My Entry to Freedom Challenge #3: How Do You Express Your Freedom?
How Do You Express Your Freedom?
- The first one was about defining what freedom means to me, and my simple answer was being able to do what I want or more accurately to live the way I want to live, without anyone telling me otherwise.
- The second prompted me to answer the question of what is keeping me from feeling completely one with my version of freedom. Simply put, I went with the restrictive shackles that have been imposed on us in reference to what we are allowed to do with with the land we own, such as building codes, high cost of health (economically and mentally), and living amongst sheep and their eagerness to sue anyone as if it was a lottery system or a get rich quick scheme. Oh, I guess the latter of the two is probably exactly what it is!
What I do to express my freedom...
I believe there are many thing I actively get involved in which could be considered expressing my freedom. For one I have had a dream to build a homestead for a long time and this is coming to fruition as winter is fading away!!! In the beginning, I wasn't calling what we wanted to build a homestead, I probably hadn't heard of the term unless it was meant for a squat, I thought it was the politically correct term for taking over an abandoned building, fixing it and making it a comfortable rent free place to live (not to be confused with the shooting gallery). Anyway I know now that I wasn't really far off from the meaning of the word, but I do know that it is not restricted to empty buildings in larger cities.
We want to live off the land regardless of what the law says (turns out we are allowed to live 100% off the grid on the property we found)...while the term off grid has many different level of intensity, I think what the town's building inspector meant to say was that there are no restrictions on being off the utility grid.
That being said, I don't know if the decision makers have been educated on the subject of Humanure. One of the main points I want for this homestead is the ability to NOT create any sewage what so ever. I wasn't sure how to word that one but I think it comes through right?
We have had the property for a little less than a year. We have been weekend woriors but come June 2018 we will be there full time! The compost toilets have worked great and we are following the guidelines provided by Mr. Joseph Jenkins and his Humanure Handbook and some other sources from Europe and Australia, so when it is ready we will have it all tested to see if we can grow food with it!
We are also growing food and foraging, not so much at the moment but we have grown tomatoes on a Brooklyn fire escape and we now have a community garden near by where we live and we have been able to eat from it. I have been learning about mushrooms and plant medicine to eventually makes tinctures. Hopefully this skill will ward off the doctors as much as possible!
Foraged Black Rasberries from No Man's Land for Breakfast!But the way I most have been expressing my freedom is through traveling the world whenever I wish. I have learned to not be afraid of change and that is what kept me working as a free lancer all these years. It's kind of the best of both worlds, I work for someone which means I usually don't have to find clients but I make myself available for work mostly when I need it (I don't pick my own hours, but I do pick my own days)!
I kind of could keep going a little while but I think we're good where we are for now...I don't want to divulge all my secrets in one post, it would be too long (I can ramble on you know) Love, Art, Doacracy....
Please head over to @sagescrub's page and here's The Freedom Challenge.... make an entry it'll be fun!
I want love to be the trend and laziness to be a thing of the past.
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Up-Vote, Re-Steem and Reply. Your comments are always welcome! Don't forget...#DreamsComeTrue!!!
Classic long drop !
Oh... I'm going to have to research what that means! I'm pretty new to the "blogging" world.
Oh wait... are from New Zealand??? Is it the toilet from my first photo?
Yes it’s the toilet ! I am Australian .
Lol cool yea I looked it up, thanks. We had to pull it from it's home as winter brought in more snow. We had it inside of an ice fishing tent for last year wich collapsed on itself with the weight of the snow!
This year we'll build the long drop a proper home made of cobb I believe!
Sorry about the kiwi thing... I was close though! 😁
Don’t be sorry us aussies and kiwis are quite close !
One day I'll come visit that whole area! It always seems very beautiful!
Thank you for participating in #FreedomChallenge!
Yay for humanure! Someone once told me that the amount of nitrogen and minerals that we put out in one day of poop is roughly the same amount that would be required for plants to grow one day's worth of food. That was quite insightful.
Nice going keeping your freedom alive, choosing to live more sustainably, to follow your dreams, to travel and stay inspired.
You're welcome and thank you! Those are interesting numbers, we started a compost pile last year as weekend worriors... it's amazing how there is no bad odors! And the feeling of not breaking a cycle is what makes me happy there.
Thanks again @sagescrub... you are an inspiration for me. Happy to have met you on steemit!
Love the pic of the composting toilet! Oh humanure. I know when it's done correctly it is completely safe but that's one hurdle I am still trying to jump. Is that a sneak peak of your property? If so, it looks amazing. Sounds like you have a lot on the back burner for Steemit! Can wait to see what you guys are up to and what adventures you have on your own property. -Aimee
Heehee, yes I guess it is a sneak peek!
Before we start using humanure for our veggie garden I still need a little more convincing...when it'll be ready we'll put that compost pile through some tests for sure!
I can hardly wait to be on the property and whenever I'll have time I will put up our progress on steemit.
Thanks Aimee
So excited to follow your posts, especially on the humanure and your absolutely gorgeous property. What a beautiful river!!! wow.
Your idea of freedom and they way you are expressing it is commendable. The free-er I try to become, they more noticeable the outside restrictions. If you own the land, you should have no one telling you what you can live in, what you can grow, where you can grow it, where and what you do with your poop. Yet, that's what happens a lot of places. I respect your idea to live free on your own land regardless of outside rules. That truly is freedom.
Thank you so much for your comment @phedizzle. We cannot wait to get on property full time...so tired of playing weekend worriors!
I can relate to this too:
As far as doing what I want to do regardless of restrictions, we do have to play that game with caution. It is in our adventage to know everything we can about the restriction as there are many loopholes to be used before going full throttle... Picking my battles and playing it smart is still my best strategy! In the case of humanure, we're doing it and I am happy to close the cycle from growing food back to growing food instead of polluting our grounds.
Following you and heading to read your Freedom Challenge soon.
Cheers