This upcoming weekend will be the last big push for the garden. Over the past two days, we harvested about 60 pounds of sweet potatoes and I made hot pepper jelly from the over-abundance of peppers in our garden. Now, we have the remainder of the beets to get canned into Harvard beets and some celery to be chopped. After that, there will be some dregs here and there – some peppers, mostly. But largely, the garden is going fallow. And just in time, too. Today’s high temperature will be 65 degrees and the long-term forecast is rainy with highs in the mid-50s.
It’s been a spectacular run for this year’s garden, though. And straight up, a spectacular canning adventure for me this year. Heading into the truly fallow part of the calendar, there is a sense of satisfaction of a job well done. In June, when my husband injured his arm, the idea of a good harvest seemed like a pipe dream. Now, when I walk down the stairs to the basement and see all of the fruits of our labor – literally – sitting on the shelf, it fills me with a sense of achievement. My little family will be enjoying our garden all year. Nothing makes me more proud than that.
As the garden winds down, it also allows me a little more time and with time, I get philosophical. Life is good here. I often forget about how different it is from four years ago but the full shelving in the basement is a key reminder of how life is different. So is that full freezer that is in “withdrawal only” mode. Life fundamentally changed four years ago. I shifted from being work-focused and driven to being home-focused. As I’ve said before, the shift was both tremendous and incremental. I still have a busy job, though admittedly, it’s even less busy than before. I also have a three-day weekend every weekend. My commute takes all of 30 seconds. My wardrobe has slowly turned over from suits, dress pants and skirts to jeans, t-shirts and shorts.
And this life, to me, matters. I talk with my sisters almost every day. I talk with my nieces and nephew at least a few times a month. I’m a “kitty mom” all day long. My husband and I both work part-time in separate spaces of the house but he is my primary “co-worker.” Other things are different, too. It’s no big deal to run to the grocery during the day or to run a pet to the vet. My niece needed a ride home with her puppies so that she and her husband would have only one car at her mom’s and I was available. I make dinners nearly every night and I’m learning to make time to take a walk every day. I’ve had time to plan our renovations down to the last detail so that they can go smoothly and give us the house of our dreams.
I can’t say the pace of life is always slower here. There is always something to do. There’s still firewood to be cut up, split and stacked this fall and another large tree in the hill behind us that needs to come out of the woods. Keeping up with the leaves becomes a challenge at this time of the year, particularly in the driveway and with the threat of snow. Keeping on top of those becomes time sensitive. Let them sit and it snows and you’ve got a sloppy mess that can last into spring. When you cook meals every night, there are always dishes to be done and with our latest rescue, we are now up to three cats who can be quite demanding.
But life here is centered around home and family. Take today, for example. I need to finish my Christmas shopping for our families and I need to book plane tickets for New Orleans. I also have an afternoon commitment with a friend. I still need to figure out what’s for dinner and I need to do some banking. Other than that, I want to go through my Christmas decorations and weed out what I no longer need to offer to my niece for her new home. There’s some shell beans that need to be husked just waiting for someone to have a few extra minutes and I want to create a spreadsheet for the renovations so that I make sure I capture all of our renovation discussions into one place so as not to confuse the contractor or forget what we need.
And finally, at the end of today, I want to have a glass of wine – potentially in front of our first fire of the season – with my husband. As the sky slowly turns an inky blue and then fades to black, it will have been another low-key, low-stress and pedantic day out here on the homestead. I will continue to have led a life that is neither sexy or glamorous. Yet, it is soul-filling. It is the kind of calm, serene and warm life I have always wanted. Four years after I made that fateful decision, I am reminded that I did indeed choose well. It was heart-wrenching and I will always miss those that I was so privileged to work with but it got me here and to a life that I could not truly have appreciated until I got to live it.
The Yuppie Homesteader 