The ultimate goal for us, the ideal as it were, won't be possible for another ten years or so, but it's something to work towards. We'd like to find ten to fifteen acres with trees and a stream. We want to build from scratch - an eco-friendly house with solar panels and whole house heating via sustainable methods - meaning, a stove house outside that is kept burning to heat the house and the water (a friend of ours has this), a greenhouse for wintertime veggies and more delicate plants (and anoles), a pump house at the stream to collect water power, a barn for livestock and a chicken coup. The dream is to be completely self-sufficient for most things. At least, food and energy wise. I'm not the best at making clothes and with two boys, we'll still need to buy that sort of thing but - it's a nice dream. I can make soap and candles and that kind of thing. But, like I said, it's going to be a few years before that's possible. We want a fruit orchard, grape vines, berry bushes, a massive garden.... I'm fortunate enough to have married someone with the same ideals as me. Now we just have to work our butts off to get there. I'm working on clearing out our basement on ebay, getting rid of stuff we don't need anymore - and there's a surprising amount of stuff we don't need anymore. Really. Between ebay and this years yard sale - whatever doesn't get bought and sold will likely go to the salvation army or some such organization. We just need to unclutter a bit. Strange coming from me - the clutter queen!
I have a few things I'd like to do this year too - I want to learn how to make baskets and build myself a loom. Maybe do some fun sorts of crafty things and open an etsy shop. I want to do what I can to make the dream come to fruition faster. Anything I can do to make that happen is a good thing. I just have to keep focused. It'll get there but I'd like for someday to be a lot closer than it looks right now...
Posted by Shade53 at June 8, 2008 08:21 AM