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.
Matt
Amber. I was a part of the tour too. After reading your blog it seems you are overall disappointed with where you are at in life. These are all very low cost things to do with your property and in some cases even free. For us we have to always remind ourselves “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and some of these peoples “steads” have taken many years to build. So take time set back and enjoy life.
Amber
MattMatt, thanks for reading my post and taking the time to leave a comment. It may be hard to know all of what I am referencing without the context of other posts on my blog, but I do do my best to keep a positive outlook. We did built a compost system on Monday and are going to ask our landlords if we can build some raised beds next spring…maybe even get chickens, so I am hopeful that we can do at least a few things. We only moved to Fort Collins recently and still own our house in Wyoming, which means renting here and being a lot more limited with what we can do, but we are definitely making the best of it!
Heidi Del Muro
Hi! So happy to see your tour was both motivating, and also frustrating at the same time. Life is like that. We only have a couple garden beds and I compost- I also stay home and try to keep it clean enough for my husbands approval! I would love to trade services if you are interested, I’m a hairdresser and work on Saturdays in a small local salon. I need a website to promote my wonderful work and thought I could do it myself but all the competition is showing me up with their lovely sites. If you would like to save money on haircuts for yourself or family members, I would even consider gift certificates if that’s more helpful to you financially. We have been in binds before too so I understand that equation. You can email me if you would like to consider a trade- I also work with the public so I could refer to you when people notice a wonderful website!
Amber
Heidi Del MuroHi Heidi,
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. I do often do trades for websites and would be happy to help you out, although I just built a website for a local salon on a trade so I’m not sure if that would work right at this moment, but you never know, so let’s talk!