With the nearly three weeks of radio silence here on part of the whole comes some news. In the last two posts, you may have noticed my hinting to some anticipated changes. The changes were big...incredible...exciting! But sadly, are now off the table.
In the works were plans to move out of the city and relocate to a farm in Delaware County. Home would have been a historic cottage built in the 1700s, surrounded by creeks and open land - part of large horse farm where I already spend much of my weekends. The long commute would have been a hit, being 25 miles from work, but I imagine it certainly would have been worth it.
Ideas were sprouting for a large garden - enough to produce extra for a neighborhood farm stand. I was excited to start growing gourds and pumpkins, which could have also been sold at the farm stand. I've been collecting and reading all kinds of books about homesteading and small scale farming, saving images and building plans for potting benches and mobile chicken coops, looking at fire pit designs and lawn furniture. Maybe you know that I want to be a farmer someday, so this was the perfect opportunity to test the waters. It was a chance to get a feel for the work involved, the quality of what I could grow, the value it added to everyday life.
So, I'm disappointed to say that this plan is no longer working out. Much of what has been planted in my current garden was done so in in-ground containers for easy removal and transplanting. It's hard to put down roots when you don't know where you will grow, right? Lesson from the plants.
I was also excited to get back into regular blogging, using what would have been my new living situation and lifestyle as daily inspiration. What's it like to live by heat from firewood in a 1700s stone cottage in the dead of the Pennsylvania winter? What sort of recipes would I have been able to pull together using all the produce from my big, new garden? How successful is raising chickens when there is a fox den on the other side of the yard and two resident guard dogs (don't tell the little one he's only 17 pounds!)? Oh yeah...and how about waking up to gun shots all throughout deer hunting season? Maybe someday I'll know, but for now, it all remains unexplored territory. An unwritten chapter, if you will.
For now, I'll keep on digging in my current ground, always dreaming about tomorrow.
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| The Mill House image from thomaswillcox.blogspot.com |
2 comments:
Hi Anne-Marie! I just saw your comment over at Cold Antler and felt an instant connection. I'm living in California now, but I'm from Pennsylvania originally. I went to school in Philly, and my sister still lives there. I tried to figure out how to email you privately? But apparently I'm missing something... in any case, I just wanted to reach out and say hello! I'm pursuing my own (small scale at the moment) gardening and farming interests out here, but still harbor secret dreams of heading back to the mother land to do exactly what you had hoped for in your "Ever Changing" post. Cheers to the adventure! Kelly
Hi Kelly - thanks so much for your note! Hmm...I should probably look into adding a link for direct email, now that you mention it! I hope your city gardening adventures are successful as well. It's tough when you're stuck being one of the "regular" folks, isn't it? Here's to hoping all the farming dreams come true. And if you ever want to drop a line, you can reach me at adventurer327 [at ] gmail [dot] com Happy gardening! :)
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