A Very Old Memory

After school at West Junior High I took the bus to West 5th Street. I checked in at the Leeward, where Opal was working behind the bar, talking to Mom and a bunch of other people. The bar was full. The other business owners said the City was threatening to raze all the buildings on the north side of Bridge Street, starting with the corner of Hulbert Hill going all the way to Topky’s Hardware. The other business owners are upset; especially the nice lady with the brand new Scandinavian Gift shop. The Gas-house Gang baseball team members were upset too. Someone suggested getting West 5th street into some kind of Historical Registry so the City couldn’t tear it down. “If we band together, we can save the street.” Mom told them. “We need to give it our best shot.” “This area could become the showplace of Ashtabula,” Pam from Redesign speculated. Everyone laughed at the idea, 5th Street was skid-row, or Redesign wouldn’t be next door. But Mom agreed to research the idea. They decided to call themselves the Harbor Merchants Association. The rest is History.

'Back to the Land' -- What's That?

There are a lot of concepts out there dealing with the 'Back to the Land' movement. There are so many variations on this theme that I want to talk about it here. Jordan's Croft is a hobby farm where I kept my horses chickens and alpacas.

I've got some favorite YouTube channels, like Roots and Refuge and Gold Shaw farm .

I need to say that I was raised on five acres in the 1960s, my father might have quailified as a Doomsday Prepper because we had a basement full of canned food. In addition my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins were part of the Back to the Land movement of the 1970's. I read the Mother Earth News and the Foxfire books in my early teens. So it was natural for me to want five acres of my own even as a kid.

When I got to Kentucky I started looking for a place for my horses, my husband and I found the blank slate of Jordan's Croft in 2005 and have been here ever since.

So here's the topic I want to address: What does it take to go back to the land? Do you have to say goodbye and live in the wilderness, build a log cabin and swear off electricity and flush toliets? Do you have to grow your own food, never setting food in a grocery store again? What markers do we need to hit in order to say we are 'back to the land.'

I don't think it requires a purity test.

I think what matters is finding a connection to living and growing things. Walking in a park, hiking a trail, growing a plant in the windowsill, and even going fishing are all legit activities that take us back to the land.

Feeling connected to the planet, our Mother Earth, is a quest fit for the 21st Century. It does't take a farm in Vermont, or acreage in North Carolina, or a Croft in Kentucky. It takes effort to find places to ground our souls. But finding these outdoor spaces is more critical than ever for human health and sanity. We need to feel -- well -- grounded in order to function.

When I was working full-time with an hour to work and home, I wasn't feeling very grounded. But my time with my horses refreshed me, even when it was just feeding time and few pats.

Now that I spend a hour or so each morning on the porch and puttering around the house, I find it's easier to focus my energy on what needs doing, and my priorities are changing once again.

I've got the time to listen to these podcasts, see how other people set goals and work things out. I watched Geoff Lawton work on his Greening the Desert project for ten years. Then I've seen how a little lady named Abla made amazing progress with her little patch of ground in a desert.

These people make me think about what my Croft means to me, and decide what to do next. My rock garden was a mess, but two years of digging and fussing has made a big difference. My kitchen garden has suffered from neglect, but I've got someone to help with the water situtation, and I intend to have a workable solution for next year.

I can't imagine becoming a Doomsday Prepper. But I can figure out ways to get water to my garden besides using a water hose. I can sell a few eggs on the side to buy rain barrels or an exhaust fan. I can make small improvements that expand my little gardens so I can give some tomatoes to friends.

It all adds up in the end.