Northern Colorado Urban Homestead Tour

This weekend we went on the Northern Colorado Urban Homestead Tour.  The tour was a fundraiser for The Gardens at Spring Creek in Fort Collins and featured three houses in Fort Collins and three houses in Loveland which opened up their backyards to visitors.  Chris and I have been dreaming about the possibility of growing more of our own food and having our own mini-farm, so we jumped right on the chance to see what homesteading in a city looks like and to speak one-on-one with families who do it.  We were able to see some really amazing home gardens, several of which included chickens, rabbits, bees, and goats, in addition to all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables.

I especially appreciated seeing a house here in Fort Collins that was smaller (only a little over 1,000 sq ft), on a small lot (.18 acre), and owned by people who were close to our age.  As awesome as tours like these are, they can sometimes be discouraging because it feels like we might never be able to emulate the lifestyle of people who appear to have much greater means than we do or may ever have.  It was nice to see something that was more attainable.

It was very exciting to see all of the possibilities and find proof that we live in a place where all of this is possible, but seeing it all, I also felt a little sad too.  I ended the tour excited about a possible future but also discouraged about the likelihood of that future coming to fruition any time soon.  It seems like we are going on two years now of a slump of negative turns and lots of things that have a way of erasing any financial steps forward we may have made or are hoping to make.  Chris is better at not getting impatient than I am; he often reminds both of us that we can’t compare our beginning to another’s end, which my brain knows is so very true….  But I’ll admit my heart does occasionally have a hard time remembering that, especially in this past year when it has felt like one set-back after another keeps pushing us further and further away from our goals.

Baby steps, I tell myself.  Start with a small garden.  Build a compost bin. Anything is better than nothing, and we already have a lot more than nothing, so there is plenty for which to be thankful.  I wish I just knew how to make “someday” happen sooner.