After watching Season 1, I resolved to have nothing further to do with the tricksy series…and, then, you know, Season 2 rolled around. Devin and I discussed at some length whether we would subject ourselves to the whims of the writers and producers, who don’t play nice. We agreed to watch the first show and see what we thought. We watched the first show, didn’t watch Episode II, and have watched the others a bit at a time. I am doing my best to keep my emotions out in left field as I watch, resolving instead to enjoy the costumes and good grammar and the very entertaining story line–what WILL happen next, one wonders?

As you said, Drina, the story line really is hilarious. And, now that I am aware that I am watching a soap opera, I am not surprised by the events as they unfold. Of course Matthew’s legs should return to full use. And, of course Lord G and his wife should become distant and that the cute new housemaid has a crush on him. And, of course Lady Mary should continue to hopelessly entangle herself with the wrong man. Now that I know the paradigm behind the story (i.e. despair and dissonance), I am able to watch rather impassively and enjoy the lovely people and their lovely accents.

Yes I’ve read lots of Joel Salatin. I recommend You Can Farm first. It’s general and has lots of good ideas. Realize that Salatin is coming from the perspective of wanting to be able to make a full time living for your family from farming (and farm-related products) alone. Even if that’s not your ultimate goal he’s got lots of neat ideas and very practical too.

We also own Pastured Poultry Profits. It is good, nothing else like it among this genre of books. I actually ran fifty chickens out on our backyard acre this past spring/summer, building the chicken tractors off his model. I’d recommend getting it after You Can Farm.

God bless!
Devin

btw your sites captcha is the toughest in town. I fail about half the time.

However, many of the early works on distributism were of a time that is not here anymore and I think that this is a problem when the scenarios of those works are transposed to our times. Not that I think that our times are fateful, but that in our times I question the chances of long-term survival of the effort.

I think that we need to actualize distributism without agrarianism for it to be successful, at least to more people who have no vocation to work the land. Perhaps the best example of such an actualization of distributism in the modern world is the Basque Mandragon Cooperative (http://bit.ly/wYwg9K), which is wholly owned by its 80000+ employees and was setup by Fr. Madariaga (http://bit.ly/AhcQQE) in the 50s. It’s a company with excellent records of profitability even when Spain experienced deep recessions.

I think that in this day and age, thanks to the Internet, it’s possible to achieve something like that for us, white-collar workers with no competence to work the land.

If you can’t do that for whatever reason, you can see if your town has a community garden. Typically you can rent for a nominal fee a small plot and garden there.

To find a local farmer who might be interested, you need to make connections either in the community or via the internet. Internet-wise, here’s a neat site for the Midwest that seeks to connect people who own land with small farmers: http://www.midwestfarmconnection.org/ (from this site that has lots of resources: http://fieldguideforbeginningfarmers.wikispaces.com/B.+Access+to+Land#ACCESS%20TO%20LAND).

Also this site could help: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/bfc/

But your best bet is making local connections. Connect with local farmers in your area through farmer’s markets or better yet CSAs (community supported agriculture). Where do they farm? How did they get there? Do they rent some land? Do they have internships? Do they know anyone who might rent a small plot to you or let you work their land? Etc.

For a replacement for insurance, I would suggest Christian Medishare: http://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/

It is not insurance, since that is heavily regulated (as we have seen with the HHS mandate grrr), but it works in a similar way. You pay a monthly amount (“premium”) based on family size and your family “deductible” (it’s called something else but it’s the same idea) and then your medical bills are matched with another family’s contributions.

So my main advice is: start now, start small, do something.

So this is something to take very seriously, the work aspect.