Those of you who know me well, know the deep desire I have to escape from the suburban status quo and the concrete maze in which I live. I was born here in the Kentucky bluegrass, grew up in rural Michigan in a family that lived simply and raised sheep until my teens. I moved back to the commonwealth and began living out my dream (with the girl of my dreams by my side): teaching, owning a home, raising a family, etc. I was (and am) happy, but I always missed the country and the simple life of being in constant, intimate contact with the land, with family, and with a few good friends. Now, my wife, my three kiddos, my dog, my cat and I are all attempting to achieve the dream of a simple life once again. Our long term goal: get out of the city limits and live in the wooded hills of southeastern central kentucky, plant a food forest, raise chickens, and spend a lot of time in nature with family and a few good friends. Our present situation: we live on .08 acres on a busy street in the suburbs of Lexington and we're not going to wait for the simple life to come to us once we move; we're bringing it to ourselves right here, right now. Sure, our options will be more diverse once we move outside the city limits (our city zoning commission doesn't allow sheep and goats), but I'm choosing to be content with my present context and practice permaculture principles no matter where I live.
I don't know if anyone else will read these posts, or if anyone else will even care. I do think it will be meaningful to me to log our progress towards simplicity. The steps we take to reduce clutter in our physical space as well as to declutter our schedules may inspire some of you to try out your own simple life. The permaculture principles I'm implementing in my yard and garden (and someday on a country homestead) may give you reason to pause and reevaluate your own methods and expectations. That's all for now. I've still got a wonderful job to tend to and right now, I'm going to simplify my desk by grading some papers and decluttering my workspace. Happy permaculture people...seriously if you haven't heard of permaculture, look it up - it's awesome.
Interested. . . we're moving to (Madison Cty probably) in the next year. Currently practicing permaculture on 1/4 acre outside Annapolis, MD. Let's connect!
ReplyDeleteMadison County is the permaculture hotbed of Kentucky :) We'll have to connect once you get here. My wife and I just recently found land to buy, so hopefully we'll have a slightly larger canvas to paint on in the near future.
DeleteHey there. Have you sold your house yet? I'm looking in the area and would love to buy a place with a garden that's already designed based on permaculture principles.
ReplyDeleteSean, I'm so sorry I haven't replied to this until now. I somehow had a glitch in my gmail where I wasn't getting notices that comments had been posted on older posts. We've not sold our house yet, but we have found land are going to be selling it once we've built a small cabin to live on. I don't know if you are already in the central KY area, but I'll try to remember to post here in the blog when we get ready to sell.
DeleteKeep on keepin' on, man. You'll get there. Commitment is key. We waited forever to finally get a piece of land to put our passion into practice. We literally moved onto the land with $500, two kids, and a 160 foot cabin without plumbing! The land had been logged too. But 6.5 years later food forests are beginning to produce, the soil is beautiful, and we have a good business teaching courses. No house yet, but a slightly bigger living space...with hot water and electric to boot. I wouldn't trade it for city living, but the path is often trying. You will get there. ~ Jennifer
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement! We actually just found a place - 16.5 acres of mostly woods with no home (we'll build a small timber-frame cabin) currently drafting an offer and trying to figure out if we need a real estate attorney or not. I've checked out your courses online and I think a PDC will probably be on my horizon sometime in the future. Thanks again.
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