As usual, I am frustrated with my station in life because I live in a society that makes it hard to be creative and live comfortably. Thus, I work a job that I'm not crazy about, but happy and grateful to have, and my true love - my creativity - suffers.
My greatest downfall is my inability to finish what I start, or carry anything to the end. I have time-management issues, as I have been made uncomfortably aware of by working at the bank, and while I don't believe for a minute that I have something like ADD, I do believe that I have let a good portion of my memory and focus dwindle away. (But I am told that such things can be regained.)
I picked up The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women at Barnes and Nobel in Fort Wayne last weekend while we were killing time before a wedding. It was on the discount shelf, and definitely doesn't have the gorgeous cover art that the book on Amazon.com has. But I've never been one to concern myself with cover art - but instead, the text inside. After all, there's a great song about not judging a book by looking at it's cover.
The author, Gail McMeekin, and I seem to have a lot in common. Both of us have struggled with places to put our creative energy, both have struggled with chronic fatigue syndrome, and like her, I have noticed that women are often expected to push their creativity into the backmost parts of our minds in order to become productive members of society. I am no feminist, not by a long shot, but I do agree that our modern society still has some expectations of women that aren't very fair. (However, I believe they were brought about BY the feminist movement, and they aren't doing anything to help get rid of them.)
I remember a time when I was putting together an elaborate scrapbook to chronicle my journeys through the south-eastern countries of Africa. My mom loved it, but I remember her saying, "It's great that Lindsey has so many creative outlets. It will really help her get through life." My parents have struggled their entire lives with poor financial choices and having to work minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. In short, they have both had to labor while pushing their creativity in the background. Sure, it came out in other places - my mom owned a salon for 20 years, and our house was the most attractive in the neighborhood. But my parents never got the opportunity to follow their true dreams.
I dread the thought that such could be my case. When I think about the years to come, I have a sense of foreboding that I might be one of those folks who simply travels around from job to job because they can't stick with any of the work - I have only worked at the bank for 3 months and I'm already hoping that another opportunity will present itself so that I can quit. I don't want to be one of the millions who pushes their true passions out of the door and conforms to expectations of them.
I particularly like that this book offers challenges to help a woman unlock her creative potential. I have already noticed that there are things I could be doing to help encourage myself into better ideas. I have recognized for a long time that I need a partned - but the right one hasn't come along yet. I am co-dependent in the sense that I need a coach - someone to help me follow-through. I am unsuccessful alone - but with that other person, I can do almost anything.
The first challeng in "12 Secrets" is to take a creative inventory of yourself. I am a little more that halfway through adding that to my journal. I am going to post the questions, and hope that someone out there feels like adding their thoughts on one or two of them as I put my own answers out there for the world to read in future postings.
Creative Style Inventory
1. When did your creative awakening or reawakening occur?
2. What talents do you naturally have?
3. Which elements (fire, wood, water, air, etc.) draw you toward them?
4. Where and when do you create? Where and when do you wish to create?
5. What activates your creative energy?
6. Do you use creative rituals? What are they? If not, invent some for yourself!
7. Does nature influence your creativity? If it does, how?
8. What has been your greatest creative hurdle thus far?
9. What time of day are you most receptive to inspiration?
In the next few weeks, I am going to put up passages from my journal exploring these questions and it would warm my heart to see one or two responses from others out there. Who knows, maybe somewhere out there is that creative partner I've been waiting for and haven't opened my eyes to seeing yet!
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Pride Goes Before A Fall...?
This blog went viral yesterday due to the extraordinarily BAD behavior of the author on this reviewer's comments about her self-published work. Read it - it's like watching a train wreck. 300 and some comments, few of them out of pity and more views than the writer of the blog could have hoped to achieve.
