Last January I embarked on the daunting mental, emotional, physical and financially burdensome task of remodeling our urban home. We hired a general contractor, but all design and finishes were my roll, as we did not hire an architect. We (my partner, roommate, 4 yo child and I) squeezed into an improvised living space in our detached garage for the year while the house was in construction chaos. If it wasn't for the large outlay of funds needed to complete the project, I would have found the process more fun, but stressing over financial impacts of each decision was difficult. Finishing the task with my sanity intact was my major goal for 2018. The process was fast paced, all consuming and it is over, thank the stars. Our renewed (114 year old) home is beautifully restored and I am ready to move on to the next big thing, so it is a perfect time to set resolutions, goals, and intentions for 2019.
Now that the home is healed, my intention is to focus on the rest of the property, with a goal of creating a thriving food forest on the south side of our home, and a medicinal hedgerow in the west parking strip. Years of chickens and haphazard vegetable gardening have taken a toll, and it is time to plan, construct and tend the garden with greater intention. I’ve attached photos of the two areas so you can see what I have to start with. I am planning to post relevant research, design schematics, ideas, and progress photos as the year advances, and will be soliciting feedback from those of you kind enough to follow along.
Existing Parking Strip (Future Medicinal Hedgerow) Looking North
Existing Parking Strip (Future Medicinal Hedgerow) from Street
Existing Side Yard (Future Food Forest) Looking West
Existing Side Yard (Future Food Forest) Looking Southwest
Existing Side Yard (Future Food Forest) Looking South
Typically when I take on a big project, I use it as an excuse to be more lax about my health and wellness. A major bonus of this project is that I will be spending much time outdoors engaged in physical labor, and lots of bonding time with my partner and child too. The food forest project also supports many of my other healing resolutions for the year. In no particular order, here are my more general healing resolutions for 2019, although many of them are lifelong endeavors:
-Daily meditation
-Eat for health
-Regular exercise
-In depth practical study of western herbalism
-Up my parenting game
-Grow and prepare more food and medicine from our urban homestead
-Connect, laugh, sing, and celebrate with friends and family
-Victory over the toenail fungus :p
This post was written in response to the NATURAL MEDICINE NEW YEAR CHALLENGE: What's Your Healing Resolution? Entries are being accepted for a few more days.