Living the Dream

I just finished building 7 tomato teepees out of 7' sticks of bamboo for most of my 30+ tomato plants (look for a post very soon). We have been eatin salad for lunch/dinner for the past week straight from our garden and will need to start selling produce soon (lettuce is hard to store). We are getting a pint a day (quart on one day) of strawberries and the larger bed with the mid season plants will be in production next week. The potatoes are 2' bushes and the raspberries and Sunchokes are 3'+ tall. Peas, carrots and beets are doing fab as well. We are adding 2 more 100 sq ft beds for next year to grow onions, more melons, and maybe squash.

Coming in the mail are two pear trees, hardy Kiwi, and next week will bring the peach trees, and more strawberries for next year. Sorrel transplants are waiting on the porch, and the basil went in yesterday along with the melons, cucumbers, corn, and a bunch else I am forgetting. Goal of 750lbs of produce this year might happen yet! This will be on about an 1/8th acre of space that still has a lot of lawn in it-the other 1/2 of our backyard is less agricultural and devoted to family space like porches and playgrounds. With 10 acres I would be dangerous! (probably more to myself than anyone else!)

What I am saying is that until we can move to our dream Someday House we are living an incredibly blessed life right now and won't be moving. Next year I will hit 10 years at my job and will have 5 weeks of vacation a year on top of paid holidays and the unbelievable fact that I only work 4 days a week. Starting in August my work week will switch to Tues-Fri from Wed-Sat so I will have real 3-Day weekends. All that free time means that I felt confident enough to start a business rather than go for a promotion and lose the long weekends. And now my side business is successful enough that I am turning work away and will be subbing out some labor starting this month while still augmenting my salary by 20%. Next year I might even rent an acre of land to go deeper down the road of Market Gardening, but time will tell.

Sure living on the freeway sucks, but if you put the iPod up that melts away and eventually the sight break I have planted will block it out, at least visually, and nature doesn't seem to care. The swallows love our yard since it is swarming in crunchy little pollinators, a nighthawk has moved into the area, and we spotted our first 13 line ground squirrel yesterday grazing in our replanted prairie.

Life is good. Even in the Suburbs on a freeway. Sometimes living in the Now is hard for me.
Now is not one of those times.
Be the Change.

Stumble It!