In some ways I feel sorry for the author - not because she received a less than glowing review - but because she clearly believed that her work was exceptional and couldn't possibly recieve anything less than 4 out of 5 stars. She's really bitten the dust now. Good luck with ever selling another book now Jacqueline Howett. You will never be more widely read than you were this week - and it isn't your mediocre writing that everyone is talking about.
Anyway, if nothing else, I've started following this blog!
BigAl's Books and Pals: The Greek Seaman / Jacqueline Howett: "Genre: Suspense/Literary Fiction Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words Availability Kindle: YES Nook: YES &..."
In some ways I feel sorry for the author - not because she received a less than glowing review - but because she clearly believed that her work was exceptional and couldn't possibly recieve anything less than 4 out of 5 stars. She's really bitten the dust now. Good luck with ever selling another book now Jacqueline Howett. You will never be more widely read than you were this week - and it isn't your mediocre writing that everyone is talking about.
Anyway, if nothing else, I've started following this blog!
BigAl's Books and Pals: The Greek Seaman / Jacqueline Howett: "Genre: Suspense/Literary Fiction Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words Availability Kindle: YES Nook: YES &..."
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Stardust Audio Book Review
Stardust, by Neil Gaiman, was recommended to me by my dearest Sarah Elisabeth, whom I trust implicitly for book recommendations. (Sarah and I used to write 'novels' together in middle school. We were pretty good for 13 year olds! We still talk about someday writing the great American novel together.)
I dowloaded Stardust from Audible.com, which, as I have already made mention of, is my newest great love on the internet. It's only 6 hours long, which was a bit of a disappointment, and had some parts that I thought were a bit....descriptive for a kids' title. (Let's just say, I wouldn't listen to this one around my kids until I had 'the Talk' with them.) But Neil Gaiman himself narrated the audio book, and I loved it.
Gaiman's vocalising of the individual characters, combined with his delicate British accent was delightful. I didn't jump or cringe at any point due to bad narration. Being narrated by the author himself gives it a sense of purity. You're hearing it straight from the Source.
The first half of the tale regards Dunstan Thorne, who, sadly, doesn't get to have any great and wonderful adventures. However, he does get to engage on a little tryst with a faery woman who is enslaved to a witch, and 10 months later is presented with a son, I'm sure much to the chagrin of his wife, who is not made much mention of after this occasion. It's the little half-mortal, half-faery boy, Tristan, who gets to have all the fun.
After foolishly promising to go on a quest to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he admires more than any other in the world, Tristan leaves his home and embarks into the Faery Rhealm to find it. The star ends up being a beautiful girl and together they have a journey that Tristan could have only dreamed about. But he isn't the only person in Faery that has ambitions to retrieve the Star, and herein lies the adventures...
So this might be the shortest review I've ever written because I didn't have a single complaint. Except maybe that it was too short. I could have stayed in the Faery Rhealm and read the adventures for much longer than they lasted. I am not yet inspired to watch the movie that was made because I just enjoyed the book that much. I really love fantasy stories. I love places where anything can happen and there are always things happening that lead to adventures and quests and honor. Real Life is so distressing, especially for adults, and a good trip to Faery often cures my soul when I feel opressed by Life.
Final Grade: I give it an A-. (The minus is because it wasn't long enough for me.) :)
I dowloaded Stardust from Audible.com, which, as I have already made mention of, is my newest great love on the internet. It's only 6 hours long, which was a bit of a disappointment, and had some parts that I thought were a bit....descriptive for a kids' title. (Let's just say, I wouldn't listen to this one around my kids until I had 'the Talk' with them.) But Neil Gaiman himself narrated the audio book, and I loved it.
Gaiman's vocalising of the individual characters, combined with his delicate British accent was delightful. I didn't jump or cringe at any point due to bad narration. Being narrated by the author himself gives it a sense of purity. You're hearing it straight from the Source.
