Our new home on 5 acres. I didn't have much time to work on a big blog post for you today, but I thought it might be fun this week to share some pictures of our new home, and some of our plans for the future! Ever since my childhood on a farm in the Ozark mountains, a part of me has always longed for my farm-girl roots. No matter how large a city I have lived in (Houston, TX), or how nice a suburb (Dublin, OH), and how long I stayed there, it just never quite felt like home.
That's why I'm so excited to finally have a house and land of my own! My husband and I recently purchased an old home on 5 acres of beautiful farmland, and now comes the challenging part: figuring out what we want to do with it!
If you've been reading our Green Living blog lately, we've been doing a series on homesteading, and I guess that is as good a word to describe it as any. We aren't trying to be large-scale farmers. I don't know that we will ever even try in any way to make a living off the land.
That's why I'm so excited to finally have a house and land of my own! My husband and I recently purchased an old home on 5 acres of beautiful farmland, and now comes the challenging part: figuring out what we want to do with it!
If you've been reading our Green Living blog lately, we've been doing a series on homesteading, and I guess that is as good a word to describe it as any. We aren't trying to be large-scale farmers. I don't know that we will ever even try in any way to make a living off the land.
Next year's hay-bale garden. But what we do both want to do is to - at least in part - be self-sufficient. A more sustainable lifestyle is the first goal, in my mind. From purchasing energy-efficient appliances, to using renewable energy sources (as much as possible), to growing and preserving some of our own food, and even perhaps raising enough livestock for our personal consumption - this is pretty much my life-long dream.
Now that dream is (hopefully) becoming a reality, although it will certainly be an ongoing process! I have only gardened on a very small scale during adulthood, be it container gardening, or in a tiny kitchen garden outside my apartment. Raising livestock is something I only remember helping my parents do, and we aren't quite as "rustic" in the utilities area as we were growing up (e.g. we now have regular indoor plumbing and "unlimited" water - how to be water efficient? Since we have a septic system and not an outhouse, and no gray-water system, what is the best way to be less wasteful with our waste water? Etc.). So while my roots may be in homesteading, in practice, that is, in doing it myself, it's all pretty new to me in many ways.
Now that dream is (hopefully) becoming a reality, although it will certainly be an ongoing process! I have only gardened on a very small scale during adulthood, be it container gardening, or in a tiny kitchen garden outside my apartment. Raising livestock is something I only remember helping my parents do, and we aren't quite as "rustic" in the utilities area as we were growing up (e.g. we now have regular indoor plumbing and "unlimited" water - how to be water efficient? Since we have a septic system and not an outhouse, and no gray-water system, what is the best way to be less wasteful with our waste water? Etc.). So while my roots may be in homesteading, in practice, that is, in doing it myself, it's all pretty new to me in many ways.
The new strawberry bed. I thought this might be something our readers may be interested in hearing about, so be sure to stay tuned to this blog over the next few months (and years), and along with my regular health and holistic living updates, rants, and ramblings, I will attempt to chronicle our adventures as we venture into this new world. Come along with me, and see what it's like to try to build our own little homestead from scratch!
I'm sure it won't be easy, and probably not always fun, but as I remembered yesterday, as I tramped through piles of wet, fragrant autumn leaves, carrying wood and moving compost bins and cutting and hauling brush until I was aching and sweating despite the briskly cold winds, it can satisfy something in the deepest, richest, part of me that nothing else can.
It can, if I may venture to say so, satisfy the soul.
Holistically yours,
Rose.
I'm sure it won't be easy, and probably not always fun, but as I remembered yesterday, as I tramped through piles of wet, fragrant autumn leaves, carrying wood and moving compost bins and cutting and hauling brush until I was aching and sweating despite the briskly cold winds, it can satisfy something in the deepest, richest, part of me that nothing else can.
It can, if I may venture to say so, satisfy the soul.
Holistically yours,
Rose.
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