Update

Cameron says...

I haven’t written for a while because I’ve had to pull my head out of the sand (or—perhaps more fittingly—the garden soil) and work on some tasks related to my real estate investing business. It is a far less pleasurable family business than my gardening has been these last few months, but I believe the results will be well worth my time some years or months down the road. I am working at becoming self-sufficient in two ways: by raising our income, and by lowering our income needs. So far, both have been slow processes, but I am in the beginning stages of both and I feel that as soon as either project reaches a moment of critical mass, they will both explode with success so much that I’ll have to share to prevent all the goodness from going to waste.

I bought half of a truck today! It is the bed of a 1970s model Chevrolet pickup truck mounted onto a flatbed trailer with leaf-spring suspension. I am going to install a hitch onto my car so I can still have my 4-door family car and have a “truck” along with it. I’m really excited, because I’ve been to Lowe’s many many times this year and wished I had a truck. In fact, one time I had to rent their truck for $20 plus gas and a bunch of other fees so I could tote home all the lumber and soil I used to build my raised garden beds. With the equipment purchase and installation ($189 plus wire hookups and a ball hitch...we’re looking at less than $250 here) and the trailer purchase, I should be able to be ready to haul for less than $500! That’s way better than selling my car and buying a pickup truck with no back seat!

The garden is going well. I potted three banana plants and transplanted an eggplant and a banana pepper plant on Saturday, then dunged everything up nicely. My compost heap is shrinking, just like Joe Jenkins said it would, which means that I probably will be able to add to it for a full year without it overflowing. That’s good news. I don’t have much room in my back yard for endless compost bins.

Pictures to follow.