Growing Forward

All this must be done before building the actual farm. This is the foundation for the future. Other than the first one that I'm currently working on, these can be done simultaneously.

Take stock. Figure out where I am financially, physically, and mentally.

Get into shape. Commit to exercise , education, and saving plans that will take me where I need to be.

Build bridges. Go to small business networking meetings and make friends in the online farming communities.

Write a business plan. With the help of the small business center, write a proper business plan with the goal of having not only a blueprint for the business, but also a tool that may help get some funding.

Mad Dogs and English [Wo]men

Megan, Ann and I arrived at the old house Saturday at noon. 

We were greeted by the first bloom of the season.

We got to work right away. It took a lot of effort but we weeded the garden leaving only some garlic, onions, flowers, and what I'm pretty sure is zucchini but might be cucumber. John showed up shortly thereafter and cut the small patch of grass out back with the push mower that decided to work now that there wasn't a front lawn to cut. We threw out all the things that needed throwing out, and cleaned the whole house.

Results of the tidied-up back yard.

Final Harvest

I got sun sick and had to take some Tylenol and nap with an ice cold beanbag to get rid of the headache that was bad enough to make me queezy... but I'm glad it's done.

Time for a new normal

This has probably been the busiest month I've ever had and although it was full of awesome, I'm glad it's coming to an end. Between my move at the beginning of the month, Megan's move this past weekend, unpacking, work, and shopping for the bits and pieces... I'm just exhausted.

This Friday, John is moving out of the house and Saturday afternoon we're all going to clean it out and wash it down to leave it tidy for the owner. The next day is June 1st, the first day of the next chapter in my life.

Went To Mom's For The Weekend

I decided that I really needed to talk to mom in the same room 'cause texting sucks and we had much to discuss so after making sure she didn't already have plans, I hopped a train last Friday and went to mom's house.

Mom and lil sis are currently in a tiny little place so I knew I'd be sleeping on the futon... I didn't realize how tired that would make me for the next few days.

Anyway, we got a lot of the room-mate stuff settled. We discussed what appliances we would like to buy for the household and looked over different models together. We discussed what we all consider to be healthy for our bodies and our minds (turns out we're all introverts!)

Our electricity rates on London vary by time of day, so we discussed using electricity wisely and leaving un-needed devices off during peak hours, as well as pre-cooking on the weekend to avoid too much cooking in the electric oven during peak times.

The food thing took up a lot of talking and we settled on these ideas:

• Eating only those foods which are good to us, meaning no gluten and no pork.
• Eating beans, quinoa, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, and other plant sources of protein more often and meats less often.
• Eating a variety of vegetables daily, including "weird" ones.
• Buying dry goods(rice, beans, toilet paper, etc) in bulk and store them carefully.
• Going to the farmers markets every Saturday (or every other Saturday depending on needs) getting deals where they can be found and storing what won't be eaten that week in the freezer or as canned foods.
• Spending Sundays together pre-cooking and doing general prep work for the week ahead. This may involve making a large batch of pasta sauce of which only one jar gets used that week and the rest put away for later, or even just cutting the veggies for snack packs.
• Doing this prep work with a glad heart knowing it will help us eat healthy foods in reasonable amounts.(avoiding traps like popcorn-for-dinner-cause-I-don't-want-to-cook, or wow-I-haven't-eaten-all-day-and-that-whole-12"-cheesecake-looks-snack-sized).

We're also going to have a house warming party the first weekend so we can have everyone over at once and then not have to deal with social calls the next week or two while unpacking. :) No that's not really the reason, but it is a nice side effect. We've found these past few years that we all think fairly similarly and we not only enjoy each other's company, but also enjoy quiet time with the others around (reading, surfing, playing a video game) so I'm certain that living together is an excellent choice for us.

~ ~ ~

We will encourage each other to stretch and grow stronger physically

We will allow each other to grow spiritually in our own ways

We will clean our home enough to be healthy

We will relax in our home enough to be sane

We will honour our commitments

We will cherish each other

We will have fun

~ ~ ~

Not my words

I just read something that I wanted to share. It starts:

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now.

Please follow this link to read the rest as I don't wish to steal this open letter.

Lease Signed

We went last night to sign the lease. It is now officially ours starting April 28th. I have to sign for the keys on moving day but other than that, it's ours!

Now to arrange for electricity and internet. Hopefully with this much notice we won't have the usual annoying can't-fit-you-in-til-a-week-later the internet companies love to do.

We brought a tape measure and it's final.... I won't be able to keep my queen size bed. I'm going to miss it but there's just no room in my bedroom for something that big. There is however room in the kitchen for the chest freezer we want to get, so it balances out.

We Got The Place!

We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place! We Got The Place!

Moving in beginning of May. So happy! Happy Dance!

Nothing left but waiting

We've met with the building manager, filled out all the paperwork, and brought copies of all the important proof things... All that's left it to wait for them to call on Tuesday and tell us which way the wind is blowing.

I like this place and I'm anxious to get the lease signed so I can just relax and pack instead of all this running around.

Another Long Day

So Mom's train arrived late, again. So we hustled into a cab and made it to the first appointment on time.

