“ This is the kind of information that helps me so much ! I ’ve only been garden for a few years , and I learned most of my skill because of youtube . My grandparents were farmers in south Georgia … I’m talking full - blow , old schooltime , everything - from - cabbage , canning , ringing chicken neck , homesteading pioneer types . But I was too impudent and advanced to care about any of that stuff and nonsense then . A few years ago , I puzzle this gnawing deep desire to start a garden . My grandparent had been go a foresightful time , so I turned to youtube . It occupy me a while to figure out who to listen to , and I made a lot of silly mistakes . When I found your channel , everything started to make sense , and it seemed like I might could actually DO this . I saw how you and your married woman just figured out how to do things and seemed to have fun doing it . I commemorate Rachel read us how to flake and allot with yams when y’ all were live on the island , and also when she taught us how to ferment cuke hole in a jar . I still can see that rusted lid she put on the jolt and I thought , “ Hey , I ’ve got some rusted hat , and I was going to have them away . Maybe I ’ll keep them . ” And you , of course of instruction , who just instinctively have it off how to GROW , and your reckless abandon with dirt build it feel like all things are possible !
The following is a lawful story . The other day , I was trying to watch a youtube gardening video , and I was irritate by several interruptions . I was trying to listen to my pressure canner through my cracked door as I was bottle - feed our dear on the porch . My loaf of einkorn bread was cooling on a rack , and I glance up at my wall calendar and ascertain that it was time to take the pork paunch out of the wet cure in the electric refrigerator and put it on to smoke for bacon . All this was whirling around in my mind , and I was earnestly irritated that I had to keep re - starting my youtube picture so I could hear to be a squatter . At that very second it occurred to me that possibly I was ALREADY a homesteader . I signify , canning , lamb , baking , bacon….kinda sounds like a squatter . In all my forwardness to learn everything , I forgot that I was actually learn along the way of life , and that I was even doing the thing I had get word . I guess I was wait for someone to give me a “ certified homesteader ” credentials from a youtube correspondence programme that does n’t live .
I say all this roll stuff to have you know that all your geezerhood of videos , and all the study that y’ all have done really does compensate off . There are people like me who hear a call to garden and were looking for our “ Moses ” to lead us through the wilderness into the promised land . And now that I ’ve made it , even though I ’m still on the sharpness of it appear in , I ’m grateful for your supporter . Do n’t ever draw a blank what a difference you ’re have . These “ gardening hacks ” you ’re sharing are the kinds of thing that should be pass down through generations . I just care I had been smart enough to say these same Word to my grandparents when I had the fortune .
Wow . When I translate back over this , it go a petty melodramatic . specially the “ Moses ” part . Oh well , I guess I love gardening and homesteading . So sue me . ”
I get it . I wish well I had learned more from my grandparents as well . What I would give for another Clarence Day with them .
As for the learning side of thing , it often palpate like we have n’t done a ton and we really do n’t know that much .
And we do n’t , really . Not in the rattling schema of things . Every new avenue of study opens up further avenue of sketch like Mandelbrotian fractal spiraling off in all directions .
Yet if you look at your procession over time , you really can learn and do quite a bit with your limited human ability .
This blog has been quite useful as we can look back and see the many things we ’ve done , from building food forests to grow various crops , raising brute and moving overseas and back . Plus , keeping a reading list for the last two years has been inspiring . I savor check off each Quran as I finish it . ( Though this year I ’ve switched from reading about garden to study theology as I explore Church Tradition , which I ’m sure is less interesting to most readers here . )
You ARE rise , Donna . Piece by piece , daytime by day , one foot in front of the other . We ’ll never fuck everything , but we can always learn something new . number what you ’ve learned over the years and listing accomplishment can be another way of “ counting your blessings . ”
you may sayLook where I was ! Now face where I am !
From stock shekels to Einkhorn and Hormel to home - cured is a gravid journey .
There are opportunities to learn everywhere . If you see something intriguing , follow the fractal and see where it takes you . If you meet someone raw , heed to his story . If you see a path through the woods , take the air it .
That ’s the way to get somewhere .
