Blog

Homesteading

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Lisa Brodar | 0 Comments

Homesteading: lifestyle of self-sufficiency.

For a number of years I've been interested in the idea of becoming more self-sufficient. And as you may know, Portland General Store was born out of this interest in 2007. Finally, we have a home and a plot of land to work with, and I'm very excited to finally get my hands dirty and learn about the growing field of permaculture (and hope to build a chicken coop this summer as well).

My first ever permaculture class was last Saturday. Admittedly I had my reservations about the class -- was this really worth spending my entire Saturday rather than quality time with the kids, or working on PGS stuff? Once shovel and hoe was in hand, however, those reservations quickly subsided. There I was, the usually loner me, working alongside a group in a way that we all knew we were building something together, applying skills we didn't know we had. As for me, I didn't really know what I was doing; after all, I'm a former city rat with NO gardening experience whatsoever. I left feeling more one with the land and its people, felt like I met a group of like-minded individuals, and gained more confidence and even did a little work around the yard (the real stuff starts in two weeks when David Homa does a walk-through of our property).

I could go on, but I think pictures speak more than words sometimes.