K.B.O

Hello, and welcome back to the Vandemonian homesteader. Today is a pretty special day for both the blog and myself. Over the past week, I have moved back to Australia. And this is the first post I have made in my home state of Tasmania. It has been roughly three years since I have been here, and even though I have only been here a few days, I can’t wait to get out and see what has changed.

As much as I look forward to my new future here, I will miss the life I left behind in Canada. I met some fantastic people and made brilliant friendships and unforgettable memories during my time there. The Rocky Mountains of B.C. will always be a special place to me. But as much as I loved it there, I had to return home at some point, and now that I am back, I can start on the next chapter of my life and work towards my homestead.

Since arriving back home, I have been compiling what would have to be the longest to-do list I have seen. I have been looking everywhere, high and low, for problems that must be dealt with. Of course, when you start looking for maintenance jobs, it quickly becomes all you can see. As I attempted to fix one problem, I was greeted with another two. This Russian nesting doll of problems just kept giving. And I won’t lie, there was a moment when I sat down as the realisation of what had to be done finally hit me. I felt overwhelmed and started to question my decision to return. However, in times like these, there’s only one thing you can do, which is to follow Winston Churchill’s advice and “keep buggering on”. So I did.

I kept reminding myself that no matter what this house could throw at me, the challenges I would face when I moved onto the land would make this place look like a walk in the park. I have decided to give myself a twelve-month deadline to complete the renovations and maintenance work to my current home, and during those twelve months, I will also be completing some minor jobs to the land. My biggest concern is that I get stuck in this place and spend longer here than I want. This is why I have such a short deadline, I want to keep pushing and maintain my momentum during the next year so I can put this place behind me and do what I would rather be doing.

The biggest task on my to-do list is to get a garden ready and sow some seeds. It has been far too long since I have had a real garden, and I can’t wait to grow my own food again. Considering it is mid-spring right now, I need to get a move on with that if I want to grow anything this year. A quick look at the backyard has shown that there is not much to work with. Two run-down timber garden beds with potato plants and, for some reason, a cactus. There is also a small, sad-looking rosemary bush tucked up in the corner of a garden bed that runs the length of the fence. Making matters worse, the soil here is mostly clay, so digging in new beds will be tough, but there are ways to fix that. It will be a bit of work to set it up, but it’s manageable and worth it.

My posts so far have talked about what you can do while living in small spaces in large cities or downtown areas, things that you can do to help get ahead and build some skills that can help with your goals. Now that I have moved into a suburban home with a decent-sized backyard. My projects and the topics I discuss will be tailored more to suit my new urban location. This will allow me to demonstrate how you can use your home in the ‘burbs to reach your homesteading goal, which is pretty much what I am currently doing. Instead of a few pots on the window sill, I can have garden beds, a compost bin and a space for larger projects.  Regardless of whether or not you own the house, or if you’re a would-be urban homesteader or simply looking for ideas to try around the house, I can guarantee there will be something useful for you here.

Next week it will all kick off. My first job will be deciding what to grow, where to grow it and getting the garden beds ready. I will explain the entire process and share my steps to prepare the garden beds. So until then, have yourself a good one, and I will catch you later.