LONG-TERM INVESTING.
It feels a bit silly to be writing about retirement when we just started our farm, but perpetually worrying about a retirement fund is something my father instilled in me at a young age (which I assure you was a rather mind-boggling concept to a fifteen year old). It would be nice now, though, to start setting a little money aside for when we finally do decide to "settle down". But we barely have money to spend at the moment, let alone save. What little extra money we get goes into the house and into the farm (and into a meager vacation fund––see you in November, somewhere really close!). At this point, a retirement fund seems a long way off.The other day, however, Hannah and I went into Lafayette, TN (locally pronounced: Le-FAY-it) to buy a peach tree. While at the nursery, we acquired two more blueberry bushes (totaling eight now) and a bunch of perennial herbs. It was a sixty dollar hit, but it felt like, at a time when we don't have money to stuff into the bank, we were still making an investment in our future.All of those plants have the potential to earn us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in their lifetimes. And if managed, cultivated and propagated correctly, most perennial plants we invest in now will have the potential to stick around until our retirement and beyond, fathering (or mothering, respectfully) many more trees, plants or bushes. Sure, we'll have to do some maintenance to keep them going even when we retire, but isn't gardening something people do when they retire anyway?Perhaps this has been on my mind lately as we've been hearing on NPR about how inflation is causing savings accounts to shrink––savings accounts once being a place people were led to believe they could safely save his or her money. If we don't have money to save, we decidedly don't have money to lose to inflation. Investing in trees and herbs and plants––more or less immune to inflation––that we ourselves will manage, is a type of savings that obviously fits our lifestyle, but that we have supreme confidence in. If nothing else, nature has proved to be a reliable area for growth, and not a bad place to invest.- Jesse.
THIS & THAT.
Some random photos from the past week.
The beginnings of blueberries.
Daffy is outstanding in her field.
Our standard supper elevated by THE MOST DELICIOUS GOAT CHEESE OF ALL TIME. (thank you Little Seed!)
Jesse has plans for a sour cherry mead.
The newest calf at Bugtussle.
OVERDUE UPDATE.
WOW! That is probably the longest we have ever gone without a post, and I apologize. But truly...this is the first time we have been in the land of electricity and internet in about a week. It has been INCREDIBLY busy around here. In the last week we: decided on a basic plan for the cabin - a "salt box" house, with a lofted space in the back. 14 x 24, pretty small!
We scored a bunch of windows and doors from the Gallatin ReStore.
We took a trip to the lovely Hidden Springs Nursery to pick up some blueberry plants and fig trees. While we were there, we hiked up the hill to see some amazing waterfalls. Beautiful.
We planted the blueberries and began drying the popping sorghum from our old garden.
We've slowly been clearing the house site more and more...slowly because we have been basically using just a machete and the scythe. Once we finally finished cleaning it up, we dug holes for the concrete footers that will be the foundation for the cabin. We were originally going to sink cedar posts, but decided that the ground is just too wet and has too high a water table. So we are using concrete piers. THis was also a sloooow process - chopping through tree roots and unearthing all sorts of chunks of cement and cinder blocks from the old house. Later today, a mason is coming by to help us stack the piers, and then....everything will start happening pretty fast!
Like I said....busy! Busy, but good. It is an ultimate satisfaction to be sore and tired from the hard work, to snuggle into our little corner of the barn with a warm fire from the wood stove. We are happy farmers in this little corner of Bugtussle, and we will try to update again soon!- Hannah.