» May 3, 2008 in
Today's video rambles a bit. Basically I wanted to show off my small veggie garden and chat about a few goals. Maybe get a conversation started, maybe not.
I think it would be cool to grow a large portion of the food you consume. I planted a small vegetable garden to start learning.
I think it would be even cooler to own a few acres of land, and grow your food garden on that.
That would be the ultimate "lifestyle" to me. Relaxing but still able to afford to travel occasionally.
Currently I'm not there but would like to be.
Goals Beyond 45n5
45n5=50. $50 per day was my initial goal here and reason for the blog as I chronicled some of my adventures. I haven't set any new goal here but wondering if maybe the new goal will be choosing a lifestyle and then working towards it here? Maybe not.
Either way I'm not into expensive sports cars or giant homes.
That's Ok If You Are
If you like fancy cars that ok, I don't want to offend anyone. But I'm curious:
1. Does anyone else have similar goals as I mentioned?
2. Does anyone blog about these types of goals personally or know of others?
3. What are your goals? Certainly it's more than just looking at numbers on a check.
Now let's get crazy:
The Digital Community Farm
I was a bit disappointed in today's video because it was pretty low key and rambling however I'm glad now because it has helped spark some thinking for me. Here's something that might be cool:
In the video I talk about chronicling earning enough to buy a farm. Maybe doing some novelty stuff like the "rent my chest" or "million dollar homepage" etc. to raise funds.
As I was uploading the video I thought of this:
Raise the money to buy some land and a house from donations and advertising on the internet, BUT also allow visitors on the land ALWAYS and for FREE.
Maybe have a few small cabins where people could stay up to a week for free. Food would be free also. They would just have to keep it clean an help do some gardening.
A bit different, yes, but might be cool, especially if people duplicated the process around the country/world.
I'm not sure what would qualify someone to stay at your place, obviously you don't want people running from the law visiting, so I imagine there would be some application process that filters only honest people that are interested also creating a digital/green lifestyle.
Anywhoo, that's the thoughts for today. Yours?
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Steve says on May 3, 2008
Hope that doesn't mean this blog will "buy the farm" so to speak ;-)
Greg from Homebizseo.com says on May 3, 2008
Mark I live on 35 acreas and it is a lot of up keep. I did grow all my food but that wasa full time job. Then again with rising food prices I am thinking about growing everthing next year.
Moroccan Dude says on May 3, 2008
Hey there,
You got a nice little garden out there, would love to have the same lifestyle now that I am done with College.
My goal is to make a nice living off of the internet, be able to travel and see the world. I also would love some relaxing mornings where I can go out and jog, do some rock climbing every once in a while, you know just kicking back and enjoying life.
I hope to achieve that in the next 3 years.
Thanks
Marc says on May 3, 2008
Hahaha... Yeah got a laugh about 'buying the farm'. As long as you don't bet the farm and go on to lose the farm. Other than that yeah I have the same goals you do. I dig the whole acres and independence idea. I also love the travel idea since I've lived and worked in several other countries before and look forward to those extended times abroad again soon. To me that's the best part of working online. You can pack up and run it from anywhere, unlike a brick and mortar business. By the way, I'll take fancy cars, but they are not a necessity. More like frosting on the cake when money is piling up way faster than you can shovel it.
Lorentz says on May 4, 2008
Hey Mark. Owning land (and growing some of my own food) is definitely one of my goals. It's one of those "How to Be Free in an Unfree World" things for me. It's disturbing to see what's happening to our food supply. Pesticides, chemicals, genetically modified seeds, waxes, dyes, hybridized crops--it all makes me want to grow some of my own food, or buy from a trusted source.
You might want to look into joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) project. I belong to an organic CSA where we receive fresh, organic, local produce each week. You can find a CSA through Local Harvest's website. http://localharvest.org I've gotten to know my farmer, and learned more about how he grows organically. He also offers work-shares -- which I haven't done yet. I'm sure working on the organic farm would teach me a lot about how to grow food organically.
I've been told that container gardening (or raised bed gardening) is one of the best ways to get started on a small-scale. You might want to look into this. Unfortunately, I live downtown currently, so I don't have any land where I can plant veggies. :-( When I buy a house, that's one of the first things I plan to do -- plant a vegetable garden.
