jessejames here

[jessejames]

well yall have inspired me
i have been meaning to this since i started this little adventure 3 months ago
i guess ill start off letting yall know who i am (though i dont think that i am up to that monster lit yet)
i am 31 and a recovering herion addict
might as well get that out in the open
i grew up with parents (mother and stepdad) making many attempts at communal living on a 131 acre i know own with my mom (thats another story) ( and my real dad is musician whom is not a big part of my life)
needless to say i have seen almost every way that good intentions can go bad when groups of people try to share a common ideal in such close quarters
at 14 ran away to the west coast of canada vancouver bc i began my own adventures in life
fast forward 10 years i am a very successful chef in ontario with many great acclaims but 1 big seceret i have been a drug addict (herion) for more than 5 years
at this point all my personel relationships start going down hill the woman i love and of my dreams walks in and out of my life so fast i dont realise it till she is gone
my parents and sister whom i am now very close with begin to distance themselves
all the while i m thinkin i still have every one fooled
i was the fool
so time comes i just got split to clear my head and get a clean start (now26) and i move to toronto and am immediately in the spot light just doing my thing which happened to be starting three of the now bigget farmers markets in toronto starting to bake bread in wood fired ovens in a downtownpark cooking wild and cray meal for the elite in strange locations for lots of money and man i am happy and drug free
then idecide the time is right to open a restaurant culminating all my ideas of the last years it is called "freshwood grill" (there are now 4 in toronto(though i dont own))
and within a year i am back on the herion and hard
i move home build a house from junk on" parents " property (i now own half of mortgage and have lent them the other half privately)get clean
at this point they are trying another community project on our land but with people of my generation
needless to say or maybe not i didnt last long there (nor did anyone but my parents)when i left after a year i took a contract to rebuild a resort on georgian bay on lake hurion just outside of perrysound where i meet whom i will call my true love
i am now 30
TL and i move together in toronto (she also has 4 month old daughter) i am now building chain of highclass bbq restos we find a house to buy that is much better than our rental (though we just rent to start) life goes on i am very content but unappy TL goes back to work i adopt TLs' D
life goes on
to much too fast TL starts to party and leave me at home with DD alot refusing to say whet he is up to
finaly last sept she says i have to go (even though at this point i am full time care giver DD except that i work 50 hrs week or more
i fall apart and once again am sticking needles in my arm
christmas havent seen DD for 2 months falling apart
jan 09 scrap my **** together find 50 acre farm near no one i know
buy new business (wedding rental but lots of options)
and here i am with 2 small gardens 15' x 20' each and loads of tire gardens and now 15 chickens 11 RIR and 4 muts i have killed off accidentilly 6 WL and 1 RIR (steep learning curve) they are all 10 weeks on oh today (well im not sure how old the mutts are but they are about the same age)
i also have 2 great dogs assata and jack assata is my dear friend of 8 years and an all black shep collie mix jack is my 5 month old ? i found him shep x of some sort (hes gonna be big)
this year my 40 plus acres of fields is rented out for 24 bshls of beans an acre and starting next year i will be taking over 5 plus acre a year to transition to organic
well thats me
i also love music play bluegrass guitar and am desperately trying to find a piano for free i am a hobby woodworker (when i have time never)
my favorite colour is saftey orange
as soon as i can move from the barn to the house (in middle of no begining of major renos) i can start to have DD come stay for now i have to settle for quick visits when i am in the city every weekend if TL will get it together
now i must go and do some of those SS things that keep me going and iwill start to post what iam up to tonight
i am glad i found you guys
be well
as always

 

[Dace]

Wow Jesse, that is quite a story!

I am glad that you found us and I look forwarding to learn more from you as you go thru the trials of converting over to organic and enjoying your SS themed life. I hope you get to see your little one more soon, that must be a heart breaker!

 

[punkin]

Wow, jesse,

I think your story told us more about you than that monster list ever could.

You are very honest about your addiction. There are others in this world who could learn from your story.

Sounds like you are now getting it all together.

Best of luck on your new ambitions.

 

[justusnak]

Whoa Jesse....thats some life ya had there! I hope and pray you can stay clean this time. From what I hear, its a hard habit to kick. Stick with it! Oh, and

 

[jessejames]

well today i finally had to do something to keep the chickens out of the gardens. up till now they had been fine with just scratching at my mulch and eating the bugs, they even got rid of my flea beetles the first week they ventured over there. but that was when they were just cute little 8 week olds (RIR pullets) now they are 10 week old eating machines and decided that they charged me to little for the bug extermination and came in yesterday and in ten minutes i swear they took out all my swiss chard.
so today up went the chicken wire. unfortunately one of my employees wrote off my work van that lives in toronto last week and so now my farm truck is taking its place till i get everything sorted with the van, which leaves me here in forest with no wheels but my big diesel truck that i have in pieces on my workbench right now. luckily i live in the first house outside off town so its not much of a walk to get anything unluckily everything i can buy here is exorbitantly expensive i paid 46 dollars for 75' by 2' of CHICKEN WIRE damn !!!
oh well the first 100 or so i got for 5 bucks at a farm auction last month
so i guess it worked itself out over all
whilst fencing i also discovered the little buggers had gotten to my first ripe tomato, it was only a little cherry tomato but buggers i say none the less!!
once i got the fencing done it was time to go inside the nice cloudy day we started out with turned into a blazer with it in the mid 90s by 3 when i came in
on thursday just past i was at another small farm auction and picked up a small garden cart for $20 but the wheels didnt mach so i buggered around with them for a bit a figured out a way to make them work i just have get a slightly smaller axle and im all set
at that auction i also picked up a hand crank blacksmith drill press for five bucks but for some reason when i guy after the sale offer me ten i took (i tried to get twenty first) i am kicking myself now it was beut oh well hindsight i guess eh?
the only other things i picked up there were another 4 dozen nice old glass top sealers some with the flip clamp top and about a third of them the blue glass i now have about 7 dz but want more more more i got this weeks load for a total of $4. last but not least for $25 i got three antique squares for woodworking (ill try to pu up some pics later ) which i love two of which will find there way into my everyday tool box
other than that it was a fairly high biddin auction i bid on a t post driver that i swear went for more thanwhat i can get one new for
the flyer was advertising an 8n ford which i was excited about i am looking for a small tractor and i have 9n on parents land which i restored and love, but it turned out there where only parts big bummer
now here i sit writing to yall
i think that i am going to try to come up with some knda structure for these entries so i can use them as a farm log too
things like weather what is growing well what is not, general chicken health, # of eggs, etc., etc., etc.,
any ideas for things i might want to know down the line
maybe what my neighboring farms are doing, what the cash cropper who works my land is doing hmmmm.....
could be lots of things
thanks for listenin
as always
j

 

[Blackbird]

Quite an adventure of life!

Chickens in the garden? now you only need a goat..

 

[modern_pioneer]

 

[freemotion]

Blackbird, for shame. You know there is no such thing as "A" goat. They come in bunches.

 

[Blackbird]

Shh! He might not know that, a single goat never looks like a bad start. Its a curse really, thats how they get you to give them homes.

 

[jenlyn9483]

Welcome Jesse, Yes I agree you need some cute lil nigerian goaties to keep you company and well amused.