Tuesday, June 21, 2011

I See Us Living On a Sustainable Farm


   Visualize and it'll happen, right? I can see it in detail. The cute house.The fenced garden. The veggie’s I’ll plant, the fruit trees, the berries. I have lists already. I’m excited just thinking about it. I’ve been dreaming of a little farm for so many years it feels like it will happen. Bob is on board, seeing the sense in it, I think. Our “Happy Berry Farm” will be overflowing with fruits and vegetables of all kinds. We’ll have some beehives, and a few chickens for eggs.  I plan to preserve most of what we raise for a years supply of our bounty. Sell or trade the excess for meat. We came close with the tomatoes we raised last year. We ran out in February. Not bad we thought. This helped us plan for this year. I’ve planted more tomatoes. Probably too many, but you never know what mother nature will throw at you so it’s good to plant extra if you have space.

  I won’t go into great detail about our farm. I’ll post pictures when we get there!
I keep looking for property now and again. It’ll happen when it’s meant to. We’re not ready yet anyway. No big rush. Meanwhile, I’m a sponge, learning what I can, and sometimes having to relearn stuff cuz my menopausal brain won’t retain like it used to.

  Our dream is crystallizing the more I read and learn. I just started getting Grit Magazine. It’s great!! Articles on homesteading and all that go with it. I’ve been getting Organic Gardening and Mother Earth News for years. They have been invaluable to me in my learning process. Right now I feel like I'm learning skills that will be necessary when we live off grid, or at least on a piece of land. Gardening, woodworking, sewing, cooking, preserving food to name a few. I’ve been doing most of these things my whole life; I’m in the midst of learning woodworking.

  Today I’m going to tackle cutting a piece of plywood, once again. I’ve read numerous articles and watched many videos on tricks that people use to cut plywood. I’ve used many of them with no luck. I get about 12” into it and the blade binds. I have the blade set just below the wood so that’s not it. I’ve tried many methods. It’s the lining for a nice bench I made. I’m determined to figure it out today.
New bench made from recycled wood, so far. The seat will be made from birch (new wood). The back is a twin headboard.
Yes, the dreaded plywood, time for a table saw perhaps.

   I suffer for my furniture. I force myself to learn a new skill with each piece I make. I’ve gotten this far in the project with what I knew. After the plywood lining is in and few more details taken care of I have to use the router on the nice piece of birch (3/4”) I bought for the seat. I don’t like to buy wood but the bench turned out too nice to use old wood on the top. My Dad gave me his router but I’ve never actually used one. I’ve seen them used in countless videos and home repair shows (which I love and have learned a lot from over the years). So, I’m nervous and it’s kept me from finishing this piece. It’s been sitting in the garage for a couple weeks. I turned to sewing for a couple weeks till the frustration turned to determination.  I keep reading this note I have by my computer, Let Your Heart Lead You, Not Your Fear. So here I go!

  Keep working toward your dreams. Do one thing every day toward your goal and it will happen,(even if it's frustrating).We are happy to get up every day and make small steps toward that dream. We have our eye on the prize and nothing is going to stop us, certainly not a piece of plywood or a router! Most days are not frustrating at all but very peaceful. Peace to all of you.

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