Life As We Know It?

Is life as we know it on its way to extinction?

Mother Earth News June/July 2008 Issue has an editorial that bothered me because it asks the questions my husband and I and family members and friends have been asking for months now. What are the long-term and short-term effects of the crisis our world seems to be on the cusp of? It was unsettling to see these concerns in print in a well-known magazine. It is unsettling whenever I find out other people are thinking about the same issues — it makes them less of a paranoid reaction on my part (I do have an active imagination) and more sensible.

Mother Earth News refers readers to this essay titled “The Greatest Danger” — www.MotherEarthNews.com/GreatestDanger.aspx

How have my husband and I been dealing with these anxieties about our economy and our world?

Here is our new garden. It is 32 feet long and comprised of six sections five to seven feet wide. We mulched the paths with the hay we put around our dog house during the winter. I have begun mulching around the plants also. In this garden we have corn, winter and summer squash, green beans, beans to dry, potatoes, onions, carrots, pickle cucumbers growing over the trellis, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, peas growing up the wooden trellis, and a patch for silly items (ornamental corn and gourds).

 

 

 

 I worry about feeding my own family of five, my mother, my grandmother, my in-laws, and others. I think about people who do not or cannot grow a garden. My husband will be erecting a large shed in which to store all of this produce. I would like to try and store corn the way the Indians did, by pulling it up roots and all and hanging it upside down: the cobs still attached. I am going to can and freeze also but then — the freezer needs electricity.

We doubled our strawberry patch, added more rhubarb, and planted ten more blueberries. Our blueberry patch last year was quite successful. All of this gardening is done organically. This week we have to finish fencing the patch and then erecting the hoops for the anti-bird netting. The strawberries are green on the plants.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we added a raspberry and blackberry patch, right across from the new garden.

In my existing kitchen garden, I planted the rest of my onions, garlic, all my herbs, and lettuce. I do have a patch of zinnia because life needs flowers.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am having a terrible time keeping the moles out of my kitchen garden. I refuse to just kill them, but spraying that repellant bothers me also. The little windmill on the top of the pole is supposed to shake the ground so much the moles stay out — it doesn’t work. But I like it’s look. Can you tell me a way to repel moles without killing them?

We added four more trees to our fruit orchard this year, started last year. It will be awhile before that feeds us those fruits.

I am willing to raise goats and learn how to make cheese. And, we are seriously considering purchasing an outdoor wood/corn burning stove to heat our home. We are completely dependent on propane right now — not even a fireplace. I can bake my own bread, sew clothes, and my husband can hunt and fish.

Do you think about these things also and what are you doing to ease your anxieties?