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| Posted By: Adam Posted On: Dec 12, 2008 Views: 183 | RE: Farming: The Way to Go? Getting experience was and is the first thing on my mind. Trying to find where though; have some friends in mind, but then I have to contact them to get things in order... going to try in Pennsylvania for a year and then take it to new land with a few friends who live in Colorado, and of course family. From there, pass on the trade to everyone on how to cultivate their own small organic gardens, both of which are above and underground. Hint: It's going to be getting hot! Which then brings me to the next problem... How to keep the animals safe during the daylight hours so that they don't die of heat stroke or anything like that. |
| Posted By: Rooster Posted On: Dec 14, 2008 Views: 170 | RE: Farming: The Way to Go? Hey Adam Good for you for going for it. My main tip would be to ask yourself what was the land you plan to use meant for? Over where I am it rains a lot, grass grows like crazy, it's rolling hills, and the ground's not rich enough for cultivating cereals. It's only fitting that cattle raising should be done here. Been done for more than 1000 years as a matter of fact. When I was traveling in the Western US (Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California) a few years back, something stuck me: no one is supposed to live on this land sedentarily. It's not made for it. Why want to bring water to a desert? Take it when it's there, in the winter, and move on when it's gone. I am not sure about this, but I would guess the original inhabitants of the land, so-called American Indians, moved around a lot and hunted instead of mainly raising cattle or crop, didn't they? Perhaps I'm wrong. Otherwise Sunshine is right -- try it out first for a couple of years, you've got to realize what it really is before you jump. |
| Posted By: treeman Posted On: Dec 14, 2008 Views: 167 | RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Farming: The Way to Go? I gave up a lucrative career as an electrical engineer to grow trees. Money was not a consideration really. Sure I made more money as an EE, but the hours I had to work, trapped in an office, was devastating to my spirit and my health. If you want to, you can still live off the land, that would be the ultimate, live off the land. It does not take too much to grow your own fruits and veggies. If you were to give up your job and all the toys and convienience that goes with it and live off the land you would probably be healthier and happier. But being able to give up all the convieniences and toys of modern society would be next to impossible for most people. Take the e-toys out of your pocket, can you live without them? (yes you can!!) Most people just don't want to give up the toys to live off the land. A good alternative is to garden, on your pation, in your back yard, on your back 40, what ever. And join, create and promote local cooperatives. One problem most people have growing their own food is they grow just a few things. It is a lot of work to manage and grow a wide variety pf crops. But if you and the rest of your community cooperate and eveyone grows 1 or 2 things and shares the harvest, you can replace your need to go to the grocery store as much, and eat better. Plus there will likely be a surplus which can be dontaed to local food banks. Do you know a tree has to grow 1 pound of wood every day to offset the CO2 produced by 1 persons basal metabolism. Every day that you exist, even if you exist in a couch locked state, the equivalent of a pound of wood has to grow to sequester the CO2 produced that day!! Someone in an earlier post mentioned commercial farming was more efficient. Not sure if that person was being sarcastic, or they really believe that modern farming is more efficient. If we talk about energy efficiency, which is really the only efficiency that matters, primitive farming is way, way more efficient. If you want to make a huge dent in your carbon footprint, home gardening is the way to go. Think abou this...If you drive 10 miles round trip to the store to buy corporate grown veggies, your driving alone probably makes the corporate veggies entropic. Entropy the loss of energy, decay. Think about the tractors that plow the fields, the cars the field workers drive to the fields, the energy used to produce the petrochemical fertilizers, the refrigeration plant near the fields to cool the veggies so they can be transported in truck to a wharehouse, when more power is used to keep the veggies cool, before a second truck takes it to the store, where you drive and burn more gas to get to the store. Add up all the energy used to produce and deliver those corporate veggies to your table. Now add up the energy value of the veggies. Guess what, your 15,000 calories of vegatable energy took 500,000 calories or even more to produce. That is very inefficient. It is very wasteful!! A gallon of gas has about 31,000 calories. That example 10 mile trip to the store in your 20 mpg car used 1/2 gallon of gass, or 15,500 calories!! Come on people, if you want to change the world you have to commit to doing the right thing!! You that "green" apple laptop you bought because Steve told you to? Ever been inside of a semiconductor fab plant? Do you know how much energy went into making the chips in that laptop? The chemicals that were used, silane gas, nasty solvents like various chloro and flouro ethanes, acids, the list goes on and on. You wonder why most semicon fabs are off shore? They are placed in countries with the least restrictive environmental laws, to minimize operating costs (maximize profits) Come on people if you want to make change do something big, make a commitment, you think you are really helping by replacing all your lights with CFL's and still driving to the store for your veggies!! You are not you are still part of the problem!! Hey at least grow a tree or something!! Even growing herbs will help offset your carbon and can make you happy too? Sorry to sound so militant about this, sorry I wrote a novel but hey if I get one person to grow some of their own veggies or join a co-op then it was worth it. peace |
| Posted By: Adam Posted On: Dec 14, 2008 Views: 163 | RE: Farming: The Way to Go? Bravo treeman, I think you now deserve that promotion to Great Oak. Reflecting on the situation, before reading Roosters post about the whole water thing, I've realized that in the past on random summers the water would actually dry up and we'd have to go somewhere else for water. ... so, it has been in my best interest lately to formulate a new plan of where to get water. But then again, Navajo Nation is supplying the people with running water, but there's no knowing how much that'll cost every month; too much probably. My goal as a future farmer is to become totally self-sufficient or if I have to, which I'm pretty sure I will have to, rely on a few outside sources. |
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