Sweet Rest
Our lives are balanced by our experiences. So often though, we want the good ones and not the bad ones. The problem is, without the bad, we wouldn’t know what was truly good. After a while, you learn to welcome the bad and the difficult experiences because you know it makes the good times sweeter.
Work and rest are the same. If we didn’t work hard, our rest wouldn’t be as sweet. Luckily, Mr Chiots and I both love hard work. Yesterday we worked well into the night unloading the truck. We have a few more big items to unload today, like my stove. Rest will not come today, or even tomorrow. However, by this weekend, we should be enjoying much needed sweet rest!
What’s your favorite hard job around the garden?
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Traveling Fools
Mr Chiots and I are travelers, we’ve spent many hours driving across the country and have visited many states. Driving is our preferred method of travel because there are so many interesting things to see. There are so many interesting things to see while you’re on the road, gardens, houses, businesses, cars and people.
Yesterday, we traveled in a big truck and got to see a whole different view. The world looks completely different when you’re up that high. I saw things on our trip to Maine that I’ve never seen before because they’re behind embankments and trees.
Of particular interest to me while traveling, is the beauty of the natural landscape. Nature really does do it best, it’s amazing that we spend hours planning, planting and tending our gardens and they pale in comparison to the beauty of a wild garden. We can learn a lot about gardening by taking note of wild areas.
What do you notice most while traveling?
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The episode that never will be…
Mr. Chiots here filling in for Susy. As I write this it is midnight, in six hours we are climbing in moving truck #2 and heading back to Maine. This past week has been intense. We celebrated two Thanksgivings and one Christmas. I harvested 3 deer which yielded around 130 lbs of meat. Susy picked up 50 chickens and a turkey for the freezer. We visited with friends and family. I picked up the worst cold I have had in years. To top it all off, we signed our end of the closing papers and had to have the place cleaned out as we will not be back in Ohio until long after the buyers give us the check (or someone gives us a check).
Today as we loaded the last piece of our lives on the big yellow truck, we had full intentions of recording a podcast from our empty house, sharing memories that had been made there over the past 10 years. It never happened, and therefore will never happen. Time was too tight and we were WAY too tired.
But Susy and I took a few minutes and walked around. We shared memories of each room. Of ding and dents. Of projects past. Of changing careers, and doing it again. Of building a successful business in the office. Memories of friends that dined with us and family that visited regularly around our table. Of the gardens and the transformation of them. As the memories folded over me I began to weep. Susy hugged me and asked “Are you sad?”. I shook my head but could not speak. After wiping my tears and catching my breath I replied, “I am not sad. I am happy we have these memories and I realize this house is not these memories nor are the things on that truck. Our memories are us.” I hugged her again and we both told each other, “I love you.”
One other thing that happened in the last ten years is this blog and all of you coming and reading about our simple life. So thank you. Thank you for sharing in our lives as we share them with you. You don’t know how much we appreciate the encouragement that you give. We are excited to continue this journey with you.
Here’s to the next memory!
Next week we will return to our previously scheduled program.
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Quote of the Day: Ellen Ecker Ogden
A kitchen garden may just be a fancy name for a vegetable garden located near a kitchen door, filled with tender greens, aromatic herbs, and select fruits that are harvested on a daily basis. Yet it can also be a way of life. A successful kitchen garden engages all of the senses through a rich tapestry of colors, fragrance, and ultimately flavors. When you cultivate a kitchen garden, you actively engage with your source of food and integrate with your natural surroundings in a way that far surpasses the experience of purchasing food at the market. Growing your own food is truly the next logical step beyond “local”.
Ellen Ecker Ogden from The Complete Kitchen Garden
My first seed catalog arrived in the mail last week, it was from High Mowing Seeds. Each year, I choose a new garden company to order seeds from, I want to try them all. As I was flipping through the catalog I was dreaming of my 2013 edible garden.
The coming years are full of possibility, I have more space and can finally grow some of the things I’ve dreamed of growing for so long but haven’t had space to grow. I really love how edible gardening connect you with your food. It also gives you a deep appreciation for the food that you do get from elsewhere. After you’ve grown your own food, you know exactly how much work goes into it.
Have you received your first seed catalog yet?
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Packing Up for Good
Yesterday Mr Chiots and I headed back to the old house in Ohio to pack up our remaining things. We had left a few things around the house so it wouldn’t be empty.
We spent the afternoon taking down all the tomato stakes and cucumber trellises. Today we’re heading back to pack up the remaining things from the garage and to gather all the potted plants.
The people who bought our house should be signing their closing papers in the next week or two and then it will be final. It sure will be nice to have this all wrapped up before Christmas! The timing is working out perfectly, going into the new year without a house in Ohio will be really nice. It will be like starting with a clean slate!
Are you looking forward to the coming new year already? Are you formulating any plans already?
