One Thing Was Enough to Start With
A friend sat at my kitchen table with a printed list of thirty things she thought she had to learn first. I told her what my own list did to me, and what happened when the year finally had only one thing in it.
Self Sufficiency Is Mostly a Story, and Partly Not
I traced every input in one homemade breakfast back to where it came from and none of it started here. What is left after you give up the fantasy is smaller than advertised and better than I expected.
Autumn Is Mostly Putting Things Away
Nobody photographs this part. Autumn on a small lot is dragging dead vines to the compost pile, coiling hoses, and doing the boring work that decides whether next spring starts at zero or starts underwater.
The Things I Do Not Preserve, and Why I Stopped
August is when the kitchen fills up and every jar starts to look like a good idea. Here are the five things I have taken off my list for good, what I do instead, and why saying no got easier.
Do Backyard Chickens Save Money? Mine Do Not
I kept a running tally for two years because I wanted the honest number. It is not close, and it is not going to get close. Here is where the money goes and what I think you are actually buying.
The Morning After the Raccoon Got In
A spring latch and a roll of chicken wire were what stood between my hens and a raccoon, and one night that turned out not to be enough. What I found, what I changed, and the part I did not expect.
The August I Nearly Stopped
After two weeks away for a family emergency I came home to a yard that had gone feral in the heat, and I sat on the back step and seriously considered mowing all of it flat. Here is what happened instead.
On Giving People Things You Made
Handmade gifts are not free, they are not always welcome, and they put the person receiving them in an awkward position more often than we admit. What I have learned about giving away the things I make.
Preserving
Where I Actually Store the Jars, and Why It Is Not the Pantry
Nobody warns you that storage is the part that decides how much you should make. My first shelf was on a hot south wall, my labels were unreadable, and one unexplained jar taught me the rule I use now.
What Summer Actually Does to This Yard
I left for a week in July and came home to a yard that had given up. Summer here is not the abundant part of the year that gardening books promise. It is a water problem, a heat problem, and a lesson in what I can realistically keep alive.