Well, I've gone and done it

I've officially become obsessed with urban farming and (self) sustainability.

I've been on the cusp for quite some time, but I find my mind wanders more and more to the ideas and ideals of that sort of simple life. So while I'm working - writing procedures for power plants, pouring over financial information to glean if they're covering up any maintenance issues, drawing plant instrument and flow diagrams, I find that in VERY short order I'm distracted and reading Grist, or looking at Amazon for a new kitchen gadget to help make better use of our harvest, or thinking of where else to put in a new garden bed, or how I could use the small green patch between a sidewalk and a street...

Today, I bought some educational materials to once again step up our farm's production. I'll read it and review it on the blog as soon as I'm done, but it's giving me all sorts of ideas. Since start of work this morning, during my lunch and breaks, I've read 3 of 7 "chapters" and also bought those new kitchen gadgets from Amazon.

Which brings me to another conclusion - we're going to have to go to a cash/envelope method of handling our personal finances. We definitely spend way more than we need to. I just looked at our monthly bank statement and in about 4 weeks we spend like crazy on lunches, beer/drinks/movies - etc, small store purchases, gas, consumables, and all sorts of various and sundry items. Seriously there's probably about 75 transactions that average $7.50 that we can and SHOULD do without. By we, I mean me. I'm horrible when it comes to using my debit card and I'm finally convinced that the cash/envelope method could be the answer.

Today, at Amazon I bought some things that we really could use, things we've been thinking of purchasing for a while and just haven't yet. I ordered a sauce maker - basically it's a food mill to process our fruits and tomatoes. In the long run it'll save us tons of time when we're making red sauce, jams, jellies, fruit mush, etc. No coring of apples is necessary with this bad boy. Simply quarter and drop them into the hopper and twist the crank and whammo: apple sauce. So, we do "need" it and it was time to order it as harvest is quickly approaching.

I can't wait until it comes in the mail and I get to go to a market for 100 lbs of tomatoes to make 100 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

I also can't wait to start utilizing the tips and techniques I'm finding in this urban farmers guide.

If anyone knows of someone who wants to install a small scale intensive farm, or wants to learn how to do it at their own property, or wants someone like me to farm their property (or a piece of it), please please please let me know. I'd love to get started soon teaching/coaching and working on more space(s) soon so we're ready for next year.

That's all for now.

Mike