Not All Acreage is Created Equal

It's so amusing to go back through some of the old posts on this blog. It's been half a decade since we stopped posting and so much has changed.

I accepted a position near Dallas, Texas toward the end of 2014. Then I proceeded to make a lot of mistakes that threw the whole family off kilter. We were looking at two houses, one with more of our checklist items and one with less checklist items but more property. In the end we went with more property and a garage.

We now live on a single-level house on 9 acres. Since moving here, we've lost all but one of our original hens to other people's dogs and several more during the last few years to dogs (mostly) and other creatures. Our bees didn't make the move and the new hives we've added to our little apiary have been struggling. We also lost our beautiful (and expensive) angora rabbit to... you guessed it... other people's dogs.

It's been a very tough two and a half years and I've often questioned why or how I could ever dream that such a life was for me. Of course, such things are never just that simple, but I'm convinced that more than anything else most of our issues stem from picking the wrong type of property. Not all acreage is created equal.

The best this black clay can seem to grow is mesquite trees and the odd honey locus. But we're trying.

I know this isn't our forever home. In fact, I'm no longer sure where that might be anymore. What I do know is that it's our home for now, and I'm going to try my best to let this home and this acreage teach me the lessons that only hardship can provide. It's my goal to start overcoming the obstacles in my path as we look to the future.

We can still have our green adventure. We can still aim toward growing a large portion of our own food. And in time, with enough study, patience, and persistence, we can start working with this land; too improve it. To improve us.