The first half of the tale regards Dunstan Thorne, who, sadly, doesn't get to have any great and wonderful adventures. However, he does get to engage on a little tryst with a faery woman who is enslaved to a witch, and 10 months later is presented with a son, I'm sure much to the chagrin of his wife, who is not made much mention of after this occasion. It's the little half-mortal, half-faery boy, Tristan, who gets to have all the fun.
After foolishly promising to go on a quest to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he admires more than any other in the world, Tristan leaves his home and embarks into the Faery Rhealm to find it. The star ends up being a beautiful girl and together they have a journey that Tristan could have only dreamed about. But he isn't the only person in Faery that has ambitions to retrieve the Star, and herein lies the adventures...
So this might be the shortest review I've ever written because I didn't have a single complaint. Except maybe that it was too short. I could have stayed in the Faery Rhealm and read the adventures for much longer than they lasted. I am not yet inspired to watch the movie that was made because I just enjoyed the book that much. I really love fantasy stories. I love places where anything can happen and there are always things happening that lead to adventures and quests and honor. Real Life is so distressing, especially for adults, and a good trip to Faery often cures my soul when I feel opressed by Life.
Final Grade: I give it an A-. (The minus is because it wasn't long enough for me.) :)
Friday, January 28, 2011
1st To Die
As I mentioned yesterday, I have recently discovered the absolute joy of Audible.com. If you follow this link www.audible.com/tvoffer, you can get 2 free book credits to try them out. If you have an Amazon account, this is easy and pain free!
The first book I downloaded was James Patterson's '1st To Die', which is the first book in his series called 'Women's Murder Club'. The reviews were definitely mixed, and no matter what, you'll always come across someone who has to be an absolute jerk about the book. After all, chronic complainers have to make a living somehow.
Complaints that I wouldn't have if I had read this book instead of listened to it: The narrator was a bit......dry. And her vocalisations of the four different women were kind of annoying. And the main character's name is Lindsey.... so everytime the narrator said it in an overly-emphasized way, I jumped, thinking that my mother was yelling at me. (I don't even live with my mother!)
By and large, I love a good mystery. This was a good mystery. It wasn't gory or grisly in any way, which I appreciate. I already have trouble sleeping. The last thing I need is a horrific murder description bouncing around in my head at all hours of the night. The adjectives and adverbs in the writing were helpful, rather than exhausting. Nothing gets on my last nerve quicker than too many adjectives and a poor editor who doesn't realize it.
The four women, Lindsay, Claire, Cindy and Jill, are all different pieces of a whole. Lindsay is the tough-as-nails homicide investigator. Claire is the soft, gentle, level-headed medical examiner. Cindy is the upbeat, perky reporter. Jill is the no-nonsense, pragmatic district attorney. Yeah.....so this is pretty much the exact character lineup for CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, etc. Jerry Bruckheimer and James Patterson must have the same brainwave pattern.
The plot opens with a suicide attempt, and closes with an accidental death that is so disappointing that I basically yelled "REALLY??" across the living room. (I hate it when there is unnecessary trauma/drama.) The suicide attempt really threw me, because Patterson really never went back to it or resolved it. There was a breif mention of it toward the end, but nothing to justify why it was the opening to the series at all. In between these two events is a serial that involves 3 newlywed couples getting married and murdered within hours of their vows, the narrator of the stor, Lindsay Boxer, is diagnosed with a blood disease - but keeps working at her normal pace and doesn't tell anyone that she's probably dying, a romance between partners, and 4 women who get together to discuss the murders over margaritas. The plot meanders along with just enough intrigue to keep me interested, and enough foreshadowing to put my own mental wheels in motion. I had figured it all out before the end, but I actually like that! I like the mystery novels where I can think about it while reading/listening to it and 'solve the case' mentally with the detectives. (I grew up reading almost nothing but Nancy Drew mysteries.) There was one twist to the ending that made me cringe and wonder why it was there, but it didn't keep me from enjoying the story as a whole. I think sometimes that authors overdo it with the 'intrigue'. They just want to get that 'one more little twist' into the plot. And for me, that 'one more little twist' really did nothing for me. I rolled my eyes and thought 'so X WAS behind it all along...'.
