The Neighbors

One of the inevitable pitfalls of moving to a new neighborhood is new neighbors. As a rule, I tend to be pretty hesitant to meet new people, while GH is total social butterfly. This often causes a bit of friction as GH badgers me into trying to make new friends, while I insist a semi-hermit existence suits me just fine, thank you.

The neighbors that live just on the other side of our fence have become GH's most recent pet project. Just after we moved in, GH went to a local concert and happened to meet this "really cool" guy - only to find out days later this "really cool guy" was our new neighbor. GH wasted no time becoming friends, even going to another concert with him a few weeks later.

I have yet to meet "cool guy" or his wife. Or their six kids. Yes, six kids - that terrifies me. GH keeps insisting that we should get together with them, hang out, etc. I keep insisting my friend quota is full up, and I don't want to get involved in any new potential neighbor drama. Stalemate.

Then, a move I wasn't prepared for. While I was at work yesterday, one of their child-shaped minions dropped this off with GH:

He texted me and let me know there was a box from the neighbors. He suspected it contained baked goods, but insisted on waiting for me to get home to open it.

It was indeed full of baked goods:

Cute little homemade cookies of every shape and size. Damn.Well played neighbors. Well played.

Deep Breath

So many things. Too many things. That is the story of this life.

So many things have changed since I last checked in with this blog. There's a new house. There's a new outlook, new life plans. Change and progress and all of that happy nonsense.

In light of all that, I've decided to give this blog a face lift and a new perspective. I've changed the layout, and I'm sure it will continue to morph as I pick up some tech savvy skills. Most importantly, I'm changing the focus here.

Over this past year, due to many factors, I've given a lot of thought to life in general - what's important, what makes me happy, how to live the best life I can for me and my family, etc. In the end, it's all come down to one concept - simplicity.

One thing that a lot of people don't know about me - I'm a farm girl at heart. I love growing veggies and my roses. I love farm animals and the smell of fresh hay and manure. Luckily my best friends own the farm where I board my horse, and I can go there whenever I'm in need of a farm fix.

What would really make me happy, is a farm of my own. Unfortunately, life has decided right now I need to live in a small city. Bugger.

Recently however, I've discovered there's a large movement of people who are doing small scale farming and various self-sufficiency projects right in their backyards, in cities all over the country. The concept has me excited and inspired. I've obsessively researched plans, methods, concepts and techniques. I am ready to begin forging ahead.

I'm hoping that maybe my ventures will help inspire other people to give some of these concepts a try. If not, maybe then just a good laugh as I try to make it work? Either way, I'm hoping to have fun and maybe learn a little something. Always worth a shot, right? And of course, there will be plenty of "life stuff" to fill in the blanks......

 

 

 

The brilliant tomato planter we created from an old round bale feeder up at The Farm this past Spring. Can't wait for Spring...