Sometimes, it feels as though I live two different lives: Monday through Friday from 8 until 4:30, I have a corporate job. I manage the accounting department for our local newspaper; sometimes I even wear a suit. That’s my job, though, it’s not me. Lunch breaks are spent surfing homesteading blogs and forums, checking weather reports and planning out my evening chores. You see, my heart belongs to my farm.
As soon as I get home each evening, my real life begins. I have animals to tend, a vegetable garden to work, and a modest orchard of fruit trees. Berries of all sorts dot the landscape, tucked in here and there where they fit. I live on just over three and a half acres about an hour north of Seattle, and while I’m not keeping cattle or herding sheep just yet, this humble patch of earth is what sustains me. Literally, with the food that together we produce, and spiritually, with the gentle grace that sun, soil and water brings.
So it’s a fine line I walk, balancing a tightrope between what I must do financially, and the life I ultimately want to live. I’m not the only one out there who lives this way, and I know how hard it is to get started living your dreams. But you have to start somewhere… and this is my journey. I hope that along the way, I can inspire others to make the small changes that ultimately add up.
My goals for this blog are to inform, inspire and grow- and these are all two-way streets.
Inform: There’s a lot of information out here on the internet, both good and bad. I hope to weed through some of the noise and present ideas and solutions that I’ve tried myself, whether they work or not. I’m not an expert by any means, but I do have over 30 years of gardening under my belt, and I’d love to share that experience with you.
Inspire: I want to help others to make changes, and I want to be inspired when those changes happen. I know what it’s like to think “I can’t [insert goal here]”. It’s a challenge we all face, whether it is money, space, or time… all of us are working with depleted resources in one way or another. The thing is: you can do anything you want to, if you put your mind to it. Sometimes, though, you have to start small. You want to be a farmer but you live in an apartment? Get a window box. You want to raise animals? Get rabbits. Just start; the rest will follow. You’ll gain experience that will transfer as your circumstances allow.
Grow: I have a lot of learning and growing left to do in this life. I promise I’ll make mistakes along the way, and I know it’s not always going to be easy. But every setback will be a lesson, and I’ll be growing… and if I can do it, so can you.