I haven't decided if I will divulge in the second book in the series yet. It has much worse reviews that the first, and I'm not completely convinced that I really like Patterson's writing style yet. It certainly isn't the worst I've ever read - I reserve that honor for Christian historical romance authors. (Gag, barf.)
Final Grade? I give it a B-. It's worth listening to, but not a good start to a whole series. Like I said, still thinking about whether I'll go into the second one or not. In the meantime, I downloaded Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and I can't wait to get it started.
The first book I downloaded was James Patterson's '1st To Die', which is the first book in his series called 'Women's Murder Club'. The reviews were definitely mixed, and no matter what, you'll always come across someone who has to be an absolute jerk about the book. After all, chronic complainers have to make a living somehow.
Complaints that I wouldn't have if I had read this book instead of listened to it: The narrator was a bit......dry. And her vocalisations of the four different women were kind of annoying. And the main character's name is Lindsey.... so everytime the narrator said it in an overly-emphasized way, I jumped, thinking that my mother was yelling at me. (I don't even live with my mother!)
By and large, I love a good mystery. This was a good mystery. It wasn't gory or grisly in any way, which I appreciate. I already have trouble sleeping. The last thing I need is a horrific murder description bouncing around in my head at all hours of the night. The adjectives and adverbs in the writing were helpful, rather than exhausting. Nothing gets on my last nerve quicker than too many adjectives and a poor editor who doesn't realize it.
The four women, Lindsay, Claire, Cindy and Jill, are all different pieces of a whole. Lindsay is the tough-as-nails homicide investigator. Claire is the soft, gentle, level-headed medical examiner. Cindy is the upbeat, perky reporter. Jill is the no-nonsense, pragmatic district attorney. Yeah.....so this is pretty much the exact character lineup for CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, etc. Jerry Bruckheimer and James Patterson must have the same brainwave pattern.
The plot opens with a suicide attempt, and closes with an accidental death that is so disappointing that I basically yelled "REALLY??" across the living room. (I hate it when there is unnecessary trauma/drama.) The suicide attempt really threw me, because Patterson really never went back to it or resolved it. There was a breif mention of it toward the end, but nothing to justify why it was the opening to the series at all. In between these two events is a serial that involves 3 newlywed couples getting married and murdered within hours of their vows, the narrator of the stor, Lindsay Boxer, is diagnosed with a blood disease - but keeps working at her normal pace and doesn't tell anyone that she's probably dying, a romance between partners, and 4 women who get together to discuss the murders over margaritas. The plot meanders along with just enough intrigue to keep me interested, and enough foreshadowing to put my own mental wheels in motion. I had figured it all out before the end, but I actually like that! I like the mystery novels where I can think about it while reading/listening to it and 'solve the case' mentally with the detectives. (I grew up reading almost nothing but Nancy Drew mysteries.) There was one twist to the ending that made me cringe and wonder why it was there, but it didn't keep me from enjoying the story as a whole. I think sometimes that authors overdo it with the 'intrigue'. They just want to get that 'one more little twist' into the plot. And for me, that 'one more little twist' really did nothing for me. I rolled my eyes and thought 'so X WAS behind it all along...'.
I haven't decided if I will divulge in the second book in the series yet. It has much worse reviews that the first, and I'm not completely convinced that I really like Patterson's writing style yet. It certainly isn't the worst I've ever read - I reserve that honor for Christian historical romance authors. (Gag, barf.)
Final Grade? I give it a B-. It's worth listening to, but not a good start to a whole series. Like I said, still thinking about whether I'll go into the second one or not. In the meantime, I downloaded Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and I can't wait to get it started.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Urban Homestead
This is an interesting little book that my brother in law gave me for Christmas. He gave it to me with the comment "I heard you've taken up gardening." With Robert one can never tell if he is being serious or sarcastic. If he was serious, he's quite behind the times. I took up gardening in my teens, and Alex and I have been married 5 years in May. If he was being sarcastic....well, awesome. I LOVE to get new books on gardening. Please, support my addiction!
