Why here and why now
The why and how someone joins the military is different for each individual. Of the thousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Coasties, or as they are commonly known, Ground pounders, Taxi drivers, Crayon eaters, Chair sitters and Puddle pirates I have heard almost as many versions of enlistment stories. To include: I had nothing better to do; I got bored living in the basement; this was going to be my second chance; I got a girl pregnant; I need the college money; I am on a mission from God; the Judge said I had two choices; its a family thing; my Dad or Mom made me; I needed to get clean; needed to get out of town; wanted to stop being a loser; I was an 18 year old idiot; there is no greater honor that dying for my country; I wanted to prove I am as tough as any man; I needed the money; I have never seen $20,000 dollars before; I couldn’t be a (insert job) on the outside so I decided to do it through the military; 20 years and a never ending payday; my recruiter told me I would be just like James Bond, Rambo, Jack Reacher, John Wayne, etc. also known as my recruiter lied to me; I needed the insurance and healthcare for my family; they had the job I wanted; I needed to become a real man, I wanted my citizenship; going to change the military from the inside; I did it to serve the nation in a time of crisis and my favorite “I don’t remember I just appeared at Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS ) one day and signed the papers”. All of these answers (as well as an unknown number of others), and the timing involved in each persons life brought them into all the different branches, and hundreds of jobs the armed forces had to offer. Two or three of these answers are what brought me into the Army as an Intelligence analyst. They each served us differently and for me and mine led to a pretty fulfilling life.
The funny part is, talking to veterans and civilians pursuing Small Scale Regenerative Agriculture (SSRA), it has been much the same. Dozens and dozens of different reasons, sizes, and places have led people here. Each have led to a different set of end states, each with there own benefits and challenges. Because of these differences in decision making we are often find it is easy to mock or even condemn people for their choices and the their outcomes. Almost as easy as it is to mock other branches of service or jobs within it. If you look past the obvious, even in your own choices, you will find lots of commonality and benefit from peoples decisions. If everyone owns the pros and cons we can find humor in our choices “I have proudly been a FOBIT for years” and camaraderie in the contrary “some of my most trusted friends are Crayon Eaters”.
Here are two that seem to me at first to be almost diametrically opposed, yet went conversing are coming closer. My wife’s brother and his family started their SSRA journey about the same time we did by reading books, attending classes, conducting small experiments on in their yard and planning for a larger future. Over the years we compared notes and found we were both interested in high intensity grazing, regenerative crop production, food production for our families and traditional skills and abilities (canning, weaving, etc). We lived in Kansas and worked a large garden, they lived in Colorado and put in permaculture in accordance with the rules with their HOA. We moved to El Paso, TX and got poultry, engaged in wild harvest and continued gardening in an arid climate, they moved north into Colorado, got a cow, and built a cellar with sandbags. Each time we moved we expanded our reach within the law and resources available. Despite all the similarities we ended up at very different locations. After jumping all over the US with the military we settled in southern Ohio, and the after debating Utah, Idaho, Colorado, they have settled in Eastern Wyoming. We still have similar goals, but the land is significantly different mandating our approaches and outcomes.
Due to differences in land, water and pasture quality we had the different choices in approach. We have about 1 acres of land in Southern OH to use which we have converted into a small plots for our urban farm. They own about 500 acres in Eastern Wyoming which they use as pasture for a mixed herd of cows, goats and sheep. So here are the visual difference of our climates and land.
Examples
Pasture available
As you can see we are both working our land as well as our resources and climates allow. The funny part is when we come together we laugh at our problems (it is so hot, so muggy and so wet here) and look to learn from each others strengths (their rotate grazing shouldn’t work according to the experts, but it does well). By doing so we are finding ways to the middle where the land heals, the food is present and our families flourish.
I will keep you up to date as our individual lessons (failures and achievements) become shared successes. They want to build some of our food plots with hedges next year, or at least get a start. We are hoping to get enough land to begin grazing next year. Lets see how much we can learn together.
Deven Little