000 – Introduction


Welcome, about Lee and Amanda, about Longleaf Breeze, the Three Principles, and the Longleaf Breeze podcast – 10/15/09

Listen – 10:17

About the three principles

More about our living arrangements

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Raw transcript:

ever since I was a college student I’ve been increasingly interested in and involved in the environmental movement actually I sort of way and I think throughout the time I was raising my children I wasn’t quite as involved as I should have been but as the years went on I got concerned about what’s happening in our environment and just wanted to live sustainably

 

welcome to Longleaf breathe beginners learning subsistence farming using three simple principles approaching but never reaching subsistence it’s got to be fun while we’re doing it and we don’t make, statement and now me and Amanda Borden introductory podcast we’re calling this episode triple zero the ideas we just want to tell you a little bit about who we are how we came to this and what we hope to accomplish each week as we visit with you

 

this is a podcast about subsistence farming wait neither of us has any background in farming talk talk a little bit about your background okay I actually Leslie said I have no background in growing anything before last year’s Garden or this past Summer’s Garden I had not grown so much as a tomato and I was probably in the minority of the people in that respect I have been working with ornamentals for the past twenty-six years since we’ve moved into our current Suburban home the one we’re about to leave and we’ll tell you a little bit more about our plans as the show goes on but so I didn’t have experience in growing except for just trying to make things pretty in the yard however ever since I was a college student I’ve been increasingly interested in and

 

involved in the environmental movement actually I said have waned I think throughout the time I was raising my children I wasn’t quite as involved as I should have been but as the years went on I got concerned about what’s happening in our environment and just wanted to live sustainably and also to constructed dwelling that maybe could be served as an example for others of how to maybe use solar energy renewable energy sources of energy as opposed to fossil fuels so we’re trying to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and I think that’s where you come in rightly different perspectives in and it makes for interesting conversation and I don’t want to over stress this obviously there’s a great deal of common ground

 

but I am not nearly so much and environmentalist as you are my focus is more on the concern about resource depletion about climate change about overpopulation resulting in what I expect to be the coming decline of complex civilization and I come to the idea of subsistence farming from a standpoint of resilience what can we do to withstand the coming shocks to our civilization you come to it more from an environmental bent I think I’m a tree-hugger let’s just face it and I also want to do everything we can to protect the habitats of animals and other creatures on this Earth so I think that’s another part of what I’d like to accomplish with what we’re doing.

 

shall we come together in this whole area of subsistence farming and how to do that and we’ve articulated three principles and we’ll be telling you more about each one of these over the course of our visiting together but the three principles are we are approaching but we’ll never reach subsistence it’s got to be fun while we’re doing it and we don’t Mike alna statements in future podcast we will expound upon each one of these but it might be worth it to mention in light of the fact that you just talked about climate change and all this disaster and maybe civilization as we know it collapsing that principle number to it’s got to be fun while we’re doing it might sound a bit inconsistent but we hope that s you listen to us you’ll see why we think it can be fun while we’re doing it we really do and and I guess I have to say this it’s it’s not Apparent from what I just said both of us are pretty optimistic people

 

where we tend to look on the bright side of life we tend to assume that we’re going to be okay and that the community in which we live will be okay if you want to talk a little bit about how we’re going to be living where we going to be living well and initially I should say that we have a long-range plan that involves building a small solar power in sustainable house when I say small but he didn’t cooled area and some external areas like porches etcetera but right now with the market being what it is we are in the same boat is pretty much everybody else we can’t afford to do that so right now we’ve constructed a pole barn and it’s it’s a large I mean the footprints large but it contains a storage area a workshop that deserted traditional pole barn kind of work area where you have pallets and tracks with pallets you know where you can store things in

 

home for the tractor in the pickup truck however we included in the Interior Space a 600 square-foot apartment we’re calling it that has a studio apartment would be a nice word for it but it really is it’s going to be comfortable and that’s where we will be living for the immediate future and maybe they even the foreseeable future time to design the proper type of house which is a continuing source of dialogue between you and me because you are eager to get on with the house as soon as possible I on the other hand prefer to make sure that we can afford it before we build a house so you and I have a little bit of difference in perspective on that

 

that’s right we also might want to talk about is you heard initially the mention of the term Longleaf Breeze as our name for are podcasts and R and it’s actually good name for our block as well but we’re doing but the reason for that name came about when we bought the property and we walked on it a good bed and we noticed it’s a very hilly which is a little different for some parts of South Central Alabama will you manage to find heels that are reminiscent of the foothills of the Appalachian and we did when you go up to the high points we noticed even in the hot summertime there’s a breeze it makes shift may come from different directions but there is a breeze and we really enjoy feeling that so we’ve been we’ve begun saying our motto is there’s always a breeze he’s only three I belong Leaf part comes into play when you look around and you see what kind of vegetation really seems to like it there without having to have humans

 

intervene the lock the property was logged before we bought it that’s unfortunate they took took Pines mostly and in the process they took out some Longleaf Pines but we noticed that the ones that stayed that lived are thriving we’ve actually planted almost 500 Longleaf seedlings not have all of which have survived but a good many have so we hope to make it a Haven for long legs will continue to plant them continue to make it a nice place for long leaves to be and that to enjoy them of your colleague at Samford Larry Davenport who talks about climate change in the changes we should expect going forward and when his students and his colleagues asking what can we do to prepare for it he always says plant long leaves so we’re planning long leaves

 

open let’s talk a little bit about what the podcast is going to be focusing on and then we will end this episode and be looking forward to visiting with you again our hope is that as we visit together we will focus on the Practical things that we are trying and the Practical things that are happening as a result

 

this is not so much this is how you should do it podcast cuz we’re not smart enough to know that at this point then times it turns out to be this is how you should not do it we make mistakes we tell you what we will tell you when we have made a mistake and what we did wrong and how we would do it differently if we did it again

 

that’s why I and end so we hope that this can be a resource for others who might be wanting to strike out as we are doing into completely unfamiliar territory it’s going to be we’re going to enjoy getting to know each other and we know that Tom we will learn a great deal not only from each other and from our experiences but we will learn from you as well as you give us feedback as you talk back with us after hearing what we have to say should be fine we’re looking forward to it and hearing from you

that’s why I and end so we hope that this can be a resource for others who might be wanting to strike out as we are doing into completely unfamiliar territory it’s going to be we’re going to enjoy getting to know each other and we know that Tom we will learn a great deal not only from each other and from our experiences but we will learn from you as well as you give us feedback as you talk back with us after hearing what we have to say should be fine we’re looking forward to it and hearing from you

you’ve been listening to Longleaf Breeze with Lee and Amanda Borden we’d love to hear from you you can call the farm at 334-625-8682 send email to letters at Longleaf breeze.com or you can send us honest-to-goodness mail at PO Box 78044 6 Tallassee Alabama 36078 to browse our archive to learn more about the farm in about me and Amanda and to talk with other listeners visit us as Longleaf freeze.com

thanks for listening see you next week