Laid up

Well, it looks like I've found the time I wanted for blogging. I'm currently on hospital bedrest due to hypertension and the fear of pre-eclampsia. Even if I get to go home tomorrow, I will be spending the remainder of the pregnancy in bed. I'm currently at 33 weeks and I'd like to make it another 3-4 but my blood pressure seems to have other ideas. Thankfully the baby is growing well and is very active.
With this time I will try to bring you up to speed on our homestead. My husband and I always have the best intentions about blogging as things happen, but, well....moving on.
Our chicks are now about two months old. We lost another one, probably to a hawk soon after we let them start free ranging around the yard. We fenced them off again until they managed to find a way out of their yard on their own-Mom in the lead. Now they've all moved into the main coop with the other hens and spend their days grazing the yard with their aunts. And all the chickens have adjusted to our new mouser, Butters, who so far has only killed a cricket, but I'm sure will be an effective deterrent against mice this winter... if he ever stops napping.
Although our spring and summer crops were dismal, our fall crops are coming in nicely. Lots of carrots, lettuce, peas and broccoli are peaking out. We managed one more nice pumpkin before the entire plant succumb to beetles and with cool weather finally approaching, hopefully, Tony will get a pie or two made. (And bring me a slice.)
Tony's unemployment has led to lots of improvements around the house finally getting done; many relaying on ingenuity to make up for lack of funds. And as fall birthdays and the holidays rapidly approach,we are working on creating more thoughtful gift ideas for family and friends. Thankfully, because we have always been conscientious in our spending the kids have not noticed a change in lifestyle and are a bit puzzled when Tony mentions getting another job.
We closely follow news on the economy and have to laugh at articles that try so hard to instill buyer confidence or insist on real change after elections this year. Both parties are to blame for this fiasco, and families like ours are struggling as the mud is thrown.
My medial bills and Fulton's are the largest unknown expense that seems to keep throwing our books out of wack. Weekly, new bills show up- a specialist co-pay we missed or a deductible on labwork from months ago. As the deadline for Tony's insurance coverage quickly approaches, we're investigating all our options and hoping the state programs cover us as well a they claim to. That is, if they ever return our calls.
So dear readers, thank you for checking back with us. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers, and know we do the same for you.

Winnowing

Winnowing , originally uploaded by KMantoan.

Tonight I plan on baking bread from our first harvest of winter wheat. Despite being trampled by children earlier this spring, our small patch managed to produce enough flour for an entire loaf of whole wheat bread. Not bad for my husband's first experiment with grain. I have a recipe for 100% whole wheat bread from King Arthur Flour that the whole family can agree on. If you visit my Flickr stream you'll see the progress from harvest to sifting. It went well enough for us to plan a larger patch for next year.

