Chicks with Chicks

[talon]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/magazine/14fob-wwln-t.html

I found this an interesting article on several levels, even if I do detest the word "femivore" because it means "eating women", not "women living a locavore lifestyle". I take extreme exception to that word, as a matter of fact. May I suggest replacing it with one less cannibalistic? Perhaps "frugalista" (eew, but better than "femivore"), or "homesteader", or "home activist" or "urban settler" or "habittante" (that's a made-up word of habitat and dilettante which I think fits, since they often aren't farmers but are dedicated providers of their family's needs within their personal habitat), or even "nester".

OK, vocabulary lesson done. Let's move on.

I agree that "knowing how to feed and clothe yourself regardless of circumstance" is important. If you eat, you need to know where your food comes from and be able to procure and prepare it even if you may never need to actually farm or hunt for your food. If you want to be food secure, knowing this gives you confidence. No matter what happens to you, you can provide for yourself if you know where your food comes from and what it looks like in the raw, how to find it in the wild, and how to raise or grow it yourself if you need to.

I think everyone needs to know this. I think they need to know it even if they never ever have to use that knowledge. I think they need to know it because it will give them a new appreciation and respect for their food. I know I didn't truly appreciate olive oil until I learned how to express it myself and what an involved process that is. The ubiquity of olive oil at the store made me think it was easy to get from olives. Now I know better. If forced, I could press olive oil, but I'd rather pay experts to do it and bless the olive oil pressers with each careful dollop of oil I use.

I like all of the questions that are being raised as more people (not just women, but mostly women) start homesteading their little patch of land, whether it's window boxes of salad ingredients or a full backyard barnyard. It raises and possibly answers questions about success, community, child-rearing, satisfaction, sustenance, materialism, ecology, economics, and more.

I agree, also, that without a larger purpose behind such homesteading that it could become another cage. Not every woman is suited to raising chickens, growing the bulk of their garden produce, milking goats or mini cows, and all the sheer drudgery involved with all of that even if they can use it as an alternate income or a teaching opportunity or as political statement or example. This is just one more path women (and men) can take that is and should be about more than "getting by".

Me, I have a day job, but I also do what gardening my little town allows as an activist - my front yard may look ornamental to the casual passerby but it's filled with edibles among the flowers and inside the house, I make my earth dumplings to scatter around town and I use my gardening and kitchen to show others what they can do with only a few minutes of time and effort. My day job is a 10 hour shift 5 days a week, so I have to fit it all into a small amount of time and make it work. And then I have my spiritual duties as a Numenist, and that takes time, not to mention the volunteer work I do both with an organized group and as a soloist.

I'm not saying this to guilt others into doing more or make y'all resentful, it's just the way I am. And no, I'm not Type-A or ADD or hyperactive or anything like that. I'm actually pretty lazy. So I explore how I can do all this with minimal effort and expense because I want to live a much better life than I can monetarily afford. I'm still cringing at having spent $45 on 5 forsythias and their primary duty is to be a hedge between the house and street and look beautiful with the redbud.

I do deeply believe we should all know how to take care of ourselves, from food to clothing care to housekeeping to earning an income to survival in minor and major disasters. I don't care if the knowledge doesn't get used often, I care that we all have it should we ever need it. That's why I have a survival blog, and why I make and toss earth dumplings and why I teach wildcrafting classes to homeless people and why I garden and make things and volunteer and all of that.

I want all y'all to live, live well, and live successfully and mostly just live. And you can't do that if you lack important skills and knowledge.