A Woman Homesteader

Today has been a lovely day to be a woman homesteader. Today I received a wonderful gift from a friend that reminded me that although I am very strong, I am also a lady.

A Gift From a Special Friend

I have a new friend who shall remain nameless and faceless, because he’s a bit shy. After we had known each other for just a few days, my friend remarked, “I feel as if when I ask you what kind of gift you’d like, you’ll tell me that you want supplies!” I laughed in response and assured my friend that I appreciate the standard dating fare, but he didn’t buy it.

As I gave the question further thought, I realized that his observation was spot on, and I’m glad he went with his gut when he planned a couple of gifts for me: a Mother’s Day shopping trip to Whole Foods to stock my pantry and the service of a repair man to perform several major repairs on our little yellow house.

I can’t deny it, I am a very strong girl, as a woman homesteader I have to be. However,  it feels unbelievably nice to be treated like a lady in a way that speaks to my spirit and passions.

Seedlings and Other Things

In other news around our city homestead in the making, our seedlings are sprouting! Last week our front porch became the setting for the beginning of our micro farm. We planted seeds in mini greenhouses and larger plants in burlap bags turned planters.

I had put off any major planting for some time, but a couple of weeks ago I realized that I had all of the essential elements in place:

• lots of organic seeds that I’ve been collecting for months
• rain barrels full of water
• bags of organic soil and compost
• several sizes of planters
• and a sheltered area in which to grow our small plants

The flooring of our front porch needs to be replaced, but it’s solid enough to walk on and to hold our plants. I figure that we can make the most of the life left in our porch flooring by allowing it to hold seedlings. Our seedlings also effectively dress up the flooring that needs to be replaced. As our little plants begin to sprout I envision how amazing they’ll look as they grow to fill our yard.

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

tag: woman homesteader

Being One Spark

From April 17th to the 21st, Little Lotus and I participated in a ground breaking event. We were exhibitors in the first annual One Spark crowdfunding festival held in downtown Jacksonville, FL. Our friend Anita told us about One Spark and encouraged us to participate, so we collaborated with her to develop a project that would have a chance to receive funding at the event.

About Our Project

The project that we created is called Jacksonville Eco Village for Green Urban Revitalization or JECO. The mission of JECO is to increase the quality of life in urban neighborhood by sustainable means. JECO tied for 19th place out of over 700 exhibitors and earned over $1800…I’d say that’s a success. During One Spark we were also able to tell attendees about our city homestead project and the companies that sponsor us.

Seeing Little Lotus in Action

Although preparing our booth and partnering with various sustainable businesses like Sun Works Solar, Vertical Home Gardens, and AET Solar was great, my favorite part of the event was watching my eight-year-old daughter bloom.

My daughter, Little Lotus, is a homeschool student, and she has been for most of her academic career. In addition to an online curriculum, my daughter has lots of sustainability lessons everyday as we build an urban off-grid house. The extent of what she has learned from our experience really shined through during One Spark where she explained our project and the various technologies we were demonstrating to visitors to our booth.

My daughter wrote, memorized, and delivered her own pitch to describe our project. She not only delivered her pitch at our booth, but she also spoke about JECO to a sizable crowd on the One Spark main stage. Needless to say, I was so proud.

While many of the people in our lives are supportive of our lifestyle and the type of education I give my daughter, we have met our share of naysayers. However, listening to my daughter explain our project in her own words made me realize that she is receiving much more than I ever knew. Visitors to our booth would comment that she was the reason that they would vote for us to receive funding. They would ask me, “Is she yours?”

To this question I’d reply proudly, “Yes”.

“What school does she go to?”

“My daughter is a homeschool student,” I’d say.

“Of course she is,” was a common response.

More than one parent said they wanted their child to hang out with mine so she could rub off on them! I felt so great.

On Saturday, after the day’s activities, as we walked toward our parked car, we heard infectious reggae beats coming from one of the other exhibitor’s tents. “Come on,” I said to my daughter as we shed our packages and hit the dance floor. Another little girl around the same age as my daughter was already tearing up the linoleum, and Little Lotus joined her. They were so cute.

