Learn by doing

Learn by doing is my main method of learning. I will read about something either online or in a book.I pick and choose what I find that I think will work with my situation and then I try to apply it to my little farm.

I guess you can say that for me experience is my teacher in the school of hard knocks and I am a slow learner. I make mistakes ..I try again ..make some more (hopefully different) mistakes sadly sometimes I make the same mistake over and over and over again , but I live with it.

Chickens and the mishaps that happen with them is one example. I must say my biggest mistakes happen in gardening. Luckily my biggest successes also happen in gardening.

I have found that one of the hardest things in gardening is finding information suited to my climate.

That and I have a desire to try new things or things that are different and slightly out of the ordinary (potatoes in tires comes to mind)

I think I get the most benefit out of gardening now because it is not a solo effort. my kids help out a great deal and my husband is really getting into it this year because he is seeing how much we are going to have and we are already making plans for next year.

It also helps that my girl friend and her family are interested in doing the same thing so they are helping out here and we are planning next years garden to get things moving on what we need to do.

things like plant for the animals we want to keep, set up a deer proof deck garden for her family (they live deep in the woods)

Something I think is a MUST in anyone who wishes to attempt even a small degree of self sufficiency is to get to know your local wild plants and herbs

I have a collection of old books from many different sources these old books give some history and lore of assorted herbs that many who use herbs take for granted

being a history buff I love to read about how things were used in the middle ages and their meanings.

For this I have a great example of a terrific little herb that grows wild on the roadsides here

Chamomile. I see it everywhere. It is used in everything from teas that you drink to bath teas to shampoos

Today I saw the roadside crew starting to come by to trim the grasses on the roadside to keep down the amount of accidents from deer hiding in the brush and running into oncoming traffic

so before he came to our area I ran across the street(OK meandered I do NOT run) and I quickly picked some of this lovely little flower by the roots

it grows great in sandy soils with bad growing conditions and the more abuse it gets the happier it is

you gotta love a plant like that!

Well this entry is just all over the place