Our New Home(stead), Our New Site

We just launched this site in November 2017, so please don’t mind our “website dust” as we add more posts and pictures.

From 2012 to mid- 2016, we posted blog updates on ReasonableSeason.com (no longer online) about our efforts as two small city folks in Upstate New York working towards a more sustainable lifestyle and hoping to acquire a few acres of land in the countryside.

From our first post back in March of 2012:

We’re keenly interested in learning more about sustainable living, eating locally, and knowing where our food comes from. We do buy all of our meat and eggs directly from local farmers now. Most of our veggies (and some of our fruit) are supplied by local farmers, too. We eat more meals around our dining room table than in a restaurant – although the occasional dining out is fun, too!

Right now we’re dreaming about a small hobby farm… Or a farmette, or a nano-farm – whatever you want to call it. Is it possible? Can we do it? I don’t know for sure, but I think we can. We have a lot to learn along the way. There ARE a lot of resources out there too, so I think this is a great time to make that BIG change.

This blog is our journey, from just your average neighborhood city folks, to (hopefully) a happy couple who figured it out, living a Reasonable Season…

Fast forward to today…

Since then, a lot of effort and researching – and much trial and error – went into learning how to create the life we wanted. A lot of “unexpecteds” happened… some good, some sad.

We experimented in our small, shady backyard trying container gardening and raised bed, square foot gardening, too. 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 (with no real skill or success – YET) 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 (Tara) who worked hard to help us sell the house
• Then 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.)

As we write this, we’ve been here for two months now. It’s been a trip! We’ll be sharing those experiences as we go. Hopefully those situations 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 Gordon