“Hi, I’m BrownThumbMama and I’m an urban homesteader.”
This is just one of the categories I place myself in, but at the moment it’s a dangerous place to be. A family in Southern California who grows their own food and lives a self-sufficient lifestyle has trademarked “Urban Homestead” and “Urban Homesteading.”
OK, so what’s the problem? They recently started sending cease and desist letters to bloggers, libraries, community groups and others, shutting down their Facebook pages and engaging in other bullying tactics.
These actions just disgust me. My experience with blogging, gardening, self-sufficient living, and general green/crunchy-ness has been overwhelmingly positive. There is a camaraderie among folks who are bucking the capitalist life to help the Earth and each other.
There are so many things I want to try, and good examples that I’m trying to follow. I learn from these and other bloggers every day, with every post.
- Track my harvest, like Kate
- Keep bees in my backyard, like Bill
- Make my own personal care items
- Cloth diapers and wipes for the new baby
- Jumping in with both feet and doin’ it all (their book is fantastic)
"Take Back Urban Homesteading" on Facebook
Amen! There's such a great community of people living this lifestyle -- and they've chosen to alienate rather than be part of it. It was a dumb move on their part (understatement of the year, perhaps...). But the good thing about it is that it galvanized the rest of the community. I've discovered so many other urban homesteaders in the last couple of days, all thanks to them :-)
ReplyDeleteFound you on the FB Take Back Urban Homesteading page and am following now. Love the blog, and not just because I have the same Johnny's seed catalog in front of me. Look forward to reading more of your blog.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! In the beginning they inspired me and then they started asking for donations and constantly promoting their "store". They never really answer your questions when you ask them specifically how they did such and such. Very disgusted with them over this whole thing!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to "dig in" to all of these new blogs I'm discovering!
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