The information to the right generalizes what we're doing, but I thought I'd go into it a little more in depth.
I recently wrote a short story in which the protagonist, a loud, slovenly, bombastic sort who is a bit of an homage to Ignatius J. Reilly from 'Confederacy of Dunces', tires of the constant bad news he hears every day from the television media. He complains of fear mongering and a consumer-driven agenda. He finally decides to do something about it by storming the TV studio and sending out his own message to the masses. However, the stream of recent bad news turns out to be coverage of a large-scale zombie outbreak into which he has just stumbled, but his paranoia is so focused that he only hears and sees what he wants to - only what conforms to his narrow point of view - until it's too late.
Part of his message is for the populace to eschew consumerism and "turn up your soil to begin planting for tomorrow!" Despite the comedic, over-the-top nature of the plot (at least I found it funny), I felt the basic idea is still relevant. We are a nation of consumers and I'm tired of going to the grocery store and pissing and moaning about the high cost of, well, everything.
Every so often, when my boys have asked me for the 10th time to do something that I know they can do on their own, I quote Ben Franklin: 'God helps those who help themselves.' And that's what this is about - doing something that, in the not-too-distant past, was extremely common. Plant a garden. Grow your own food. It's what the country was founded on, right? Do for yourself, because you damn well can't expect someone to do it for you. That's what I believe. I fear that there are too many out there who do not.
So a garden, a 12-foot by 12-foot patch in the front yard because
we basically have no backyard. Yes, I know planting garden is nothing unique, nor the idea behind it. I'm not claiming some some moral high ground by doing this and I'm not suggesting that I've hit upon some grand, original idea. If anything, I've seen the light. Why depend on others for that which you can do for yourself? Time to practice a little more of what I preach.
We're going to try an assortment of vegetation: tomatoes, peppers, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, even corn. In the coming months, we'll share pictures and stories of what we tried, of what worked, of who helped us, but mostly of what we goofed up and learned from. I promise you, I'm all thumbs, none of which are green. Hopefully it won't begin resemble something out of Motel Hell. There will probably be lots of other crap posts slipped in here or there. It may have something to do with gardening, it may not. I'll apologize ahead of time for any of that.
Thanks for reading,
Steve, Michele, Alex, Isaac and assorted pets
I recently wrote a short story in which the protagonist, a loud, slovenly, bombastic sort who is a bit of an homage to Ignatius J. Reilly from 'Confederacy of Dunces', tires of the constant bad news he hears every day from the television media. He complains of fear mongering and a consumer-driven agenda. He finally decides to do something about it by storming the TV studio and sending out his own message to the masses. However, the stream of recent bad news turns out to be coverage of a large-scale zombie outbreak into which he has just stumbled, but his paranoia is so focused that he only hears and sees what he wants to - only what conforms to his narrow point of view - until it's too late.
Part of his message is for the populace to eschew consumerism and "turn up your soil to begin planting for tomorrow!" Despite the comedic, over-the-top nature of the plot (at least I found it funny), I felt the basic idea is still relevant. We are a nation of consumers and I'm tired of going to the grocery store and pissing and moaning about the high cost of, well, everything.
Every so often, when my boys have asked me for the 10th time to do something that I know they can do on their own, I quote Ben Franklin: 'God helps those who help themselves.' And that's what this is about - doing something that, in the not-too-distant past, was extremely common. Plant a garden. Grow your own food. It's what the country was founded on, right? Do for yourself, because you damn well can't expect someone to do it for you. That's what I believe. I fear that there are too many out there who do not.
So a garden, a 12-foot by 12-foot patch in the front yard because
we basically have no backyard. Yes, I know planting garden is nothing unique, nor the idea behind it. I'm not claiming some some moral high ground by doing this and I'm not suggesting that I've hit upon some grand, original idea. If anything, I've seen the light. Why depend on others for that which you can do for yourself? Time to practice a little more of what I preach.We're going to try an assortment of vegetation: tomatoes, peppers, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, even corn. In the coming months, we'll share pictures and stories of what we tried, of what worked, of who helped us, but mostly of what we goofed up and learned from. I promise you, I'm all thumbs, none of which are green. Hopefully it won't begin resemble something out of Motel Hell. There will probably be lots of other crap posts slipped in here or there. It may have something to do with gardening, it may not. I'll apologize ahead of time for any of that.
Thanks for reading,
Steve, Michele, Alex, Isaac and assorted pets
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