It's a late posting. Everyone has been busy lately. My whole family, including myself, was sick for 2 whole weeks right before Christmas. It's not quite done yet. My mother will undergo an outpatient surgery tomorrow. It's another story.
Anyway, I am really thankful for the New Year. I am glad to be given another chance. And we planned so many things this year.
The big thing is to start a big vegetable garden and an orchard. Last summer, we bought an 11.5 acre land. It was a big financial risk for us. But we dream of this for several years since our brief Dallas stint where we found out how exhausting and unsatisfying our urban/suburban lives can be. Upon returning to Iowa in early 2004, we looked at few acreages for a home. Most of these acreages were way beyond our price point. Those few "affordable" ones were either requiring too much work/money to be livable or too far away from paved road which is very critical for us considering we live in a snow country and we plan to keep our city jobs to pay for the mortgage. Driving 10 miles of unpaved road during winter will be dangerous and just not practical. The dream of owning an acreage was set aside for a while but not forgotten.
In the fall of 2004, we decided to settle in a nice comfortable house in town with manicured lawn and small backyard. It was what we need. We decided that we can still do our gardening in the backyard. We built raised beds for vegetables. We planted grapevines, strawberries and a dwarf apple tree. We have some successes and failures in our suburban homesteading. We learned a lot.
Last summer, the land dream came true. We found the perfect parcel through Craig's list. We were both scared and excited. In the end, we decided to jumped in and realized this darn nagging desire. Here we are -- broke but happy land owners.
My wish this year is to continue with blogging, chronicling our small farming experience. Wish me luck!
P.S. Many people including family members think we are crazy but I agree with Howard Hughes when he said "Passion will make you crazy but is there any other way to live?"
5 comments:
Good for you. We too are in the market but are waiting for the end of residency and the signing of a job offer (maybe in the next few months) to determine which market we should be looking at. I can't wait.
I read it in your blog. I cannot wait too.
Exciting! Congratulations on the new acquired passion! We're also thinking of making a small patch of vegetable garden even if our garden is miniature. 11 acres is a lot of vegetables & fruits - and a lot of running for Benj :) Post photos!
Hi Makis, I will Makis. Thank you. The thing you have there is longer growing season.
Thanks for always checking out on me Malor, really appreciate! All my congratulations for owning a big land, am sure you'll have fruitful years & great things to come this year. You can eat organic veggies & fruits since it's quite expensive, you could also start a little business with it.
It's one my dream to have a big land but not to plant as I have no green thumb =(. I want it for kids as their playground :)! And yes, more pictures with Benj running like crazy in that beautiful greeny land !
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