The Dream

  Ever since I was in my early teens I had a dream of having a self sufficient homestead. I envisioned fields of green grass with contented cows for my dairy and beef. Happy chickens laying healthy eggs, goats being silly, lush gardens and productive orchards supplying all the food I could possibly eat. There would be a clean, clear, bubbling spring for water. Basically everything I needed to survive would be supplied from a piece of land that belonged to me. It was a big dream and I would fantasize about how perfect it would be. I studied breeds of animals and plants, theorized which climate would be the best and just couldn't wait to take an empty canvas of land and start making my masterpiece!!
  I like to blame my parents for putting the homesteading gene in me, especially my mother who should have been born in the pioneer days of log cabins, no electric and surviving off the land. We were very poor while I was growing up but it seemed she could make meals out of nothing. She would can our garden vegetables, make preserves from the wild berries we picked on the Virginia hillsides, make bread, sew cloths and many other incredible homesteader type things to keep her family happy and healthy. I'm sad to say I didn't pay attention to much of the inside things, I was too busy with the animals. Outdoors with the animals would be where you were likely to find me or roaming the hills or studying natural health. I am so glad my mother is still alive and kicking to help me actually learn all those things I should have learned long ago!
   Life has a way of getting in the way and that is just what happened when I turned 19.  I went to visit some family in another state and met this incredible man with much wisdom, great ideas and good looks to boot. We were married 16 months later. He had a good paying job and we decided to stay by his job until we were better set up to head to the homestead. Almost 14 years later we finely are within reach of getting onto our little Homestead dream, in the mean time we do our best to enjoy some urban homesteading right where we are....