Magazine Offer

Thought I would share this offer I found over at One Hundred Dollars a Month! Discount Mags is offering a year's subscription to Urban Farm Magazine for only $4.50, with the coupon code 2479, as opposed to it's listed price of $15! Hurry though! This offer expires tonight at 12:00am EST!

Online Courses

Just thought I'd share a new site I came across! It's called Coursera and offers free online courses from Universities all over the world! There are a few related to agricultural topics, as well as some in business planning, computer sciences, etc. I just signed up for a 5 week Equine Nutrition course that's taught through the University of Edinburgh, which will hopefully be helpful in the future when I eventually have horses again. Anyways, enjoy!

A Good Start

Well I'd say that I have gotten a good start on my resolution to improve my crocheting skills. I finally learned how to crochet at the end of last year, and honestly I can't figure out why it took me so long to start! It's so gosh darn easy! So far I've made a scarf for each of my twins (although I still have to finish weaving the loose ends in), and I just taught myself how to make a popcorn stitch, and started to crochet an afghan. Unfortunately though, I've run out of yarn and both times I've gone to the fabric store since, they haven't had any in. Oh well, I'll get it soon enough!

Here are pictures of my projects so far!

Farmageddon

I recently got around to watching a few documentaries that I'd been meaning to watch, and I thought I would share reviews of them, in a series of posts. The documentary that I definitely had the biggest reaction to, was Farmageddon.

 

 

Farmageddon, delves into the corruption within the food industry, and the unjust way in which government officials have treated small farms and co-ops, many times without just cause, while hiding behind their claims to be working in the interest of public health. The events related in this documentary were definitely eye opening, and caused me at least to really become enraged with the way in which these people, and people like them are treated. No one, whether a government official or not, should have the right to go into a person's home or business and seize animals or products that make up their livelihood, without a dang good reason! And what makes me sick is the fact that the people who they attack are normal, hardworking people, who are trying to make an honest living, and end up having everything taken from them, without even a valid explanation. I am really amazed sometimes that people can be so heartless. It's almost as if the power that these officials have desensitizes them, and makes them able to separate themselves from the people whose lives they are destroying. What is the point of spending millions of dollars on building cases on innocent people, or removing and killing their healthy, disease-free animals? Small farms should not be punished just because the USDA doesn't do their job monitoring or inspecting foods from factory or industrial farms.

I would consider this documentary a must see, and would recommend it to anyone, whether they are interested in farming and food, or not. It is an excellent film and does a very good job of getting the point across.

New Year "Resolutions"

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

Now, I realize that this is a couple days late, but I wanted to publish a post with New Years resolutions, and decided to think things over a few days. I don't often make resolutions at the beginning of each new year, but I've decided to start doing it, so that I have something specific to work on for the year and have a specific amount of time to complete goals in. New Years resolutions always seem to center around things like losing weight or getting rid of debt, and while I do have goals like this, they are on going and I'm not going to make resolutions like that. Sure, this year I definitely want to make sure that I stay healthy and definitely get rid of any debt I have (and more importantly not incur more), but these won't be my resolutions for the new year, they're ongoing.

 

Nope. This year, I am making goals that include skills to become more self-sufficient, knowledgable, and just to improve my overall quality of life. Some of them may seem small compared to others, but I find them all equally important, and I'm sure I'll end up adding more as I think of them, but here's a starting list:

 

Improve my sewing, knitting, and crocheting skills

Learn to use power tools (besides just a drill)

 

Expand my vegan cooking abilities

 

WRITE MORE

Learn to can

Expand my gardening knowledge

Build or buy a dehydrator

Grow and preserve as much of our food needs as possible for the year, and especially next winter

Shop local as much as possible

...and that's it so far...

Do any of you have resolutions for the new year that you'd like to share?