Connecting with Other Creators

Walking around downtown Jacksonville during One Spark made me realize what a interesting city Jacksonville is. We saw belly dancers, bands, artists, chefs, farmers, and other interesting people that I didn’t realized lived in such abundance in our north Florida city. Being immersed in that flavor and vibe made me realize that this is the perfect city in which to create our city homestead.

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

In April we participated in the first annual One Spark festival in our city Jacksonville, FL. We also found that we had tragically lost a dear family member as we came down from the high that we experienced at One Spark.

Both of these events have given us pause to reflect on our lives and how to best spend our precious time. As things level back out, we are able to take what we’ve learned and apply it to the creation of our city homestead.

The purpose of this post is not simply to update you, dear reader, on the going-ons of our experience, it is also to let you know about the amazing businesses that sponsor this site, and our city homestead. I am very selective about the businesses that I choose as sponsors of AsanteGeorge.com, and the three that I am about to tell you about have become much more than businesses relations.

Our primary sponsor is www.Time4Learning.com. Little Lotus uses the online homeschool curriculum offered at Time4Learning to complete her third grade academic studies. Over the last month, as we’ve dealt with the changes and challenges that have come our way, I’ve been thankful that Little Lotus has a flexible curriculum that allows us to take time off and rearrange our schedule as needed. If you’d like to sample this wonderful service, visit www.Time4Learning.com.

Our next two advertisers sponsor our city homestead project which means I get to tell people about their wonderful products each week. They are also featured at the end of each episode of our web series Green City Chronicles.

MedKeka.com has sponsored our city homestead from the very beginning of our project last year. We’ve been honored to let our readers know about their affordable, high-quality eyeglasses. I am particularly proud to let you know about this wonderful small business because we just happen to be related to the owners…brilliance runs in our family.

My newest sponsor is the inventor of a product that Little Lotus and I love to let people know about…the Phytopod! VerticalHomeGardens.com became an AsanteGeorge.com sponsor at the beginning of this year, and we have enjoyed getting the word out about this amazing product.

During our exhibit at One Spark, we showed visitors to our booth how to plant this urban friendly vertical garden. Little Lotus really shined as she told crowds of attendees what she knows about the Phytopod and its inventor Eluem Blyden. I was thoroughly impressed as were all who listened to her. I was particularly thankful for our connection with www.VerticalHomeGardens.com as the founder and inventor, Dr. Blyden, checked in with us from time to time over the last few weeks because he knew we were experiencing major changes.

As we continue to work on our city homestead and explore sustainability, I look forward to promoting these companies that keep social consciousness and humanity in business.

Visit my sponsors!

http://www.VerticalHomeGardens.com

http://www.MedKeka.com

www.Time4Learning.com

Picture by Krappweis

At times I am called upon to revisit my purpose for creating our homestead in the city. My reasons were simply these:

1. To create a comfortable place to raise my daughter that filled our needs for shelter and fresh organic food, a simple life, and freedom.

2. To downsize in a way that allows my daughter and I to enjoy a simple life.

3. To achieve goals 1 and 2 in a way that inspires others.

As new ideas and ventures come into my life, I am learning to look at them through the lens of my initial goals. If an idea does not fit in with my personal mission which is based on my highest vision for my life, then I should most likely pass, no matter how good it sounds.

My Ambitions

For as far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a mama, a stay at home Earth Mama type to be exact. I’m not sure if this is a politically correct ambition or not, but it’s true.

In a conversation with a new friend, he commented that he loves my freestyle kale salad video because is shows a rare domestic side of me. The truth is that I am about as domestic as they come.

In my newest endeavor, our city homestead, I have learned to deconstruct walls and install fence posts in order to create a space in which I can be the aforementioned Earth Mama type. You could say I am a homemaker in every sense of the word.

Simple Truths I’ve learned So Far:

In addition to teaching me to stay focused on my truest vision for my life, our city homestead has taught me simple and profound lessons that I’m sure will benefit me for life. For instance, I’ve learned that a good fire, like the best love affairs, grows slowly from small kindling into a roaring flame. I’ve also learned that:

-The best way to warm cold hands in the morning is with a pan of hot dish water or around a big mug of hot tea or coffee.

