I really am lucky. My husband works as a senior manager for Costco and likes to not have to commute more than 25 minutes to work. In our current area of Grand Rapids, MI, that puts us just on the suburban/country line.
I must explain that my husband is climbing the management ladder and with every promotion (usually) a move is involved. Not just small moves but big ones like: Idaho to Texas or Texas to Michigan. So because of this we have chosen to rent rather then buy a home. In the general Grand Rapids area there are not a lot of single homes to rent. Duplexes abound. So we live on a street, on the last vestiges of suburbia, lined with rental duplexes. But the yard is big and we have a huge field behind us and woods at the edge of the field and we can leave suburbia behind by going for a less than mile walk.
We are also blessed to live right next door to very kind landlords who let us do many things. We have a herb garden and garden (some people on our street our not allowed this), we built our own shed, we are building a greenhouse off the shed, my son built a top bar bee hive for "dad" for a Christmas present so we will start keeping some bees this year. And, Lord willing, with the addition of the greenhouse we will have an area to overwinter some chickens and rabbits. We also are allowed to put up a clothes line for drying clothes. (Another thing some on our street would be prohibited to do. It just depends on the landlord and most of the houses have different ones.)
We don't have "acreage" but we have room and no fences. (Though sometimes fences do make good neighbors.) We would love to do more but since we could move at any time Costco deems and we are just renting, it is enough.
Hopefully with any upcoming moves we can keep in a country setting but I am prepared to farm/homestead in a suburban or urban area too, if that is where God puts us.
This is where I have strawberries planted, but you can't see them because I haven't weeded them yet this spring. The bed is about as big as the shadow from the shed. A little tip for all you readers starting a new garden area. DIG OUT AND REMOVE THE GRASS! DO NOT MERELY TILL IT IN. If you do not remove the grass/weeds totally, you will fight a never ending weeding fight. We learned our lesson good!
Here is my sad looking little herb patch. Six of the nine beds have been weeded. I still have to free my peppermint and my lavender and clear out the parsley/cilantro section from last year. The three sections on the left I weeded, cleared/transplanted so that my DH can build me a greenhouse using part of that space. So my little bed shrinks even more... sigh.
This is the back yard as viewed from our deck. Our "part" is from the left of the picture to shed on the right. The first tree line in the picture is the back of the yard. Behind that is a huge empty field. (Our tent trailer is stored out there.) Our vege garden is on the left in front of the swing set. We plan on enlarging it this year. My DH wants to experiment with growing some wheat.
Here is the shed my DH and son built AND the start of my greenhouse addition!
I must explain that my husband is climbing the management ladder and with every promotion (usually) a move is involved. Not just small moves but big ones like: Idaho to Texas or Texas to Michigan. So because of this we have chosen to rent rather then buy a home. In the general Grand Rapids area there are not a lot of single homes to rent. Duplexes abound. So we live on a street, on the last vestiges of suburbia, lined with rental duplexes. But the yard is big and we have a huge field behind us and woods at the edge of the field and we can leave suburbia behind by going for a less than mile walk.
We are also blessed to live right next door to very kind landlords who let us do many things. We have a herb garden and garden (some people on our street our not allowed this), we built our own shed, we are building a greenhouse off the shed, my son built a top bar bee hive for "dad" for a Christmas present so we will start keeping some bees this year. And, Lord willing, with the addition of the greenhouse we will have an area to overwinter some chickens and rabbits. We also are allowed to put up a clothes line for drying clothes. (Another thing some on our street would be prohibited to do. It just depends on the landlord and most of the houses have different ones.)
We don't have "acreage" but we have room and no fences. (Though sometimes fences do make good neighbors.) We would love to do more but since we could move at any time Costco deems and we are just renting, it is enough.
Hopefully with any upcoming moves we can keep in a country setting but I am prepared to farm/homestead in a suburban or urban area too, if that is where God puts us.
This is where I have strawberries planted, but you can't see them because I haven't weeded them yet this spring. The bed is about as big as the shadow from the shed. A little tip for all you readers starting a new garden area. DIG OUT AND REMOVE THE GRASS! DO NOT MERELY TILL IT IN. If you do not remove the grass/weeds totally, you will fight a never ending weeding fight. We learned our lesson good!
Here is my sad looking little herb patch. Six of the nine beds have been weeded. I still have to free my peppermint and my lavender and clear out the parsley/cilantro section from last year. The three sections on the left I weeded, cleared/transplanted so that my DH can build me a greenhouse using part of that space. So my little bed shrinks even more... sigh.
This is the back yard as viewed from our deck. Our "part" is from the left of the picture to shed on the right. The first tree line in the picture is the back of the yard. Behind that is a huge empty field. (Our tent trailer is stored out there.) Our vege garden is on the left in front of the swing set. We plan on enlarging it this year. My DH wants to experiment with growing some wheat.
Here is the shed my DH and son built AND the start of my greenhouse addition!
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