Let’s get started…

Welcome to Simply Sufficient! I wanted to create this blog to document a very important journey.  For several years I have had a dream that at times seemed impossible and at other times seemed to be the epitome of creating what I deemed a successful life.  I want to create an urban homestead in this great place called suburbia.

I grew up during the birth of the internet and the infancy of cell phones.  I still remember what it was like to have to look up a phone number in a phone book, to go on a road trip and look at a map, on paper!  I remember my grandma’s plum trees right smack dab in the middle of the city, that we would get fruit from to eat right there on the spot (nope we didn’t even wash them because to be honest we also drank out of a dirty water hose) make plum jam and what would now be my favorite, plum wine!!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience that has become part of everyday life.  Knowledge at our finger tips, technology that has taken some of the rigorous chores out of the daily grind… but I don’t appreciate the pressures of modern day life to do everything and be everything.  No one strives for excellence in any one skill, it’s more like to be only  mediocre at more.

Over the years of my adulthood I have made several attempts to rebel against the society that has been created.  Most attempts have been short-lived only to result in my adult self becoming more dissatisfied with the current normalcy I was trying so hard to avoid!  Initially, I started my adult life going off to college and major in Fine Art at a Liberal Arts school, so yeah I guess you can say at no point did I ever plan to have an occupation that catered to this modern day society except to create.  After college, I floundered around like a fish out of water, struggling to even breathe in a world not conducive to my happiness.

Eventually, I was drawn to things of old, growing a garden and experimenting with canning.  I had a little success and I enjoyed every minute of it! Then life happened and these things were neglected.  After getting married and having my first child I was again drawn to wanting a garden, the whole process intrigued and motivated me.  Once again, life became hectic and exhausting but I kept thinking in the very farthest part of my mind… someday.

Well, someday has arrived!! I am excited to say that now is the time! This year we have big plans to start composting, grow a garden and even have backyard chickens for the first time. These are lofty goals for us as a family and I hope we do even more than this but this is the foundation for our urban homestead.  I am so happy to be sharing our experience, the lessons we learn and hopefully demonstrating that anyone can do the same.

So lets get started!