Oklahoma: The Grass is Greener

It's a slightly overcast, warm, good Sunday. I'm still in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a lifetime in California, I'm shocked to find the place being so very Kool.. I see that what I really need is the opportunity to make some good friends, page-up at a good church, and be in an environment where I can afford to buy a home (and some land attached to it), meet a good woman of beauty and heart, and prosper.

They all here in Oklahoma. I most likely won't live here forever, but it's just a kick in the behind that I remained so stuck in California for so many years. Cali ain't the be-all, end-all by no means. It's "over-done" with too many rats in the cage—plus, people everywhere know what time it is. Yeah, there are some Neanderthals here, but by far, there are more people who will smile back and say "hello". Kool. (And there's sooo much green, fertile land to buy a farm on here in the Midwestern "Heartland.")

This morning I flagged down a sister in a car and asked here where a black church was. She pointed out the directions and told me it started at 11:00am. About an hour later, I started walking down that green bordered country road to church. Right away it started raining. A few feet up the road some old sisters in a hooptie say me walking and asked me if I was going to church. I said yeah, and they told me to hop in. Turned out the directions were slightly wrong and I might not have found it had it not rained and had they not been there at that particular moment. Church was good.

There are a lot of ways to be wealthy ... and I regret that I've felt the pull of being a loner for so many years. It's kept me struggling spiritually and economically far longer than it should have. (As in, "It's who you know, that counts." That's including God!) Perhaps worse than that, being a loner and believing in the "American" lie of "being independent" from others has also malnourished the manhood I've always wanted to actualize. Yes, a man does need to stand on his own two feet, provide for himself, his family, and then to do charitable acts of goodness and kindness for others... but in order to do that, he has to come through the gauntlet of relationships with others. It is through the spiritual, physical, economical, and moral challenges and difficulties with others that my adolescent edges are scraped off, and my masculine heart is forged.

Again, I voice my concern about the economic racism that is so strong in California and many other urban centers across the country. I see sooo many opportunities in "off the chart" places like Oklahoma for anyone with a business sense. Google is coming to Tulsa. I suspect that Oklahoma City holds more prospects than Tulsa. But you’d better do your homework and get some skills BEFORE you move to slower and/or more rural parts of the country. (They have plenty of "haves" and "have-nots" here already. You want to capitalized on all the gentrifications you’ve lived through in places that are now over-crowed and over developed.) Bring that experience with you.

I'm waiting on my trainer-truck, and then I'll be heading out. When I see other places of "good prospect", I'll send you a shout about them. Until then, God bless you my friends.

Alternative Building: Papercrete

Okay, so you've got your eye on a piece of property that has a 3 bdrm/1.5 bath house on it, 17 acres of land, a barn, an all season creek (fresh water is going to be increasingly more important), and is divided between 5 acres of cleared pasture/farmland and the rest in timber that you can mill or sell.

We've already learned that one of the best small farm practices is to use no more than three acres for crops and flowers. So what else can you do with all that land?

How about greatly increasing the equity of your "empire" by adding another structure to it? Building Green and "Alternative" allows you to creative wonderful, mortgage-free buildings at pennies to what traditional buildings cost. The building can be wood burning Sauna cordwood building or a Strawbale "Adobe" home that keeps you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer while decreasing your dependence on both energy and energy companies.

The latest ... and the building style that has recently caught my eye is Papercrete .... a substance that creates lightweight "concrete-ish" mix or "adobe-ish" blocks to build with.

Like cordwood homes, you don't have to be a builder to build a house. There are books and videos at your local public library. You can begin your search by clicking on the links and by googling some keywords like: alternative building, papercrete, cordwood building, strawbale houses, and building with cob.

Just Gotta Have a Tractor!

It's amazing how cheap these Kuboa Tractors are. Yes, Kubota is Japanese, but they're made in Georgia and Kubota also makes most American tractors. Only the paint jobs and names are different ... they say.

I priced one in Fairfield, California and discovered that you can get a four wheel drive and a front loader and a back hoe for around $17,000!! This isn't even the smallest model.

I plan to own no more than 20 acres and farm around three. The tractor above is just rignt. Plus, all the impliments I'll ever need will add up to around no more than $25,000. When you think about how much farm tractors used to cost ... I find this amazing!

For more information, pull up the Kubota website.

World Hunger Will Increase By 2015

The Bahamas imports over two thirds of their food but help is on the way. Micro and small farming techniques are being developed by Tuskegee Agricultural Chemists. Their goal is to funnel better small farming techniques directly to small landholders.

Professor Per Pinstrup-Anderson, from Cornell University in New York, says that improving agriculture is the key to both future national hunger and international famine.

"When you put money in the hands of farmers that money is spent on creating employment and reducing poverty elsewhere," said Pinstrup-Anderson.

