Asking for help

I have mentioned before that my goal is to eventually own a small piece of land and start my own small organic farm. One to two acres is my goal. My resolution for this year is to come up with the money to buy my land by the end of the year. That means I need from 5,000 to 8,000 dollars (maybe less if real estate prices keep crashing, hah). I’m pretty sure that I could come up with a thousand, maybe two. More than that would be out of the question unless I get a very good job soon. That does not look like it is going to happen, and my part time jobs barely make ends meet. Getting a mortgage in the current climate is not going to happen, and with things deteriorating the way they are I doubt I have more than another year, maybe two, to get things set up if I am going to do so. Unfortunately there are no foundations or programs (yet) to help young farmers get set up. This despite the fact that we need many more young small farmers in this country.

So I’ve decided to get over my considerable pride and ask for help. This is not an easy thing for me to do. I have always been fairly self-sufficient. Even as a young child I mostly took care of myself. Granted, I didn’t have much choice as my parents could not in the least be considered the ‘nurturing’ type. My father was never around much and my mother was severely mentally ill and not capable of taking care of herself, much less her children. Asking for help for anything is very hard for me. I sometimes think my task in this life is to learn to live in community more.

I am going to be doing a number of things this year to try and raise extra money. But I am also going to do something now that goes against my very nature. I am asking for donations. I know that times are tough in many areas and are probably going to get worse. But if you are among the lucky few who still have some extra money, and you would like to help a young farmer get set up, please consider donating a few bucks. If for some reason you do wish to donate, you can go to paypal. My account is europa59rs@yahoo.com. I am a verified merchant. I promise that any money given will be used only for this purpose. I am not going to become an aggressive panhandler –I promise this will be the only post you’ll ever see where I ask for money –but I will provide updates on my progress towards the goal. I will also give regular updates on what else is going on and how things are moving along. When I get closer to my goal I will try and offer ‘shares’ of future output to some local people. My regular readers know that I am a poet, and if you give $10 I’ll even write you a custom poem (on a subject of your choice, with a few exceptions) as a thank you.

When and if I succeed in getting my land, I am going to do my best to feed not only myself but as many others as possible. I shall also do my best to help others get set up and learn to grow food as well. These are skills we are all going to need in the coming days.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if I have offended anyone (aside from myself and my own sense of propriety, that is), you have my apologies. And Happy Inauguration day.

Big Step

Tomorrow I’m going to take another big step on the road to independence. I’m going to can for the first time. I’m nervous, but I have all the stuff and I’ve read the instructions, so hopefully it will go well. I’m going to start with one of the easiest recipes –homemade strawberry jam. The strawberries are local, of course. I’m almost as excited as I am nervous. I’ll post about how it goes, of course. I’m also working on a long article for another venue that I’ll crosspost here, hopefully tomorrow.