Setting up a blog

I just made my own blog. (This could be a moot point, considering that the theme of this blog is "leaving the grid" and picking tomatoes, not blogging. Basically--I might not have internet access.) With any luck, I will add a note or two over the next month during my stay at Footjoy Farm in Sparta, WI.  I will be living in a converted granery, using an outdoor shower and eating food that is grown in my yard.  (I'm hoping to cuddle with a goat or two. And eat lots of sugar snap peas.) 

For several years I have had a growing interest in organic farming--learning specific skills and experiencing a little taste of life on a polyculture farm--that specifically tries to harness natural systems towards food production and maintains a diversity of animal and plant life.  I suppose that Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry have been most formative to my ideas around this, but I know very little and have had few farming experiences.  It is time to stop reading about organic farming and start to learn by doing.

Although a month is a relatively short time, I have several goals for this little experiment:

-participate in challenging physical work outside

-learn specific, concrete skills

-have conversations about farming philosophies and principles (topics include--cooperative farming, pros and cons of agricultural subsidies, how to manage systems in a farm), basically pick the brains of people who have learned through experience

-get used to solitude, after living such a rushed, hectic urban lifestyle

-observe rural living in America

(I might not get around to achieving these goals, too busy mulching and watering veggies, but that is alright too.)

So, here is my blog.