Lord Matt says on May 4, 2008
Hell yeah! My dream beyond making enough to live on is to settle into a permaculture open land somewhere and live in harmony with nature (while also being able to sustain harmony with the tax man and so forth). permaculture to me is about food growth and living that is (a) sustainable and (b) does not have to be planted each year.
For example with 25 years to spare and some land to plant into you could grow a range of trees and other pretty permanent organic fixtures that would reward you with food each year in a way that would increase from year to year. The cycle of nature takes care of everything else - plant, live with and harvest.
Effectively one lives with electricity and Internet in what is basically a light woodland. Now there are all sorts of laws and rules in the UK that stand in my way because of all the things they are trying to protect so I have to do two things. (1) work around the red tape and (2) push for changes that allow things like low (and no) impact houses and so forth.
I set up a blog green.goodmoral.com where I have started to look at these issues (and another where I detail my quest to become fitter and slimmer so I am physically able to live such a life). In short though - what would I not give to live in such a self sufficient manor? I'd even be willing to give up blogging (pretty much my entire life for the last few years) if I had to.
Rhonda Holland says on May 4, 2008
Mark,
With the economy tanking more and more people are going to start gardening -- so that may be the hot new niche.
Container gardening is probably the one niche topic I have seen more people looking into, probably because just about anyone has room somewhere for an herb garden or a hanging basket of tomatoes or strawberry plants.
I always grow tomatoes but this year I am going to do some testing with sweet corn grown in containers.
Rhonda
Dave Starr says on May 4, 2008
Interesting topic, Mark. You know, Earth Day just came and went and almost all the TlD varitaions of Earth Day are just parked. Who cares?
The community-style famr project you mention is imtriguing. I suggest you research The Mother earth News ... still a very useful resource, by the way. The owners about one or two generations before the current group did exactly as you mentioned, set up a wonderful retreat/learning facility in North Carolina. The 'community aspect' of the business went bust ... but the information marketing side of the business is still going strong.
That said, I am currently involved in a very small way here in my chosen home. My wife owns some rice land and we are going to shift production to organic methods, improve irrigation and provide some 'seed stock' for both plants and animals. Will it make money? Doubtful, in my lifetime anyway, but will it leave something behind except the footprint of what I have consumed all my life? Most assuredly. Question to all (yeah. most of you are going to live forwver, I know), what will _you_ leave behind?
45n5 says on May 4, 2008
@Steve - nah, i took the day off today but it's not going to the farm
@Moroccan Dude - good luck to you
@Marc - interesting combo of fancy cars on the land ;) I reckon you can have it all.
@Lorentz - thanks for the link and the "container gardening" term, i'll youtube it.
@lord matt - interesting, I keep running into the word permaculture, I'll look that one up also. I'm not sure what the laws/etc are here. However there are a handful of run down home sitting on a few acres in my state which would work.
@Rhonda Holland - when I was buying my veggies someone mentioned the same thing about the us economy. Container gardening sounds interesting for starters.
@Dave Starr - awesome story and thanks for the info, the mothernews site is great.
@all thanks for the comments, I'll update with a garden post later in the season
Melvin says on May 5, 2008
Nice Post and nice garden. My goals though not monetary related is to setup up a trust fun under my mum's name and also adopt an orphanage in Chiang Mai. Now still not making money on the internet but I am STILL working on my campaigns and learning as I go along...Thanks for sharing.
Sara says on May 8, 2008
Hey Mark,
It was nice to hear your goals. Mine are somewhat similar to yours, I'm not into fancy cars or huge homes. I would like a space of my own and enough money to support myself and help others who cannot. I'm not so sure about the garden because I have never been so great with plants, but my mom was a great gardener, so maybe I just haven't given it a fair shot. =)
I think your idea of a farm with "free" cabins is wonderful. People are much more interested in sustainable living and getting back to nature. Whereas in past decades big cities and beaches were the ultimate vacation, I think there is a good percentage of people now who would consider it much more of a break to stay in a simple cabin alone or with a loved one and trade chores for food.
This is a great conversation-starter, Mark. You really got me thinking about my own personal longer-term goals.
Sara
45n5 () says on May 8, 2008:
@melvin - good luck ;)@sara - glad you are thinking ;) The wife and I would really like to build a cob house.
Dirt, straw, sand, water, and some creativity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7TvXLGKc9c
