Posted On January 7, 2012

I have so much to write about and so little time to do it. I am talking with a friend about scheduling time together to go to a coffee shop and work/write/etc., because it is seriously next to impossible with young kids. I was in denial for a while about this, but am no longer. The only way I am pulling this off is by placating them with a show and feeding them breakfast right in front of it. Not my ideal, but it'll do until I manage to schedule some time for this kind of writing and reflection. I need more of it. 

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This property is enchanting to me. Below are pictures from two visits. All but the last few of the pictures are from our portion of the property. Makes me all swoony to look at them.

These pictures translate in much the same way that a picture of the beach or a lake does. It's just not nearly as beautiful as it is in person. I don't know that much can be done about this- it's just one of those things you have to use all your senses for. But, I'll give you pictures despite my inability to also give you the smell of wet earth and the sound of birds in the trees. 

This hill is towards the front of our portion, and we initially thought it would be the best one to build our house into. South facing, basically cleared already, etc. But, we realized we would rather move it as close to the driveway as possible (which we have yet to create, but we figure less plowing in the future is a good thing). So this hill will become part of the gardens. Thankfully there is another long south facing hill that we will build into, shown a few pictures down.

This is directly behind that hill, on the southernmost border. It will also become garden. All that brush there is wild black raspberries. There is an abundance of these on the property, so I don't mind taking some of it out.

More gardens. I aim to work with the landscape as much as we can, and take out as little woods as possible.

Here is the long hill that we'll put the house into. It's actually kind of hard to make out here, but it's a pretty perfect little spot that would be right up by the edge of the driveway.

The land is so rich and alive, and yet it makes me sad that such a (relatively) small piece of land could inspire so much reflection and peace in me. I suppose it just really highlights how deprived of nature we all truly are. I wonder if this is why I really am looking forward to leaving this big cozy house for a small trailer nestled in the woods here. 

Even if all this falls through at the last minute, it has shown me that I really need to make more of an effort to get out into spaces like this. I get outside a lot, but my backyard is a lot different than this. 

The creek. Oh I can't wait to see it in the spring.

The creek is extra cool because it originates in a nearby nature preserve, and so we're hoping it's pretty clean. We'll get the water tested and stuff to be sure, but I have visions of splashy kids and polliwog hunts… 

This is on our friends' portion of the property. Someone goes hunting here, and left their little tree-chair thing (deer blind?) up. Jeff climbed up there and tested it out.

I am having fun. In other news, Jeff and I and our farming partners (that couple I mentioned a few posts back) have come up with a lovely name for our farm, and we're planning out this next season together with an aim to save lots of seed (which will save us hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the near future), and to actually produce some food for people this year on our city plots. So much swimming around in my head! So much to do, plan, etc., but truly it all comes down to just a deep breath and a step forward. I think I can do that.

I'm feeling a bit out of the habit of writing here, with a week or so between posts. So, I'm going to be posting daily for a little while, just small things. Perhaps some "just doing" posts, and maybe some short "just thinking" ones. So… until tomorrow!

Happy New Year, indeed. How are you all moving into 2012? Tell me!