West Coast Homestead

Starting Out!

Just over a year ago, Chuck and I finally managed to convince the bank to give us a loan (we live in the most expensive real estate market in Canada, and on one modest income) and we acquired our tiny little starter home in December 2004.  It's a charming 2 bedroom house with a grand total of 770 sq.ft - but it's in a nice neighborhood, and it's ours, so we're thrilled! It's not the homestead we long for, but it's a step in the right direction.  We're hoping to build up some equity until we can afford to buy a large parcel of land outside of the city and build a "green" home (I'd love to get off grid).  Until then, I'm going to employ the idea of edible landscaping to this 3000 square foot plot of land and see what we can squeeze out of it!

Last year we worked on fixing roofs and foundations, painting the inside and outside, and uncovering and refinishing the wood floors.  This year we're going to focus on the yard, as I'd like to get some fruit trees established.  I've recently been on a bit of a garden shop binge with my mom (who also just bought a house and has the gardening bug as well), so I've got a yard full of trees and shrubs waiting to be planted (peach, pear, apple, cherry, plum, fig, and apricot trees, kiwi and grape vines, as well as some lingonberry bushes).  I'm hoping to get some blueberry bushes in the next little while.

We've spent the past couple of weekends enlarging last year's vegetable garden and building raised beds (being in a temperate rainforest, drainage is a bit of an issue).  Our window sills are full of seedlings and I can't wait to get them into the ground!!  It's taking some creative landscaping, but I'm hoping everything will fit.  If we ever manage to get our 5+ acres, I'm not going to know what to do with it!

Anyway, I've really enjoyed reading some of the other blogs, and look forward to getting to know some of you!

Hello!

7:49 AM, 2006-Mar-30 .. Posted by Snowberryfarm

Nice to see someone from Vancouver here at homestead blogger! We are in Wa, but love Vancouver! Hope to read more in the future!

Michelle