-Work is best done instead of talked about.

-If something doesn’t make you happy to begin with, it’s not likely to make you happy in the long run.

-It’s best to have a backup of essential items ie: car keys, house keys, lighters, etc.

Our city homestead project is much more than a project for me. It is means to create a beautiful life for my little tribe (myself, my daughter, and our dog), and it is a space for me to become the woman and mother I’ve always wanted to be.

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

Now that Little Lotus and I are feeling better, we’ve really picked up steam around our city homestead. Over the next few posts I’m going to catch you up on the things you missed while we were under the weather. I’ll also fill you in on our exciting preparations for our participation in the One Spark Crowdfunding Festival.

Preparing to Be One Spark

We are exhibiting in One Spark as a launch event for a project that we’ve developed with our good friend Anita Gregory called Jacksonville Eco Village for Green Urban Revitalization or JECO. We’ve been developing alliances with green companies in our area that we’d like to work with. Yesterday, we took a tour of a solar thermal manufacturing company called Alternate Energy Technologies (AET).

A Magnificent Tour of AET Solar

Anita, Little Lotus, and I drove about 30 miles out to the AET facilities. We met with the Executive Vice President Andrew East, and had an amazing tour of the factory by our liaison Karen O’Brien.

Although AET distributes solar photovoltaic systems (the kind that produce electricity), they manufacture solar water heating systems. We got to see how large spools of copper are plated with nickel and turned into a system of tubing and fins that is then placed inside a large casing to become a solar water heater.

AET also explained how they collect rainwater in underground cysterns for use around the factory and how they reuse their greywater.

Our tour of AET was an educational and beneficial business trip and a great homeschool opportunty for Little Lotus.

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

tag: aet solar

We have the most amazing sponsors, and we look forward to connecting with more green and socially responsible companies.

Time4Learning.com is a longtime advertiser with AsanteGeorge.com. Time4Learning is an online curriculum that students can use for homeschool studies or to supplement their school activities.

My almost-eight-year-old uses Time4Learning to complete her homeschool studies, and she loves the flexibility to explore her academic subjects with freedom. I love parent’s dashboard that makes checking her progress and keeping records a breeze.

During this sponsor shout-out, I’d also like to send a big THANK YOU to the sponsors of our City Homestead www.MedKeka.com (buying spectacles online is easy and affordable with MedKeka) and www.VerticalHomeGardens.com (inventors of the Phytopod and leaders in urban garden solutions.

Visit all three of our phenomenal sponsors often!

http://www.time4learning.com

http://www.medkeka.com

www.VerticalHomeGardens.com

Photo by ShadowRave

After spending a short amount of time at our city homestead, it became apparent that we needed a fence to deter unwanted foot traffic. Since I’d never built a fence before, and we were working with a very meager budget, I had to meditate on the idea for awhile. Eventually, creativity and resourcefulness saved the day.

Building a Simple Fence With Salvaged Posts

After performing a bit of research, I found a company to purchase used fence posts from for $2-$3 a piece. The fence company removes old fences when they build new ones for their customers, and they sell the old fence posts at a deep discount. I purchased fence posts as I could afford them, and I transported them in the trunk of our Toyota Camry.

The Easy Way

Next, we needed to dig the post holes. After careful consideration, I decided against digging the two foot deep post holes with a shovel and opted instead for a post hole digger. We were able to purchase a used post hole digger from a Craigslist.org seller for $10.

Getting Clever With Quikrete

After digging our post holes, we needed to install the posts, which we did with Quikrete. Concrete is really heavy for me, so I asked a worker at Lowe’s carry it to the trunk of my car for me.

I kept the Quikrete in the trunk of our car while I worked. I opened it so that I could easily scoop it out, and I drove my car to the part of our yard that we were working in.

Here is a link to my original blog post about our fence installation http://asantegeorge.com/2012/09/01/dirty-tired-and-satisfied-after-a-rewarding-week-at-our-city-homestead/.

