Ep.24- Budgeting in the Apocalypse

My partner and I were out celebrating a friend’s birthday, and of course, collapse came up. Something about us having 5 years tops left on democracy. And Zach, my partner, made a joke about our budgeting. That really it won’t matter if we spend a little over the budget on food, if in a few years’ time society as we know it will fall.

Which honestly, vibes.

Welcome to Scrap Farm, the newsletter/podcast where I document starting a farm in the midst of all this *gestures wildly*.

I would like to point out, as I have before, that living through an ‘apocalypse’ is not new, not by any stretch of the imagination. Indigenous people and those under the rule of colonialism, especially those who were enslaved or have undergone genocide, have within their lifetimes experienced many apocalyptic events. The political situation being what it is, with the looming tariffs and pro-Palestinian voices being spirited away, with the deportation of legal residents and absolute buffoonery that is dismantling the government piece by piece, it can seem a little apocalyptic. And that’s without Climate Change, which is very much here, heating up and getting stronger by the second. For many people, we must remember this is not their first apocalypse (hell, it’s not even mine, looking at you, COVID).

But anyway, it begs the question, what is the point of budgeting at this time?

That’s a whole lot of dirt we’ve been moving.

I say this as someone on a pretty solid budget as we start our own business. As someone who spent most of her adult life on a strict budget, or a the very least a bit skint. But I really can’t muster up the reserves to follow our budget to the letter this time.

Some of this is because I feel more resourced than I ever have. Supported by friends and family, doing a job that I know will be useful (the farming, the waitressing less so), I even have skills I didn’t have a few years ago. And more importantly, I know that there are people out there working on providing mutual aid, support, edible, financial or otherwise. I know this because I have been one of them, both giving and receiving.

In tending and being tended, I have tested the tensile strength of the web around me, and like a trampoline, I had a little bounce.

Which brings me back to the budget.

I have plunged more savings than I have ever had in my life (which took me years to accrue) into a business. A farm business. In a crumbling economy. And right now we are just spending money; irrigation, seeds, compost. Thousands of dollars were spent like that. A truck ffs!

But knowing this is part of the process is somewhat comforting. We budgeted to be able to do this without loans or grants in the first year. And since those are being actively dismantled (the advisor from the local government office quite literally shrugged when we asked him about grant likelihood going forward), it’s a good thing we planned for it. This is not to say that we’re better than any farmer who gets a sweet FSA loan or grant, but more that we hadn’t counted on them. Now the rug pull doesn’t seem so drastic (though it really really is! Trump is fucking over farmers on every count).

My partner and I are also being pragmatic. We both have part-time jobs to support us while we start this endeavour. Hence, the strict budget. It is interesting to see what the minimum amount of hours one can work is, while still paying all bills and having time to dedicate one’s heart and soul to a living, breathing farm. In this, we are lucky not to have too many expenses, medical or practical (or children, for that matter).

Through this, I can see the farm slowly transforming into something. Something very fucking tangible. Into rows of fresh slung earth. Into places for seedlings. Each bundle of green is a fresh and vibrant hope for a month’s time. Even my new job has brought me into contact with plenty of people and new information to learn. It’s been cool to leave my responsibilities at the door.

So no. I’m not stressed about my budget.

Watering in some fresh baby seedlings

Yet food is getting more expensive. And that’s as someone growing it.

So then I flip to the nihilistic side of it all, if we are all hurtling towards doom, I really don’t care if I spend an extra few dollars having a drink out with a friend. Or if I purchase ingredients to celebrate Beltane. Or if I buy a ticket for a bluegrass night ($10 at the local Queer bar).

As my friend Billy always said in his wonderful Edinburgh accent, “Money’s for spending.”

So I’m bringing that vibe to life. Responsibly, of course, I shan’t be partying to excess. But I certainly won’t begrudge myself the margins of error in a budget. And I will be buying the seeds/compost/equipment we need to make this farm viable.

And hell, if it all does collapse, having irrigation and a tunnel are going to be worth their weight in gold, honestly.

Farm Updates

We’re really in it now, boys! Our landlord has tilled both blocks for us, which means we are moments from planting (well, a week or so).

You may be asking how we plan to be no-till/no-dig while being excited about tilling. But this was it, the first and final till on the farm. From there came the laborious task of shaping all the beds. 2.5’ bed tops and 1.5’ paths. We made 12 of them in one very hot day. The process involves smashing dirt with a rake in the path area and dragging it onto the area that will be our beds.

We will be doing a permanent raised bed system, meaning we will plant into the same spot over and over, year after year. We will build fertility into these beds and not disturb the soil more than necessary. This will help reduce weed pressure (over time), maintain soil structure and give us somewhere to focus on to make the best growing conditions possible.

Me looking tired as shit at the Ann Arbor District Library Farm and Garden Fest this month.

Our next step after bed shaping has been to add compost to the tops of the beds. This too was an endeavour. Our beds are a good 400’ from the compost pile. One wheelbarrow at a time, my partner and I brought out enough compost to cover each bed in an estimated 2” of compost. After that, we broadforked each bed, which is a way of aerating the soil and reducing the compaction brought about by the tractor driving over the area. We borrowed the Broadfork from the local tool library, and I am truly enamoured with the lending economy in this area.

In the greenhouse, we have some wonderful-looking Salanova lettuce that is a week or so from being able to be planted. We also have some good-looking chard and kale. We have been having an absolute mare of getting our pepper and tomato seeds to start, but the daily temperature has been fluctuating quite a bit. We are now heating the trays from below with handy heating mats, and I hope this will do the trick for germination. This is one of the moments where a germ-chamber would have been useful, but we have limited space and were trying to limit expenses (I say this after my diatribe about the necessity of spending money). So this is a lesson for next year. Buy what you need for the tomatoes! They are worth it. Don’t wait them out.

Our next few tasks on the farm are going to be big ones. They are coinciding (unfortunately) with graduation here in Ann Arbor. This means that our paying jobs need more attention than the farm, so balance has been critical. In the next week we will be putting up a 8’ deer fence around the perimeter of the growing area (as the area has been described as a ‘deer highway’ lol) and we will be digging a 300’ long 4’ deep trench to burry a pipe that connects the well with our growing area for irrigation. And then we will be PLANTING.

It feels to me, who at this point on other farms already had a lot in the ground, that we are ‘behind’, but I remind myself that we started later and there is plenty of summer left to go. The work we put in now will last several years, and that too is a cheering thought.

Oh, we might also be getting a hoop house. More on that soon.

Anyways, I’m working on documenting all our work into a video for YouTube, but that requires a moment’s respite. One of those (a moment and also a video) is coming next week (hopefully).

Until then, see you on the flip side.

M

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