I didn’t start my adult life out wanting anything more than the normal things; a husband, kids, a nice house and car. I had very few goals and dreams, nothing to work towards and strive for. As a child I was enamored with the “Little House” books and read them over and over again. I was drawn to the simple, yet hard way of life. I loved how they worked so hard for everything they had and how things such as farming and cooking had a meaning and purpose to them. I longed for this existence, but didn’t know to obtain it. I was living in the 21st century, life was about cute clothes, the coolest gadgets, going out with friends and all sorts of trivials. I needed more than that, I was tired and depressed, going through the motions of living the “good life”.
About two years after Dadzoo and I were married we bought a house. Just your typical little house on a quarter acre of land. We put in the typical green lawn with flower beds, bushes and some trees. There was a little bitty garden in the corner, enough room to grow some tomatoes and zucchini, but not much else.
This is a picture of our house eight years later. The front hasn’t changed much, excepting the trees are nice and big, it looks like your typical yard in any typical neighborhood. Through the years the garden slowly got bigger, a foot here and there, but not much more. I was on a quarter acre, I couldn’t have a big garden, I couldn’t produce most of our food, it was only a quarter acre of land after all.
There were women out there that LIKED to cook, and LIKED to home make and LIKED their husbands. There were women out there that felt like being a homemaker and wife and mother was the most important thing they could do. There were women that weren’t afraid to wear skirts all the time, that homeschooled, that make their own bread and cheese. I was HOOKED!
This was what I wanted, this is what main stream suburban Momminess wasn’t giving me. I finally found my community of women that I felt like I could learn from.
I started enjoying the blessing around me and I worked towards making my mundane chores more meaningful.
My little piece of land is a blessing and I wanted it to work for me, instead of just being a nice piece of turf to make the neighbors happy.
One of the first things I taught myself was to bake bread. That was over two years ago and to this day I still bake all our bread. There is something that satisfies my soul to see loaves of bread lined up on the kitchen table cooling.
The next think I did was start to line dry clothes, and I watched my power bill go down. I used the power of the wind and the sunshine to dry my clothes, often times faster than my 800$ High Efficiency dryer and at no cost to me.
During this time of growth and change in our family, Dadzoo and I started to make long term plans. What were our goals, how did we want to live and raise our family? We discussed purchasing a farm in the future, a place where our children can grow and our grandchildren can come visit. Where we can live independent of government utilities and grow most of our own food. We want to work hard and in turn culture a spirit of thanksgiving in our lives.
Knowing that a farm is well into our future we decided to make the most of what we have here and now, we added some garden boxes. This year we harvested many, many pounds of produce.
We have a small flock of chickens that supply us with all the eggs we need, in turn all our kitchen scraps and weeds are fed to them, reducing the waste that we throw into landfills. When we take we also give back in the form of composting all plants material (except weeds), chicken and rabbit droppings and paper, which will later be used to enrich our soil.
Next spring we will be adding even more garden boxes, about 300 more square feet and we are also tearing up grass along the sides of the yard and planting raspberries and grapes.
Suburban homesteading is about learning, growing and trying new things. I found out this year that sheds make a perfect place for growing pole beans.
Suburban homesteading is about turning off the the TV, the radio, the Wii, the iTouch and whatever background noise occupies your life and standing still, listening and observing.
Me likes…. And I am glad I am the first to comment. It is hard work, but in the long run it will pay off.
Oh, I love this. So much. (btw, I found you when I was given a link to your "salad week" some time back, and I was hooked!
This is beautiful! I admire you so much. I enjoy reading every single blog post you do. Thanks for sharing this one. It really touched me!
HUGS!
Cousin Diana B.
Your yard looks just like I want ours to. We have a large backyard, and right now all it does is grow weeds and grass and cry out to be mowed every week. I want more!
Thanks so much for sharing what you've accomplished.
I love what you are doing! I've tried to grow a garden in our yard, but nothing grows!! Our soil is awful!!
That reminds me! I have about a zillion egg cartons for you. Send your hubby by to grab them any time.
Nice–very nice.Have you seen gardengirltv yet. You would flip out. We extracted our honey today. Bees are the lazy farmer's favorite livestock. Next comes chickens. I am determined to get goats again some day.
Love all the photos! I love what you wrote as well such a wonderful journey!
Hugs
Erika
Nice post!
Thank you so much for sharing. I know how long it takes to prepare a post like this with so many pictures. I love looking at photos of others who are doing what I am interested in doing-it is just completely inspiring to me!
Aimee,
What a perfect way to end this last day of summer!! I LOVED this post! You have an awesome yard & I'm impressed with your great stewardship of it!
Blessings,
Aimee
I absolutely love your post! I too have been having a change of heart over the last few years. Learning to garden, make bread, keep house etc. I am so glad to see you not "waiting" until you have your farm…we can learn whereever we are. Good JOB!
I was going to say I love your post, but it seems I was beaten to the point :o) This is exactly how I feel. I have a bachelors in physics, but all I really want to do is stay home and take care of a family. I am so excited to start a garden, but I don't know where to put it yet!
You've done a wonderful job with everything! I like to bake my own bread and hang at least 1/2 my clothes up to dry (although I got out of the habit in NC because the humidity and heat made it take forever!). You ideas are always so fun, I'm hoping to be in our own home again by next year so I can start gardening again.
You take "bloom where you're planted" to new heights! A dream life, you have! Lots of work, to say the least, but like you say, well, well worth it! I loved this post!
Aimee: I love this post – you are making the most of what you have available and having great success. You are learning so much and it is such a great benefit to your family. You will pass down these dying skills to your kids and make them more resourceful.
Absolutely awesome. I understand you and although I haven't learned to bake my own bread yet…(you are always welcome to stop by to teach if you get to Nebraska!) I yearn to be one of the "old fashioned ladies" that can survive without the crutch of technology (except for blogging;) and that knows how to make people happy by the gifts of service. I think our culture is silently screaming for a revolution of the feministic-career oriented women to stand up and fight for our heritage as "home" makers…not women disguised as men! Make the men be men and let us have our womanhood back!
Amen to the women such as yourself who want to make that change!!
It is crazy that so many of us desire the same thing but without the internet and blogging we probably wouldn't have figured it out! 🙂 We need you and dadzoo to come give us some guidance on where and how to build a chickencoop 🙂
you are so right…bloom where you are planted
I have to say you have bloomed quite nicely.