"We have found in our research that for every dollar you invest in agricultural research you generate about $6 of additional income among the farmers and about $15 of additional economic growth in the society as a whole. Much of that will help poor people in those countries," he concluded. "

From BBC Online. Click for Full Story.

The world will have 100 million extra hungry people by 2015, scientists say.

I’m not sure how good their journalism is, but Prophecy Central list links to these stories:

• One in six countries facing food shortage


• Famine threatens 11 million in Horn of Africa


• 'Millions more starving' by 2015’

From Prophecy Central. Click for full story.

One of every eight American families is on
the edge…

USA Today ran the following story about homelessness and hunger in America. I've posted a few story highlights:

• "Families with children are among the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The Conference of Mayors found that 41% of the homeless are families with children, up from 34% in 2000. The Urban Institute reports about 23% of the homeless are children.


• "Cities and shelters are also seeing the shift. In New York, the number of homeless families jumped 40% from 1999 to 2002. In Boston, the number of homeless families increased 8.3% to 2,328 in 2002 compared with 2001.
  
• "An estimated 3.5 million people are likely to experience homelessness in a given year, the Urban Institute reports. People remained homeless for an average of six months, according to the Conference of Mayors survey — a figure that increased from a year ago in all but four cities.

From USA Today. Full Story click for full story.

My question is, in light of the economic, cultural and social problems facing us in urban America, WHY ARE WE STILL SO COMMITTED BE THE LAST RATS OF THE SHIP?

How many tea leaves in the bottom of the cup does it take to see that becoming increasingly self-sufficient by producing as much of your own food, and growing it on land you own ---preferably with water on or beneath it. Please look through this and Black Farms post (and archieves) and follow the links to your survival, your freedom, and a greater quality of life.

Mint Farming? Amish Acres?

As a born and bred urbanite who is seriously planning on moving back to the land within the next two years, I am continually researching:

• Ways to make it on the land, as well as,
• Exactly what does, "making it mean"? ... what are my expectations?
• What crops bring in money to the small farmer
• Are my expectations for sustainable living too low ... can I actually bring in a profit too?

These and other questions brought me to Mint Farming. A kind new friend on www.tribe.com informed me that crops like mint could be easy as well as profitable. A quick search brought up Amish Acres. This site provides not only information about the crop, but the directions on everything from planting to harvesting.

Like anything, you want to do your homework. While the appeal of growing mint is that you plant it, treat it perhaps once, and do little besides ensure proper watering before harvesting the crop, nothing is guaranteed for small framers any more than they are for large, corporate farms.

"Mint is a small, unstable market with frustratingly little solid economic data," says Montana State University economist Gary Brester.

That’s why linking up with associations like the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) , that featured award winning small farmers Alex and Betsy Hitt and told the story of how they make above average earnings on just three acres of their 27 acre North Carolina Peregrine Farm. (Click here for photos.)

The web is filled with information for new hobby farmers. New Farm’s web site is a treasure trove of information and it also host a forum to ask questions and read problems and solutions encountered by other small and organic farmers. One of this site’s niche appeals is that it covers both national and international farming. They also plan to offer online courses for both the veteran farmer interesting in organic farming, and courses for tenderfoots like myself.

The United States Department of Agriculture's web site also offers a treasure trove of information to people who love the idea of growing crops for their family and/or for sale to the public. The link below details the planting of cover crops which are used to enrich soil and protect the land after the fall harvest.

NOTE: I encourage you to look at the text in this article closely. Links aren't easily viewed in some browsers.

8 Cheapest Places In America To Live

This blog isn't written for everyone ... and certainly not for every black person. Many African Americans who I've recently talked to state that they are concerned about "being separated" by some outside force (e.g. "da government") or some other unknown agency in some unknown conspiracy. But regardless to what their opinion is about moving away from California (or another urban area) and moving to the rural South or Midwest, almost all voice an uneasy concern about the future.

China is poised to become the Number 1 world's economy. When that happens, many of the countries, foreign corporations and non-Americans with money invested in this country that hold negative feelings about our politics are going to pull their money out. Should that happen, our economy is going to be rocked ... and we all know who will feel it the worst.

Even if that scenario doesn’t happen, according to many of Wall Streets best economic prognosticators (I'll allow you to goggle it this time ... I've previously posted an article on this or on http://blackfarms.wordpress.com/ ), we will still most likely experience a number "deep" recessions. Again, we all know who gets hit the hardest during "recessions."