Begin, and Begin Again

After installing our fence posts, I connected the posts in the front yard with planks that I salvaged from the wall deconstruction we’d performed in our house. I then used more salvaged wood as fence pickets. As our fence began to take shape, I didn’t like the way it looked, so I removed the pickets and planks.

After some time, I realized that the most important section to fence was our backyard. If I fenced the backyard my daughter and dog would have a place to play while I work, and we’d have a place to begin our garden. Also, our backyard was already fenced on two sides.

A Simple, Affordable Solution

On one of my many strolls through various hardware stores, I spotted rolls of economy galvanized wire fencing. I decided that wrapping wire fencing around my backyard would be the simplest way to fence it in. I measured both sides of our yard that needed fencing and found out that a 50 foot roll would do the trick. Since my fence posts around our backyard are six feet tall (8 foot posts with two feet buried in the ground), I opted for the five foot fencing. Along with my galvanized fencing which cost $50, I also purchased a $10 pair of wire snips.

Since I was separating the backyard from the side and front yards, I installed two more fence posts to act as a gate frame. I then installed a door that we salvaged to act as a gate. The process took about three days including time to allow the concrete to dry around the newly planted fence posts.

Plans for the Future

Although our fence is functional, I need to do a few more things to it to make it beautiful and more functional. We need to brace the posts that are holding up the door, and we need to paint the door to protect it from the elements. We also need to place something along the bottom of the fence so that our dog cannot dig her way out. It’s a work in progress, and I’m really excited to see what creative solutions we come up with.

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

tags: building a simple fence, homestead in the city

Although opportunities are a good thing, they often require that we step out of our comfort zone and stretch ourselves. There are times when I wonder: Will I have what it takes to make this idea work? What will happen if I fail?

After observing my thoughts in the face of positive changes, I realized that  I needed to boost my self-confidence. As a devoted believer in affirmations I decided to begin my day with a brisk walk while listening to powerful positive statements on my smart phone.

While searching for affirmations to listen to, I stumbled across the following video by David McGraw www.DavidMcGraw.org. The recording is clear and his affirmations are very effective. If you watch David’s video, let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3J_O2q2BOM

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

Image by Hodero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvaRR-eNr9M

Having trouble loading this video? Watch it on YouTube http://youtu.be/NvaRR-eNr9M.

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.

Special Thanks to Suggs Concrete (904) 635-9780

Our city homestead project has grown into a larger vision, and we’re super excited about it. We’ve partnered with our good friend Anita Gregory to develop a plan for an eco village in which our city homestead will be the sample house. We’ve submitted our eco village idea to exhibit at Jacksonville, Florida’s first crowdfunding festival, One Spark.

One Spark is a five day festival scheduled for April 17th – 22nd 2013. Creators will exhibit their work in various venues throughout downtown Jacksonville, Florida, and attendees can vote to determine which projects will receive funding. One Spark attendees can vote on as many projects as they like.  If you’ll be in Jacksonville on the festival dates, please attend, and vote for our project to receive the big bucks.

About Jacksonville Eco Village For Green Urban Revitalization (JECO)

The idea that we are exhibiting at One Spark is Jacksonville Eco Village For Green Urban Revitalization, also known as JECO. JECO is an urban eco village that will work aggressively in our neighborhood to present sustainable solutions to challenges that urban core areas face like homelessness, lack of nutritious food, and lack of environmental education. Learn more about JECO on our One Spark profile here http://www.beonespark.com/discover/creator_projects/729.

During the One Spark festival, our exhibit will be at the Jacksonville Main Public Library at 303 N Laura St. Learn more about the Jacksonville Main Public Library here http://www.beonespark.com/discover/venues_and_spaces/20.

Watch our JECO video, and get ready to vote for us. Like us on Facebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yARJVyT-emA

Having trouble loading the video? Watch it on Youtube here http://youtu.be/yARJVyT-emA

Support our homestead in the city with a purchase from our shop Awaken. Learn more about our city homestead.

Our city homestead is sponsored by:

www.MedKeka.com	www.VerticalHomeGardens.com
Buying spectacles online is easy with MedKeka.	Experts in vertical gardening solutions.