Get Yer Carbon!
Y’all, it’s late October in Tennessee and folks in the surrounding neighborhoods are doing something kind of crazy. They’re raking up leaves and placing them into garbage bags. Then they set them on the curb. Now I don’t dumpster dive as much as I used to, but I brake for bagged leaves. It’s soil waiting to happen. Everything I do is centered around rebuilding and improving soil. Leaf composting is one of the best ways to do this. It’s going to be safe – it’s incredibly unlikely that tree leaves are going to contain anything that’ll harm your garden, unlike bagged soils that may have been generated through municipal means. Leaf compost will also introduce beneficial microorganisms onto your land. You have several options here: you can leave them in the bags and just let them cook down. By spring you’ll essentially have soil suitable for placing directly into…
The Power of Connections
I was pondering yesterday the nature of connections and how one thing will lead to another. This is one of the most profound examples I’ve experienced in the last couple of years. I helped host a portion of a permaculture design course (taught by Era Keys) that had Cassie Love attending as one of the students. Cassie referred me to her friend Lizzy Brown McDaniel who I assisted with doing some property evaluation / species identification as well as partnering with her to offer a coupon in her monthly newsletter. Lizzy then mentioned my name to the folks at CHEOKnox.org (a non-profit centered on supporting the practicioners of various health modalities) where I presented a class, found clients for consulting/design as well as finding a chiropractor, reflexologist and direct primary care physician. Assisting Lizzy also led me to realize that I could add species identification/GPS tagging right into my official…
It’s Grazing Time!
Everything happens when it’s supposed to and as I embrace that reality, the smoother things tend to flow. I had been studying the works of Joel Salatin and Greg Judy regarding regenerative pasture management for over a decade and I’ve wanted ruminants on this land since we started getting our spot set up in October of 2020. But a variety of factors kept me from taking that step – the biggest one being that I really needed to observe the land: the plants, trees, the wildlife and the movement of the weather, especially the water and the soil condition. As well, I needed to get a couple of areas cleared enough and maintained so that I could run solar electric fencing. I also wanted to have my job schedule arranged so that I could be on the land as much as possible once the animals were here. And while…
Summer and Fall Events
Summer and Fall is shaping up to be a busy one – I’ll be at several events, so I hope you have an opportunity to come out and say hello! Our quarterly homestead gathering here in Knoxville will be on Sunday, September 10th from Noon until 5:00. Bring items to swap if you’d like, otherwise come out to enjoy fellowship, refreshments, garden, food forest and foraging walks and take the opportunity to ask all the questions! Email me for address and directions: strongrootsresources@gmail.com Back to the Land Festival is September 22-24 near Centerville, TN I’ll be tabling as well as joining the homestead panel. BACK TO THE LAND FESTIVAL – Home I’ll be at the Self Reliance Festival in Camden, TN October 14th and 15th – John Willis of Special Operations Equipment has asked that I lead a foraging and plant ID walk on his land. I’ll…
Wild Edible Walk
Wild Edible Walk Lenoir City, TN Saturday, May 20th 10:00 am to 2:00 pm Join me and one of my design clients Belinda for a guided wild medicinal and edible plant identification walk on her property in Lenoir City, TN. We’ll walk through her mostly wooded property to see what we can find, focusing on commonly available and useful plants, trees and shrubs. In addition, we can show a food forest project in progress and we will have time for discussion and questions. $20/student paid upon arrival and I’ll have a handout prepared that addresses what we’ll be identifying. Brings snacks and plenty of hydration. Address and directions will be sent to those who RSVP. All students should email me: strongrootsresources@gmail.com to reserve your spot. Spots are limited!
2023 Spring Update
Happy Spring, everyone! No doubt that y’all are a lot like me, reveling in the longer days, warmth (at least here in the south!) and ability to work the soil. I love how spring gradually emerges from the depths of winter, first very slowly then all at once. I enjoy finding the little signs – bud swell on the trees and the cedar waxwing and bluebirds returning to the farm. Rabbits are everywhere, doing what rabbits do best. Yesterday a wild turkey came through and evaluated the Narragansetts and Slates hanging out in their pen. My schedule has also emerged from the slow winter months into full spring productivity. I’ve got three new consults ongoing and I’m especially excited about helping some folks put fallow pasture back into production right here just a few miles from our land. More consults are on the books and I have availability to add…
Spring Events
March is going to be busy – Saturday, March 4th I’m going to be in Birchwood, Tennessee to show how I build compost bins from pallets. Details and tickets for this weekend event are here: Homesteading Conference Tickets, Sat, Mar 4, 2023 at 10:30 AM | Eventbrite The Self Reliance Festival is scheduled for March 25th and 26th in Camden, TN at the Special Operations Equipment compound. SRF continues to grow and improve with every event. The focus is strongly on solutions, building businesses, building community and practical lifestyle design. I’ll have a table there with land evaluation information, permaculture practices and homestead design tactics. HOME – Self Reliance Festival
Video – Tools for Property Evaluation
Happy New Year, all! I’ve got a new video up about the tech tools that I use in order to evaluate land and assist in the property / homestead design process.
Late Summer Update
Howdy, friends! I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer and splitting the difference between getting stuff done and also enjoying life! It’s even better when those two things come together under one umbrella. This second half of August has been far more mild than what I recall last year, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve started getting that inkling of fall sensations in the cooler, clear mornings. Here on the farm we’ve been wrangling 11 turkeys. They’re around four months old now and solidly in the “mouthy teenager” stage. It’s looking like we’ll have more males than are necessary, so they will find their way into the freezer and the rest will kept as breeding stock. They’re all heritage breeds: bourbon red, blue slate and Narragansett. Turkeys have a lot of personality: they like human interaction and can even be herded. We were allowing…
Homesteaders’ Surplus Swap and Social
Back in April, I led a foraging walk for a group of folks at the annual Living Free in Tennessee Spring Workshop. The general goal was to identify useful plants, mainly for edible and medicinal purposes. I touched on how to make accurate identifications and how to test for any undesireable reactions. Plant ID is more than just learning how to look for a certain species. It lets you begin to understand microclimates, how nature forms guilds and it’s the basis of simply understanding what the land is trying to convey. It should also be seen as a lifelong endeavor. I have experience and I’m comfortable teaching and consulting on a number of nature-based topics, but I’m still, and always will be, a student of the land. I always want to maintain a sense of wonder and connection and most importantly, humility. With that said, here at the homestead…