How to Become Popular

Once you buy a gun, everyone who does not own one clamors for you to take them to the range. Even people who don't LIKE guns. Life is so amusing at times.

I AM AN URBAN HOMESTEADER - URBAN HOMESTEADING IS WHAT I DO!!

In celebration of Urban Homesteaders Blog Like a Pirate Day (oops, I mean Urban Homesteaders Action Day), I will talk about my urban homestead.

I love my urban homestead.

I love BEING an urban homesteader.

This I have wanted to do for a long, long time...at least, have a farm. But I finally decided since I never seem to have the money for a farm, I would just farm here in the city. Which, as far as I can tell, is traditionally (meaning, from probably back before WWI?) called urban homesteading, among other things.

I have backyard chickens, a rainwater catchment system, a composter and a compost heap, I use a wood stove for (supplemental) heat in the winter, thus why I have a log pile, racks of wood, and a rack of kindling. I have 3 raised garden beds in the backyard with 2 hardy kiwi plants and a butt-load of strawberry plants, a peach tree, and a VERY prolific raspberry bush, straight from the Smoky mountains (a gift, along with the chickens. We urban homesteaders help each other out! For free! I know, this is an odd concept to some folk who might like to trademark common, everyday words....but I digress). Near the driveway, I have an asparagus bed READY TO HARVEST THIS YEAR! YAY! I have more beds, there, too, and a huge rosemary plant. In the front yard, I have another rosemary bush and more raised beds, along with a blackberry bush and 2 blueberry bushes (both struggling). In the house for now but soon to be back outdoors I have dwarf lemon tree (which perhaps I didn't hand pollinate properly...we'll see I guess) and an dwarf orange tree undergoing serious medical treatment. Which I may also not be doing properly, but since he's still hanging on, I will continue to practice my primitive plant doctoring skills. Let's all murmur a few words of encouragement to the universe any which way you think may help, eh? Thanks....

Lessons

Exquisite instruction from a friend, teaching 11 how to split a log of wood properly:

"Keep your eye on the crack!"