Dare We Dream?

After the extreme disappointment over the shocking news of zoning restrictions on our land last year, we're not quite ready to dream again. For now, we are just living in the present.

Once we finally finished all the work required by the county, we had to consider our plans for the future. They were uncertain, and they have changed several times. At first, because we couldn't do hardly anything we planned to do here, we intended to sell and move as quickly as we could. We cleaned up outside, sold all the things we wouldn't be able to use here, and planned to put the house on the market this spring.

Then we thought, well, maybe we should wait a year so we don't have to pay back the government's first time homebuyer's credit. If we could hold out another year, we wouldn't lose our shirts even more. Unfortunately, when I received the tax reminder about this from the IRS, I realized I had remembered the information wrong. The requirement is three years, not two. We really aren't sure we want to stay that long.

One factor complicating our decision was, and still is, my sweetie's mother. She lives in the state and has some health problems. While she has wonderful, supportive neighbors, she still relies on us for long-distance transportation, as well as emotional support and the occasional fix-up in the home. Our moving away from the area would sadden her deeply and add additional difficulties to her life.

So, to meet our desires and still be available to help her, we considered the idea of living in an RV. We could do temporary work in different areas for a few years to help us find a new place to live, yet still be able to come back to help her out. We both loved this idea and began decluttering in earnest. Downsizing from a prepper household to just what can fit in fifth wheel trailer was not going to be easy, but we made significant progress. We put a number of boxes in storage for a big spring yard sale.

With the recent rise in gas prices, however, we started thinking this might not be such a wise plan. Granted, our expenses would be lower so we could probably afford to pay a little more for gas but if rationing was instituted, we'd be screwed. Also as the economy worsens and budgets everywhere are strained, the possibility of finding work could be significantly reduced.

Then, at the beginning of this year, my husband's work situation changed and he committed to a yearlong project. Even though we can't do what we want on our land here, it does not make sense for us to sell it now, have to repay the entire homebuyer's credit, and then pay rent in town instead of building equity here. Our home is in a low enough price range that it should not suffer terribly from falling home values. Having at least another year here also gives us time to do more of the little fix-up projects that will make the home more attractive to potential buyers when we are ready to leave.

With all of this uncertainty, and because we are so battered and bruised from this past year, we lost all momentum for doing much of anything. Items set aside for the big yard sale remain in the rented storage unit and tools from the shed (now gone) are stacked on shelves in my living room.

Considering we bought an entire acre so we could have a huge garden, our current garden is practically non-existent. (Thank you, bureaucrats, for this.) We do, however, have a tiny bit going on. We've enjoyed lettuce grown in the kitchen for the past month or so. We're pretty sure our ultra-dwarf apple tree survived the hard freezes. I don't know about my asparagus, though, especially since I didn't mulch them before winter.

All this debate about urban homesteaders has kind of fired us up. Although we still don't expect to stay here for the long run, we've decided to go ahead and do a few things. We already have a couple of experimental beds set up with a big brush pile on the bottom, aged horse manure filling in the gaps and covering it, and we will put a top layer of mixed aged horse manure and compost before planting when the danger of a hard freeze has passed.

Recently, my sweetie planted chard in a box and buckets out front. Seedlings are already poking up through the dirt. This week, I purchased a fig tree that we will plant where the washing machine drains its graywater. Because figs produce relatively quickly we might actually benefit from it while we still live here.

We can't fence garden beds on our acre but I pointed out to my sweetie that our fenced yard for the dogs is probably not much bigger than what many people gardening on city lots have available. And it is the only part of our entire acre that is not subject to the zoning restrictions. The problem is that it is the dogs' yard and we don't want to deprive them of the space to run around and play. However...they don't need all the space.

We are going to fence off a strip along one edge of the yard to do some container gardening. We might even try to squeeze in a small chicken coop. I dropped by the CSA yesterday while I was in town and spoke with a lady who had previously offered me her excess chicks so we just need to make our decision and build the coop if we want to go that route. If the county has a problem with this, they will not get easy cooperation from us again. They will get a big, unpleasant, and very public fight.


Edited to Add: I supposed I should add that we will, of course, continue to live our low-impact lifestyle. We keep our energy and water use low. We combine errands and try not to drive too much. I'm trying to figure out a way to get my bike out of storage and on the property here so I will ride it instead of driving for local errands. I frequently shop at the farmers market and cook from scratch. I haven't done any food preservation in quite some time, but look forward to picking that up again this year.