I am doing this as sort of an ending to my Master's degree; I have been living a two-dimensional life for five years now, having gone back to school in my early 30's. I'm ready for a three-dimensional life, and as such, did my masters thesis as one part research paper, one part physical experiment.
In addition, I am taking part in a hunt-forage-grow your own food challenge this summer, and this experiment will certainly help me along with that.
I have real concern over the future of our species-- in part because of huge global issues such as peak oil, climate change, over population, access to clean water, and the global economy. I have major concerns because I know that we have all relinquished the rights to our own food security by handing the job over to mass producers, and it is becoming increasingly clear what that will mean when the proverbial shit hits the fan.
So, I've decided to take back control. For myself, my family, and over time, for my friends and my community. This year, I am planting the biggest garden I can imagine. I am getting rid of the lawn in its entirety. Next week, I'm getting the first chickens I've ever owned. I've learned to can food, and I'm going to learn to save seeds. We're putting in a cob greenhouse and oven, building a solar food dehydrator, and starting a bee hive. We're espaliering fruit trees, growing hardy kiwi and grapes, building nine vertical gardens, and two spiral gardens. All this is happening on my 4,800 square foot city lot in Cleveland.
I will keep track of weights and yields for each plant so that I know how we did at the end of the year. Next year, we'll do it all again, applying lessons learned from this year.
I think that, as much as we try to distance ourselves from nature, we too have a deep instinctual knowing that something big is coming. I know bunches of people who have a sudden urge to re-learn skills that we let die generations ago. one of my permaculture design teachers suggested that our society "rearranges the chairs on the titanic" in the face of problems... when what we really need to do is build life boats. Here is my lifeboat.
