My Vision of Sustainable Living

I thought today that I better discuss my vision of our experiment in sustainable living.  I would say “our” vision, but while talking to Marci on the way to work today, she made it clear that, as of now, it's only my vision.  Referring to herself, she said, “I have no vision; that’s your thing.”  It’s not that she doesn’t support the move; she does.  But the blog, the hobby farm, the sustainable lifestyle--that’s my dream.

Reading and writing book reviews, that’s her thing.  She’s been doing it religiously for several years.  Some of her avid reading history is recorded at goodreads.com.  You can find her reading history there.  Since 2004, she has read, quoted and commented on at least 262 books.    Soon, she’ll also be posting here.

(Oregon--If the weather is cold enough,

the beach nice enough, Marci might leave her book at the house)

Back to sustainable living:  According to Wikipedia, it is “a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources and his/her own resources.^[1] “  (Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_living)

This brings me to my first confession.  We own a full-size seven passenger Chevy Van, clearly not something an environmentalist should be driving around.  That is unless you take into consideration the lifestyle we were living at the time we purchased it.  We were both teachers on the Navajo Nation in a very rural community.   The nearest full grocery store was thirty miles away; anything beyond that (clothing, auto-care, doctors, vets, etc.) was close to ninety miles away.  We also are a family of six.  We tried very hard  not to go to town more than twice a month.  In our Mini-van that was pretty difficult because every inch of space was occupied by flesh.  Or at least that was my justification, and while we lived on the Rez, the van did seem to make perfect sense.  As soon as we moved to Page, it didn’t.  But once you have a car, the most environmentally conscious thing to do is to drive it until it won’t drive anymore.   And if it makes you feel any better, I’ve told my boys, who all have their greedy eyes on it, that I’m going to be buried in it.  That will save the materials needed for a casket and recycle a van in the process.



(Crystal Blue Persuasion stuck at the entrance of our property)

 Anyway, I see our sustainable lifestyle being implemented in phases.  Phase one involves gardening and canning.  That will begin this summer.   I’ve already created three 8 X 8 garden beds, or 192 square feet of garden space.  Not enough, but a good start.  Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, onions and a variety of peppers are the planned crops for this year.  We already have mature apricot, peach and plum trees on the property and for the past couple of years have canned a little bit of jam.

(Rio, July 2005, in one of our three apricot trees)

Next year, we’ll purchase chickens for eggs and plant a large-scale root garden--potatoes, yams, carrots, beets and radishes.

Although, I have no intellectual or spiritual problem raising animals for food, for I eat meat, I’d never be able to raise an animal and butcher it.  Therefore, any small farm animals will be pets only.     

We already gather all of our own wood for heating on the property, and always have.  I know that fireplace emissions are not great, but it saves money.  And as we only burn wood that naturally falls from our own forest, no deforestation occurs.

(Grandpa and Mitchell cleaning up part of our wood lot, September 23, 2006)

("The Sacred Grove"-- our biggest mapples on the property)

The reason I want to design Italian and native Great Basin Gardens is because they require less water than most other types of gardens.  The idea is to create a huge aesthetic on as little water as possible.

This project is even more about family than it is the environment.  My brother, Lloyd is an artist, who sells primarily out of Valley House Gallery in Dallas, Texas.  He lives just up the road, as does my mother.  My sister and her husband live thirty minutes away.  I want to build something that will last for generations--where family and land are one.  Not that everyone will live on the property.  At some point that will become impossible if the property is to retain its natural beauty.  However, there will be a central location that is unequivocally considered home.

At least that’s my vision.  Follow along and see how we do.