Recommended Reading

A friend of mine recently took an interest in urban gardening and was asking me for books, blogs, and assorted resources for learning more. I thought I would pass along my reading list. Feel free to add your own suggestions via comments. My husband and I still have much to learn ourselves so don't skimp on any good recommendations (or shameless self-promotion.)
The first category of books I want to mention are more interested in discussing the question of why to homestead, live simply and make do with less rather than just how-to. (Though many also contain great tips.) These books helped changed my mind and made me more open to ideas that run contrary to popular consumer culture. It's hard to see the benefits of laboring over your own garden or herd if you value convenience more than quality.
The Complete Tightwad Gazette
The Simple Living Guide
Better Off
Crunchy Con
Ten Acres Enough
Mary Jane's Farm Magazine-try to get ahold of the early issues.
And, of course, my study of Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker Movement and Distributism helped solidify my beliefs in homesteading and self sufficiency as a something that is seamlessly woven into my faith as a Catholic. Our earthy pursuits not only feed our bodies but our souls as well. There is dignity in our work on the land and joy in sacrificing the excesses of materialism. Our choices speak about us as Catholics, not just consumers.
I also thing there's bevy of books and websites one can read to open one's eyes to role of Big Ag and our country's food supply. When you understand where the neatly packaged, heavily processed foods you've come to rely on actually come from, it becomes easier to see the value in reading labels, shopping locally and setting up a raised bed out back.
Omnivores Dilemma
The Botany of Desire
The Unhealthy Truth
The Organic Consumers Association's website is constantly updated with great articles about food, organic and otherwise.
I also recently discovered the La Vida Locavore blog which pulls great info from across the Internet and compacts it into one concise, tasty package.
And once you have bushels of fresh veggies you'll need to figure out what to make with them. I like,
allrecipes.com-Makes finding another recipe for zucchini so much easier.
The More with Less Cookbook- proves you don't need meat with every meal.
Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family
Laurels Kitchen-Laurel's Bread Book is equally awesome. I feel guilty for owning a bread machine every time I see this book on my shelf.
Once you've decided to change your lifestyle and become a creator of your food source rather than just a consumer, there are plenty of resources to help you try your hand at homesteading or urban gardening. Regardless of the size of your apartment, city lot, suburban yard or country acreage you can do it! Really. There's lots of people out there doing the same thing and learning as they go. There are so many wonderful books, blogs and magazines filled to the brim with information. You'll still make mistakes along the way but you might discover some new tricks too.
Blogs-(You can visit all these from my sidebar.)
35x90
Path to Freedom
The Yeoman Farmer
Homegrown Evolution
Magazines
Mother Earth News
Backwoods Home
Urban Gardener-just discovered this new magazine and it looks pretty good.
Books
Anything written by Joe Salatin
Barnyard in your Backyard-good overview
Storey's Guide to Chickens-great in depth book. Storey's makes many other guide books too.
(Online, you can visit backyardchickens.com. Be sure to check out all their sister sites.)
The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It
Back to Basics
Compost This Book
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Root Cellaring
Preserving Food...
The New Square Foot Gardening-This is what we use for many of our veggies. Fool proof if it wasn't for our clever chickens.
The Bountiful Container - Great book or growing tons of stuff in very little space. You don't need to hang your tomatoes upside down to save room!
These are mostly books I own. There are plenty more I'd still love to read but so far, we can make do with these and the wealth of information on the Internet.
Our seed company of choice is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. And, since we only plant heirlooms, I want to get the book Seed to Seed ASAP. It's highly praised anywhere I see it so I feel confident passing along the recommendation.
I've also turned to the Instructables site for information on how to build greenhouses, rainwater collection systems and other farm improvements. (A quick peek around the site reveals DIY wood-stoves, solar power setups, compost bins and how to make a food dehydrator from a dorm fridge-cool beans!)
Lastly, be sure to check out Lehman's for some inspiration and all your non-electric needs.
The hardest thing for us with homesteading is finding time to do it all, especially given our family size and situation. And around the homestead, it's either feast or famine-the grain needs harvested, the roosters need killed and the seeds all need planted RIGHT NOW-and then you have a week of relative calm. We want to try as much as possible, but realistically, we can't and it can be hard to say no to that crop of garlic , herd of goats or whatever when you know the opportunity won't come around for another year.
So, I would say, it doesn't matter if you start small; just start something and don't be discouraged if your first attempt (or repeated attempts) fail. When you finally get around to serving your own fresh eggs for breakfast or fresh picked salad greens at dinner you'll feel great. And that feeling, plus a full stomach, will motivate you to do more, regardless of the extra work involved.

"To live in Newburgh, on the farm, to be arranging retreats, to be making bread and butter, taking care of and feeding children there, washing and carding wool, gathering herbs and salads and flowers — all these things are so good and beautiful that one does not want to take time to write except that one has to share them, and not just the knowledge of them, but how to start to achieve them." -DD, On Pilgrimage June 10

Waiting game

Heavy rain yesterday, combined with deep furrows in the farm fields around our house equalled LOTS of water in our strawberry and melon patches. Last time rainwater from the fields next door washed into our yard, it killed the grass. The particular method of plowing directed even more water onto our property (and into our basement) than we'd ever seen. We know the neighbors crops (tomatoes) are being treated with something, but we're not sure what. Our free range chickens also gulped heavily from the puddles that formed around their coop. It seems no matter how hard one tries to keep one's own food supply clean and pure, the decisions of larger producers will inevitably interfere. (Just look in any heirloom seed catalogue to see the problem with obtaining non-GM corn.) We now must wait and see whether or not the water that washed across our lawn carried more than just H2O. Perhaps a little isopropylamine salt of glyphosate?

