Surprise!!! Building a homestead from the ground up is taking up more time than expected... 😐
When I can, I document our progress. Take a look at our new off grid lifestyle here:
While building this life is taking up most of our time, JK and I are making sure the little human in our family is well taken care of too!
Not to bragg or anything, but the little guy will turn four years old in a couple weeks and he learns right along with us... He knows a few trees, a few plants and few berries!
I don't know if it's normal for kids his age to be able to tell the difference between a grape leaf, sasafrass and black locust, but we're flowing with it!
The thing we repete to him all the time, is to not eat anything unless one of us say it's ok. We don't want him popping any old berries or mushrooms in his mouth... same goes for a lot of wild plants really!
Obviously there is all your typical time consuming home things... cooking, dishes and tidying up. I feel like we're constantly tidying up the place and it's driving me crazy!
There's an illusion of space when you live in a tiny home on a large parcel of land. While it's not quite an illusion because there is lots of space... the lack of storage makes it difficult to have things in order.
It feels very junkyard-ish sometimes, but when I look at it, it's really just things like the snow blower and the lawn mower under tarps that give this effect (amongst other things), our life is mostly outside. Someone said to me the other day that in a larger home it's really all the same, except all that junk is hidden in a couple different rooms, closets and self storage units! Out of sight, out of mind I guess... That made me feel better.
So many things to talk about... Let's see, I have joined a couple great communities here on Steemit and I've hardly had any time to write all that much but I love them!
We have @EcoTrain which is all about supporting people who help make the world a better place. With @Eco-Alex driving the train towards great heights in the mountains of the steemiverse, the passengers constantly create feel good content and knowledge filled posts. I have met quite a few awesome people on this train from whome I learn something new everytime I read their work.
There is the Global Homestead Collective started by @FreedomPoint and @FreedomToWrite. This group evolved very quickly to what it is today: a collective of friendly homesteaders (and kin) supporting eachother in what ever form needed. Yet another place where I have met and keep on meeting like-minded people ready to give you a suggestion when you are stuck on the homestead (or in your own head)!
And most recently I have been invited and joined @EarthTribe!!! The mission: to support those on the Steemit platform that are Earth conscious, eco-friendly, & want to truly benefit humanity by promoting topics of liberty, resisting tyranny & oppression, understanding diversity, and healing this world and our people, moving us and the planet forward in a positive direction.source. This group is another group I am very excited to be a part of and I can't wait to make more time for... Thank you for the invite, once again 😁!
Harvesting time...
Ok so this is a concept I struggle with at times, but today it ispired me to write!
According to the sun, the moon, the Gregorian, the Aztec and all other calendars I am aware of, time is a linear... it goes without question from A to B. I try to think of it like a river passing through C and D and perhaps all the way to Z before reaching B!
We can go into the fact that a River is usually fed by tributaries A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean., and TIME could, be seen in the same way.
- Draw a straight line.
- Now draw a second imaginary line on top of the first one, only this time draw it like a winding river. Make it winde how ever you wish it to winde...
- At this point you can ad as many tributaries as you want.
You see the straight line is Time in this linear fashion we're all used to. All the other lines, the river and it's tributaries acount for one different way to think of time.
Imagine the straight line represents one year, as we know it in the Gregorian calendar. If we were to measure all the other lines on our piece of paper and compare them to it, the amount of time we think we have from January 1st to December 30th could be almost endless!
Now, how can we can harvest all that time?
The point of Dream Land: A Multi-Family Homestead With Anarchist Tendencies, is basically to make a life where the time spent working for someone else disappears and transforms into multiple streams through community and a permaculture mindset.
It seems the first thing we're doing right now concentrated on renting our property to campers and glampers.... eventually people wanting to experience a few nights Off the Grid will be greeted with a small natural building equiped with a small amount of renewable energy, a compost roilet, rain water harvest and wood for heating and cooking. This is our first step towards eliminating my job.
Time is money... so just like any succesfull entrepreneur, we will set up multiple sustainable and automated streams of income, which in turn will multiply our time.
Now for the speed at which time goes, I think it's a question of relativity.
You know how sometimes time feels like it drags whike other times it feels too fast? I don't know if someone knows how to pin point how to control these feelings, but I sure would love to know!
Meditation, I'm sure can help. Being clear headed with your vision definitely is a plus. It can also help with being more productive and organized, but that is something I don't do enough of, for sure!
Lucid dreaming can also greatly augment your perception of time. Practicing for a big speach, or live show while you're sleeping, is as real as when you do it awake. Ever wake up feeling happy or sad because of a dream? Those feelings are there even though they came from a dream.
Permaculture
In its most common form, permanant agriculture, after setting up and tweeking your system, and where the problem is the solution, you sure could imagine how much time becomes free to use.
Of course this isn't a quick and easy thing, but set it all up now for your future self and you will be a happy camper, living a slow, peacful and productively mindful life!
At least that's kind of how I see it 😁!
I would love to go on, but I feel this post has reached its length!!! If you wanna talk about it you can find me here or on all the Disccord channels associated with the groups mentioned above.
When someone believes in you, you're far more likely to rise up the best version of you that you can be.
