I thought I would take a moment to share our dream and what the vision my wife and I have for our life. Looking a few years ahead this is all subject to change, but humor me.
We plan on building several alternate buildings near our camper with our own tree's milled by our own saw mill. By clearing these tree's we are able to plant grass that does well in wet areas (which the back half of our property is) and allows for it to dry enough to turn it into a grazing ground for our animals.
One building will be for an outside kitchen to cook in during the summer. We will also use this building to can and store food. We will use the other builders for storage and eventually a shower house. We have multiple ideas of building types including sand bag houses, shipping containers, underground houses, etc.
We also have talked about building our own log cabin with our own wood. A small 16x16 (or close to it) cabin that is a one large room with a bathroom in the corner and possibly one small bedroom.
Outside our home will be our natural blackberry thicket and native plums. We will have fruit tree's planted all over the property providing privacy, fruit, beauty, and a wonderful fragrance. We would like to use it to make our own wine and for medicinal purposes on top of enjoying it canned, fresh, or dried.
Our chickens will be grazing in one of their five pens for a week at a time eating all the varieties of tree's grasses and bugs. They will move to a new pen every week giving the ground a chance to restore itself and replenish their food naturally. It will be an omnivores paradise. Their nighttime chicken house will provide shelter from predators and a spot for us to collect their eggs.
A little farther away from the house will be our jersey cow milked twice daily to provide up to 6 gallons of milk a day while being fed mainly by grazing on the pasture.
Our great Pyrenees livestock guard dog will be roaming the property making sure everything is as it should be chasing off the foxes, coyotes, and any other unwanted predator from it's animal siblings.
Our house will be the picture perfect example of "off grid." Cooking mainly on a wood stove, campfire, propane, and alcohol. Drying, salt curing, dehydrating, fermenting, canning, and pickling our food to preserve without using refrigeration for most of our food.
We will have no power through any power company and use solar, wood, and propane as our primary power sources with a good dose of moderation mixed in.
We will have water through our well and use a gray water system to re-use the shower and kitchen water. We will use a compost toilet system for our sanitation and even use it (after the compost process) as fertilizing for the animals crops.
Our crops will consist of everything from tomatoes to swiss chard. From red clover as a ground cover crop to bamboo as a building material.
We will travel from farmers market to chicken auctions making money selling the fruits of our labor.
We will invite other people to come and help, learn, and enjoy a historically normal lifestyle away from the insane modern culture. Sharing our lives, morals, views, and values with people of all backgrounds pleading our case for sanity in their lives.
We will have campers set up on our property to house those that want to come and be a part of our life. We will teach them how to slaughter chickens, milk the cow, work a compost toilet,chop wood, prepare REAL food, and start a fire.
Homeschooling our child would be a mix of our lifestyle and history. Teaching Sol how to count by counting the eggs in the chicken house, how to read and write by labeling and picking the right seed jars, biology by working with animals and teaching each part of their body and their make up, and teaching him how to live life the way we all were intended to live, aware of what is important and where food comes from.
Our Doctor would be reserved for true emergencies and we would handle most ailments with our herbs, natural remedies, and common sense. Vaccines would be forgotten because Sol wouldn't be in the school system and would hardly ever visit a place like Wal-Mart and would have a strong immune system.
Our days of shopping would be spent going from local farmer, to the butcher, and stopping by the local hardware store to see what was on sale. We would end the day cooking a feast of homegrown food and play music and tell stories around the fire. We would go to bed early looking forward to the morning rise of 5am to milk the cow and do the chores.
Life would be full of life. Family would be a word that meant something. Food would be nutritious and a joy to eat. Happiness would be what you made of the day and no one could tell you it wasn't how you were suppose to live.
Unfortunately that isn't the world we live in. Most of what I listed here is illegal and could cost you your child. We truly aren't free in a country that is suppose to be a beacon of freedom. We are told that we don't know what is good to eat, we can't take care of our own, that you have to get power through the monopoly power company.
Why do I even bother writing about such a magnificant life if it is impossible? Unobtainable? Is it important that we should be able to live the way you want to live? Is it right? Does it matter?
I'll address why this is all so important and why I am bringing it up in the following two posts.
The Bantam Voice
"Freed People Free People"
