Greetings from Ohio

[MistieMae1]

Just thought I'd pop in here and introduce myself. I'm a 28-year-old stay-at-home-mother of 3 (soon to be 4!) living in Ohio. Our journey to "urban" sustainable living has been slow but steady. I say "our," but my husband isn't really into the idea and just humors me for the most part. :) I decided to take the plunge both because of environmental concerns and for the health and safety of my family.

My main interests are herbalism, gardening, genealogy, history and mythology of all sorts, reading, and restoring our 1927 bungalow in a environmentally friendly fashion. Nothing thrills me more than time outdoors among the weeds or a nicely brewed cup of tea made with herbs that I grew and harvested myself. My 4-year-old daughter is a gardening and herb enthusiast as well, which means that my chives and lemon balm get eaten to the ground each week. :D

My big homesteading goal for 2009 is rainwater harvesting.

[RogueAPBT]

Mistie, welcome! I'm new here, too. Sounds like you'll have plenty of helping hands in the garden, there! I'm hoping to get some rain barrels set up, soon, myself. I have just one barrel right now, not hooked up yet, but I saw a cool video online that featured a nice set up for providing water for the garden. If you're interested, I can try to find that video again, and post the link for you. This lady had several barrels that fed a drip tape system for watering her whole garden, I think.

Cheryl

[Yomolove]

Just thought I'd pop in here and introduce myself. I'm a 28-year-old stay-at-home-mother of 3 (soon to be 4!) living in Ohio. Our journey to "urban" sustainable living has been slow but steady. I say "our," but my husband isn't really into the idea and just humors me for the most part. :) I decided to take the plunge both because of environmental concerns and for the health and safety of my family.

My main interests are herbalism, gardening, genealogy, history and mythology of all sorts, reading, and restoring our 1927 bungalow in a environmentally friendly fashion. Nothing thrills me more than time outdoors among the weeds or a nicely brewed cup of tea made with herbs that I grew and harvested myself. My 4-year-old daughter is a gardening and herb enthusiast as well, which means that my chives and lemon balm get eaten to the ground each week. :D

My big homesteading goal for 2009 is rainwater harvesting.

Mistie he will be. My husband wasnt into the idea either, but he loves fresh herbs and lettuce... Once he saw everything growing and the first pick of tomato,basil,romain lettuce.... Then he started bugging me as to when will the lettuces grow back and when will the tomatoes turn red again. After all the fuss about simply taking the truck to the local farm and filling it with compost...( he made me do that) I took it in stride.

I made him go to the local apple d'or... and get more compost for new beds. chow

[plantoneonme]

You husband sounds like mine...he humors me too. Mine probably grumbles more though LOL. Kim

[MistieMae1]

I saw a cool video online that featured a nice set up for providing water for the garden. If you're interested, I can try to find that video again, and post the link for you. This lady had several barrels that fed a drip tape system for watering her whole garden, I think.

Cheryl

Cheryl, thanks for the welcome! I'd be happy to watch the video if you have the chance to find the link again.

Earlier this year I read a book on Shaker gardens where it was said that, after the plants were established, the Shakers didn't water because they could only surface water which encouraged shallow root systems and weaker plants. So I decided to experiment this year and did NO watering at all after the crops were established. Some of the crops thrived anyway and some did not (namely things like tomatoes and peppers). Rainwater it is next year! :)

[MistieMae1]

Yomolove and plantoneonme, thank you for the words of encouragement on the husband front. Mine doesn't mind the garden so much, despite the fact that I ripped up HALF of the backyard for it. Mainly it's because he never spends time outside. ;) At first he just ignored it, but then he started asking whether I was going to grow green peppers and strawberries and sweet corn, since those are his favorite fruits/veggies. Other than that, he stays out of the way.

It's really the OTHER homesteading things that he drags his feet on. He hates to recycle and refuses to reuse anything (and I do mean ANYTHING). He doesn't like animals, especially farm type animals, so no chickens, goats, rabbits, ducks, etc. My daughter is slowly wearing him down on that one though! He doesn't like to do DIY projects of any sort. I could go on and on.

