New Beginnings
When we arrived April 1, 2018 I had really no idea what life would be like in our new home. The decision to move onto our property so much sooner than originally planned meant I had very little time to plan how the first few months would go for us.
To put things into context, I am originally from the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) in Ontario, and my husband is from the South-East of Holland - before we moved we were living in Vancouver, BC. We have moved to a community with 28 people living in it....So, definitely a couple of fish out of water!!
We chose our property because of the acreage and also because it had a house on it which was move-in ready. Other properties we looked at in the area had ramshackle structures which could only be improved by tearing them down and burning them...it would have taken us so much longer and so much more money to get them to where we could occupy them, even as a vacation home, that it just was not worth it.
We considered bare land, but ultimately fell in love with the mountain views and the potential of the property we bought.
Speaking of the potential in our property; I of course started researching everything I could about gardening, greenhouses, self-sufficiency, and making our land work for us. We know that there are at least 2 water springs, a waterfall out the back somewhere (I will let you know when we find it!), and quite a bit of wood. I believe we have the resources on hand to achieve our goals.
I soon discovered that we are located in growing zone 2a (classified as sub-arctic) which is going to make things in the growing department a little more difficult; mainly boiling down to the number of crop species we can successfully grow in a perfect season. Add to this the massive forest fires across the province, which have been blocking out the sun for the past two summers, and I am going to need to come up with some serious solutions in the coming years to ensure I am getting the crop yields I need and want. I also have 2 honey bee colonies which need feeding, so I need to nail this down to keep them healthy and I want more hives, that means more food.
There are so many plans and projects to tackle, I can't wait to share the wins and fails, and maybe get some helpful tips, tricks, and resources in return. I have already shared a few books which I have found helpful; they are located in the Amazon widget at the bottom of the homepage, I will update the widget as I find more helpful reads! (I am a member of the Amazon Associates program which provides a small residual when you click through my links and/or purchase anything I have recommended.)
I hope you're as excited as we are to see how this adventure unfolds.
