COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

I was counting this morning…actually, I wasn’t counting. I was working on a spreadsheet of the almost 10,000 light fixtures that I have ordered, received, counted, unpacked & supervised installation of on this jobsite, listening to my iPod (“Celebration”) in an effort to drown out the sound of the mouse munching on something in the trash can across the room, and thinking about an adorable little Russian girl that I would have brought home with me 10 years ago if I could have…she’s 15 now. Her name is Lida. I’ll post a picture someday so you can see her as I remember her.
Remembering, and listening to the hauntingly beautiful sound of that song made me melancholy. So I did what any sane girl would do & wrote to a friend who shared that day a decade ago in the play yard of a little Russian Baby House…asked her if she still thought of “her” little girl Olya, and then went on to tell her about our hopes & dreams. Which basically do not encompass the place we are currently living.
And then I apologized for sending such a downer of an email and told her about all of the wonderful things that we have been able to do with the place we’re living now in spite of how very far it seems from our dreams (wherever you are, be all there…we are). And the tally was kind of amazing- so I thought I’d share it with you.
First and quickly- most everyone probably already knows that we hope to someday have property almost in the middle of nowhere and live as simply and with as little dependence on retail as possible. But right now we live squished between two houses in a rather dense suburban neighborhood on a city lot that is less than ¼ acre. On that lot there is a house, a large shed/workshop, a separate garage & a greenhouse. There is also a rather large concrete patio. In spite of all of these “obstacles” we have still managed to fit onto that little lot: (4) pheasants [to lay eggs, to incubate, to raise for food, sale & release],

(12) broiler chickens,

(6) egg chickens, (20) quail [to lay eggs, to incubate, to raise for food, sale & release], (3) breeder rabbits + (1) pet rabbit, (9) fryer rabbits, (2) breeder ducks, (11) roasting ducklings & a dog. We also have 600 sq ft of vegetable garden

where we are growing potatoes, snap peas, cucumbers, shelling peas, zucchini,

green beans, carrots, radishes, beets, spinach, lettuce, greens mix, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries, grapes & raspberries. We have a pear tree & a fig tree.


A 100 sq ft of herb garden, and flowers in every corner of the yard. I should also mention that this is in spite of the fact that the entire front yard (another 600+ sq ft) looks like a war zone due to the excavation & re-decorating efforts of the dog & hubby- but once we get that landscaped & under control we’ll have even more growing space.
We have a 1,000 gal pond that will someday be home to a colony of crayfish, and a utility room full of 40+ baby quail w/ more eggs in the incubator. The greenhouse will continue to provide us with greens & hopefully tomatoes through the winter. We heat with a wood stove front the huge woodpile in our backyard, we’re getting rain barrels set up and have a compost pile in the works.
It’s easy to focus on the future with eyes only for what Will Be, but if you take a step back and look at the What Is where you are in the now…you might just be surprised.