like flowers and shoots) and a small but steadily increasing amount of our other veggies and fruits.
We also grow many plants for their usefulness as animal fodder, and/or for other functions such as mulch production, shade, shelter, nitrogen fixing, and habitat.
We're inspired by Permaculture, Syntropics, and all Regenerative Agriculture philosophies and techniques, because they seek to build soils, care for ecology, and increase biodiversity as side effects of growing the things people need.
In short, we intend for our gardening and farming efforts to regenerate and enrich the ecosystems they're embedded in, rather than degrading them.
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PLANT PROFILES
This is a collection of posts about individual plants that we grow for people food, animal food, and other functions. Our main focus is on perennial plants that serve as many functions as possible (we do grow annuals as well).
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LIVESTOCK: Raising Chickens
We keep many types of livestock, but if we had to downsize and choose only one, it would be chickens. These posts explore their many talents, as egg and meat producers, garden assistants and soil builders, and entertainers.
Well-managed chickens can provide eggs and meat as well as composting assistance, pest reduction, soil amendment services and entertainment. But they can also be incredibly destructive, as you know if you’ve had garden beds dug up or fruit trees de-mulched.
How do we harness all that chickens offer, in ways that keep everybody happy, healthy and productive?
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LIVESTOCK: Raising Pigs
Pigs, for us, have turned out to be very rewarding animals to keep and also very challenging animals to keep. Rewarding because they're charismatic, intelligent, sociable, and also because pork, ham and bacon are meats we refuse to buy -- so we're very fortunate to be able to raise them ourselves.
And challenging, because pigs have big needs for space, play, clean soil to dig in, and a diverse diet -- and providing those while keeping their environment alive and vibrant is a big challenge. We're far from feeling like we've got it sorted; these posts share what we're learning as we work toward it.
Visit the Raising Pigs Page
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LIVESTOCK: Happy Meat
We eat only happy meat – meat from our own animals that are relaxed and contented from the day they’re born to the day they die in the midst of their own herd or flock, with their mouth full of grass or grasshoppers and no stressful transportation, crowding or hustling, and no undue medications, anywhere in between.
Our other criteria for the meat we eat is that it must come from happy ecosystems – ecosystems that are being enriched, not impoverished, by the outputs and behaviors of the animals we raise.
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REAL FOOD
Food was once something that people shared, locally. For people fed by industrial agriculture, food is now a commodity, sold to the highest bidder, traded globally and anonymously. Commoditized food erodes our health when we eat it, and its production erodes the health of food-growing families, communities and ecosystems.
I define "Real Food" as food that repairs these broken connections and rebuilds health on all these levels. To me, real food is not just healthy for the eater. It's also healthy for the farmer and community that grow it and for the ecosystem it grows in.
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REAL FOOD: Nutrition
This post collection includes strategies for getting the most nutrition possible from your food, along with profiles of super-nutritious plants (which will also appear in the Plant Profiles collection).
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