A few weeks ago we packed up our homesteading essentials and moved across country to Vermont to begin a new chapter of our lives. To my regular readers, the ones that have followed our off the grid journey for the past five years, I know this sentence may seem shocking. In many ways, it has been hard for us to wrap our brains around: “We’re leaving a beautiful property with maturing fruit trees, wonderful neighbors, and very low expenses to move to a rental in a state with a high cost of living and start all over again?!?” I’ll start by saying that the decision to move was incredibly difficult, as we love our home and adore living off the grid. But we are also very practical people … [Read more...]
Embracing the Unknown
In our grand division of homestead labor, goat care has fallen squarely on the shoulders of my husband in the past year or two. I still spend time with the goats, and really look forward to the day when I can resume my share of their care, but for now I’m focusing my energy on other homestead chores. So it took me by surprise to help put the goats away last night and look over to see Sable’s stall empty. Even though we had all gone as a family to bring Sable to her new home (a lovely homestead where two of her half-sisters already live), somehow the sight of the empty stall was so viscerally real and final. These weeks are full of goodbyes – teary goodbyes to friends that we won’t see … [Read more...]
September Snapshots
More than any other September in memory, this month is lasting an eternity. Each day has been long and full, stretching beyond my usual perception of a day. And this has been a very good thing because we are moving in two weeks. Moving across country, to a new life on a new piece of land. And while this move holds excitement and potential, particularly because the new piece of land is ours, I also feel deep grief at leaving this rented piece of land that we've called home for 13 years. The home where I learned to garden, raised animals, got married, got a Master's degree, had two babies born in this house. And so I feel the urge to hold on tightly to every single one of these long … [Read more...]