Where I am coming from.

I am an analytical scientist by training. It is my third actual career and one that I have worked hard and overcome many obstacles to achieve. I work in research and development for a large company who shall remain nameless. I enjoy the work that I do very much. But, just lately anyway, things have gone sideways for me at work. I, along with many of my co-workers, have been a little blindsided by some of the changes in our industry.

I still do a lot of the things I like to do. I still get paid to play mad scientist sometimes and I even get to wear the costume on occasion. But my days more often than not are now bogged down in paperwork and red tape. I went from working and creating in a more or less academic environment to laboring and producing in a business atmosphere practically overnight. At times, I find it repressive, joyless and uninspiring. The fact that I am getting paid to do these things is little consolation. Late last Friday afternoon, I could literally feel my insides shrinking and the empty space being filled with a low hum of panic. All I could think was, "If I have to do this until I reach retirement age, I'll just die."

So, I decided that it is high time to figure out what the next phase of my life will look like.

I like to think of it as my pre-retirement years. Normally, I think people my age (pushing 50) are starting to worry about money a little more and are starting to sock it away at a greater rate. Some of my contemporaries are talking about 401k plans and Roth IRAs and retirement homes in the South. Yeah, I have the retirement fund and I've considered a condo myself. But it's not enough. Not for me. Not after all this work. The thought of spending my Golden Years living in a condo in a place without seasonal changes, watching TV and complaining about the government full time makes me a little queasy.

There has to be a middle ground.

My husband and I have long dreamt of having a place of our own to grow food and keep ourselves close to the land. Recent health events have turned that dream into an imperative. Neither of us can afford to feed ourselves with the mass-produced, chemical laden products that pass for food these days.  So that's where my change starts.

Here I go.

What am I doing here anyway?

My very first grown-from-seed eggplants!

That's a good question, actually. What's a girl like me who has spent the last 30 years of her life living and working in a midwestern city of more than 200,000 people doing in a farm town of less than 1000 people? Well, I'll tell you.

When I was a little girl, I wanted my grandpa's farm. I wanted to grow things both flora and fauna. It was a dream that I did not dare share with anyone. Ever. Or at least I didn't until I met my current husband.

Now that I am most definitely not a little girl anymore and after spending much of my adult life on the treadmill of corporate America, I find I still want to grow and nurture living things. Moreso now than ever before. Working for a massive corporation has been financially profitable for me but after a while, it has started to drain the life from me. Money, as they say, is not everything.

After much soul-searching, I figured out that I don't really want a farm. At least, not how farms are defined these days. I wanted to find an acreage and I almost did.

We have a small lot that is about 75 feet square situated roughly in the geographical center of our tiny town. A lot of the space is taken up with house and garage and dog kennel (which is another post entirely). The remainder of the lot is slowly being transformed into garden space.

The bulk of this blog will be taken up by our attempts to learn and streamline our personal food production in very small spaces. Here, where we are surrounded by people with two, three or even four city lots to their name, and in spite of the economic climate we will work with a piece of land only half the size of a single lot. It's a challenge to be sure, but it's also a place to start.

I can't wait to get started!