Monday, April 27, 2009

starting small

Every since I can remember I have always had a secret longing for living the simple life. A life that is pretty well self-sustaining, home-centered and focused on the ideals and values that are really important to me and my family. A simple life lived together as a family without being cluttered by dependency on unnecessary things and filling the void with busyness.

Over the last few years we have spent many days and nights dreaming of a homestead life- turning our little home and yard into a mini farm where we could depend upon ourselves, our little plot of land and lots of hard work for some of the basics that a family of five needs to survive.

This is a process. And we are no where close to fulfilling our dream. And although we cannot allow chickens to roam free in our backyard, own a cow or sheep or plant an orchard of fruit trees, we have found a few attainable projects that we have been able to complete for now.






Our woodpile is also looking pretty plentiful. Neatly stacked and making me feel content.


There is still quite a bit to be cut and stacked!




We are starting small. And although in reality we are limited in what we can do with our small space, there are so, so many changes that can be made. And the good news is that although we are not zoned for raising chickens, we will always have plenty of children free-ranging in and around our home each and every day.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I share your chicken dream! I must find out about zoning in our home to be!

Chuck said...

Zoning schmoning - If you ever decide to rebel against the "man" I can provide you with a hen or two they don't make noise and you can even build coops for 1-4 birds that look like garbage cans so the neighbors will be none the wiser! :) Our flock is up to 22 birds now!

daniele @ domestic serenity said...

I appreciate this post! So many times we can put off our dreams waiting for the perfect setting or timing, but you are moving forward with what you CAN do instead of focusing on what you don't have. Beautiful & inspiring!!

kelly mccaleb said...

your boxes look great!

Blessed Nest said...

This is so wonderful. We have 2 avocado trees, 4 orange trees,one grapefruit tree and a lemon tree. I do appreciate living in CA. We are finally having luck in our garden. Looks like we will have plenty of veggies.

I DO NOT have a green thumb so I am very pleased!

Someday we will get chickens, Funny how in the suburb's of the OC in Southern CA we can have chickens. Go figure? Many of our friends do.