I'm jealous of the both of you

I'm jealous of the both of you

i got really lucky mate...just given up lookin for land when this one came up...power of sale so i could afford to walk straight into it

I have a sick mom that I look after on the weekends, a 12 hour a day job, a house that is full of critters and my house is part way renovated. There is no way I can buy another place until I finish the renovations due to the expense and time. I only have a couple of hours a day to myself and very little money so I can't hire someone to help.

feel for you buddy, but it will all come together in the end. im still renovating and we bought in jan 2009, but i do see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I love the renovating, its the lack of time that I don't like. When I was little my mom didn't think it was right for a girl to do the things my dad was teaching me, now what I do makes her proud.

good skills to have....whether boy or girl.

True but people treat me differently as a result of the things that I can do or they think I am full of S*** until I show them pictures of what I have done.

As for planting, chances are I will only have time to do my mom's garden again this year. So in August don't be surprised if I do a zucchini give away. 😀

LOL I'm in for the zucchini, I hear they make good chips when dehydrated.

I'm jealous of the both of you

Don't be. Prepping should be a long term "plan for the rest of your life", NOT a "gotta be ready by 2012" or Y2K or anything else.
To quote Jack Spirko, "we don't plan for events, we plan for the rest of our lives".
It took 15 years of planning, saving, looking, begging/convincing the boss to get here, and I'm a long way from anything productive. It's a direction to move in, not a race to complete.
I wasn't looking for a homestead, I was looking for a landing strip... priorities change......
And when my Mom was sick, everything else went on hold. Important things first.
Truth be told, it may never come to much, my other half is about as far from being part of the team as she could be. A true grasshopper. No telling how much longer she'll put up with this "waste of time".

When I was little my mom didn't think it was right for a girl to do the things my dad was teaching me

Same situation at our place. I don't care if our daughter does those things, as long as she knows how so she's not dependent on others or at least knows when someone is trying to feed her a line of bull.
So the lucky girl gets to help out Dad on his projects.

I'm jealous as it has always been a dream to own a farm out in the middle of no where. I grew up on my grandparents farm. I miss that way of life. I have followed the traditions of my grandparents with food saving, growing my own food & spices, making soap, candles, building what I can, making due. I have been called a freak for years because I still do the traditional things. I just want to go "home" to the country where the things I do are "normal". I have been collecting useful antiques for years. ATM I have a treadle scroll saw in my living room as I have no other place to put it. But you are right, baby steps to start. Patience are running low these days and I am getting frustrated.

I will put your name down for the zucchini...a bushel? lol

If the gourds do as well as the zucchini this year, I may have a few of those to share as well.

I have a treadle scroll saw in my living room as I have no other place to put it

I can't think of a better conversation piece. Think of it as a 3D coffee table book. Our entry way table is a 1920's Singer sewing machine. Originally a foot treadle but it had been converted at some point. My wife's family already had it in the dumpster and all had a good laugh while I dragged it back out. I'm the crazy uncle they make apologies for.

Unfortunately my living situation is temporary, and very urban; one apartment now until end of May, another June 1st. [Drastic change from living in a tent in 2011, and growing 1.5-acres of veg). Can't have a garden at current apartment; not sure where I will be starting June 1st, if I will be allowed to garden there. If yes... June ain't too late for alot of things.

I'm hoping to at least start tomatoes, peppers, melons, okra etc. on a windowsill in a few weeks.

I'm also hoping to "borrow" some friends' yardspace, start double-digging grass and direct seeding peas, hardy roots and greens, in early April - be able able to grow longer season crops there.

Ideally I would like to have a cold-frame NOW, but, don't.

I eat-grow alot of brassica-family greens, all very cold hardy: pak choy, tat soi, mizuna, komatsuna, mustard greens, kale, collards, arugula, cress, etc. In April will also start chard, spinach, lettuce, chicory, endives, various cabbages. Carrots, beets, turnips and rutabaga, kohlrabi, various radishes, parsips, root parsley, various green- and bulbing onions. Oh and most of what I named above (minus bulbing onions) you can either plant two crops of in a season / direct seed from April all the way to July.

Out on ecovillage / MAG property where I tented and gardened in 2011, I hope to help my partners/friends direct seed alot of things April-through-June, hopefully at least 1/4acre of winter squashes for my wife and I alone (to share with friends and family too) - wife and I won''t get to be out there more than a weekend or two a month (200+km from Toronto), but, at least we can rely on it for a few bushels of root veggies, and things to can (cucs, beans, tomatoes and other salsa ingredients).

Man oh man how I am looking forward to my future passive-solar earth-bermed home, with a 500+sq ft greenhouse on the south-side: figs, papaya, year round herbs and greens, perennial tomatoes... On a plot of land I live year-round, hopefully for decades into the future... Surrounded not just by an annual-veggie garden, but all sorts of perennials.

just planted my seeds tonight, green house being put back up in 4 weeks