Progress, light at end of tunnel.

[1footouttadefog]

They installed the meter in the power box on my little shed stead building yesterday.

The lighbulb in totally inadequate but it was so nice to see it turn on.

I took a hotplate, a toaster oven and an air mattress  and.......

.... A screen that fits a garage door opening.  It has sections that can be rolled up and also velcro shut and or close with magnetic strips.

The building has a roll up door at the end and I will be able to air it out and cool things down while cooking etc.  It will be like having a screened room. 



I found it on sale for 5.99. 

[JustKeepTrying]

This is so uplifting and sounds so peaceful

You go!!!

[1footouttadefog]

I ordered a high tunnel kit.  This was a longer term goal but the more it though about it, I am why wait.  It will keep the deer from eating the greens, lettuces and cabbabmges and I can do cherry toms and green/pole beans on rope trellises up the center. 

My longer term goal was to garden in the winter and cool seasons and take summers off.  This puts me in that direction and by starting my own plants I can pay for the tunnel in a few years on starts alone. 

I will see how things go and apply for a grant to get another tunnel if I actually get to work and use this one.

[Andeza]

Ooooh, high tunnels are so cool! Congratulations!

[1footouttadefog]

The tunnel has shipped.  It will come by freight.   I will then have to load the stiff and take it to the garden property to put it up.  I am afraid it would be stolen if I let it stay on the pallet for weeks there. 

I have a friend who farms in these tunnels.  She might come help me out it up if not I might have another helper.

The PDH would likely help also.  He seems somewhat interested.  I am actually going to try to involve him a little as it's very therapeutic to garden and he is all about salads.  If it flops it's on him, I tried. 

With the economy changing and some of my income drying up I am pondering putting in a septic system and making a couple of places to rent out to tiny homes or campers.  Ideally It would be someone who wants to do organic market gardening.  This way we could water each other's stuff etc if we needed a day or few away.   

[Boat Babe]

This is such a good thing to be doing. It's the best self care for you and will also benefit others.  Times are changing, that's for sure.

[BeautifulCrazy]

Ohmygoodness!!
I am desperate to come up with something punny now that the thread title and content match so perfectly!! 

I love that you are able to do this and carve out this space and activity for yourself.
Even your inclusion of PDH.
Good for you 1foot!!

I would love to do something like this myself one day!

[1footouttadefog]

You can do something like this for yourself.  Just make the goal and work towards it even if a baby step at a time.

It is when you don't take the first step that you kill the dream.

I have a friend who farms and she started collecting items in her garage to have her own farm some day.  6 years later she is in the process of moving an old green house to her property.  It was given to her.  She has many of the things she needs on hand for the rest of it.  She used cardboard and old carpet to make the area ready to grow stuff by killing off the weeds and grass.  She cut up old truck bed liners from the dump to make paths for her garden rows.  The carpet and cardboard is now replaced by weed cloth covered rows of crops with hard paths in between.   She did this with a shovel and a rake for the most part. ( A friend bought her a tiller last year) Now she will have a greenhouse for starts and winter greens.  She eats plant based diet so this is a dream for her.   

She has put this together and is a payment away from owning her rent to own home after being abandoned there  by a narc sociopath husband (diagnosed) with 4 kids in a house with no electricity and holes in the floor.  When power is out the well does not work and he wrecked her car and broke the radiator before he left.

So she started with no power no water and no floor and four little kids and is right around the corner from being debt free owning a house and several acres and having her own business working for her self in 6 years.  It has not been a smooth,  pretty
or straight path I can assure you  but progress can be made a baby step at a time.

And her family frown upon her because her house is not in great shape ignoring the fact she bought it in six years and will be mortage free soon and can fix it up then.  She got new AC and heat system in a grant making it worth even more than she paid. 

Find your dreams and hold on with tenacity and get started now not later. 

[Hilltop]

Your friend is truly amazing.  To rebuild her life and now be secure and safe, she has done incredibly well. 

[1footouttadefog]

Mercy,

Steps forward and many steps back.

My progress has been agonizingly slow.  Partly due to family obligations and partly due to not feeling well and being overwhelmed with a backlog.

I have made progress however even if tiny steps.  I got 4trees planted, there are many grow bags in my patio with veggie plants and an area at my garden place is tilled and hopefully irrigation and weed cloths will be in by tomorrow.  The tunnel is here.  I hope to get up in July so I can use it for fall planting and winter greens etc. 

I need to get myself back in shape.  Feeling achy and stiff all the time and it takes more time to be ready to work.  I have been eating better, getting up earlier and such so maybe I will feel better soon. 

Stick with your goals, It's worth it even if it does not always feel great physically in the moment.  Emotionally even a little progress makes you feel better.