A new morning ritual
:greeting the day:
Tag: farm
:scotch broom:
Oh, my! This stuff is a menace. And. It. Is. Everywhere.
Every day, I try to get out there with a pair of gloves and I just pull, pull, pull. They have to be pulled out by the roots or they come back. The worst ones are the ones that grow from the cut stumps that were not pulled. Some of those I can’t get out at all.
I am loving doing it though. The day was sunny and warm, the breeze cool. When I pulled the root of the plant out, I could smell the damp earth. Sometimes even tasting the scent in my mouth when I breathed in.
Sun on my skin. My muscles working hard.
I found myself using “deadlift form” when I pulled the big ones out. Flat back, shoulders straight, pushing through my heals. Tomorrow morning my hamstrings are going to feel this.
It’s going to feel good.
Functional movement at its finest.
:first blackout:
So we just had our first blackout. It only lasted about half an hour, thank goodness! We have not yet gotten a generator. The giant diesel one on the property was fried long ago. We just lit some candles and the kids decided to make a “prepper” list of things we need to do if this was a serious situation. LOL!
Sitting around talking in the candlelight was a great way to end the day. Here are a few photos I took of our day. Have a great night everyone!
Good morning!
Finally. FINALLY! I’m back.
Hello, dear blog. I’m so sorry I’ve neglected this space, but I had my reasons. Please, hear me out.
You see, dear readers, I (and D) have had a dream for a very long time. We have dreamt of a place where we could breath the fresh air. A place where wildlife is but a step away. A place were we could grow food, tend to our own animals, and let our children roam the land. A place were the city lights are far enough away to see the Milky Way stretched out above our heads on a clear night.
A little homestead where we could steward the natural beauty around us.
We always thought we would find that place once we returned to the East Coast. We have searched Landwatch and United Country for years, looking for the perfect place.
However, we knew with D’s job, that staying in the Bay Area would be a smarter move until we were ready to retire to our country dream.
But, have you seen the prices of rent and mortgages around here?! Oh! They are crazy. Just. Nuts.
Then, we were given the golden opportunity to live in a tiny (800 sq ft) cottage in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We loved the last two years there. D was able to work in town, but we were able to enjoy the quiet of country life.
Then, one day we were clicking around on Zillow last fall, as one is wont to do *cough, cough*, and we saw an open house not too far away (at a steal compared to the houses in the city!) We thought, “Why not? It will be fun to just go look.”
And so we went.
And now here we are:
At the end of last month, we became the owners of an almost five acre homestead in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The view you see there is of the Santa Clara Valley.
There is a lot more to this story, of course. It was a whirl wind process! The deal went down in only 30 days. The fact it was the first property we looked at and then we got it is, from my understanding, unheard of in Cali. I truly believe we were meant to live here. So many things happened to make it possible, it was like the Universe aligned the planets, just to we could be here.
That’s not to say the process was easy. No! I lost ten pounds from the stress of it all (I was not looking to lose weight!)
Anyway, I finally feel I am ready to return to this space. I’ll be posting more often, and as we settle into this space, I will show y’all around.
piligrace 