A lot of effort and researching – and much trial and error – went into learning how to create the life we want to live.
When we lived in the city, we experimented in our small, shady backyard trying container gardening and raised bed, square foot gardening, too. Mr. Gordon engaged in exercises such as building a temporary solar oven in the driveway and charging solar panels in the back of his truck while at work to power his laptop at home in the evening. I experimented with knitting and further honed my cooking talents. (I love to be in the kitchen. It’s my therapy.)
We read (still do!) books / articles on moving into a life that would focus on homesteading and sustainability, and logged a lot of time watching how-to and DIY videos on YouTube. We watched our pennies and drove down a lot of country roads. I suppose that we were hoping to “stumble” across our opportunity. We’re optimists, after all.
And yet, we felt stuck. As we watched the years slip by, we knew we had to make a leap. In fact, we had to throw out a few of our presumptions on the “right way” to get to this life, to finally land in the beautiful countryside of the Finger Lakes. We had to make some compromises. We had to be willing to try something different.
In one year’s time we:
- Moved out of our city home and rented a two-bedroom apartment in a smaller city
- Readied our city house so that we could put it up for sale
- Engaged an awesome real estate agent who worked hard to help us sell the house
- Engaged Tara a second time to help us find our “homestead in the Finger Lakes”
- …and lo and behold, we found our home on two acres with A LOT of space for gardening. (And chickens? YES! Meet our girls.)
We’ll be sharing our experiences as we go. Hopefully our plans and surprises will help you while on your own good journey in a positive way as you look for your “dream home(stead).” Better still, we hope to also learn from you as we share the road toward a more fulfilling, sustainable life – one that offers much joy and contentment at the end of the day.
We’re so glad that you found us.
Tracy (and Mr. Gordon) – Meet us below…