To start with, this isn't quite a book on gardening. It is a how-to guide on urban 'homesteading' as they call it. It's very thorough. I will come out with my only gripe against it first - it's kinda preachy. It's definitely one of those books that I usually put back down because it has political ambitions. I always joke about those folks who live in big cities on the west coast - and wouldn't you know, this book was written by a couple of them.
That being said, I decided to plow through this because it is high time I make some efforts to get all points of view, even from the ones that I usually laugh at because of their smug adherence to things they know much too little about, and I was pleasantly surprised. While The Urban Homestead does have political ambitions, it also holds well-written, thoroughly researched advice on container gardening, care of small animals and harvest preservation how-tos. It's a good, healthy mix of advice I would listen to, and fluff spewing from a big city-dweller.
I am going to attempt a project from this book too! A worm composter made from a couple of 8 gallon plastic totes. I hope it is worth the effort. It won't be very expensive, and worm compost is supposed to be some of the best. I am still struggling with compost here in my tiny strip of yard because I simply have no good place to put it while it's decaying and turning into wonderfully rich food for my veggies and fruits. So I keep moving the pile from one side of the house to the other and trying to decide what is best. I'm getting pretty good with reserving the kitchen scraps too, and I keep them in a plastic cauldron that was a leftover Halloween prop while I'm prepping the food and then run them outside to the pile. This will continue to work as long as we don't have negative temps and blizzard like weather. I refuse to be nice to Mother Earth if she is going to slap me in the face with rediculous winter warfare.
I will admit to the one 'preachy' thing in The Urban Homestead that I wholeheartedly agree with is the discussion of lawns, which I have mentioned before. My belief on the matter is that 100 years ago, no one would spend the hours, water and backbreaking work that some spend on lawncare when you can't eat it! I really must not have any appreciation for a well-manicured lawn! I find a lawn to be useless and a lot of hard work that doesn't have any real payoff except that it keeps your toes out of the dirt. Alex wants to rip it out and pour down cement. I laugh and say NO, we'll rip it out and plant a jungle of fruits, veggies and edible landscaping! We'll see who wins this argument.
Anyway, The Urban Homestead is a book to read with thoughtful review - not to be read as absolute truth and the only advice book you'll ever need. Don't take everything as gospel, please. But there are some excellent points, and it is very well organized and written.
Final Grade: B
To start with, this isn't quite a book on gardening. It is a how-to guide on urban 'homesteading' as they call it. It's very thorough. I will come out with my only gripe against it first - it's kinda preachy. It's definitely one of those books that I usually put back down because it has political ambitions. I always joke about those folks who live in big cities on the west coast - and wouldn't you know, this book was written by a couple of them.
That being said, I decided to plow through this because it is high time I make some efforts to get all points of view, even from the ones that I usually laugh at because of their smug adherence to things they know much too little about, and I was pleasantly surprised. While The Urban Homestead does have political ambitions, it also holds well-written, thoroughly researched advice on container gardening, care of small animals and harvest preservation how-tos. It's a good, healthy mix of advice I would listen to, and fluff spewing from a big city-dweller.
I am going to attempt a project from this book too! A worm composter made from a couple of 8 gallon plastic totes. I hope it is worth the effort. It won't be very expensive, and worm compost is supposed to be some of the best. I am still struggling with compost here in my tiny strip of yard because I simply have no good place to put it while it's decaying and turning into wonderfully rich food for my veggies and fruits. So I keep moving the pile from one side of the house to the other and trying to decide what is best. I'm getting pretty good with reserving the kitchen scraps too, and I keep them in a plastic cauldron that was a leftover Halloween prop while I'm prepping the food and then run them outside to the pile. This will continue to work as long as we don't have negative temps and blizzard like weather. I refuse to be nice to Mother Earth if she is going to slap me in the face with rediculous winter warfare.