The manager was nice and personable, she had two apartments to show us. The building had 24h key access laundry room that ran off Smartcards. Both apartments were mostly carpeted with in unit storage closets and large-ish living rooms.None of us are fans of carpet because it means buying and using and maintaining a vacuum. The one on the first floor was $15 more because it was recently updated to have new cupboards and a range hood, but because it was literally beside the lobby, part of the living room eaten by that (and it's probably going to be noisy). The un-renovated one on the third floor also had one less lower cupboard which would be a good spot for a small chest freezer. After some discussion with the friendly manager we took an application with us and went for lunch.

A few blocks away is a nice Chinese restaurant. It had a Dim-sum menu and in their normal menu they have the lists of dishes of course but also "meal for #" type orders (like you'd get from any take out place) and a separate list of  "traditional meal for #" that listed some foods I didn't immediately recognise.

We ate slowly but still had tons of time til the next showing because the one between them cancelled so we went to Tim Horton's and relaxed for a bit.

The second showing was the one with the pretty pictures. It was at the top end of our be Online it looked so big and had hardwood floors and gorgeous kitchens and bathrooms.... In person, carpet. This one was definitely larger bedrooms, and a beautiful kitchen and bathroom, but there was really no storage except the single small damp looking "locker" assigned to each apartment in the laundry room. The laundry room was only accessible from 8am-10pm and the machines run on coins. She offered to show us a second unit as well but that was out of our range. That was probably the one they took the pictures from.  The final issue was that there was NO on site management at all. If anything went wrong you had to call a number and wait for someone to drive in from wherever they are. Since this past winter has been awful for so many people with pipes bursting and such, that's not a risk I'm willing to take. We thanked her for her time and left.

Before mom left last night we filled out the paperwork and this morning I called to tell her we want the one that hasn't been renovated and that I'd be bringing the paperwork by tomorrow after work.

**fingers crossed**

Application Submitted

It took a whole day longer than promised but the deposit finally got to the apartment manager.

I texted her to make sure it had actually arrived and she confirmed that as well as letting me know our application was sent to the main office. According to the paperwork, we should hear back "within two business days" so that's by the end of the week. I'm super excited and mom's nervous because if we aren't accepted for any reason then we still have a lot of work ahead of us trying to find something that good and that cheap.

Prayers, thoughts, well wishes, positive vibes all appreciated.

Can the Snow Just... Not?

So when we filled out the application for the apartment on Saturday there were a few bits and pieces we needed to include that we didn't have with us. Mom said she'd send the last month's rent by Priority Post on Monday and I said I'd get my "proof of employment" to them a.s.a.p. this week. The idea was that if they had all the bits by Tuesday, they'd have an answer for us by the end of week

I went after work today to drop off my pay stubs and the manager said the deposit hadn't arrived yet. I texted mom for the tracking number....

Okay, so it's been delayed a day or two due to the nasty weather. Delightful. 

I really am hating this winter.

It Has Begun

Not bad for the first little stint of packing. 

Three boxes ready to go and one box for donations that's about a third full.

Why am I up at 6 am ?

So I'm awake. Might as well show you the cat keeping me company and tell you how yesterday went. 

Yesterday was a long day. Mom and sis came into town on the train but it was running late so we barely had time to trudge through the drifted snow to the first appointment. We looked at several apartments in two different buildings. After the first building (we were a bit disapointed with the size and such) we had a light lunch at TheRootCeller and discussed roommate type things like internet speed and food sharing and housework. Then we trekked to the second building which seemed much more promising. Even the smallest of these apartments were larger and the rent was the inclusive type(which we both prefer). The one appartment caught everyone's attention. It was the only one we were shown in that building that didn't have a balcony but it made up for the lack of outside with a huge inside. The bedrooms were only slightly bigger but the living room was very large.  We agreed that this place would suit nicely and filled out the application paperwork. 

Never had I thought of looking for a rental so early. There's four months til we would move in and I had assumed every company would just laugh and tell us they wouldn't hold an appartment that long. Somehow mom managed to find buildings that had riecently come under new management so as tennants move out they're renovating the apartments. One place we looked at was completely gutted. The one we decided on just needs the carpet in the living room removed and some mold removal in the one bedroom. (The last tennants put a humidifier in that room and just constantly left it running). Even though they'll have to rip out the drywall and insulation and such, the lady is confidant they can have the whole appartment done by the end of April.

So since I'm obviously up for now, I'm going to go put on some coffee. 

You're Living With Your Mother!?

Well not yet, and it's not like you think. My mom and little sister are moving to London at the end of April, Megan hasn't decided what she's doing or where she'll be at the end of the year, and Eric's stuck in his lease til at least July. I can't ask mom to get a bigger place on the off chance that Megan moves out west and Eric and I don't move in together and if she only gets a 1br and I DO want to live with her later, I'm out of luck. So instead, the only logical course is to share a place with mom and sis. The best part is that as a side effect, mom pays less rent and her life is a little easier.

They would have split a 1br and those cost $650-800. On the other hand, 2br are only $800-1000 so she pays less, I get to live with people(I don't like living alone, too quiet) and even if Megan decides to stay in London, she's better off than mom and can afford her own place.

So that's it. Logic wins and mom's coming to town this weekend or next to look at apartments with me.