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Truth be told, Jackie, I’m not blogging either. I mean, a bit, but I think I lost my groove.
Likewise, I’ve moved on from a lot of my original homesteading ideas. In the beginning, it was sheer necessity. Like in the pioneer days, we needed to garden and can and mend and raise our own meat to survive. Dave’s job has since come to pay much better–and take much, much more time.
Other things have changed us too. Home isn’t a haven to me, it’s my work. It’s a job that gives no vacations unless I take them elsewhere. It’s also a massive network of unending renovations. It’s no haven to Dave in that sense. We were able to acquire the sailboat, and that takes us away in the summer whenever we can manage it.
I don’t miss the garden. I only feel like I should.
I’m out in space-time these days, rediscovering my drive to write speculative fiction that really examines the world and the way we think. It’s a refuge and a place of freedom. To me, it’s also a link to the past–to the sweeping dreams of the first part of the 20th century, to minds like Heinlein and Asimov and the questions they demanded of society. From their own perspectives, they saw things that were wrong and absurd, and they used fantastical situations to question their cultural ethic.
But here in my corner of Earth, the first snow is falling–we expect ten centimeters and already have an inch. (That’s the luxury of Canada, mixing measurement systems so flippantly.) I have regrets outdoors. I have hope indoors. I have stories begging to be told. I have questions.
What course of action will have the most impact on the world around me for God? How do I live with myself if I let some things go? Will I regret what I do keep? There’s not enough time for all the joyful things God made in this life.
Y’know, Jackie, I’m trying to remember that all the fun comes later. We have heaven and a whole eternity full of wonderful things. Here and now is the work season. But sometimes I struggle with how wonderful life is and how little I seem to catch as it goes by.
I finally feel as though I’ve made it through the fog weeks – and we’re coming out the other end, into sunshine and warmth and eggs and vegetables and a renewed hope and motivation to blog! There is so much happening around this little piece of New Zealand acreage right now, and we’ve had so many changes in the last few weeks, starting with my husband Robin’s new job with the government. I realize how lazy I had become having had him at home for the last three years. It was a wonderful lifestyle and one I knew that couldn’t last forever, and it didn’t, and here we are back in a 9-5 or 7-5.30 (if you add in travel time), and I’m at home alone with the children and drinking bad coffee again.
But Spring has arrived and summer is coming on quickly and I’m enjoying being outdoors more and watching the new trees we planted last year grow their blossom and beautiful green leaves and some have even put on a little growth already. I’m also busy getting the vegetable garden going. Our new 6 hens, Betsy Trotwood, Dora, Peggotty, Mrs. McCawber, Little Em’ly and Agnes are producing 6 eggs a day, and we just started the last school term for the year. 9 weeks and we’ll be into the long stretch of Christmas and summer holidays and a new baby due in the middle of that. My favourite time of the year. Yay!
I thought you’d like to see some Spring-ish photos from Down Under, and a little test to see if my first post works.
Plum Blossom
My new clothesline
Kids cooling off on a hot Saturday afternoon.
Well, gals, we’re beginning fall cleaning today. We’ve been away for a lot of the summer, camping and sailing.
Anytime we’ve come home, it’s pretty much been to dump a bunch of stuff all over and take off again. Not a recipe for a useful, pleasant home environment. So, homeschooling is being postponed at least a week while we straighten out this chaos. There are a lot of cobwebs, a lot of dust and a lot of misplaced items to get through.
What amazes me is how the kids pitch in and think it’s fun, as long as I’m doing stuff. I went to scrub down the cupboards (ew, greasy fingerprint layers, food splatters from my little cooks). Next thing I know, the girls want to help because it’s what mom’s doing.
Excellent. I think I’m going to use their gullibility for nefarious housekeeping purposes.
Here’s our place (not an autumn shot, obviously). Anybody else want to give an idea of what their corner of the world looks like?
We just got it this year, and this is our first season using it – it’s been interesting, frustrating, you know, all the usual think you know everything, turns out you know squat, stuff. So I’m reprinting my answer, in case anyone might find it useful, and you know, Cat, when I get a minute, I’ll tell about Why the English Don’t Can, too (sounds like a Just So Story ….. Once upon a time, o best beloved, in a scummy kitchen in England …)
Hi Jane
OK, about the polytunnel … well, it has been great, but I have made a lot of mistakes, I would say it’s something you’ve got to really learn about.
One thing I did was overplant, drastically.
I planted it up, and Neil said he felt I didn’t have enough stuff in there, but boy, I promise you, I had way too much. It turned into a jungle, I lost control, and hence the diseases took over – so first tip, start small, be strict about your planting distances, and don’t plant more than you can manage on a regular basis.
You would ideally get the plastic on on a warmish day, which means the plastic goes on taut – but it is essential to be on a windless day, we nearly took off just with our little one.
As to whether you are in the right climate – do people around you use them? I find that to be key, I mean look at me and my pressure canner! Saved for years and imported the thing before I worked out WHY the English don’t can LOL.
Will it extend your season? Will you be able to grow anything in there in the winter? Will it make spring and fall salads available to you that otherwise wouldn’t be? If not, I am wondering why you would have one?
We have them for two reasons – to enable us to grow things which, with your long daylight hours and sunny summers I think you can grow anyway, such as peppers, cucumbers, chillies, and (if you don’t get blight!) tomatoes which ripen before the frost gets them! And secondly, to grow salad crops in winter, and to extend the season of some other green crops and succesional crops. The polytunnel will be in use year round.
So, I would recommend finding a local market garden or CSA grower, and asking them if they use them, and if so why, and if not why not.
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