Introduction-- Kathleen

About me: My name is Kathleen; I'm 36 and am a grad student at Kent State. I am an avid environmentalist and see this challenge as a way to put my money where my mouth is so-to-speak; I believe that because of the current challenges we (the human race) are facing in regards to peak oil and climate change, we must create local food supplies and local economy if we hope to survive.

The Plan: My husband, Todd, and daughter, Katelynn are my beloved teammates for this challenge. Our current game plan is to plant permaculture keyhole gardens and vertical gardens in our small city yard, create an herb spiral gardening, buy a couple of chickens (we're hoping to find a couple of year-old RI Reds so that we can have eggs; if not, we'll buy babies and they will help with fertilizing and bug control-- eggs will have to wait until next year!). We currently have growing in the kitchen parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and mint. We planted raspberries last year, which are still small but produced fruit this year. We also planted grapes, but they may not be ready this year at all.
We know of some nearby places to forage for other fruit. I will give up coffee for the week since we can't grow our own, and replace it with herbal tea.

Our Challenges: Protein! I am a vegetarian, so need to find a space to forage for nuts and grow/ trade for beans. Todd is a carnivore, so he will need to hunt/fish for his protein. Katelynn is easy going about it and will eat either way.
The other big challenge for us is yard preparation. We will need to fence in our yard early in the spring (for the chickens, but also to ensure that our not-so-organic neighbors don't spray any of our gardens!) In addition, we have to have the soil tested-- we have used a raised bed garden in previous years but need to hugely expand the amount of garden space/ yard usage, so if the levels come back high (which I suspect they will), we will have to make raised bed keyhole gardens.