Our First Weekend is in the Books!

So last Wednesday we decided to give this a go. This weekend we really did it, and we are so proud. Right now we are renters, so we are working someone else's property. This means we have to really be careful about how much money we invest in this little lot. It's so easy to think about what we would want on our land, but honestly, especially in this Portland housing market, the landlords could easily give us 3 months notice at any time and sell the house. That was my main reason to not plant a blueberry bush!

Investing time in the property is just good practice. We want to be sure we can handle the physical and time demands of a homestead, and what better way to practice than when you have 2 full time jobs, 2 kids, and 2 dogs to care for. If it's important to us, we'll get it done. And we got it done Saturday and Sunday!!

What we did: Made our trees look like trees again, major clean up of side yard (wish I had a before picture... nasty!) , picked berries and toms, a few zukes, went garage sale-ing for tools - and I got a rad little pan to practice cleaning and using and a bread baking recipe book, planted some flowers for the bees (good sale at A-Boy!)

What we learned: wear long sleeves when hugging and carrying piles of tree branches, especially if you don't know your trees (hence the hose pic of David cleaning off his arms from the allergic reaction he got!), if there are a lot of hornets in one area, look not only up but down for a nest!, and on a 92 degree day, start work EARLY!!