Hello little farm!

I've made a big step toward you. We're moving to Asheville!

Actually, Weaverville...about 15 minutes north of Asheville, to a little apartment building on a main drag, about 5 miles from civilization to the west or the Blue Ridge Parkway to the east. A wonderful first step.

Since my farm dream is also about creating a home, I've been thinking about things that will change when we move:

• Our new apartment will have curtains.

This is a biggie. We have vertical blinds on the sliding glass doors here in Jax. They are one of the larger nuisances for keeping clean, keeping the cat out of, keeping the sun from coming through, etc., that I've ever encountered. Granted, we're saved from these plastic bastards by the fact that we don't have a porch at all, which will take some getting used to, but I'm still happy. As for our other windows in Jax, one is covered with a bed sheet and the other with a beach towel. Yes, I am in my 40s; why do you ask?

• There will be plants.

I have 2 ideas so far on this front. The first depends on the actual size of the kitchen/dining area...pretty sure I won't have the room, but a girl can dream. We have these ugly plastic shelves (that have been used in the past as bookcases, but I'm over it), and I want to put one up, either in the dining area or in the 2nd bedroom, and start my herb and vegetable container gardens. If that won't fly at all (or even if it will), I'm also thinking of building cold frames to place outside next to my apartment's front door (with locks to keep out neighbors and critters). What I find hilarious is that I was thinking of hunting for old pallets, like behind Walmart or something, and procuring some old windows from maybe a Habitat for Humanity ReStore to build said cold frames, and when I look up the idea online, I find this..... and I really don't understand American society sometimes.

• We will clean once a week.

This may sound gross, but when you've lived in an apartment as long as we have, and it wasn't new by any stretch to begin with, there comes a point where you just give up. We should have had new cabinets, carpet, and flooring put in long ago, but our complex isn't the greatest at keeping up with long-standing tenants. The pans under the electric eyes on our stove are past cleaning, the stove's been neglected, and the refrigerator leaks on a daily basis. I can't wait to have pride in my domicile again. With Les not smoking, it should be even easier.

• The bookshelf concept...

I'm pretty sure once we move in and get settled, we'll be as poor as church mice. I'm OK with this, but my lord, I don't want to keep my books in boxes anymore! They've been in and out of boxes for years now, in some form or another, whether it's the "well, I'm not reading them right now" wild hair or the "saving for when we have children" boxes....I'm over it! So instead of keeping them in boxes, I'm going to put them in.....boxes! Turned sideways, painted if need be to shield them from actually looking like what they are, stacked on top of one another as high as they'll let me...if this doesn't work, and the thrift stores don't yield anything feasible, we'll go the lumber and cinder block route or stack them.

SO happy to be able to dream like this and have it be within reach! One step at a time.....

Image from here.