Emerging patterns
- 2. Looking for patterns As I arranged the cards and began grouping them I began noticing these common themes or patterns in the elements of my desired homestead: • Food (healthy eating) • Work (efficiently meeting goals and creating a family business) • Protection and care for it’s inhabitants • Resource conservation (maximizing yield while minimizing impact on the land)
- 3. Categories and Elements After sorting the cards into groups several times, I came up with the following categories: • Infrastructure • Animals/Livestock • Food Production • Energy • Conservation and Waste Management • Transportation/Farm Vehicles
- 4. Energy Needed for animals, transportation, food production, infrastructure Food Production Need conservation water, waste for manure, animals for meat, dairy, and eggs, infrastructure to extend growing season Conservation/waste Manure, rain and grey water provide irrigation, compost for nutrient dense soil Animals Need infrastructure, food, transportation, provide waste (manure), pollination Infrastructure Needed for animals, people, storage Transportation Needed for animals, people Homestead Connections
- 5. Categories and Elements Infrastructure - to provide safe, clean, healthy dwellings and areas for my family and our livestock. To extend growing season to provide more food. • Home • Barn • Animal Shelters • Greenhouse • Chicken Coops • Sheds (storage) • Fencing • Nets and predator deterrents • Bee Hives • Farm Stand
- 6. Categories and Elements Animals / Livestock • Goats • Chickens • Ducks • Turkeys • Guinea Fowl (?) • Pigs • Bees • Horse • Dog • Cat
- 7. Categories and Elements Food Production • Vegetable Garden • Kitchen Herb Garden • Medicinal Herb Garden • Orchards • Berry Patches and Hedges • Nut Trees • Maple Trees (for syrup) • Honey (from bees) • Milk/Dairy (from goats) • Hay/Fodder for animals • Eggs (from chickens and ducks) • Meat (from chickens, ducks and pigs)
- 8. Categories and Elements Energy • Propane Heat system (currently in place) • Wood Heat (we have 2 working stoves and a working fireplace) • Solar panels (?) • Generator
- 9. Categories and Elements Conservation and Waste Management • Reducing, reusing, and recycling methods • Composting • Making use of rainwater (swales, barrels) • Greywater reclamation
- 10. Categories and Elements Transportation/Farm Vehicles • Tractor and attachments for moving large and heavy items, digging holes, cutting hay, and various other tasks. • Chicken tractor • Trailer
- 11. What we have to work with
- 12. Goals • The principles of permaculture in Chapter 3 resonate with me. Care of the Earth, Care of People, and Fair Distribution of Surplus. All my goals bring me back to these basic concepts. • To provide a more self reliant household for my family and to live a simpler life. • To provide opportunities in our homeschool for experimentation, problem solving, and independence while learning to work together to achieve common goals. • To become more efficient in our farming processes by utilizing the synergy around us. Livestock to provide manure, chickens to spread manure, composting waste to improve soil quality, bees to pollinate, etc… • To have a family business that will provide a small income and assist in rounding out my children’s education. Possible ideas I have are a small scale CSA program, goat milk products, and farm stand. • To be a part of the “holistic” movement. Looking at the way everything interconnects and works together to create a healthier end product as shown by Joel Salatin on Polyface Farm. (mentioned in Chapter 2)
- 13. Conclusion Two years ago we moved to a 6 acre farm here in the northern central part of Massachusetts from a very urban home in southeast Pennsylvania. For the past two years I have been working to turn our homestead “experiment” into a meaningful way of life for our family. While we were living in Pennsylvania we participated in a CSA program that really changed my outlook on food and on life in general. We started buying pastured local meats, farm fresh eggs, organic local vegetables, and raw milk artisan cheeses. I used to visit Amish country and dream of living a simpler life. This move gave me a chance to set my dreams in motion. I didn’t find anything that didn’t fit into my plan while I was organizing my cards and grouping them but I have been narrowing my vision over the past couple years as we go. My guideline to this farming adventure is that everything on the farm must have a purpose. We sold our alpacas to a 4-H family because they weren’t really contributing to our vision. I enjoyed looking for the patterns on our homestead and trying to narrow my vision even more. I am excited about taking this beautiful, but overgrown property and using the permaculture principals to turn it into a sustainable sanctuary for my family and friends to enjoy.