We're back in town, but dealing with some computer issues as well as time management given our new bundle of joy. I will post once we get settled and I can again find the time to devote to the site. Sorry for the period of inactivity!
Stay tuned...
Submitted by PeakEngineer on Tue, 2007-07-31 16:13.
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i'm takin new directions as well
I still haven't found a good source for information on homestead developing, not one that could significantly help the Peak Oil Homestead Project. I'm not sure what it will take to get more expert scientists dealing with this subject before it's absolutely necessary. My homestead dream in Merritt Island I've given up on, because I haven't been able to get a job out there, but I've realized that is actually a stroke of luck
It led me to my current method of figuring out how to retrofit the existing infrastructure, wherever I find myself living, with parts of a homestead system. Edible/textile landscaping is the easiest part of homesteading, so that's first. Instead of trying to build a nursery from the ground up, I am volunteering to any neighbor who'll let me add homestead-useful plants to their yards. After I plant, they do the watering and fertilizing that I teach them how to do, and they let me harvest cuttings and seeds for propagation, and I as the network between the neighbors am able to arrange to take whatever extra produce to a farmer's market for them. I thus end up teaching my neighbors skills for sustainable living, making friends and influencing people towards Co-Ops, building the plant inventory I need to do edible landscaping, and using their time and labor to maintain that inventory(which is very little per neighbor, but for a full-time dishwasher to do en masse to start a nursery is daunting), without having needed to buy my own arable land and nursery equipment
Can't believe I never considered that for community behavior to be my end, aspects of it must be my means. I could be even more effective by finding a place to live that is around people that have already brought this activity to greater stages, so I learn quicker. I'm trying to locate the heart, or the home, of homestead-building
Wow!
Congrats on an innovative solution to reform the suburban jungle when you have limited resources! You've come up with a model that many people trapped in similar situations can follow and turn a seeming negative into an overwhelming positive.
I think volunteering can
I think volunteering can work for building careers other than just agriculture too. I don't think it's usually a good idea to trade property(including money)for skills, yet several infrastructure factors are making it difficult to acquire skills without paying, and volunteering is a way around those
There are the minimum wage laws, which outlaw jobs for people who are learning to be productive, because it makes it expensive for businesses to provide training. Then there is the public education system which subsidizes businesses from having to give training, since they can hire people who learned elsewhere. Together with several more factors, this has removed the ability for people to work their way up in skills. Instead they have to pay their way up through college, or use the solution of volunteering
You can have your day job just like with college, and then volunteer to work wherever it is you want to be paid to work, and then you gradually learn the skills to be productive enough to be paid to work there. This way you aren't wasting time on classes for a "degree" that teach information you don't actually need, and you can be saving your earnings at your day job instead of spending them on classes