Taking Some Steps

After reading the first few chapters of the book Visioneering by Andy Stanley, I realized that what we had was more than a dream. It was a vehicle to take care of creation, to raise our kids, to host events for people we love, to provide sanctuary for those needing respite, and to maybe produce a little wine if we're lucky.

The book emphasizes that having a Vision is different than a dream.

A Vision sticks with you and nags at the back of your mind. One of the lines was that "it feels like disobedience if you don't follow through," (or something to that effect, don't quote me on that).

Visioneering also talked about taking steps now for your future. Thursday Farm isn't going to fall into our lap, and even if it did there's a lot to be learned about gardening, farming, raising goats and chickens and homeschooling our kids. You don't learn all that overnight.

The first step towards our dream is getting out of debt. After reading about it on a number of other blogs like Keeper of the Home, I learned about Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps to being debt free. The first step was to create a $1,000 Emergency Fund.

Our first No Spend Month in July 2009 was been helpful in that. We built our emergency cushion (which eventually will need to be 3 months of income), and now we are chipping away at that nagging credit card debt.

We moved to a place with rent that is about $500 a month cheaper, and have been diligent in putting that towards debt.

I started to learn to grow things last year. We called it my "training garden."

Not much success there. My zucchini and squash got powdery mildew and I got a whopping 4 or 5 snow peas from my two little plants. I got a small bunch of Danvers carrots, but think I need to plant them deeper.

This year I think the seeds have gone bad...I must have planted 40 in that planter box but only 7 or 8 have actually sprung up.

My heirloom Brandywine tomatoes have grown to be large and in charge...but because of the long, cold, wet spring I've just now got three little flowers.

The slugs have devoured my squash and zucchini so I bought starters again.

Again they devoured the zucchini but have left the patty pan squash alone...maybe because its gotten powdery milder. I need to do something about that.

My snow peas have done relatively well...I've harvested five from a few plants.

The Kentucky Wonderpole have grown slowly and I don't think I gave them enough to climb up on.  They're just beginning to get little flowers, too.

Overall I may not have the greenest thumb but I'm getting to experiment with organic pesticides and home remedies for plant diseases on a few plants rather than a huge garden.

Every little step counts, right?