Casey Lord: What We Have Done on This Speck of the Planet

Just over a year ago Matt and I closed on our home that sits on two acres on the appropriately named street, Lovington. We gutted the house. We redid much of the indoors ourselves, and though we have a ways to go, we are proud of what we have accomplished. But it is the outdoors that we were itching to work on, as it is the land that drew us here. The large plot, the woods, the creek, the slopes, the potential to finally fulfill our shared dream of being urban farmers. This place has become our oasis. We thrive here. We grow. We dirty our hands and save chickens from raccoons and fox. We plant and prune and weed here. We teach the children how to garden and build things and use their hands. I have always dreamt of living somewhere that rooted me, a place where I could plant fruit trees and be secure in knowing that I would be there come harvest. Before this, everything felt temporary--I was always looking for the next thing, the next move. Now I realize I had been looking for Matt, and I found him. And we had spent our lives working to get to this point together. And it feels really good being able to feel like we are going to be here a long while. We are moored by this:

We bought the coop, but built the open run area. All told we have 7 chickens now and it appears they are all hens. The kids gather 4 eggs a day.

We built this fence a couple weeks ago. I am drawn to working with my hands--something about the meditative flow and seeing results.

Raspberry bushes we planted late last summer.

We started a 15 by 25 foot garden, fenced it to keep out the deer, and tilled up this little hill for our pumpkins, squash, gourds, and cucumbers. All things viney.

Squash blossoms creeping up by the driveway.

Our fruit trees. We planted 4 apple trees, 1 pear, and 2 cherry.

Some landscape work. Herbs and flowers and lettuce. The kids and I built that little tri-fence post--cemented it and all. We have no idea what we are doing but we figure it out as we go.