Urban Homesteading
Busy BrownsText Box: Homesteading on Main Street We had a dream of a better place. And we still do. A place where we would be free to live our dreams. We wanted it so badly that we spent four years trying to build a town called Simpler Times Village. It would be a neighborhood where we wouldn't get in trouble for having pet goats, a home-based business, and a café in our living room for local youth. We wanted a town that wasn't a bedroom community to a larger city. We planned to build a house designed for sustainable living. We wanted to do all this before the gas prices went through the roof, before food prices would force us to grow our own, and before the housing market began to crash. But here we are stuck in Fortville, wondering what to do next. We have a big family to feed and a big gas guzzler to drive. A couple months ago we thought that the hard times facing our nation had ruined our plans and stamped out our dreams. But today, right here in Fortville, we find ourselves starting to live our dreams of a simpler life! Not because we can, but because we must! Perhaps it was for such a time as this that we dreamed these dreams at all. A few days after our new baby was born in April we started working on building raised bed gardens. We used recycled barn wood to build about 16 raised beds, now we have over 600 sq feet of garden space for some serious gardening. Little green plants are popping up! We also have 16 fruit trees! Each child has their own special garden. This year we are going to have enough peaches and pears to can for the winter, share and trade. We've made a lot of other changes too, We only drive the family Suburban twice a week, if we can. We have a pet dairy goat who gives us 25 gallons of fresh milk a month in exchange for $15 in feed. We've finally switched to cloth diapers. We are buying grain from a local farmer. This summer we are going to open an old fashion Trading Post for friends and neighbors. We have laughed about trading the family car for a horse and buggy to avoid buying gas! We could give buggy rides around the town! Maybe someday. When we get our "Bush check" we are not going on vacation. We are not buying toys. We are going to buy a wood cook stove for heating and cooking. We are also going to add to our gardens. We'll finally convert our truck to run on recycled veggie oil - no gas! We are finding that so much more can be done on 1/3 acre. All of these changes were things we planned to do "in the village" for the sake of being "sustainable," not for the sake of surviving. We never really thought we would have to make these changes just to thrive in a failing system. In times like these we are really glad that we have the knowledge and skills to become urban homesteaders. Our children have never been happier than this spring--they love this new adventure! Now that spring is here, and gas prices keep our family close to home, we've been spending more time walking the streets of our hometown. As we look around, we wonder what it must have been like 100 years ago when this small town was booming. Fortville was once a sustainable, walkable, vibrant village. And it still has all the making of a home-centered community. This quirky town has a ton of potential, underneath all the layers of paint. I can see that many of our neighbors have already invested in their historic homes and have a lot to be proud of. This town is just bursting with promise, and many people have already invested so much. Yet as I look around, I get the feeling that many people in our town are feeling the impact of troublesome times, and many of my neighbors have been facing hardships for a long time. And I wonder what can happen next, I wonder if there is hope, I wonder if this town will ever come back to life. Miracles happen - just last month winter turned to spring, doesn't that count as a miracle? Can't the same thing happen to Fortville? I think that now is the time for this rural town to spring to life. I'll tell you why. The high cost of travel and commuting keeps folks closer to home. This town became a bedroom community when convenience made it simple to hop in the car a go to the city for everything, people began driving to the big box stores, and working out of town. Gas was cheap, and the big stores had better deals. Buying food became more economical than growing it, and suddenly neighbors became strangers, sidewalks became desolate and storefronts were abandoned. But times are changing. I can tell you from experience that milk and eggs are cheaper when you can get them out of the back yard, and the fruit from the pear tree, and beans from the garden beat the cost and flavor of Wal-mart food any day. The high cost of food and travel has changed life for our big family, and life is better because of it. We have become urban homesteaders and I have to wonder if others in this community need to start doing the same thing? A couple days ago Josh and I were talking with our neighbor, Frank, whose family has lived in the Fortville area for several generations. I asked him how people survived the great depression here in town. I love Frank's stories! It seems people here did all right. Besides having trouble heating their homes, people in Fortville had food to eat. Do you know why? Because this town was a rural village where most folks had milk goats, rabbits, chickens, and gardens in their yards! Imagine that, right here in our town. Remember that next time you hear the old timers reminisce about Fortville's best days! Frank told us about how his family owned three city lots, one for the orchard, one for the barn yard and one for the house. That made us smile. I've been taking more walks uptown lately, the old business district just a block away. I like to look into the windows of those abandoned storefronts on Main Street. I can stand on the sidewalk, gaze up and down the dusty streets and capture a vision of what Fortville must have been, and then an even more beautiful vision comes to mind of what Fortville could be. I'm ready to be part of that vision. What are your dreams? Where can you plant those dreams? Are you still waiting for "someday"? Spring is here, it's time to plant.

Goat Photos

We all love Angel!

She would be so sad if she had to leave our family and live on a farm with lots of other goats.