New Beginnings

It is with much joy, and much lack of sleep, that I announce major changes for The Next Worker. On June 27 at 315pm we closed on a beautiful old house in South Jersey with just over an acre of land. At 214am June 28, we welcomed into the world our fourth child and second son, Fulton Ambrose. God is so good.
The last six weeks have been a whirlwind to say the least. I feel guilty even blogging when there's so much that absolutely HAS to get done, including sleeping but any good writer undergoing such developments feels incomplete unless she can WRITE about them. Besides, I can't do more bragging to my friends and family; I need to move into the realm of strangers in which to share my joy.
I've got so many priorities right now I hardly know where to begin. I wind up starting several things but ultimately I wind up doing something trivial because the rest of it is so overwhelming. Just having a new child is one thing, having three other small children is another. Purchasing a fixer up is one thing, fixing it up with a newborn and three small kids is another. Preparing for another homeschooling year is one thing, trying to write up lesson plans with a newborn and a new house and did I mention the three other small children is starting to seem impossible. Oh, and did I mention I started a homeschooled girls field hockey team and I'm volunteering for our local homeschooling support group? Have you caught your breath yet? Because I'm still gasping for air.
But despite all this it is hard for my husband and I to not just want to jump headfirst into all the ideas I've hashed out on here; self sufficient living, the agrarian lifestyle. simplifying, etc. At least as much as such ideals are possible on an acre in Jersey. However, most people are living on less than an acre in suburban areas just like us. Our new homestead could hopefully serve as an example of how to put the Worker principles into action on a small, readily accessible scale...if we can ever get past this initial starting point (which includes tearing out our only full bath and relying on sponge baths for the last two weeks.)
So now The Next Worker is going to change course a bit. While passing along the wisdom of Day and the Worker movement is still central to what we're doing the blog will now focus on fulfilling these ideals and what concrete steps we're taking towards living this 'Worker' lifestyle we've imagined for ourselves. I always felt I couldn't live up to my expectations because of the situation we were in. Now that we've secured the house I'd been dreaming of, will we fall short of our goals, succeed beyond our wildest dreams or fall somewhere in between? Could we realize what we sought for so long isn't possible at all?
Now the rubber meets the road. We're off and running. Already our new situation has presented opportunities to help people anonymously, offer hospitality for groups of people and be on call, with a door always open, for friends in need. I think the biggest problem will be not setting our sights to high right away and getting discouraged when life (aka four kids, homeschooling, a full time job, etc) prevents us from doing what we want in a timely fashion, which means, right now!
For now, we need to finish the bathroom. Then there's minor cosmetic stuff inside we want to tackle like painting since this house is disgusting but there's several major projects we're having a hard time deciding between. And the yard! Heaven knows what we will find out there next but already we need to think of how to get it in order for next spring.
I'm hoping to work out my thoughts through posting and maybe, if we can fix our camera, start posting pictures. Eventually, I would love to have our own Path to Freedom type thing going but that's a few years down the road. Stay tuned! I'm happy to be back. And feel free to leave advice by way of personal messages or links. I'm always looking to learn more. I love new beginnings.

A Place for Families Part II- Crazy Ideas

I believe families can play a key role in the Catholic Worker Movement. Families should strive to be self sustaining and independent. Ideally, the needs of the family can be met on the homestead. Items that cannot be made or grown could be bartered for or purchased with money earned through the sale of surplus farm goods or labor. In addition, families could earn money by taking in guests and teaching self reliant skills. People on the road to self sufficiency could stay for a week, study gardening, and help in the harvest. Perhaps pick berries and then can them. Or a hands on course in voluntary poverty, and making do with less. The possibilities for educational outreach are only limited to the abilities of the families.
Husbands and fathers shouldn't have to spend 8 or more hours a day away from their families to earn enough money for life's necessities. Key word: necessities. Say you earn $10 an hour; is the latest techo gadget priced at $300 worth sitting at your desk 30 hours for? Would you work almost one week just for an Ipod? I would rather stay one step behind the Jones and spend more time at home.
These families could then support their local hospitality house through donation of excess produce, meat, dairy items, etc., thus cutting the operating cost of the house and the need for outside donations. Worker families could also volunteer their time as available at the hospitality house (which would also need some full time single, celibate resident workers.) Should the family experience a rough time, the house and other supporting families would be there to help out. It's a community without the commune. This model is similar to the current lifestyle of the Amish and some Mennonite, except their local church acts as a hospitality house. These believers place their trust so fully in the support of their congregations that most Amish and Mennonite do not have any type of insurance policy. A serious medical expense is shared by all, as is the lost wages from an accident at work. Shouldn't we, as Catholics, be able to expect the same from each other?

A Place for Families Part I

Back from a long weekend.
We spent time with my family. My parents own an old farmhouse with a barn and a good chunk of land in a small town. Every time I'm home I imagine fixing up the house, taking a plow to the back acre, throwing some hens in the old coop and living off the land.
The Catholic Worker Farm in Easton, PA was envisioned as this type of utopia. Unfortunately, many things got in the way of the dream and the parcel was eventually divided up amongst the families who resided there. It was this experience that lead Dorothy to mention that perhaps the Movement wasn't the place for families. Rather that looking out for all members in the movement, they were looking out for themselves-with good reason. Families trying to provide the basics for themselves and their children were less willing to make sacrifices for some of the characters who took refuge at Maryfarm without lifting a finger. If there's one potato left and it's between your daughter or a homeless wanderer, you give it to your daughter. A single worker could sacrifice their rations for the needy if he or she so chose.
And every family has a different view of what is best for themselves. The sacrifice one family makes for the Movement could seem extreme to another. Feuds such as this also lead to problems in the back to the land farm/commune at Marycrest Farm in NY. How reliant can you force people to be?
But does that mean there is no place in the Movement for families? Especially large, growing Catholic families with young children? Do we need to wait until retirement to make a difference or do we need to prime our youth and young adults to shoulder the responsibility until matrimony or a religious vocation beckons? Should the Movement become a kind of religious order with members swearing chastity and obedience and a full-time commitment to reside in a Hospitality monastery?
Perhaps there is a middle ground.