It is to those people who either haven't been able to acquire the kind of Real Estate and land they dream of and need that this blog speaks to. You may be a young adult with a family you'd like to raise in a more wholesome place, or perhaps someone near retirement--or someone who simply sees that as the greater urban stresses (the economy, crime, adult illiteracy, drug addiction and moral decay) continues to worsen, it's best to get out of the way and head for higher ground (with fresh water if possible). In that spirit, Black Solutions is re-posting a link to a story that ran today on www.msn.com

8 Cheapest Places To Live

Small Farming for Profit and Stewardship

North Carolina farmer Alex Hitt and his wife Betsy have worked their 26 acre farm in Graham, N.C. into an environmental gem and profit center. "Over the years, Hitt has reduced acreage and labor by improving their soil with cover crops, concentrating on high-value crops that grow well in the area. What he has not reduced is profit, thanks to direct marketing through the Caroboro Farmers Market and Weaver Street Market, a cooperative grocery store in the area.

"Each acre returns a minimum of $20,000 annually, while four high-tunnel greenhouses (that shelter young or delicate crops) bring in $1,000 per crop. The Hitts embrace their small scale, growing 80 varieties of 23 vegetables along with 164 varieties of cut flowers on just three acres. Alex and Betsy were winners of the 2006 Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture from Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program." (~Reprinted from "Small American Farm" magazine, January 2007 issue.)

Alex and Betsy Hitt will deliver the keynote address at this year's Future Harvest Alliance Conference in Hagerstown, Maryland, January 12-13, 2007. Learn more about this and other Future Harvest-CASA information on their website at: http:/www.futureharvestcasa.org/, or email to: fhacasa@verizon.net.

Eco Villages

Great things are occurring in Intentional Community organizations. Many today are looking at building Green and Permaculture planning in their process of creating sustainable living in rural as well as urban and suburban settings.

It's almost as if time spirits from the 60's went to school, experienced all the ups, downs and changes that life can bring, and now armed with "Green Master's Degrees", PhD’s in urban planning, psychology, and agriculture, are coming full cycle to the commune and readjusting their earlier fantasies of Utopia to fit the realities of today's world. Questions remain:

1. Who will watch my back when crime rates rise?
2. Where will I raise my children as predator populations increase?
3. With crack babies now raising meth babies, where will I find a quiet, peaceful place to live?
4. How will I earn a living in rural settings ... and perhaps even "flourish rather than just survive?"

I attest that this is a window of time when the answers to the questions are not only possible, but point to far greater rewards than we even imagine in these current cities of despair.

White American is on the move working in this direction. Why are we still anchored to places where there is little or no money, and where we are dying?

Backwards Migration --South!

From the NPR website:

"The black farmer, working hard for his own, became the living symbol of the strong, independent black man," Williams writes. "Farming also allowed black families to move into other businesses, from funeral homes to preaching to construction, and thus served as the bedrock of all black wealth in America."There is a current "Reverse Migration" going on. Just as large numbers of blacks moved away from the rural South during the 30s, 40s and on into the 60s... so they are returning."

This site is all about getting out of toxic "Urban Centers" (a.k.a. "Cities") and either moving to a rural location alone, with your family, or with a new community you either join or create. Black Solutions will soon add a discussion forum for creating just that. (Amongst other things.)

By now I'm sure you've all read that there is currently a "Black Migration back south" going on. Leading the charge south are college educated blacks lured by large amounts of cheap land, nice roomy houses, and roads that separate you from your neighbors instead of thin walls. The fact that large numbers of blacks remain in the south adds spice to the seduction."Many blacks left not only because of economic opportunities but because of the political and social constraints of segregation," said Charles Ross, historian and interim director of the African-American Studies program at the University of Mississippi. "Those things have changed dramatically in the South."The Brookings Institution reported (May, 2005) that decades of vacating Dixie are reversing. "The New Great Migration", is officially listed as the period between 1965-2000. During the Fatter part of the '90s, the South was the only region in the U.S. that saw an increase in black residents.

African Americans migrated in great numbers away from the rural south during the period between 1910 and 1970. The left for both better living conditions and personal and psycological safety ... you know ... lynching. Now that official Jim Crowe laws have been eliminated and racial terrorism outlawed, blacks are free to hear the call of the original homeland of our ancestors.Personally I'm craving the feel of a used tractor and the smell of an old barn to explore. I want to raise big dogs, wonderfully healthy vegetables, and fresh fruits. I want to feel my muscles firm up from building fences in the hot summer sun.

Urban life is killing us. Plain and simple. People who carry the same cellular memory as their forefathers who walked out of Africa and peopled the earth, are now afraid of a camping trip to their local regional park. I want to trade neighbors who fear they cannot live without drugs and alcohol for wild turkeys cackling in the distance. I want the screech of an eagle to be my morning alarm clock and wonder how my roosters are alright ... instead of worrying about the windows on my parked car.

In the weeks ahead, I'll chronical the many reasons why like many (black, white, brown and yellow) are feeling the urge to move to the country too. Hope you check in with me from time-to-time.

The Purpose of Black Solutions

This blog is intended to:

• Provide creative solutions for the problems that currently face African Americans
• To avoid the traps of remaining stuck in "Victim Status"
• To hopefully provoke thought
• ... and occassionally insight humor