Where do you get all this time?

Morning temp: 59F
Afternoon high: 77F
Tonight's projected low: 56F
Humidity: 94%
Moon: Waxing, 64%

It was quite cloudy this morning, and then a drizzling rain set in about 9:00am. There's also a slight South wind (they say it's 4 mph, but I doubt it).

This Morning.

1. I'm early at 4:0am this morning, so I've started two loaves of whole wheat bread. This will be my first time going through the process without M's guidance. Eee gads. Once it's light outside, I'll give the Garden a morning watering and dig the 3.5' X 30' Bed I staked out late yesterday afternoon. At that point, we'll see what the weather looks like.

2. A few readers have emailed, asking how it is that we are able to spend long hours nearly every day engaged in some aspect of Homesteading work. "Don't you have jobs?" "Where do you get all this time?" Very good questions indeed. M, of course, works full-time as a Labor and Delivery nurse. So, three and sometimes four days a week she is working 12-13+ hour shifts, and then sleeping as much as possible, trying to recover. On work days, this leaves her maybe half an hour to visit the Garden, cut salad Greens, if she has the energy, a few minutes of weeding. On her off days she is a Gardening dynamo, watering, transplanting, starting seeds, surveying the successes (or failures) of individual plants, planning out our gardening future. The wealth of knowledge and experience she has built is impressive.

I, on the other hand, have been in a very different kind of situation for the past eight months. From 1999 to 2006, I worked as a Visiting Instructor of Religious Studies and Philosophy at a large research University here in the Southeast. I taught number of courses, such as World Religions, New Religious Movements, and Philosophy of Religion. I enjoyed this work a great deal, but found it thoroughly exhausting and depleting. Doing the best possible job in the classroom, plus research, writing and community service (e.g., lecturing for local groups on hot topics such as, "What is Islam?" when asked to do so) required, at least from me, literally all of my energies and 60+ hours a week, for a very, very, very small amount of money (about $27,500 per/yr.) and absolutely no job security whatsoever.

In academia, there's a wide gap between Professor and Instructor. Professors have undergone the most thorough academic training in the world, possess a profound level of expertise in their fields, and accordingly possess doctorate degrees (PhDs). Instructors may have this level of training (and may simply be waiting for a better position to open up somewhere). Or, like myself, they may have less training (e.g., a Master's degree), though they may also turn out to be apt (or even gifted) teachers. There are also differences in how long you are able to remain at your job. Professors, of course, have long-term jobs just like every other professional occupation (e.g., lawyers, doctors, etc.). In my case, the University offered Instructors one-year contracts, at the end of which you could re-apply for the following year. Of course, you'd have to compete against everyone and anyone nation-wide who might want your job, so there was no guarantee you'd be re-hired and have a job the following Fall semester. Obviously, this is a very difficult way to live.

About two years into my stay, the University Administration instituted a policy limiting Instructors to three consecutive years. So, after Summer semester 2002, I took a year off - it was during this time, and to some degree for this reason, that M and I briefly emigrated to Lookout Mountain, Alabama for a year. Fall 2003, I returned and taught for the next three years, until Summer 2006 when my appointment ended once more. By this time, however, given what we'd learned about the possibility of a Homesteading lifestyle, I began to seriously re-think my goal of earning a PhD (in Religion) and moving on to a long-term University teaching career. Frankly, Homesteading may be the better choice. It certainly promotes a far more healthy lifestyle. Moreover, it sets an extraordinarily helpful example for other Americans (e.g., of gradually reclaiming one's self-reliance), an example that may well be sorely needed in the years to come, given the ecological and resource challenges we face. So, the past eight months have been a time of research, self-education and experiment, specifically to see whether we can, in fact, begin to master the skills necessary for a full-time Homesteading existence. In essence. I'm making the best possible use out of my present unemployment.

This Afternoon.

1. The bread seems to be coming along okay. Just now (12 noon) it's about half way through a 50 minute rising period. So, with the rain merely drizzling, I'm headed outdoors to see what can be done. Oh, M loved the brick walkway, and wants to plant Spinach beside it.