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Published: January 12th 2010
Be se to check out the second page of photos
It is difficult for us to comprehend that one year ago this week, we returned to the States from our 7-month World Tour. Wow, what an exciting year. This is not a travel update; it is however, an update on our journey as we continue to live the dream.
Our trip around the world enriched our lives like you would not believe. We immersed ourselves in local cultures and witnessed many eye opening experiences in the daily lives of so many different people. We met fellow travelers from around the world and shared stories, but more importantly, we learned so much from local people in the places we visited.
We saw firsthand how people can enjoy life and experience genuine happiness without excessive material possessions or the quest for excessive financial gains. These people left a lasting impact on both of us as we listened to their stories.
We have learned that genuine happiness cannot be measured by the amount of material possessions one has or even in total net worth or annual income. We saw people we would consider to be poor by American standards
living lives much richer than many people right here in the good ole USA. These people impacted us to the point that we began to discuss changing our lifestyle to live a simple, more fulfilling life. On an overnight bus while traveling through Southeast Asia, we put our future plans to paper. This decision would change our lives forever.
We decided we would no longer be prisoners to the 9-5 routine and began a quest to work towards the self-sufficient lifestyle. We would make a concerted effort to reduce those costly luxury items in our lives and begin our transformation into a no-frills type of life. We were traveling when the world-wide economic crisis hit. We did not want to fall victim to having our lives turned upside down by influences outside of our control.
Let’s face it folks, the world economic crisis has crippled so many millions of people. The cost of goods and services continue to climb. Unemployment is out of control and people’s homes are being foreclosed on for inability of making timely payments. American culture has encouraged people to live for the moment, get immediate gratification, live beyond their means, buy on excessive credit,
collect meaningless material goods and become obsessed with false status symbols such as big houses, new cars and trendy gadgets and toys. Heck, we were guilty of this ourselves. We made the conscience decision to radically change our mindset and get back to the basics of living this simple life.
After returning to the States, we began the process of looking for a piece of property we could call our own. This little piece of paradise would become our Walden Pond. Yes, Frank, I stole this one from you. Our idea property would be 3-5 acres, with a modest home, a barn, clear and workable land and some type of natural water source. We looked at a lot of prospective properties and late last January, Lynne found the perfect place for us. It has plenty of clear land, measures out at just under 7 acres, has an abundance of hardwoods, a fences pasture, a barn, and a stream with a small pond. The home and land were in ill repair, but they were both very workable. We made an offer and a couple of counter offers and set the gears in motion to seal the deal.
In February 2009,
we were blessed with the birth of two beautiful grandbabies. Katrina and Jeremy had a handsome baby boy (Kyle), and Daniel and Andrea had a beautiful baby girl (Makaila).
We closed the deal on the 4th of March 2009 and immediately began an extensive renovation project. Upon completion of the renovation, we quickly ceased the moment of the arrival of spring. We began our first garden in the small original garden plot. We expanded the garden two times and ended up with a harvest that far exceeded our expectations. We also got our first batch of chickens.
Our garden was considerable for our first year. We grew two varieties of sweet corn, potatoes, peas, green beans, okra, beets, carrots, onions, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon. Like I said we, had a really abundant harvest. We learned so much this first year and will be able to apply these lessons for this spring’s garden efforts. We were even given a Mutsu apple tree as a house warming gift—Thanks Jack and Judy.
Lynne and her sister Anna spent a great portion of the summer perfecting their canning, preserving, and freezing skills. We had to go out and get
a large upright freezer to store all of our goodies from the garden. We also picked up a dehydrator to dry some of our goodies.
We have learned the fine art of frugal buying and saving on essentials. We now have implemented numerous buying strategies and are beginning to live a more frugal life. When whole turkeys went on sale for 40 cents a pound, we stocked up and bought 7 of them. Yep, turkey samiches all year long.
The chickens began laying eggs at about 24 weeks old and have been producing ever since. In the fall , we decided to free range the chickens during the day and return them to the coop each night to protect them from predators. We were able to train them back to the coop by treating them to cracked corn. It is really entertaining to watch them when we call them in for the evening. The chickens are getting lots of exercise and are eating a more natural diet of grasses and bugs.
The blackberry crop was far too abundant for me to handle this year. We were able to sell them to two local businesses, but it proved to
be far too labor intensive for my desires. We will now only keep enough blackberries for our personal consumption and to give to friends and family. I have already cleared much of the land previously occupied by the excessive wild blackberries.
We have been blessed with a considerable amount of hardwoods trees. I was able to “harvest” some of these trees that were diseased or dying off and able to stock up on firewood. Prior to the beginning of fall, we installed a wood burning stove and have been burning it all winter. Our brother in-law, Larry brought over his splitter and saved me weeks of work in splitting all of the wood. Thanks, Larry. The wood burning stove was a brilliant investment on our part. We have saved a bundle already on our heating bills this winter.
I have also been busy reclaiming the land by slowly clearing overgrown areas by hand. This has proven to be extremely hard work, but it is also so rewarding. I feel fit as a fiddle these days. I still have lots of clearing to do, but I am in no big hurry to get it done either.