I will admit to the one 'preachy' thing in The Urban Homestead that I wholeheartedly agree with is the discussion of lawns, which I have mentioned before. My belief on the matter is that 100 years ago, no one would spend the hours, water and backbreaking work that some spend on lawncare when you can't eat it! I really must not have any appreciation for a well-manicured lawn! I find a lawn to be useless and a lot of hard work that doesn't have any real payoff except that it keeps your toes out of the dirt. Alex wants to rip it out and pour down cement. I laugh and say NO, we'll rip it out and plant a jungle of fruits, veggies and edible landscaping! We'll see who wins this argument.
Anyway, The Urban Homestead is a book to read with thoughtful review - not to be read as absolute truth and the only advice book you'll ever need. Don't take everything as gospel, please. But there are some excellent points, and it is very well organized and written.
Final Grade: B
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Reviewer Mode
I have never once regretter purchasing 'The New Self-sufficient Gardener' by John Seymour. Of all the gardening books in a very large stack that I have, this one has the honor of being my favorite.
I wrote a review on Amazon.com a couple years ago, and I think it's pretty cool that my review is the highest rated for this book right now!
Soaring oil, food, utility and energy and general cost of living prices are enough to make you wonder if there is anything you can do to make yourself more self sufficient. As someone who has always loved to play in the dirt and see the flowers grow, I knew I was going to appreciate this book immediately.
Written from the point of view of a man who grew up in England in the 50's, John Seymour is practical, friendly and unpolitical. Completely unconcerned with things like global warming and inflation, he recognized that the human condition has simply lost it roots - pun intended. Back in his day, he reminisced, every English country home had a kitchen garden and the produce of the family diet came from that garden. There was a pig in the sty (and one in the larder), and a henhouse in the yard. And what you couldn't grow, you went without, or possibly traded with a neighbor. Why can't people live like this today?
I could argue on and on about the laziness and the commercialism of the day, but it's pretty redundant. Instead, I decided to put a little elbow grease into my garden and see how long it will take us to be as self-reliant as possible.
I think I appreciate Seymour's book simply because it is unpolitical. No references to global climate change, or carbon footprints, or wars in the Middle East. I was recently flipping through a book on urban homesteading, which was written by some folks in Los Angeles and has won numerous awards because it gives simple advice on how to become self-sufficient while living in the city. "Do your part to reduce your carbon footprint!" My humble and honest opinion to those on the West Coast is this - stop 'playing house' with your high rise apartment balcony container gardens and your smug "we're saving the planet" attitudes and get your asses out to the Midwest sometime. We'd be happy to show you REAL homesteading, real farming, and real self-sufficiency. Anyway, that's a tangent saved for a better day. There are NO POLITICAL AMBITIONS in The New Self-Sufficient Gardener! Hooray!
I started my gardening adventures with a couple tomato plants and some herbs. That was in 2006. This year in 2010, I more than doubled my crops and harvest. I was even able to grow pumpkins this year, and it was a lot of fun. Bell and cayenne peppers, four varieties of tomato, 10 herbs, russet potatoes, leeks, broccoli, lettuce, beets, pumpkins and 2 types of winter squash. It was a great year with a really good harvest! And I owe it all to John Seymour's great book full of practical advice!
No urging to find a way to purchase a $13000 wind turbine, no pleadings to replace your furnace with a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, no blaming the American presidents for not doing enough to stop the inevitable changing of the climate, INSTEAD when and how to plant deep beds, proper propogation of seeds, watering techniques to improve efficiency, how to raise the most out of your soil and how to avoid certain diseases and pests.
