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Thursday Morning Ramblings

March 22, 2012 D.A. Adams 4 Comments

After my illness last fall, I had nearly lost hope of ever launching the farm. With my left hand nearly useless and my balance all but gone, I knew that I couldn’t do the physical labor necessary to get it off the ground. Not knowing if I would ever feel normal again or if I would continue deteriorating compounded the problem because I didn’t want to pour a bunch of time and money into a project that I physically might not be able to sustain. Those feelings only added to my sense of helplessness and despair as I contemplated my future. At that point, I had no answers as to what was wrong with me; all I knew was that I felt terrible and seemed to be losing control of my body.

Today, I feel much better. Removing gluten from my diet has all but eliminated the vast majority of my symptoms. I still have some trembling and twitching in my left hand, and my balance is still a little suspect, but overall, I can do virtually everything I could before the onset of the illness. When I read the journal entries I wrote back in October and November, I’m astonished by how much healthier I feel today. Then, I wouldn’t have given you a nickel for my future because I was deteriorating so rapidly. Today, I honestly feel as if I could live a healthy, productive life for another 40-50 years. It’s an amazing turnaround.

So with that in mind, my attention again returns to the farm. I still believe in its potential to provide a long-term, sustainable method of not only providing food and revenue for my family but also for providing a blueprint for others in this region. Because of the efficiency of energy use and inherent purity of the produce, long-term hydroponic farming has many distinct economic advantages over traditional farming. Instead of being dependent upon the conditions of nature for sustenance, the plants receive consistent levels of full-spectrum light, water, and nutrients, therefore allowing for multiple crop cycles in a given year. Instead of losing 90% of their water to soil absorption, their roots are immersed in water and thus require much less total resources. Because of the use of liquid based nutritional supplements for each stage of growth, there’s no need for harsh fertilizers, and because of the indoor growth, there’s no need for dangerous pesticides and herbicides.

So again, I’m turning my attention and energy towards the farm. The wonderful thing I found the last couple of years, before the illness, is that working on the farm actually boosts my creative energy and allows me to write more than teaching does. After a full day of lecturing and grading, my brain is spent. After a day of hard labor, my mind is fresh and teeming with ideas, so long-term, if I can get the farm off the ground and operational, I believe it will improve my productivity as a writer. It’s a good feeling to once again have hope for a brighter, healthier future, and I plan on taking full advantage of my rebounding health to create not only entertaining books but also a viable, sustainable farm.

General Posts

Monday Afternoon Ramblings

September 12, 2011 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

Here is an update on the farm. Over the weekend, I finished the new section of wall along the far end. It’s not perfect, but it should be a decent improvement to the old wall that had gotten damaged by water, weeds, and pests. Overall, the building is coming along nicely. The flooding issue is nearly completely under control, and the outer wall should go up fairly quickly. Even though I’m far behind the original schedule I had set, I feel pretty good about the progress that’s been made so far. Right now, I hope to have the building usable in the next five weeks.

Once the building is in a usable condition, I’ll focus on getting the prototype operational. The biggest obstacle to that will be buying all of the equipment, but one way or the other, I’ll make it happen. It’s important to me to get the first unit off the ground and find out if it works efficiently. If so, things may begin to happen quickly. If not, then I’ll figure out what direction to go. The most important part is to have the prototype working so that I can know whether or not I’m on the right path.

General Posts

Thursday Afternoon Ramblings

September 8, 2011 D.A. Adams 3 Comments

I’m at and have been facing a crossroads in my life. I feel it every waking moment of each day. On the one side, I am a capable teacher with 13 years experience and a solid foundation for how to run my courses, so the job is not difficult in the sense of day-to-day class preparation. But with that experience comes a feeling of burnout, of having been overworked and exhausted by the system well before my prime. While I’m good at the job, it no longer fulfills me in any substantial way.

Then, there is the writer in me who feels stifled by the day-in, day-out grind of the system. My creative side yearns to run free and create novels full-time, but the reality of our current economic conditions makes that aspiration feel like a distant dream unlikely ever to come to fruition. Breaking through in this age, just being noticed, requires constant promotion and exposure. Even then, the monetary reward is rarely worth the effort. It’s a sickening, maddening feeling to have a modicum of talent for something but to feel as if there is no way to make a living off of that skill.

And then still, there is my third path, the one I feel calling with the most urgency and highest sense of importance. I want to farm. I want to build a self-sufficient, operational farm that at the very least can provide my family with sustenance if the whole system implodes, which every day feels more and more likely. Right now, this is what I want to do more than anything. This is where my heart is pushing me, and when I have the time to work at the property, even toiling at hard physical labor, I find a peace and tranquility hard to describe. I simply feel as if I am where I belong.

I do know that no matter what, I will finish The Brotherhood of Dwarves series. I owe it to my readers, my friends, and myself to complete books four and five. Beyond that, who knows? I may choose to continue writing, or I may not. At this stage of my life, I truly cannot say. There is another story I want to tell, but I’m not sure if it will ever be more than an idea. Only time will tell about that. What I do know for a fact is that I must choose a path and follow it because standing at this crossroads and pondering my proper course cannot last much longer. I have to move forward soon.