A dozen years ago, we were looking to live more back to basic, a simpler life, and I decided to put ‘build a homestead’ on my bucket list.
Looks manageable.
At the opening of this spring, I studied the oodles of plans I sketched, the lists I wrote, and checked the Pins on Pinterest I gathered, and I’ve been bringing some of them into fruition over the last few months.
I’m learning that building a homestead takes longer than pinning a full board on Pinterest.
I like to share when things are complete. But in the spirit of progress, “E” for effort, I share what I’ve done on the homestead this summer. (What I haven’t done, the list that is much, much longer than the one I’ve completed, I’ll leave to the imagination.)
What I have accomplished is this:
1. soil amending…or just plain ‘finding soil’ (tricky to find nutritive soil in the mountains)
2. feed my compost (and a super cute skunk family that also enjoyed the cat’s food bowl in our greenhouse, and a bunch of tiny mice, but they’re free play toys for the cats)
5. create a squirrel graveyard (compliments of our zealous guard kitty Neptune)
6. sit in the gardens (to dream, to plan, to journal, to write, and drink coffee)
7. build an orchard: 1 apple (decimated yesterday by a deer), two peach (now 1 peach, thanks to the deer), two apricot, two plums, a teeny tiny fig, and one Bing cherry…just digging those holes in mountain terrain could have been an entire list
8. we commissioned garden fence building…a lovely feature to our outdoor home
9. we commissioned stone patio construction…an outdoor space for dining and morning yoga
11. hauling gravel for garden pathways
14. we planted three specimen trees: dogwood, camellia and Japanese maple…
Naturally what I’ve actually done, and what I hoped to do, are at odds. I’ve had all sorts of other unsaid hopes, but I’m good at unrealistic expectations. So I’ll be gracious with myself, and celebrate what I have done this summer. I deserve a big ole pedicure, my feet have taken the brunt of my efforts.
That’s a big part of a meaningful life, isn’t it? Actually having something meaningful to do. And now that I have a homestead, I most definitely always have something to do. It’s a complicated simplicity, this homestead life. I am thankful I put ‘build a homestead’ on the bucket list, because it most definitely is a deeply satisfying creative outpouring of me.
Wow! Sister neighbour. All that happening 300 m from me? I can’t wait to visit with the Blewett Conservation Society Third Garden Tour this Sunday. Looks fine.
That’s fabulous! But tell me it’s Saturday;)
I enjoyed seeing your homestead, it’s beautiful! So sorry about your fruit trees! That’s frustrating, but I had a chuckle at the way you wrote about it.
Thank you! Indeed, my half trees are still sticking out of the ground. Eternal optimist. I’m told they wont survive. Next year I’ll try again!
So inspiring. I dream that our family will be able to learn to become more self-sufficient over the next few years and dream of one day being able to have enough land to create a homestead of our own one day. Thank you for sharing and helping me to remember dreams can and do become reality.