Sustainable Living Progress in Toledo Ohio

Weather in Toledo Ohio


Well I live in Toledo Ohio and I am really starting to wish I lived in Florida or somewhere else that rarely gets snow. We have had a few beautiful days even one day that was near eighty degrees but right back into the just above freezing temps. I think that I have some seasonal depression because I am actually very happy with my life right now and the direction it is taking but I have so much trouble getting motivated. This is causing me to think we may need to talk about moving further south when we are ready to move.

My Progress On Sustainable Living

As many of you know one of my goals in life is to learn to make more of my own food. I have not been able to plant anything this year because of the weather. I do have a tray of seeds that I started yesterday but other than that I am waiting a bit because my kitchen is not big enough to cook in and have plants in there all day as well. I need to be able to put them on the porch during the day then bring them in at night.

I am learning to cook things from scratch even though I have to rely on the grocery store for my ingredients at this time. I hope to have less reliance on the grocery story as my plants grow and my chicks grow up. I also hope to find a few places to volunteer that will teach me how to live as much as possible off the land I am on now. I think I have a few things starting to line up but I don't want to jinx that by posting about it just yet.

I purchased six hens for laying eggs, fertilizing my yard and taking care of my mosquito problem. Okay you got me it was after I bought the chickens that I realized they would be for more than eggs. From what I hear they are going to help me make a naturally inviting backyard. I am loving caring for them right now and I am really hoping I can eventually raise my own meat birds too.

Raising Food VS Buying Food

I have been reading a lot about chickens and how they are treated in the agriculture business. In big poultry houses they are housed in tiny cages and often debeaked and they are either fattened up for consumption or they are dropping eggs to meet our growing demand for convenience. I don't this like it at all! I know from my research that most animals we consume in high quantities are treated in a similar fashion. Now that I know I wish to gradually reduce my dependence on these animals from traditional grocery stores and meat markets.

Also the fruit and veggies we eat are full of toxins from unnatural fertilizer to many different pesticides. I would love to be a great organic farmer but if what I am reading is correct you are safer if you grow your own veggies and just apply pesticide as needed. As far as I can tell large agricultural businesses spray more than one pesticide and they spray on a schedule. They are in the prevention of pests business because they don't have the time or the resources to inspect crops daily. 

Call to Action
It all has me wondering if what I eat today is poisoning my body. I don't want to get all crazy and tell people they have to change their lives all at once. If you do a little research and decide you feel the way I do spend a few moments thinking about what you can do today to change things. I am not changing things all at once but I am taking baby steps toward my goals.

If you live in the Toledo Ohio area and you would like to start a group to discuss these topics I can set it up.  Just email me(sundcarrie@gmail.com )or comment on my blog and I will start planning a monthly meetup or an online message board. Whatever works best for everyone.

Subheadings for Blog Posts and Other Lessons

Subheadings to Make Your Post Easier to Read

I have been blogging for quite some time now and I have never thought about why some people use subheadings within their posts and some people don’t. I submitted an article to Tribal blogs and gave them permission to change it because I was not entirely sure what they wanted me to do. They didn’t change much but they added Subheadings.

Not only does it make the post look much better it makes it easier to read. It breaks up the large block of text and makes it easier on the eyes. I went to check out some of my favorite blogs and the most of them utilize Subheadings no matter how personal the content. They still write in first person and have a lot of personal stories to tell so they don’t sacrifice personality for style.

Changing my Posting Format

In an effort to learn from my mistakes I am going to be changing the way I post on all of my blogs. I don’t have the time or energy to change all of my old posts but from this day forward you will see Subheadings. It will work quite well for this blog considering I love to write about different aspects of my life. I can create a title that sums up my week and tell you about my diet, my new baby chicks, my exercise, my interviews and whatever else strikes me as important to document. With subheadings you will get an idea of what I am going to talk about in the next few paragraphs.

Extra Lessons I Learned This Week

If you plan to live a life a little against the grain expect many people to get behind you. You must also expect just as many if not more to tell you how crazy you ideas are. I get a lot of support from like minded individuals but I have had to search for them at times. I often run into people who are just extreme in whatever they believe and they really get on my nerves. These are the people you will have the most trouble with.

Bringing the Farm To the City

I live in the city and I just bought 6 chickens (pictures here) I have two patches of strawberries to take care of and I intend to plant a huge garden at my mom’s house this year. I am also hoping for a great big porch garden here because I have not had any luck with an outdoor garden in the area of this yard suitable for gardening. I want to learn to live off the land as much as I can.

What I Want to be When I Grow up

 If that is not enough to get me admitted to the mental institution my career aspirations might get me sent there in a straight jacket. I also wish to only work part time in my schooled trade and part time writing while picking up various other projects. I am still working on what I want to do when I grow up. I think I want to live on a farm and raise animals, write about the farm life and maybe a fun novel or two, and run some sort of charity where children can come see the farm animals and learn how to grow food. Even I think it sounds crazy but it sounds like loads of fun!

Dog Food and Cleaning

Well that is what is on my agenda today. I need to buy Asuka my awesome German Shepherd some chicken and organ meat. She is running low and I feed her on the Raw diet. I buy have found that Walmart has the best price on leg-quarters so I must make a trip there today. Then I have to separate and freeze them. As a fair warning to both raw feeding snobs and people who are against raw feeding I don't care about your crazy opinions. I don't want to hear about how I am killing my dog or how other people are killing their dog's with pet food.
It did my research and read many books and articles and chose this diet for my dog. I am not going to change it and I am not going to tell other people that feeding their dog a good quality dog food is wrong. Now I do get upset about dogs being fed really crappy food but it really none of my business to judge people unless they are abusing their pets. That being said I do love the results of feeding raw and I am willing to talk about it more if there are interested parties, but I will not be bashing people for feeding their dogs pet food.

My ultimate goal is to be able to raise the chickens that I feed my dog and myself and then we will know what goes into the meat and we will have easy access to all the organ meat we need. For now we have to get if from meat markets and stores as I have not found a poultry farm near by and we have to sacrifice and save to get to where we can buy a place where we can raise chickens.

Also on the agenda for today is to finish the cleaning of my main level of my house. I have been putting off cleaning for ever and just picking up. I really need to get a good dusting, sweeping and mopping in today. I did the kitchen on Monday so just two more rooms to go.

Hopefully I will have time to reorganize this blog as I have Friday-- Monday off. I want to change the labels for my stuff and see if I can figure out how to ad pages. I want to be able to organize things by catagores such as Gardening, Working Out and Sewing. I have many more and have not decided how I want that to work yet but as I organize my house I also feel the need to organize my blog.