Ten Year Plan

start 11:04a.m.

i haven't been one to make up "goals" or lists of things to do before i die. i don't believe that i am the things i accomplish. somehow, even with my desire to control things and my fears of change, i tended to go with the flow and follow where my life led me.

my life led me to a place of environmental concern. now i feel like i have a basic underlying premise to living. a framework in which to continue. it feels like a foundation and a place to push off of at the same time.

so, i've developed a sort of ten-year-plan that may take more or less time than that. my dad has always encouraged me to continue in higher learning. until this point, i was "on leave" from school since having completed my bachelor of arts degree in december 2004. i didn't know where to go. i didn't have anything i wanted to study enough to make a graduate school plan around it. slowly, slowly, my interest in growing food sustainably has... taken root and grown in my mind. i'm not at a point where i am certain of the path ahead of me, but i'm looking into the requirements for grad school and the options in terms of agriculture/horticulture programs of study. i'm not entirely convinced that grad school is where i want to head. maybe a bachelor of science degree... maybe coursework and study outside of a school environment. but i'm thinking about it.

another factor in the ten year plan is property and a homeland. zane over at lichenology had a passage about the idea of homeland that i really liked, and i may find it again and link to it. i want land that is home. i have an idea of where i'd like it to be (western new york state), and i have an idea of what i'd like it to encompass: large garden, perennial food plants/trees, and a house that i've built with my own hands. to the final point, i've been considering building with cob, which uses the land itself to fashion a very... earthy home. i want to live on the land as i build. i want to build compartmentally, starting with the main room of the house and adding rooms as they happen. in this way, once the main room is built, i could conceivably live in the house as i'm building it. (note, i say "i", but maybe i should substitute a "we" instead? i just don't want to speak for erin, even though she is very excited about the land-and-home idea.)

twelve minutes.