The Beginning

            I have never been much of a gardener.  How is that for an opening about my farm? Lol  I seriously haven't been.  I grew up in a small town full of orchards and fields.  We live in California and when I was a kid, our area produced the best produce in the world.  Sunkist dried their prunes at a factory two buildings down from my house!  The produce in the stores was picked that morning.  We would stop at fruit stands by the orchards and fields for fresh fruit.  Nothing tasted better.  At our own house, we had peach trees, which usually got sick.  We did get a few peaches from them (which were amazing) but it was never a bumper crop.  My parents were city folks.  Not farmers.

            My best friend growing up lived in the country.  I was in town and she lived in a more rural area on two acres of land.  I would go out there and play for hours on end.  There were cows to feed, trees to climb and fields of weeds to be crawled through.  If we were really lucky, we would play with someone who had a horse and go ride!  My friend's mom had a garden.  I remember weeding it and not enjoying that at all.  I did like the fresh fruit though.  I much preferred doing stuff with the animals over gardening.  I will never forget the day that their cow was slaughtered.  I was over for a play date and the butchers came out to do their thing.  We were inside for the killing, but went straight out for the rest.  That night we had steak for dinner.  Surprisingly, I was fascinated by the whole experience!  I am a big time animal lover, but I was ok with this. Humm...

            Fast forward 30 years and I am a mom living in the big city now.  My husband is a self-proclaimed computer geek.  He works as a project manager for a large internet company.  You have a problem with your computer and he is the one you would call.  If there is yard work to be done or a fence to be fixed he could probably find the number of a great contractor for you! Lol  It just isn't his thing. 

            Eight years back we bought the house we are in now.  It is a little 4 bedroom 2 bath 1400sqare foot home on a small lot in a neighborhood.  When we moved in, the previous owner had a garden in the back yard with the white picket fence with a climbing rose draping over it.  It was so cute!  There were tomato plants in the garden which were in peak season!  YUM!  It was so nice.  I remember thinking “well that was nice.  It won't happen again, but that was nice.”  The next year I think I actually put some tomato plants in the ground where the others had been, just to see what would happen.  We got tomatoes!  Who knew it could be so easy!  I started to get hooked.

            Today that little garden works hard.  It has tomatoes in it every year!  I gave it a year off about 5 years ago.  We were doing a remodel anyway, and I knew that the ground probably needed a break.  Other than that, it has been faithfully producing for us and I love it!  We have tried several different plants from corn to pumpkins and artichokes.  They all do amazing in my little tiny garden.

            Now though, I want more.  Isn't that always how it is?  In looking for ways to save money and eat healthier, I want to make more of my own food and I want to grow more of my own vegetables!  This past year I expanded into my front yard flower beds a bit.  I figure that I am paying top dollar for this land, it had better be working for me!  Gradually, all of my flowers are getting dug up and replaced by something edible.  It is nice in the summer and fall, but really, it isn't enough to carry us through the year. 

     Recently, I started tossing the idea around, of moving up to the local mountains on a couple of acres of land.  We can have a large garden, an orchard, a milk cow, chickens, goats.... Now imagine, my poor computer geek hubby at the end of a long day in the office coming home to a wife talking about moving and buying a cow!  You can guess how well that went over. Lol  He likes the idea of saving money.  He LOVES my home cooked from scratch meals.  HOWEVER, the idea of increasing his commute, buying property that he is sure we can't afford and or building on said property, and throwing chickens into the mix is just not something that he can wrap his brain around.  Now you know, I don't give up easy.  If it is something that I really want, and I stick with really wanting it for a LONG time...he might just come around.  I gotta give him time to see that this could be awesome. 

   In the meantime, here I am, in the big city on my little lot in my little house.  What am I to do?  Well, I can wish and dream and pine for my mountain farm, or I can make it happen right here right now.  Why not?  I have land.  It isn't much, but it is mine.  I can use what I have!  My back yard, minus the garden is 30x15.  The kids don't play in it, I don't use it.  It has become the domain for the dogs.  Not that they play in it, mind you.  No.  Really it is just their bathroom.  Seriously, I wish I had a bathroom that big!  It is being taken away this year!  I am putting a nice white picket fence around all but a 10x3 strip.  My garden is expanding!  I am going to plant enough food to last us all year!  I will can and freeze what we don't use right away.  And who says I can't have a couple of hens back there? (ok, besides my husband who is going to be hen pecked until he gives in! Lol)  I am know there is a law about roosters and I am pretty sure a cow and goat would not go over too well with the neighbors, but hens are quiet and will take care of pests in the garden!  They also produce great fertilizer and lay eggs!  Yep, I think a couple of hens might be just the thing this summer. 

            So that is me and this is my dream.  I still hope to build my house in the mountain top and have a cow so that I can make my own cheese and butter etc.  I still want my orchard so that I can have fresh fruit 12 months a year.  I want an olive tree so that I can make my own olive oil.  All of those things are still on the list.  For now though, I get to practice with my small area.  For now, I get to prove that I can do it and stick with it.  I can prove it not only to my amazing hubby, but to myself.  I can also see about getting the kids out and away from their computers long enough to help me build and work the land a bit.  This is my experiment.  Let's get started!