The year 2012 has had a lot of hype surrounding it. The world's going to end, and if it doesn't, we'll vote for president. No matter how much faith I have or how much I read my Bible, I am anxious by nature. For example, when H1N1 hit the scene a couple of years back, I briefly stopped letting any neighbor kids come play for fear that the children might catch it. So, when I started hearing about 2012 and all it's apocolyptic hype, I immediately felt fearful. Since my brain (and my spirit) tell me that God doesn't tell the Mayans FIRST about when the world will end, I have had to divert my attention to something hugely productive this year: growing our farm. My main goal for our family and our farm can be summed up by one big transition. This year, I pray we move away from being consumers and start learning to be producers.
Christmas is probably what prompted this idea to start with. We have four small children, and they are nothing if not consumers. We consumed cookies, pizzas, caramel popcorn, red ribbon, ornament kits, gallons and gallons and gallons of milk, and last but certainly not least, an inordinate amount of TOYS over the holiday season. In fact, I had to do a massive toy purge right before Christmas (4 giant boxes full!) just to make room for the new toys they were getting. And we still managed to end up with a radio flyer roller coaster permanently set up in our formal dining room when it was over. Don't get me wrong...I don't blame them for being insatiable little consumers. I made them that way. Every time I called to their attention a toy commercial on television to get ideas about Christmas presents, I fed this little monster that lives in each of their bellies called consumerism. My fixation with baking at a non-stop pace over the holidays in order to "make it feel like Christmas" might have been another thing that fed the consumerist spirit in our home. These days, all you really have to do is ride the culture wave, and you will find yourself with a purely consumeristic mindset that mirrors ours.
So this year, we hope and pray to move from that mindset into that of PRODUCERS. Sure, last year we started a small farm and began producing our own all natural pork and soaps. That was awesome and a huge step for our smallish large family. But this year, we are changing our frame of mind. We are setting goals. We are analyzing our model and making changes to reduce the inputs while maximizing outputs--and not in the context of quantity, but in quality. We are hoping to find some property that is our own and begin farming the way small family farms ran a hundred years or more ago. Pigs by themselves contribute a little to the land and produce a bit of pork to eat. Pigs with other animals work together and follow one another to contribute much needed nutrients to the soil and a well rounded meal for the family. They fertilize trees that produce nuts or fruit; they plow up ground to grow vegetables for eating and canning. Then, chickens and goats and sheep can graze the land under those now fertile trees and keep back nutrient-stealing weeds, while providing our family (and maybe someday yours) with eggs, chicken meat, goats' milk, and wool for spinning. This year, instead of buying another plastic dollhouse that is this year's version of last year's dollhouse that we'll be donating to goodwill, perhaps the girls will receive beginner's knitting kits. Perhaps we will all four (me and my three daughters) line up in a row in our kitchen and learn to can vegetables instead of renting another movie. And wouldn't it be great to use all my soap making supplies to make homemade household cleaners instead of spending all our grocery money on ready-made cleaners full of toxic chemicals?
In reality, I know that there are only so many hours in my day. Although I would like to sew a new wardrobe for Jack and teach the girls to can and raise pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep; I know I must choose wisely when setting our goals for 2012 so as not to overwhelm myself and become an eternally grouchy mommy. In response, I have come up with 2 personal goals for 2012: to learn to sew and to learn to can vegetables. Actually making something that's worth having might have to come next year.
For the farm, we hope to have three new products on the food side and three new products on the soap side by the end of the 2012 farmers market season. Stay tuned to further blog posts to see what those products are!
It occurs to me that 2012 really is the end of the world as we (the Wrights) know it...moving from being a family of consumers to a family of producers. Bring it on!