Basically, I just try to let him do his own thing. I don't want him to feel forced into it all. It does get frustrating that I have to constantly pick through the garbage for compostables, recyclables, etc, but I deal. He has his good points too, of course. He's big into emergency preparedness, so we work together on stocking food and supplies. And he never balks when I finally give in on something and say we need to hire a pro. LOL Give and take, give and take.

[AbbeyLehman]

Hi MistieMae!! Your DH sounds like mine, too, although mine isn't quite into the prepping yet....After that last 4 days of no power, though, he's beginning to see the wisdom, yay!

Rougue, I would also like to see the rain barrel/drip system setup, as it is exactly what I want to do next year.

[MistieMae1]

Abbey, a fellow Ohioan! Yay!

My husband started getting into the preparedness after we were without power for nearly a week following an ice storm in 2004. It was during the winter holidays too, and we had 1-year-old twins in an apartment which was heated by electricity. Not. Fun.

Maybe the wind storm will be a motivator for your husband, as dreadful as that may be.

[PJJ]

Hello MistieMae and welcome,

I have been doing a lot of research on rainbarrels lately. If you go to www.youtube.com and search for rainbarrels, you will get links to many videos.
I have watched each and every one of them. lol I plan on having a large water catch system in place by next spring. There are also tons of videos on composting. We've got one barrel working now and two more to get ready. We're also going to make 2 or 3 out of used, free, pallets. I have been using a grass catcher on the lawn mower and we are saving all of it and will be composting a TON of leaves from our maple trees using the lawn mower.

You are gonna LOVE it here!!

Penny:)

[MistieMae1]

Penny, thanks for the welcome and for the youtube suggestion. I've watched a billion videos on youtube but never thought to look for rain barrel vids. Duh. My biggest obstacle will most certainly be cost. I'm nothing if not persistent, though, so we'll have something next year by hook or by crook!

I have to be the laziest composter in the world. I heap all my compostables in a big pile (layered as much as possible) near our largest maple tree and just let it be for a year. I use yarrow leaves to activate it, which really helps things to break down quickly. The first year I didn't use them because I hadn't yet planted yarrow, and the pile didn't break down nearly as well as it did the next year. Amazing stuff, really.

I'm sure that I could get faster compost with turning, but I'm just too lazy. ;)

[PJJ]

MistieMae, You're quite welcome. I hope the videos help. Thanks for the info on the yarrow. I've never grown it. I'll have to do some research.

There's nothing wrong with being a lazy composter. lol Just sit back and let it do it's thing. Doing it slowly is better than not doing it at all.:D

[MistieMae1]

Many people use comfrey in the same way that I use my yarrow, to activate the compost. Both are also medicinal plants with plenty of wonderful uses. Yarrow's super easy to grow either potted or in the ground. As long as they're in a sunny spot, they should do fine. I don't even water mine. I just let the rain take care of it because I planted it next to my lavender, which really doesn't like to be watered.

I have a post on my blog about using yarrow as a compost activator. Feel free to visit and comment, but please don't feel obligated.

[gardengirl72]

Welcome Mistie Mae. More from Ohio. I had never heard about putting Yarrow into my compost as an activator. I am super curious, let me know more about it in the compost forum. Soil is where it all begins and any new tricks are sure appreciated.

Thank you for hooking up here with us. In terms of the husband thing, it is all about the food. There are two ways to a man's heart and food is one of them.

[RogueAPBT]

Mistie, I'm so sorry! I got busy and forgot about this thread when I checked in here. Here is the link for the video I was referring to:

http://www.wordpress.peakmoment.tv/conversations/?p=12#more-12

Cheryl

[AbbeyLehman]

Abbey, a fellow Ohioan! Yay!

My husband started getting into the preparedness after we were without power for nearly a week following an ice storm in 2004. It was during the winter holidays too, and we had 1-year-old twins in an apartment which was heated by electricity. Not. Fun.

Maybe the wind storm will be a motivator for your husband, as dreadful as that may be.

I apologize for the late reply...My life has been upside down for 3 weeks or so--6 extra people in the house, ay.

All DH can talk about now is buying a generator. I keep trying to talk him out of it, as there are better ways to take care of everything a generator would power. The $700 price tag is daunting to him, as well, so I may be able to convince to sink a portion of that money into something smarter, like a bigger pressure canner and some oil lamps, ya know??

I cannot imagine 2 babies in the cold like that! Yikes--how did you keep them entertained??