This is the "About Me" post. It's a little boring, it's a little sappy. You might as well know it from the start.
We live in a house in the middle of Wichita, KS. Technically, we're SE Wichita, but six blocks North is NE Wichita and half a mile West is SW Wichita. So we're pretty darn close to the smack dab middle. We've lived here since 1996 and we have no reason to leave.
So, more background, the house came with the vacant lot next door. We thought it would be great, with room for both gardening and baseball or whatever our future children would play. But, the lot was overgrown around the perimeter with elm and honeysuckle and of course, poison ivy.
We'll get back to that but I have to say a few things about me. Right now, today, I'm 60 years old. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, which is actually pretty well under control in that I don't have a debilitating level of pain. I am almost completely functional but, I'm always in pain. I've lost a few fine motor skills and a lot of hand strength, but really, I'm still within the typical range for those things. That is, lots of people have less than I do with no medical condition whatsoever.
What I do have is fatigue. Generally, I have a good, active hour twice a day but I can't do more than that without frequent rests. I can't work an eight hour day. I can't sit up late with friends. I can't go out every day to chop away at the Forest of No Return, just to do it again next year.
A couple years ago, I was feeling pretty bad about the condition of the yard and the limitations I had in getting the things I wanted to have outdoors. And one day, this guy knocked on my door and asked if I had any work for him. Now, a lot of folks say,"Chase those guys away!" but call me soft (did I tell you this would be a little sappy?) I like to help. Guy needs work? I got work? It just seems right.
This guy wasn't entirely unknown to me. He had started by trimming a tree out on the side lot a couple years previously. It was far from the house, he did a good job, there wasn't any problem. Then he took out a dangerous tree in the back yard and for that, he had to bring a crew of two helpers. It was fine, they did a good job. So when he came around this time, I said, "Hey. How much to go around the perimeter of the yard and just take all the brush down to the ground?" He gave me a really good price. So he brought his crew, he pulled his truck and 16-foot trailer into the side yard, it took them two days and I regret not paying him more because he needed a second trip to the dump. It was great.
When my husband saw the result, he took the opportunity to make it permanent. He and the kids started at one end and dug out the stumps, leveled the ground and planted grass so the mower could take care of the rest. I helped when I could but it was heavy, hard work and I was usually just in the way. After two years, there are only two more areas yet to be fully cleared and hopefully, those will be done this summer.
In 2016, I found myself looking at these newly-cleared spaces, imagining the beautiful plantings I could install. But, there's a whole, political world outside my little yard and someday you can ask me how the thought came to me: Grow Food. And I decided that all my new plantings should produce food we can eat. Then, there was an election and I thought, "We're going to need a protein source," and that's where mushrooms come into the picture, but save that story for another day.
At the same time, and I suppose within those same politics, I was hearing that unemployment was down but wages were stagnant. The Fight For Fifteen was starting, one in five children live in poverty, there are food deserts and right here in Wichita, there are people who can't get enough food to eat. And one day, I heard some piece of that that just pierced my heart. It hurt me. I don't even remember what it was but it hurt me so much I sat down to think, "What can I do," and the first thing, of course, was, "Grow Food."
That's how my backyard food source got escalated to an Urban Farm. But, wait! I have a disability! I can't go out and work the fields from dawn to dusk, harvesting lettuce and planting tomatoes all day every day! So I decided to focus on perennial fruits. Because I can go out one day in February and prune the blackberries. And pick another day in February for the raspberries. Maybe a day in March to shape an apple tree. An organic anti-fungal in April? That's a chore for a day. Et Cet Er A! This is within my ability. I can do this.
Stay tuned.
