Welcome To Orchard Slope

Here's Lucy!

 

      Hello everyone and welcome to the homestead! This land has been in our family for about 100 years, (give or take). Over the years it was parceled out to various family members, either through inheritance or, as we have done, through purchase. The place is in really bad shape at the moment. The fences posts are rotten and the wire is broken down. It has been allowed to grow up in tall grass, and the house needs such an overhaul that I don't even want to show a photo for fear that the authorities may condemn it! Maybe later on I will show bits of progress as we mend the house, but not at the moment.

Tall grass swallows up the blackberries and the pump house.

     Orchard Slope is not the original name of the farm. It never had an official name before we bought it. But I am a huge fan of the book series "Anne of Green Gables", and I just loved the name of the farm belonging to Anne's neighbor and friend Diana. The name Orchard Slope also seemed to fit our little place quite perfectly, as the property slopes downward into a hollow. As we clear away brush, we intend to plant fruit trees. We began that process last year. As the land becomes manageable and the orchard thrives and becomes larger, we truly will have an actual sloped orchard. Life imitating art? Works for me!
   
      From day one we knew what we wanted the place to be: a place for us to make our home; a sustainable homestead, fully equipped with a vegetable garden, herb garden, and orchard, and a barnyard for raising rabbits, fowl, and other small stock; a heritage home to pass to our children someday. Big dreams and a lot of sweat and cash to make it happen.
     We started our garden last year in the same spot that my father always planted his. As a result, we had a pretty good turn out of corn, cabbages, turnips and turnip greens. Not living on the homestead at the moment, we chose vegetables that could manage without us for the most part. Every weekend all summer long, we made the pilgrimage to the garden to work the soil and tend the plants. We had approximately 200 pounds of cabbage that was worked up into sauerkraut and frozen, bagged cabbage quarters, and enough corn on the cob to last two years! It was a good harvest for people who are absentee farmers!

My husband , Chris, tending our small garden.

Cabbages abound! We got off to a good start.

The little garden is at rest now, but there is plenty of turnips and greens still coming in. I can't wait for the next growing season, when we sink the little seeds into the soil and usher them toward maturity. The rewards they bring to us are amazing! Thanks for visiting Orchard Slope. I hope you'll come again soon!

Traveling at the seed of life.