Best of all, I have come to realize that self-sufficiency is a process realized over time. Every year something new - another step closer. We live in the city. Not the big city, but the city nonetheless. Our yard is small and we are stuck with city utilities. And I still managed to decrease our grocery costs by $10 per week. I'm trying to do even better this coming year. Today we're heading out to a real butcher shop (!) and stocking the freezer for the next 3 months worth of meals. I'm excited about it. We may not have to tread inside a big chain grocery store for weeks! That's the ultimate goal.
So if you LOVE the idea of self-sufficiency, put down the books written by hippies and activists in California, and reach for the New Self-Sufficient Gardener instead. Start practically and patiently instead of hoping to stop global climate change overnight. Self-sufficiency takes time, baby steps and research!
I wrote a review on Amazon.com a couple years ago, and I think it's pretty cool that my review is the highest rated for this book right now!
Soaring oil, food, utility and energy and general cost of living prices are enough to make you wonder if there is anything you can do to make yourself more self sufficient. As someone who has always loved to play in the dirt and see the flowers grow, I knew I was going to appreciate this book immediately.
Written from the point of view of a man who grew up in England in the 50's, John Seymour is practical, friendly and unpolitical. Completely unconcerned with things like global warming and inflation, he recognized that the human condition has simply lost it roots - pun intended. Back in his day, he reminisced, every English country home had a kitchen garden and the produce of the family diet came from that garden. There was a pig in the sty (and one in the larder), and a henhouse in the yard. And what you couldn't grow, you went without, or possibly traded with a neighbor. Why can't people live like this today?
I could argue on and on about the laziness and the commercialism of the day, but it's pretty redundant. Instead, I decided to put a little elbow grease into my garden and see how long it will take us to be as self-reliant as possible.
I think I appreciate Seymour's book simply because it is unpolitical. No references to global climate change, or carbon footprints, or wars in the Middle East. I was recently flipping through a book on urban homesteading, which was written by some folks in Los Angeles and has won numerous awards because it gives simple advice on how to become self-sufficient while living in the city. "Do your part to reduce your carbon footprint!" My humble and honest opinion to those on the West Coast is this - stop 'playing house' with your high rise apartment balcony container gardens and your smug "we're saving the planet" attitudes and get your asses out to the Midwest sometime. We'd be happy to show you REAL homesteading, real farming, and real self-sufficiency. Anyway, that's a tangent saved for a better day. There are NO POLITICAL AMBITIONS in The New Self-Sufficient Gardener! Hooray!
I started my gardening adventures with a couple tomato plants and some herbs. That was in 2006. This year in 2010, I more than doubled my crops and harvest. I was even able to grow pumpkins this year, and it was a lot of fun. Bell and cayenne peppers, four varieties of tomato, 10 herbs, russet potatoes, leeks, broccoli, lettuce, beets, pumpkins and 2 types of winter squash. It was a great year with a really good harvest! And I owe it all to John Seymour's great book full of practical advice!
No urging to find a way to purchase a $13000 wind turbine, no pleadings to replace your furnace with a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, no blaming the American presidents for not doing enough to stop the inevitable changing of the climate, INSTEAD when and how to plant deep beds, proper propogation of seeds, watering techniques to improve efficiency, how to raise the most out of your soil and how to avoid certain diseases and pests.
Best of all, I have come to realize that self-sufficiency is a process realized over time. Every year something new - another step closer. We live in the city. Not the big city, but the city nonetheless. Our yard is small and we are stuck with city utilities. And I still managed to decrease our grocery costs by $10 per week. I'm trying to do even better this coming year. Today we're heading out to a real butcher shop (!) and stocking the freezer for the next 3 months worth of meals. I'm excited about it. We may not have to tread inside a big chain grocery store for weeks! That's the ultimate goal.
So if you LOVE the idea of self-sufficiency, put down the books written by hippies and activists in California, and reach for the New Self-Sufficient Gardener instead. Start practically and patiently instead of hoping to stop global climate change overnight. Self-sufficiency takes time, baby steps and research!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)