The Full Story
PETEnELLA
The way of it.
Meet in college. Marry young. Join the military. Have kids. Travel and live coast-to-coast. Experience America and its people. Settle in Northern Virginia, courtesy of the Department of Defense. Live the suburban life. Keep up the work grind to stay afloat. Watch 30 years go by in a flash. The kids are grown and the suburban house is too big.
Like so many others our age, we ask, "Well, now what?"
For years we have watched, waited, and yearned. We've followed the homestead, permaculture, grow-your-own-food-movement, the crazy Christian Libertarian, environmentalist, capitalistic, lunatic farmers of the world (Joel Salatin) and his proteges.
What to do?
Sell the suburban home of course! Buy a place and hour and a half south of D.C. - 6 acres of scraggly woods that need a lot of love. Now we are striving to find Peter's way out of of his stereotypical government, Beltway job (your tax dollars at work), and stake out a new path. We don't know where it will lead, but it you're reading this, you've devoted at least a bit of your time to join your journey with ours. We're glad you're here!
Mission
Take steps each day to fulfill our dream of becoming full-time permaculture farmers.
Vision
Employ permaculture practices to sustainably grow and raise our own food. Share our bounty with others!
In the Wilderness
Wilderness - a place of desperation, banishment, uncertainty. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. John the Baptist's voice cried out from the wilderness. At times, we roam in our own wilderness, isolated from those we love.
In Virginia, there is another Wilderness. A patchwork of cleared fields and thick, choking forest, lying halfway between Richmond and Washington D.C., it is a place burdened by history. Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Courthouse, The Wilderness. These battlefield names evoke the agony and horror of a tightly-packed crossroads region, witness to the most concentrated fighting of the entire American Civil War.
These are the hallowed grounds we now call home. Our little place, our homestead, is a six-acre slice of thickets and dense woods. Spindly, desperate trees compete upward with each for the sunlight above. Frequently they crash down for lack of girth. On the forest floor, bramble vines with thorns like needles cover the ground. They catch, entangle, and stab anyone who dares traverse these haunts. This is the very same wilderness that caught fire in May of 1864, burning alive hundreds if not thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers shot down in the thickets.
It is a place in need of restoration. Even in 1864, this was second-growth forest. In many places, the once rich topsoil was destroyed by tobacco farming in the 1600 and 1700s. Abandoned, these depleted lands reverted to wilderness. Now, underneath it, the soil on our homestead is clay and rock, packed hard as asphalt, that defies easy cultivation.
And so here we are, six acres of (mostly) brambles and trash trees (there are a few, hardy oaks amongst them), anchored underneath by a lattice of rocks buried in barely-porous clay. We must ask - Is there yet redemption for this little piece of the Wilderness?
There is a movement underway in this country, just below the consciousness of most suburban and urban dwellers...you might call it a sub-culture, that seeks restoration. One hears the term homestead. Then there's something about permaculture and the importance of sylvopasture. What are these funny words? And what is all this about raising animals and plants together to restore life and soil and health to the land, and the people who dwell on it.
This is not a movement of giant corporations. It is, rather, an underground surge
of the many who find their lives, their food, their communities, their relationships,
and their sense of self torn asunder, atomized, isolated, and corporatized. Surely,
there have to be better ways to grow, eat, live, share, and ultimately, pass on to the
next generation-things done at a personal level.
If you don't yet understand, that's OK, it's a homestead thing. Yes, at times it sounds
hokey, but once you make a commitment to connect with your roots (literally and
figuratively), you will not want to go back. You're never going to get it completely
"right," but through PETEnELLA, we want to share our journey,
and maybe bring a few along with us.
Of worms and vermicompost
Some worm jokes to get us going!
What do worms write notes on? Compost it notes
What do you call two worms that were made for each other? Soil mates
Why are worms so great to hang out with? They're really down to earth
What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm...
How can you tell which end of a worm is which? Tickle it in the middle and see which end laughs
How about some kids books?
Diary of a Worm, by Doreen Cronin
Wiggling Worms at Work, by Wendy Pfeffer
Yucky Worms, Read and Wonder, by Vivian French
Garden Wigglers: Earthworms in Your Backyard, by Nancy Loewen
How to Say Hello to a Worm: A First Guide to Outside, by Kari Percival
Superworm, by Julia Donaldson
About Vermicomposting...
Seriously, taking care of worms and creating our own beautiful compost is a lot more forgiving and fun than we imagined! Peter and I are employed in the Northern Virginia, DC area and do much of the work of caring for our worm friends from afar.
We dutifully collect our coffee grounds, egg shells, and organic fruit and veggie scraps to bring to our "Gerards" (the name we gave the worms as a collective entity, think the Borg of Star Trek: The Next Generation) on the weekend. The worms have a space to hang out in large totes on our front porch, but we monitor the temperatures and move them inside our entryway if the temps will be above 85 or below 55 degrees. We lovingly call them our "latchkey worms," as they are often left to do their thing without our supervision and they are thriving. And by thriving, I mean making lots of little worms and converting the food scraps to vermicompost!
We harvest the beautiful worm-made compost and use it as a natural fertilizer, but without all the chemicals/pesticides, and with the added benefits of microbial magic that helps the unhealthiest of soils have a fighting chance of growing plants and trees! We have not ventured into the business of making worm-tea which is made from vermicompost and is good to use as a natural pesticide and multi-vitamin for your garden. However, it is a goal of ours to add this to our homestead regimen in the next year or so.
What's next? As we recognize the benefit of using vermicompost in and on the depleted soil of our homestead, embrace the composting fun of watching our food waste put to very good use, and desire to share the beautiful product that our worms are making, Peter recommended that we build a dedicated, temperature-controlled, worm-shed where we can quadruple our worm bins and not have to worry about moving the Gerards in and out based on the temps. Details, pics, and stories coming soon!