I love how diverse women are. Here on ‘A String of Pearls’  we feature women with a wide range of passions and interests. The passion is the same, pretty much, but the interests are so broad. I am always excited to see what a prospective Guest will have written about.

I emailed Tammy to inform her that her article was about to published and received back the news that her beloved husband, Jay had died suddenly and unexpectedly on the weekend.  Read their love story..    I’m sure Tammy will not mind me sharing her response to my email in which I encouraged her to not worry about continuing articles, unless of course it was something that helped her:

Thank you Jane. I think we are going to be ok. And yes I do need to write, it helps me tremendously. My dad is here and my friends have been wonderful, there has been a lot of support. My kids are doing ok, there are ups and downs and they each have their own way of dealing with things. But we are going to be ok.

A couple of weeks ago Tammy sent in this wonderful article about getting back to basics, to the land and her dreams.

‘People often laugh when I state that I am dragging my family along on a journey to sustainability. I made the statement half jokingly in the beginning but now they are racing along side me to create a better world. On a half-acre plot of land, the center piece a 30+ year old single wide trailer we are creating a suburban homestead. Our initial goal is to become as self-reliant as possible.

Our over all goal is to share our journey with our community so that they can see small changes that we make over time. It is our belief that if everyone takes at least one change into their life we can create a better world, leaving behind a legacy of a change, creativity and a healthier way of life for our children.

So what exactly is a suburban homestead? A small farm, if you will, located on the skirt of town. For us it is a means of creating a sustainable way of life. Here we will grow as many of our own crops as we can.

Reducing our carbon foot print by recycling, re-purposing and re-using as many items as we can to create items for our home and for sale. We are exploring alternative energies such as solar and wind to power our home.

We will be using intensive gardening throughout our property creating an edible landscape that is aesthetically pleasing as well serving a purpose. We will be growing heirloom fruits and vegetables to help preserve our agricultural history. We are following the same though in switching from a hodge podge flock of laying hens to a heritage breed dual purpose chicken.

 

We started broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts in our empty milk jug mini green houses. 

The most magnificent part of our journey is not creating the Sustainability Education Initiative to share and teach everyone what we are doing. It is the opportunity to homeschool our children and show them how to create their own lives and to follow their passions. It is an awesome feeling to watch the light bulbs go off over their heads. To show my girls that as women of the 21st century they can empower themselves to effect change and that they have the ability to follow their passions and create their own future. For our son he is learning to respect women and their abilities. He is also learning to create his future and follow his passions.

I began dragging my family along for the ride, being the crazy modern granola girl that I am, only to find that they can keep pace very well. My hope is that my children will surpass me and move well past me and keep the family tradition of exploring the world and creating an even better world for their children.

to be continued…

© Tammy Curry

 

 

 

 

 

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 THE NO-SUGAR EXPERIMENT PAGE HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH WEEK 3