I keep thinking that I want to move out to the country, get 40-50 acres of land, and maybe start up a CSA Farm. I want to be self-sufficient and maybe even supportive of other people in our community.

After Melinda posted this article in her blog, I started thinking about what I really want. I want to have local sustainably farmed chicken that was humanely butchered (and I want to watch it happen at least once), I want local eggs, I want local milk (be it goat or cow) that I can then make other products out of, I want to have horses, and I want to have my own space for growing my food.

What do I have now? I have a CSA Farm down the road that sells local chickens and eggs (I'd have to do research to see if they are humanely butchered and such), I could probably find local milk somewhere already, Miracles in Motion would love to stable a horse that is sponsored by me that they can use in their programs, and I already have space for growing my own food.

When I started looking at this house, a few voices said that the backyard was too small to have a large garden. I chimed in that there was a city park not even two blocks away. If I stand up on something and peer over my privacy fence, I can see the playground equipment. Right now there is more than enough space for my children to run around and play on the old metal swingset that someone left here when they sold the house. And as I expand my backyard into a garden landscape, they will grow older and need more space, and scamper right up into that playground with kids from the surrounding areas. They'll be part of the community.

Voices also said that there wasn't enough storage space in the house. My response was that I didn't need to have so much "stuff!" I buy sparingly, although still more than people living in severe poverty, and I weed stuff out occasionally to send to Good Will or garage sale. I buy things only when I need them or they'd make a significant difference in the quality of my life. I buy with an eye for long-term durability, the best sustainable materials I can find, a surviveable cost, and usability. It can be argued that some of my purchases aren't perfect or ideal, but neither am I!

Voices in my head tell me that I need to have cable so I can watch Food Network and some good movies. The reality is that I watch movies on Netflix, whose "play now" movies are free and the selection is getting larger, and all the spare time I have from not playing World of Warcraft and not watching cable is allowing me to work on my garden, read books from the library, and attend Creative Gardening lectures (future post on that). I'm probably the youngest member of our small town's Garden Club, choosing to learn from women (and men) in the community instead of that one channel on television (see, I don't even remember the name).

I can get the things I need from my community, without needing to isolate myself. I need to know where to look, sure, but that isn't too hard. There are two CSA Farms in the area, and I'm sure within thirty minutes I could call and leave messages asking about their chickens and eggs, and how they manage them. If they aren't willing to answer me, there are many more CSA Farms that deliver to the Iowa City Farmer's Market, and I could easily make a trip down there once or twice a month to get food.

The lesson to be taken from this, I think, is that I don't need to strive for more land and more space for me to do everything on my own. My community is here, welcoming me, and it has a wealth of resources. Yes, some things are not readily availble in my community (like 100% grass fed beef), but they may be available within a few hours, and perhaps they might even deliver to Iowa City restaurants and be willing to allow me to pick it up in the parking lot of said restaurants (whaddya know, they do!).

I was talking to someone at the psychology lab, where I work. They mentioned that they were morally outraged by what goes on in slaughter houses and the environmental damage, but they were too lazy to do anything about it. Too... lazy. I remarked, "You know you can find another source that isn't as bad, right?" They just shrugged.

What do you think? Do you ever think about what goes on for you to get the food that you eat? Or do you just shrug it off? Do you buy locally (which isn't necessarily the solution, as many people have pointed out)? Have you even thought about it?

Do you look within your community first to solutions to your problems? Do you feel isolated from your community? I know I did, until I started attending more community events. I'm starting to recognize faces from the library's story hour to the easter egg hunt to the town park. Soon, I think I might be browsing the vegetable selection in the local family-owned grocery store and be able to say hi and ask how their children are doing.

And that's a nice feeling.

Labels: environment, gardening