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permaculture - RE: [permaculture] hello, and a question about PCD course prices

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Subject: permaculture

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  • From: "Carrie Shepard" <outlikeelijah@gbronline.com>
  • To: <neotern-1@yahoo.com>, "'permaculture'" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: RE: [permaculture] hello, and a question about PCD course prices
  • Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 10:28:26 -0500

Dear Bart,

I am new to the list also and will briefly introduce myself before
responding to your observations.

I'm 37, married to a very precious spouse 11+ yrs, home schooling mom to 3
children on earth (one special needs daughter we were privileged to care for
6 yrs), and budding permaculturist. We are blessed to have 2.4 acres, on
which I have a small orchard (peaches, pears, apples, cherry bushes, and
some young plums), Nubian milk goats, Rhode island red chickens, some
pigeons, a bunny cottage (angoras for fiber along with some new Zealand),
and 2 veggie gardens (an area the equivalent of 6 three foot by 40 foot
rows).

My interests in being a good steward and seeing the Creator's handiwork led
me to permaculture and my health needs keep spurring me on. I've been very
very sick from numerous modern day problems (SAD diet and too many
antibiotics, allergies, Candida, TMJ surgeries, thyroid, stress) and have
recovered a quality of life through organic gardening, getting milk goats
for fresh raw milk, raising my own chickens and ducks for eggs and meat, and
learning to cook from scratch following Nourishing Traditions and now
Extending the Table (many traditional recipes from around the world also
from scratch with whole ingredients).

My life situation is one where also I find the courses out of my price range
and outside of my life situation. This doesn't stop me from reading,
emailing questions to mentors, and learning from applying what I can as I
go. You don't have to have a degree or be certified by any course to begin
where you are with what you have around you. At one point it hit me that
while I thought I was researching organic gardening, I was actually learning
about rebuilding community. Let me share how this happened.

I mentioned to some of my friends that I was placing an order for some
chicks from the hatchery last fall and that I wanted more laying hens and
the extras would be butchered to go in the freezer for healthy safe meat.
Many of the women were very excited about this and wanted to not only buy
some of the chickens but be taught how to butcher them so they can in turn
feed their own families healthier foods. I ended up teaching 4 women, 1
husband, and 3 kids how to efficiently butcher their own home raised
chickens from start to finish. They all got some biology lessons also as we
identified internal organs as we went. I think this sort of dissection can
be counted as part of high school biology in most states (good for those who
home school to know).

It took me 4 yrs of owning chickens for laying hens to get up the courage to
do this project of growing them for butchering. I got over my Bambi complex
when I found myself once again physically very sick and found that the root
of most of my health issues stemmed from overuse of antibiotics throughout
my entire childhood and some long-term undiagnosed food allergies.
Commercial meats contain trace residues of antibiotics enough to send me
into shock -- I spent last memorial day holiday in the ER room getting IV
drugs to save my life after eating a typical American barbecue meal (I
suspect pork was the culprit, but there's no sure way to tell other than
antibiotics are the only known cause of me going into hives and then shock
within hours). My blood sugar can't tolerate a vegetarian diet (been there
done that and got sicker with the Candida) and so my only way to be sure of
healthy foods is to raise them myself. I've found a lot of health recovery
from following a modified blood type diet, nutritional supplements and
permaculture activities.

The exercise alone in establishing permanent raised beds (I do some double
digging), hauling in animal manures off the 'farm', and building fences and
small structures for the animals has been very healing to me. Tending the
animals daily was a chore and a job in the early days when I didn't feel so
well, but now I love to care for them and be with them watching their
behaviors with enjoyment. I'm slowly learning animal husbandry and working
towards heritage breeds that I feel good about contributing to saving for
genetic diversity.

My next goals are to learn more about seed saving and fine tune the garden
crops (and recipes to use them in)I can grow year round. I'm fond of
burgundy okra and sweet potatoes, mangels (both the yellow and the big ones
for livestock feed), lettuces, kohlrabi, etc... And want to keep better
records of what grows well here so I can better share with those around me.

Sorry for being so long winded,
Carrie
In Northeastern OK

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