New Community Just For Urban Homesteaders!

I searched and searched for a forum that was just for urban homesteaders. As all of you who do this know, we have all sorts of special problems that people on acreage in the country don't necessarily have (they have their own special problems that we don't have as well).

So I created a free community for us. It's at webs.com (used to be Freewebs) and right now, it's just a home page and forums. You do have to register, but I hope you'll all join me there.

http://urbanhomesteading.webs.com

Let me know if you have any problems. The forums are in beta, so they're iffy sometimes.

Enjoy!

Sorry I have been so neglectful of this blog

I've been concerned with writing articles to sell, to keep my house afloat. I will get out this weekend, take pics, and catch it up, I promise. You won't believe how much things have grown!

This is Why You Shold Read the Terms of Use of Any Website or Forum

I got a Google Alert today on "urban homesteading" that had a link to a forum called "Homesteading Today". Some of you may be member of that forum. I just wonder how many people actually read the terms of use. Basically, there is a clause in the TOU for that forum that gives them exclusive rights to anything you post there, including pictures, and the content of all your private messages.

This is what it says:

Any communication which you post to the Site or transmit to homesteadingtoday.com or to the Site by e-mail, private message (PM), public post and/or other medium can be used by homesteadingtoday.com on a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive license with the right to reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed, and to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicenses. homesteadingtoday.com may use the information it obtains relating to you, including your IP address, name, mailing address, email address and use of the Site, for its internal business and security procedures.

Yeah, right. Like I'm agreeing to that! NOTICE in the last line that they can use your IP address, name, mailing address, etc....FOR INTERNAL BUSINESS. In other words, they can sell all that stuff to anybody, anytime.

Your information is not safe on this site. My advice is that if you are a member of this site, leave now. If you aren't, don't join.

I was a member of a site called Frugal Living until I noticed that she had sold a column to some newspapers. In that column, she had users' tips that they had posted on the forum. I wrote and asked her how I could keep her from using my stuff, and she pointed out to me that the same such clause was in her TOU. I immediately took down all my pictures and left the site.

To me, this is deceitful. Site owners know that most people do not read the TOU before they click the box and join. Once you've done it, the only way to stop it is to not post there anymore. Everything you have already posted is stored somewhere on their computers, and can be used by them for any purpose at all.

I just feel obliged to try to let people know when I run across such obvious green and deceit. Please read the TOU, and if you have any questions with what you read, contact me.

The Derelict House Next Door to me is GONE!

FINALLY! The city tore down the derelict house next door to me. I had to stay inside when they were doing most of it, due to the mold and dust in the air. I just hope it doesn't affect my birds out in the aviary, but I couldn't get them to go into the cage to bring them into the house. I think they'll be o.k., though. There is plenty of mold in the Florida air already, and they haven't died yet.

I'll be posting pics soon, but I'm still getting them resized and put onto Photobucket. It's so strange looking at it now, just a slab. All the horrible invasive plants are gone, but I'm going to have to fight them to take down the two totally rotten trees that could fall on my house during the next big storm.

One great thing is that without the house there blocking the sunlight, I'll be able to plant most of my winter veggies on that side of the house, instead of trying to dig up a whole new garden spot. I'll have to take out some cannas and lilies, but that's no biggie. They'll be dying down soon anyway. I'm hoping to build a long raised bed on that side this year, so I can put the veggies there. It will be convenient having them right there by the back door.

I've been wanting to clean out that side bed anyway, so this is the perfect opportunity to make something useful out of it, instead of it just being a place where I stashed plants I had no other place for.

So, progress is being made on the garden front. It will be very small this fall, but I can replant in January, and have a second harvest before it gets hot. By then, I'll have the raised beds built in the back, and ready to go.

One More Week to Unemployment

I resigned my job last Saturday. One can only take so much abuse. I was expecting them to call and try to get me to come back, but no one did, so I'm making other plans. Now I'll really have time to pursue my dream of an urban homestead and making money growing plants and teaching others to help green the planet.

I have no concrete plans yet, except that I'd like to teach some free gardening classes at the Library, and do some landscape consulting. Maybe I'll change that to helping people set up veggie gardens in their own yards, or even do container veggie gardening.

Whatever I do, I have to remember that I need to make some money somehow, so I may have to take a part time job in the meantime, but not 10 miles away like my present job. I'd love to be within walking distance of my house. There are possibilities, but probably not until August or September, because that's our busy season here.

In the meantime, I'm going to become as self-sufficient as I can get, and get that backyard nursery set up so I can sell some plants.

Oh well, at least this will make me get rid of some of my junk. I'll need to do that to make some money as well.

The possibilities and opportunities are endless!

An Urban Co-op - Sort Of

I was talking to my neighbor and friend yesterday about making some extra money. She knows my plans about the urban homestead, and I asked her why she couldn't grow and sell some plants. She has a green thumb, and loves to grow things, so I suggested that since her yard is mostly sun, and mine is mostly shade, she grow the herbs and sun loving plants, and I grow the tropicals. That way, we could work together, which would make it easier on both of us, since we both have some limitations.

I think that if we really get it going, it will be a great cooperative effort. I was looking at my lot, and realizing that I will have to grow most of my veggies on the side and front yard, since there is very little sun in the back due to two large oaks. I'll have to get the oaks cut back, and I was thinking of even taking one out, but I started looking, and I have plenty of space for veggies on the side, and could mix veggies with ornamentals (a true cottage garden) in the front.

This whole project is becoming a whirlwind, since I will be needing to support myself sooner than later. I'm happy, though, because I'll be doing something that I love, and contributing to the greening of the planet as well.

If it works out between the two of us, I might try to get a little neighborhood coop going, to see how much we can produce. There are so many people around here who do nothing with their yards, even though they have plenty of space. If we could just get a few families growing their own veggies, it would be great.

Tiny baby steps to saving the planet, but if we got a million people just growing their own tomatoes and cucumbers, think of what that would save. Plus, the more green things we plant, the more carbon dioxide we reduce.

It's hard to go so slowly, because I want to do it all now! I just have to tell myself "no", and plod ahead at a snail's pace, to be sure I do this right.