A Story

This is the story of how we moved from the city to the country to become more self-sufficient - oh, and to get out of the city.

This is a story of animals: a lost cat and a found cat, two pregnant barn cats, a dog, and a 200 lb. pot-bellied pick (also pregnant, but that's another story) named Charlotte who we bought for $5. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.)

This is a story of neighbours: a recluse next door who generously provides us with advice, apples, and walnuts; the former owners of our house who I regard as fast friends and whose company I delight in; a transcriber (like me!) two towns over who is also an aspiring author; former former (not quite original) owners of our house who don't quite get that it's not still their house; and my dearly beloved Amish friends, Martha and Isaac (not their real names), who have become friends as well as neighbours and are a source of joy, inspiration, and encouragement to me.

This is a story of gardening: crops that grew, crops that failed spectacularly, sun, rain, blight, seeds (both bought and saved), planting seeds in trays in a bedroom window on heating pads in the late winter and watching them sprout; planting outdoors in the spring, weeding and watering in the summer, and harvesting in the fall.

This is a story of preserving food: dos and don'ts; canning tomatoes and beans and dill pickles and jams and beans; storing nuts and sugar and raisins; dehydrating tomatoes.

This is a story of nature: rain, sun, snow, and wind - LOTS of wind; of seasons and timeliness in all things; of birds and deer and racoons and an errant and most unwelcome squirrel; of kaleidescopic flower gardens.

This is a story of a house: a house that's big enough for my entire family, all 19 of us; that's heated with wood and oil in the winter and cooled by shutting the windows in the morning in the summer; that's quirky and initially confusing and utterly charming; with so many rooms that we had to invent names for some of them.

This is a story of emotions: of urgency and immediacy; of frustration; of joy; of contentment; of peace; of love.

This is a story of discovery: why the days are shorter in the winter than the summer; how bright a moonlit night can be in the winter; how many stars there are in the sky; how to recognize and (hopefully) treat potato and tomato blight; how to start sweet potatoes from slips and how to know when potatoes are ready to harvest; how to forage for elderberry and apples and grapes; how to ferment - kombucha, kefir, ginger beer, dill pickles, sauerkraut; how to seal dry goods in mason jars; how many people can fit in this house at Thanksgiving and Easter and Christmas.

I hope you enjoy this adventure half as much as I do!