Today the children and I talked about the many foods we would like to grow in our yard. We started with all the fruit trees we would like to plant. They thought it would be fun to grow bananas and coconuts until I told them those would never survive our Minnesota cold winters. So we settled on apples, peaches, cherries and plums.

We decided that it would be great fun to have grapes, strawberries, raspberries, corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon, potatoes, peas, carrots, .... maybe rhubarb and zucchini. Maybe.  Only if I have room for it.
I have a food dehydrator that my parents gave us a few years ago. I've held onto it hoping to someday have time/energy to figure it out and use it. I've always thought it would be fun to make our own fruit leather and jerky. I looooove jerky! I've done a little canning, and would like to do more. Now I will get to practice on my own foods. I am excited to play!

Joel and I have talked about different things we would like to do with the yard. I forgot to mention that the home also comes with some other buildings. One is obviously a shed for lawnmowers and tools. One we think is a little house for the kids to sit in on cold winter days waiting for the school bus. There is an uncovered green house, which right now is just a framed building in the corner of the lot, I'm not sure if we will keep/improve it or just tear it down and burn it.  And one is a cute little shed/playhouse type building with a front porch. I've claimed that one as my studio for keeping my oil paints, gardening, pottery and whatever other talents I want to work on. I am kind of excited about that building.

I am also excited to put out my hammock and never take it down again. Here, I have to worry about it being stolen or vandalized. My kids have put plastic roller skates and big wheels out in the yard for other kids to steal, and they won't. But the night I leave my hammock out in the yard you can bet it will disappear!

You can't imagine how much joy this is bringing me and how much I am relishing the freedom we will have in our new place. A lot of people have expressed to me that they are sad that we are moving, but I hope they also know how stifling this place is. How trapped I feel. How unsafe it is for my kids. How I need my freedom again! I come from space and I need space to be happy. I feel like I'm under a microscope living here with neighbors so close, with their phones in hand ready to call a manager any time you break a rule.
There is someone telling me how many cars I can have, that my company has to leave by 10 or be towed, that I can't have more than one pet, that my pet can't be more than 20 pounds, that I have to have a barn style shed, it has to match my house, it can't be bigger than 8x10.  The neighbors can look out their windows into mine. They can add onto their house within 5 feet of mine. They can take away virtually all of my yard just by adding onto their house, and there's not a thing I can do about it.  Some people are very good about living in that sort of communal situation. I admire them. I am not that kind of person. I'm so thankful that I don't have to anymore! Yippie!!!! And I'm not going to feel guilty about moving, not even a little. This home was only supposed to be temporary and it's term has come to an end. I hope that others can be happy for my family instead.