On the Garden Path at 5~Acre Farm: To Blog, or Not to Blog

Thursday, January 26, 2012

To Blog, or Not to Blog

When I started this blog back in 2009, my plan was to focus on our gardening efforts, and the challenge our health and financial issues presented in the pursuit of our dream (at our late age) to be a self-sustaining farm. No matter what we try to plan for ourselves, however, life puts it's own two cents into it, and we sometimes find ourselves scrambling to keep up, or, in our case, scrambling to catch up.

For whatever reasons this blog went into hiatus in 2009, it stayed in hiatus because, at the time, I didn't think it was appropriate to write about the other things that were happening in my life; my marital problems, my mother's death, my declining health, and the debilitating effect all of this was having on the farm. I didn't think anybody would care.

Well, I may not have been blogging for a while, but I've been reading a lot of blogs in the last couple of years (political, religious, home, couponing, cooking, etc.), and I realize that often the focus of the blogs blurs as the bloggers' personal lives take twists and turns, and they incorporate those twists and turns into the body of their writing. My favorite blogs, it turns out, are written by people who aren't just sharing what they know, they're sharing who they are, and how things they can't control just keep happening.

These bloggers speak honestly about the quirks in their relationships, as well as the perks. They discuss the exciting and the mundane, their successes, and their failures. Some, like a food blogger who recently lost her husband, even boldly expose their raw, broken hearts in very poignant ways. These bloggers have been making me laugh and cry, and they made me start thinking that perhaps I could find a way to share more of the details of my own life without spilling blood, or scaring my readers away.

I spent several months rethinking this blog, wondering if I should continue it or start a new new one. I decided that this is the blog that has the chance to address all my issues in context with each other. So I picked up where I left off, but you'll probably find that my blog sounds a lot different now than it did in 2009. Well, maybe that would have happened anyway with time.

It's winter now, and there just isn't a lot to do or say about gardening (give me a couple more weeks). So I'm talking about the foods we eat here at 5 Acre Farm; simple foods most of the time, flexible in their preparation, filling, and (we think) tasty. Once in a while I'll throw in a story about a visit or an activity, or a health issue one of us is dealing with. Now and then I'll grumble about my husband, or confess my own erring ways (but mostly his), and I'll talk about God, because I (and we) can't do any of this without Him.

The thing to remember is that this blog is about 5 Acre Farm, the dream John and I share to make this place self-sustaining, and how we are meeting all the challenges head on. Health and financial issues, and now the devastating effects of this country's horrible economy, are fighting us tooth and nail. Once in a while they knock us down, but we keep getting back up. In this, John and I are akin to the early American homesteaders who claimed land and tried to build a life on it. We'll do it! Or we'll die trying!

Stick with me and I'll try to keep it interesting if not entertaining! You'll discover, as I continue to do, that 5 Acre Farm is a wonderful place to be, a journey of courage, commitment, and prosperity of the soul.

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John and Michelle, and 5 Acre Farm

How We Came To Be

John was born and raised in Georgia by parents who lived incredible lives of their own, and passed on to John a rich family history from both sides. He was a die hard Boy Scout, and later, spent 17 years as a Troop Leader. He earned a dual Agriculture/Agricultural Engineering degree at ABAC in Tipton, where he also started the college's radio station. After college, John served on nuclear submarines in the Navy, where he once saved the lives of his shipmates, and, rumor has it, did many incredible things in the service of our country. He married and had a family, and after the Navy, worked briefly with the EPA before opening his own HVAC-Refrigeration company. John was inventive as a child, and that carried over into everything in his life. He is a fixer of severe mechanical problems, and an inventor of all kinds of things that improve on or simplify existing machinery, equipment, and ideas. His inventions are unique, and some of them may some day aide humanity, save lives, and save our planet if we can get the right people to listen.

My dad was career Army. I was born in France, and introduced, at a very young age, to the Virginia countryside, where we raised rabbits and chickens. After dad retired, we moved to North Carolina, his home state, where we spent many years on the coast, near Wilmington. Here, we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and fished commercially. Our freezer was always full of fresh Spot and shrimp, and oyster roasts were a weekly event! As a young adult I lived with my family in the mountains south of Asheville. Here too we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, as well as geese and peacocks. I worked for many years with an arts council, Christian organizations, and other non-profits. I helped train missionaries, researched/wrote grants, produced professional documents, edited newsletters, and wrote a lot of publicity materials. I already had two Associate degrees, but in my late 30s I finally completed an undergraduate degree in English/Art History. For 20 years I was active in community theater, sang solos with a community choir, and danced with a show choir. Treasured memories! I moved to Georgia in late 1998, and married my first husband in 2002. I was 45. Eighteen months later, I was widowed.

John and I first met in 2000. After I was widowed, and John was divorced, we found each other again. Of like minds, spirits, and goals, our hearts came together quickly, and we married in 2005. Each of us has undergone Elijah House training, and we were both ordained into ministry in 2006. I have been a Christian counselor and prayer warrior for probably 30 years. John and I live to put God first in our lives, and in our dreams for this small piece of earth of which we are the caretakers.

We call our place "5 Acre Farm." John's father took this barren, overworked field from a larger parcel of farmland in the mid-70s. He fenced off about three-quarters of an acre for the house, and added plants, flowers, and trees. Elsewhere, he transformed the property through years of hard work, adding an apple orchard, peach trees, pears, two fig orchards, grape vines, and a greenhouse. John and I have been trying to continue his father's work on this land, adding to it with our own hopes and dreams, and our late-in-life efforts. Not a day goes by that I don't feel great respect for John's father, for the man he was, for the work he did here, and gratitude for the bounty we reap because of his hard work.

John and I are in our 50s, just starting life together, but with age and health trying to work against us. We aren't ready to sit down and take it easy. We have a goal to become self-sufficient by growing our own food (meat and vegetables), and getting off the grid. The challenges we face in doing this are age, health, and finances. John's inventiveness is being strongly applied, as is my gift for budget stretching and frugality. Our strength? The love we have for each other, and the trust that we are working inside the will of God.

One of the things we ask ourselves now and then is this: "Is it worth it?" I never had children. John's son has set his own path with family and career. There does not seem to be anyone we can leave this property to who will continue the work and the dream; one of John's grandchildren, perhaps, but they are very young right now, and do not yet notice or care.

So, is it worth it (all the work and expense) if there is every chance this land will end up in the hands of developers after we're gone? Well, our answer to that question so far is always "Yes, it's worth it." It's worth it to us, because of what we are accomplishing here in our lifetime. It's worth it because what we grow here we share with family, with friends, and with our community. And not just what we grow, but our faith and philosophy, our hopes and dreams, and our very desire to leave at least our little part of the world better than it was when we found it. We are living - consciously, and deliberately - a lifestyle that expresses who we are and what we believe. Does anybody care? Why don't read our blog, leave a comment, and let us know.