Penthouse Homestead

I'll probably be a DIY girly for the rest of my life, and I'm totally fine with that.

When I first created my Pinterest account it was because I was a DIY girly, and that’s something that probably will never change. Capitalism truly hates to see me coming, because my mind is working overtime to find solutions to my greatest problem.

What’s my problem you might ask? In the simplest way to put it, I have a problem with paying for the convenience of things, especially because most of this shit is killing us. I have a problem that most of us have been used as lab rats for our entire lives because money hunger thugs are much more concerned with their pockets than the effects their products cause to people’s health. I think about these vaccines they give our kids with no real timeline results of the effects.

The foods our government has allowed us to consume for decades alone prove that we should not continue living by the standards of convenience. This country as it operates today was built on the concept of convenience, no labors of love just greed. Convenience will leave you for dead, convenience will get you killed in this world.

I started to realize this when my family and I lived on the farm. The way we slowed down from the fast pace lifestyle was one thing, but actively practicing self-sufficiency led me down a path of wonder. And my wife will tell you, once I’ve been inducted into the world of wonder solutions start flowing through me like water.

If I can grow my own food at home, what would I feed my family so I don’t have to depend on a grocery store run? How much would I need to grow to feed us for a year? How would I preserve the food to last for the year?

If I can make my own clothes, where would I get the fabric? Or what’s the process of turning cotton into fabric? Should I just make the investment to learn the full skill from start to finish now?

If I can grow my own weed, would my high experience change? Could this be the perfect bonding for my marriage?

Am I overthinking all of this?

No.

You see I decided that growing my own food, weed, and making my own clothes would probably lead me into the most healthy life I’ve experienced. The food would not be filled with chemicals to rush the plants to go nor will they be generically modified to be picture perfect. I don’t know about you, but if I have to decide between a GMO tomato and an heirloom one, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m going for the heirloom. If it’s good, I might risk it all and save the seeds.

My daughter enjoys Mommy’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes (a little cinnamon and vanilla extract) for breakfast, and while making them at home rather than buying the Egg-O frozen convenient ones my mind still wonders. What’s in the pancake mix that allows me to only use water when the homemade recipe requires buttermilk and egg? So naturally this week I will be making the dry batter mix for her pancakes since I paid $10.99 for a dozen of eggs. They didn’t even have the brown eggs in the store, for that price. I can’t even buy Black when it came to my eggs! Luckily, my wife’s coworker has been trying to give us eggs from her chickens for months so I’ll be making space on the counter this week for eggs straight from the hen’s ass. If the farm taught me anything, it’s that I much rather have fresh eggs on my kitchen counter than aesthetically pleasing eggs sitting in my refrigerator. Real self-sufficient flex in these weird-ass times.

Here’s my thing, where do they get off feeding us rice with added plastic to it to make it stretch? And let the media tell it, America will soon be facing a food shortage yet this is the same government that cut all the female trees that produce fruits leaving us with the only the male ones that produce pollen. For the aesthetics they claim. This government completely fucked up on ecosystem to prove how much they hate women. I’d even go as far to say Black women. White babies that grew up to run this country were nourished by the milk from a Black woman’s breast, that nourishment that our Black babies needed.

Unbelievable.

Now let’s break this down, we have male trees that produce the pollen and no female trees to receive the pollen from our natural pollinators. But then our natural pollinators have been experiencing their own genocide for years at the cost of our convenience; pesticides, disease, and habitat loss. Are you wondering how our food is made yet? Have you ordered a basket of chicken wings then realized how many chicken arms that had to be in order to fulfill America’s love for fried chicken wings?

And they say it’s niggas who love fried chicken.

Before you log off, this is not a you should be vegan post, because I have accepted for my family that lifestyle will not work for us. And I’ve been vegan several times throughout my adulthood. But I do think each household needs to take some time and assess what can be homegrown or made at home to avoid buying into the convenience of America.

I live in an apartment so being able to grow food on an acre of land is not going to be ideal for me based on my environment, so I am doing a garden plan for an urban garden on my balcony. I’ve done this before by growing plant starts in containers and raised beds, however this time I will be doing seed starts to begin my process of creating a family heirloom.

My build out includes a small pond with stones and a long stick for pollinators to have somewhere to get fresh water without drowning. I plan to attract pollinators to my balcony by strategically planting native plants throughout my garden. Along with a few bird feeders in some of the dwarf fruit trees that I will keep outside during the sprint and summer to naturally pollinate. Plants will be companions to prevent pest to avoid using harmful pesticides, and the garden is planned for me to be able to feed my family of three for a year. This plan includes canning techniques to preserve my foods, while also preserving my seeds to start the heirloom legacy for our family.

DIY to me is not just making it yourself, it’s about cutting out the middle man and learning trade skills to survive. We have gotten away from a trade skill structure in our humanity and now no one knows how to survive off the land. Convenience stole our willpower to do for self, and what is happening in the world right now is a major wake up call to us all. Now if you want to call this fear mongering then ask yourself if your power went out today, do you have what you need to feed yourself and your family until it is turned back on? And if you don’t think you can then this is my point, right now I can’t and that makes me uncomfortable.

One thing my journey has taught me is how to get comfortable in the discomfort, and knowing I can come on my balcony to get foods to feed my family makes me feel comfort. It feels more comfortable knowing my food created a mini ecosystem within my reality bringing more of the change into the world that I personally would like to see. And it’s not just food we are growing, my wife and I currently have cannabis plants that are close to sprouting in the coming weeks.

The printers and thermal machine will be arriving to my home in the coming days for me to begin the process of print publication for

BlackStack

, which is my non-profit print publication dedicated to preserving the voices of Black writers. Meaning members of this organization will have access to print publication at affordable rates without having to face being silenced by a book ban.

I will not depend on the government for my well-being, I never have and I never will. But I will help my community by documenting how to live free. Cheers to the Universe blessing me with a second two!

xoxo,
Jacquie