Hi there,

Sometimes I find myself repressing some of my true desires in life from my friends or family. They all seem to think I’m strange or old fashioned. I guess it’s because my friends and family are all metropolitan of sorts or raised in cities. I was too but I have a different view.

This is what I desire: I want to live on a piece of land with trees and a small holding farm. Nothing big, just maybe some chickens, a HUGE garden and all kinds of fruits and veggies. I fantasize about spending warm summer afternoons canning fruit with the kids, picking herbs from the garden, showing the children how carrots are grown. I dream of sitting on a porch looking at beautiful nature and letting the breeze run though the house. I want to get AWAY from generalized society. I don’t want a fancy car, I don’t want a huge house, I don’t want the latest purse or sunglasses. I just want to get back to basics. I’m embarrassed when I go for lunch with my lady friends and they talk about what their husbands purchased for them, and all I can think about is "gosh I wouldn’t want that.." I can appreciate that they have different views, and that’s what makes life interesting, but I feel compelled to ‘fit in’ so to speak.

How do I let myself be me, and be okay with my goals and dreams even when they don’t fit into the societal goal of more accumulation and material goods = wealth, scheme of things?
I already have some land that belonged to my great grandparents when they settled here – it’s completely over grown and undeveloped, but it’s true, it’s quite difficult to establish ones self in that manner these days…isn’t if funny how we’ve made it so difficult on our selves to keep it simple?
re: "sexaliciouslatina" – I don’t understand how living closer to one’s means and closer to nature is considered unrealistic. Isn’t living beyond your means with a stuffed double car garage with a Starbucks franchised mind-set a little unrealistic? Sooner or later the blatant unsustainable illusion will collapse like a sand castle in the tide, that’s what I believe anyhow.

A few days ago I was at a nature preserve and they had a herb garden, most of the stuff was dead because of the winter, but decided to smell the stuff, I smelled mint etc.

but one herb I found smelled exactly like ivory soap… do you know what it could of been?

http://www.bettymills.com/shop/product/view/Procter%20&%20Gamble/PGC30044.html?referer=search

I’m growing mint and lemon balm in my garden and it’s about ready to harvest some. How can I dry it for tea and such with no special equipment?

I am living in an old house and where the original back "porch/stoop" was its open to the dirt below and I am wanting to put an herb garden in that little spot. {its about 2ftx3ft}. How do I go about starting an herb garden and what herbs are best to plant and can be used regularly for cooking and other things around the house?

We just want to make a small garden maybe 8X10 feet to plant 3-4 tomato plants and a couple other herbs like basil etc. We live in a subdivision where people will be uptight about a fence unless it looks nice but we back up to a nature preserve full of deer, rabbits racooons etc.

I want to grow a garden that provides most or all of my food. I have limited space 66ft x 66ft (1/10 acre). So I’d like to grow the most nutritious plants.

Does anyone know where to find a chart with nutritional values of all food plants? (vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, fungi)

I’m looking for food plants that are highly nutritious, low maintenance, disease resistant and have a high yield.

I live in zone 10, but I also need to know about plants that are in zone 8.

Maybe you can suggest some food plants.

Thanks