Babe's Bucket List Challenge #8 - My Own House & Garden

 

Welcome to Babe's Bucket List Challenge, where I'm tackling twelve of the thirty things on my bucket list and writing about the experiences...won't you join me?

Remember my dad (from the Word of the Year post)?  Dad's joie de vivre was unmatched -- he loved life!  Music, surfing, engineering, strong coffee, and family were part of his core.  He loved tinkering with ideas and often worked with his grandsons on projects such as building a siege tower, designing and building a chicken coop, and designing and shooting off rockets...plus going fishing.  He lived life with an engineer's precision, a surfer's spirit, and a drummer's soul.  Even as his health declined, his spirit, sense of humor, and love for ice cream never wavered.

In his honor, this year I have created a bucket list - a compliation of dreams and aspirations - to work from.  My husband (who grew up in our town and interned with him as a teen) has also written down a bucket list, and we're going for it!  You can download your own Bucket List template at the Word of the Year post.

Challenge number eigh on the list?  There's no place like home.

Having uprooted life in a major way over the past couple of years, getting settled and rebuilding a small homestead area has been top of mind for a bit. If you've been paying attention to economics, you're probably aware of the fact that the housing market has been very volatile, alongside the prices of everything else rising. However, we found this cute little gem in the best little town...

While it was too late in the year to really get a good garden going, and honestly the soil here is going to need a ton of amending, we were able to get an herb garden started and make progress toward building some raised beds out of food-grade agricultural totes.

And in the meantime, we got some vegetables going along the back wall. Is it what I'd have typically done in the past? Nope. But one lesson here is to acknowledge when circumstances have changed and adapt to them. As you've probably noticed from a few of the other bucket list posts, I've had a bad habit in the past of comparing now-me to past-me, and my body doesn't work like it used to, which makes that an unfair comparison. In this case, comparing a brand new garden on a small parcel to an acre-plus established garden on a large parcel is apples to oranges...

There are plenty of things to like about the property, including the beautiful wildflowers popping up everywhere and the huge blackberry thicket I undercovered while clearing brush!

Before the end of summer, we'll have the rain barrels set up to help water gardens, the clothesline up, and beehives established in this little nook.

Naturally, there are still PLENTY of projects to be done around the house and property, and we look forward to tackling each and every one of them together. 

One of my favorite books, which is a must-have for anyone building up their homestead, is Back to Basics. I highly recommend this as a housewarming gift for anyone as it also focuses on home ownership and repair.

How are your bucket list challenges coming along?