Moving is Hard

This post could also be called How the Hell Are We Supposed to Take Everything With Us? or equally How Does One Simultaneously Cry in Joy and Sadness While Packing Up a Home?

Needless to say, we’re going through some growing pains here.

Now, please don’t get me wrong, this move is absolutely the right thing to do.  It feels right  and good and as though the Universe has guided us to this place in time perfectly and yes, things are slowly falling into place…but, packing and cleaning and painting are hard all by themselves without the emotional ties we have built around this little Urban Farm of ours.

For one, after seven years in this place, there’s the pure emotion of it all:

Around every corner is a memory…this is where we built our family, where my oldest spent a huge portion of her life and where Sprout was born…this is where we’ve had countless parties and get-togethers…this is where the Christmas Tree fits just so and where Thanksgiving Dinner is held and where we can watch the Fourth of July Fireworks from our Balcony.

In every pocket of the property is a project…from the beds to the bees to the chickens and brooders to the compost (How the heck do we take our compost with us?  We can’t leave it behind!!!)…from our gorgeous swath of Echinacea to our trailing strawberries and our bountifully fruiting Frankenstein trees…there’s so much life and so much that can still be done!

So much time and energy was invested here and that’s hard to let go of.

Then, there’s the hard facts of moving from a house we own with 7 rooms, great storage, a garage and a front and back yard to call our own to a rental with 5 rooms, less storage, no garage (or shed) and a smaller (back) yard of our own:

Packing…it sucks.  We have so.much.stuff and so much of it is necessary to our lifestyle.  No, I’m not talking about furniture and TVs, I’m talking about water bath canners and pressure canners and soap making supplies and beer making supplies and yarn and paints and bee keeping supplies and jars and jars and more jars (some full and some not).

Will it fit?  AKA Imagining where it all might go…As in…”Will all that fit on that one bookshelf I remember in the Living Room?” , “Where will my desk go since I won’t have an office?”, “The dogs will have access to the whole backyard?  Shit!  Where will the chickens go for the first few months while we get situated?!”

Purging AKA Figuring out what to do with all that won’t be coming with us…Like 3/4 of our chickens, and the video games we never play anymore, and our huge fish tank with our two ginormous koi, and my drafting table?

Of course, all of this is happening while Kim works full time and I harvest and take care of the chickens and try not to trip over boxes and paint rollers and all those memories that are strewn about.  Oh, plus chasing our Sprout around (I swear, as opposed as I was to getting her a Walker, that thing has saved my life over the past two weeks with everything dangerous known to wo-man being pulled out and boxed up)!!!

Whew!

Are we doing the right thing?  Yes.

Is it going to stretch me well beyond my comfort zone?  Yes, completely.

Is this really the way forward?  The way towards all our hopes and dreams and our “Eventual Farm” with a B&B and a CSA and goats and free-range chickens and wide.open.spaces?  Yes, absolutely.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is the perfect next step for us.

Now, where the next few steps will lead us is beyond me at this point…but this first step is the perfect step for us, as individuals and as a family.

Now, if we can just get through the dust and paint and sweat and long, long, very long days, we’ll be all set.

So, I may not be around this space as often as I might like (hence the week long hiatus between my last post and this one), but trust me when I say it’s not for a lack of anything to say about anything…and while I’ve been absent from this space and much less active on Facebook, my Instagram feed is picking up and you can find me there daily because…well…it’s so much easier to snap a photo, throw a little blurb onto it and press “share” than it is to do pretty much anything else with technology these days 😉 So, if you’re on Instagram, please pop over and say Hello!

Also, know this…there are extracts being concocted and harvests being tallied…there are giveaways being lined up and broody chickens to talk about…and everything will find it’s way into this space in it’s own good time.

So, please bear with me, send us your good vibes and know you all are in our thoughts as we (I) try as hard as possible to not go batty while picking up our dreams and moving them out of the city and onto a glorious 6 acre lot that we will call home for at least the next year 🙂

Yes, this is really happening!

xoxo,
M

P.S. I could really use your help with something with this space if you feel so inclined! You know the tag line up above on my header that says, “Life, learning, and urban farming”? Well, in 12 days we will no longer be urban farmers and I’ll need a new tagline! Any ideas? Here are a couple of details about our new home that might help:
~Our home is an adobe Hacienda built in 1821
~The property is an old Dude Ranch called Rocking Horse Ranch
Plus, feel free to use anything you already know about us 🙂

Please help us brainstorm!  Thanks in advance!!!