Urban Homesteading in Florida

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Although our 50' X 110' lot is too small for livestock (and even if it weren't, we'd have zoning restrictions to contend with), we do have a few farm "pets": Several beehives provide us with generous harvests of honey, and a homemade worm bed full of thousands of red wigglers yields pound upon pound of nutrient-packed, soilenriching worm castings for our horticultural efforts.

Our bee business is an endeavor that we've particularly enjoyed. I thought Jim was slightly addled when he first announced his plan to "set up a beehive or two" in the back garden, just inside the fence that separates our property from the alley. After all, neither of us knew two cents' worth about tending bees. But Jim began reading everything he could find on the subject of apiculture and paid frequent visits to our neighbor Charles, who keeps two hives behind his house. One day, I was working in the kitchen and suddenly saw a column of smoke rising in the backyard. Rushing out to investigate, I found Charles — with his bee smoker — installing a new hive in our garden.

Two years and hundreds of stings later, we're the proud owners of seven hives (we've lost a few and gained a few along the way) . . . and our Honey for Sale sign on the front lawn has several customers a week knocking on our door. Our initial investment in equipment — which includes a handsome stainless steel, hand-cranked extractor — has been recovered by honey sales, and we're now operating a "buzzing" (and profitable) home business!

ALTERNATIVE ECONOMICS

Aside from honey sales, we earn our living at activities that — although they are, for the most part, strictly for city slickers — seem to us to be in harmony with our lifestyle. Jim operates a busy landscaping service, trimming, mowing, edging, and pruning some of the most perfectly manicured lawns in town. Meanwhile, I teach yoga and stress-reduction classes in city parks, health clubs, and community meeting halls. We've come to treasure the independence that our "self-made" jobs afford us — and frankly, we wouldn't trade our satisfying physical work for all the highly paid executive positions in the world!

We've also found that having access to a city-style cash economy doesn't mean that you can't find opportunities for some good old country-style barter. In our neighborhood — an area of older homes now being refurbished by young families — community spirit runs high, so it's often easy to find a neighbor who's interested in swapping goods or services.

HEARTH AND HOME

Inside our 1,250-square-foot house is probably the clearest evidence of our constant efforts to live lightly and to simplify our lives. In practical terms, we try to achieve this by limiting the number of possessions we acquire to only those really necessary. This required a good bit of soul searching at first but eventually became second nature.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print