We have a
creek in the lower pasture of the property. There was a small pond in the creek, but I was not happy with it. I began digging out the pond by hand and moved the dirt to areas I needed to fill in. I recently built a new dam in the old creek bed and re-routed the creek. I still have much work to do on this significant project, but making great progress.
“Green living” has become a trendy buzzword in America. We, as a civilized nation, are so far behind the power curve when it comes to this concept. We are, perhaps, the most wasteful nation in the world. We are working towards recycling, re-using and reclaiming everything we can for the future--to make it a way of life in lieu of some trendy buzzword. Many Europeans have been living this way for decades. We are striving to be herbicide and pesticide free. I am convinced that many of our most dangerous chemicals have evolved so commercial farmers can “maximize profits”—another contributing factor to the recent middle class meltdown. In lieu of buying produce grown in California or Central America, we will be growing our own naturally and chemical
free.
We are now on a quest to resurrect the spirit of trading and bartering. You see the almighty dollar is not everything in the future of our new way of life. The federal government does not want to encourage trading and bartering because there is no tax revenue from trading and bartering for goods and services. We have begun this process on a small scale, but are expanding this concept for the future. Keeping another neighbor in free farm-fresh eggs is relatively simple, but the return has already proven to be very fruitful. We will be trading and bartering every opportunity we can in the future.
We are now in the process of doing extensive research and making plans for the coming spring. Here is a list of projects for the following year on the farm:
-- Doubling the size of our garden and expanding variety
-- Building and planting herb garden
-- Planting additional fruit trees such as peach, pomegranate and pear
-- Planting acorns to reforest oak tree population
-- Attending beekeeping course and start first beehive
-- Build goat milking station
-- Purchase two dairy goats for milk, cheese and soap
-- Build rabbit
cages and begin raising rabbits for subsistence
-- Expand composting operations for soil amendment
-- Begin mini-worm farm for composting
-- Build additional chicken coop
-- Purchase a dozen laying hens
-- Build bat houses for insect control
-- Build greenhouse for year round production and seed germination
-- Build old fashioned root cellar for additional food storage capability
-- Build up a one year supply of food
-- Build screened outdoor cooking area on deck for canning operations to reduce heat indoors
-- Begin homemade charcoal production for grilling
-- Build outdoor BBQ grill
-- Secure additional sources for firewood for 2 year supply
-- Install water filtration system on well
-- Run underground water lines to inside of barn and garden areas
-- Purchase and install emergency generator for backup power
-- Continue to pond expansion project
--Continue clearing hill leading to lower pasture
-- Applying lessons learned from last year to improve production and streamline daily operations
This year, we will be incorporating a detailed record keeping system to document the results of our harvest. Because we are still wired to be thinking in terms of dollars and cents, we will be weighing and counting everything
we produce this year. We will then calculate market value on our harvest to determine cost savings for the year. This will give us a baseline for future years and keep us focused on why we are doing exactly what we working towards.
As you can see we will have an exciting spring and summer ahead of us. We have an open invitation for friends and family to visit us as we continue to expand “our little farm”. For our international friends, if you can make it to Atlanta and would like to spend a few days with us, we would be willing to take the 3-hour drive to pick you up and drop you back off. Also, anyone else who is traveling through East Tennessee, please feel free to pay us a visit. The welcome mat is always out and I always have an extra pair of work gloves available.
Long-range plans for the out years include designing and installing a solar power system to produce electricity and sell power back to the grid, expanding our livestock by adding a few hogs and few cattle, building a wood fired soaking tub, building a workshop, building an equipment
shed, and the list continues to grow. As we learn more about self-sufficient living, we add to this list.
Some of my old friends have asked “John, what the heck do you know about farming?” I typically respond “absolutely nothing”. We have learned nearly everything we know today, from books, the internet and from other like-minded people. The learning process is part of the fun. Sure we make errors along the way, but that’s just part of the learning process. We make it a point to learn something new every day and our library continues to grow.
One of our goals for the coming year is to develop an educational and entertaining website. This is another new project for us. Our intention for the website will be to inspire people to work towards a life of self-sufficiency. We will primarily focus on what we have done and how to make a transition to this type of lifestyle. Our secondary purpose will be to keep friends and family posted on exactly what we are up to. Third, we will offset our personal operating costs by offering sources for goods and services. We are absolutely convinced that anyone can work
towards living this simple, self-sufficient lifestyle and we intend to encourage people to join us as we return to the basics and live a truly rewarding lifestyle.
In closing, many people have asked us whether we would be doing any more traveling. Having animals to tend to will make physical travel very difficult. I will share with each of you that we are on a journey that no travel opportunity could ever duplicate. This is a remarkable journey and our desire is to share this journey with everyone.
Look for our website in the future, but in the mean time, look for us both on Facebook. We would love to reestablish contact with many of you.
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John and Lynne Pearson
Awesome
Sara, Great to hear from ya. We have got to re-connect and have you bring us up to speed on your life. Congrats on getting married. We will send ya an e-mail. We are not certified as organic, but we are chemical free and doing natural fertiilizers. If you make it back to the States--you make sure to put us on your itinerary.