You want to do what?
Farm my yard.
Why?
To make food.
Why?
So I can eat it and sell it.
I have Johann Zietsman in my ear talking about sustainable ranching via Living Web Farms’ YouTube channel, I have a desk that has Holmgren’s Permaculture, Wood’s Soil Biology, Flores’ Food Not Lawns and Abbott and Murphy’s Soil Biological Fertility sitting on it. My desk is not on a farm or in my house, it’s in a library at a University. What’s even better is that I have no farming background . . . at all! None, nada, zip, zero experience. It’s pathetic really because I am just two generations away from people who would have had at least some direct experience with farming and ranching if not extreme experience. Two generations away is all and it feels like an ocean of time to forget how to grow shit much less figure out why we forgot it in the first place but this last doesn't really matter much does it? What should I do?
Learn how to farm then learn how to sell the product then learn how to market the brand so future sales are locked in.
Doesn't sound terrible right? Then why does the thought of doing that overwhelm me? If I knew that I would have started last year I guess. I have 5 months (since it is now coming into Fall 2016) to build a farm in my front and back yards. I have a university scale research library wrapped around me, I have a gigabit internet connection and my house faces a 2-lane street that gets more traffic than the law should allow being it’s a residential neighborhood and all. Surely with the tools, land and public exposure I should gain some traction right? We’ll see.
This is the blog for Red Brick Farms and I am going to succeed from a socially acceptable job of “Senior Administrator” to the job people have been lifting their noses up at for 2 generations – Farmer. Along the way I will come here to tell you what I did, if it worked and if not how I fixed it if it can be fixed. I have a 6 year old daughter, a 3 year old son and a wife of 10 years and they are exactly why I haven’t just said “fuck all this bull shit, I’m going to build a farm". But the call is just too loud and that is probably because the noise of all the stupid people of the world (mainly politicians but there are others like murderers, thieves and generally creepy people) have harmonized into a simple, but very annoying tone and that allows me to discern another tone. Like choosing to follow the different sounds of Pink Floyd or an oil tanker running into a seawall I choose the sound of things that grow, things that poop and things that feed us.
I’m getting in over my head. I can feel that in my bones but to not try and die . . . shit, that’s about as worthwhile as going to prison for tax evasion. I have to just do it.
Do it, worst case scenario, you eat good for most of the year!
Don't over think it, mother nature knows what she is doing. Start with a few plants, keep them alive, then keep them thriving, then get them producing , soon you will be able to expand your production. Don't try to do it all at once.
get a few laying hens, they are fairly easy to get rolling, then the eggs will make themselves afetr a while, when you master chickens, move up to goats or pigs!
Good luck with it, there are plenty of knowledgeable folks here on steemit and across the web, ask questions!
Thank you Jed for the encouragement and down to Earth advice. Will do!