Changes

The internet is so helpful, as we are learning and discovering more about gardening, farming, and homesteading, I can glean so much information from those who have gone before us.

Except for one small part; our terrain, our climate, our country.

Just over 6 years ago, we moved from California to Barcelona. We lived in the city for several years, and it wasn't until recently that we made the decision to leave the city and move to the country. We had been talking about wanting to learn to become more sustainable and care for our own plants and animals in a greater way, there's only so much 'gardening' you can do in the city, and only so many pets you can care for. Originally, we thought the farming idea was our retirement plan. We talked about it like it was off in the future, our reward for doing life. And as we continued to talk about it, the dream became more and more of a reality.

...But...

Everything is harder when you're an expat. So moving just 20 miles outside of Barcelona felt huge. And studying to get our driver's license here feels like a milestone. The little things we take for granted living in the culture we grew up in feel like the biggest feats here.

And that is why we thought about starting this blog, because possibly, just maybe, there are other English-speaking expats out there who are learning about the same things we are learning about and we can share information. We live just outside of Barcelona which means we experience the hot Mediterranean summers and slightly cooler winters the more north you are, due to the mountain ranges (Pyrenees). Inland tends to be slightly drier and hotter in Summer, and nights are cooler than the coast.

As we learn about our soil and climate and what things grow well and when to plant different seeds, we will share our findings and hopefully this can be a helpful tool and an open dialogue with other 'wanna-be' farmers out there.

Our long-term project goal is to have a Bed & Breakfast/Farm where we can practice sustainability and continue to learn, while providing hospitality (my passion) and integrate it with the earth and plants and creatures. We will share as we venture into this process.

Figuring It Out

‘We are just kind of figuring it out as we go along’, I say pretty often these days as I reconnect with friends who are living in the U.S. They are interested in our country life, wondering how we are doing having moved from a flat in the heart of a busy city to where the forest meets the mountains. We are trying to become more and more sustainable. Spring is just around the next bend and we are beginning to plant starts and imagine growing our garden, flock, and maybe even build a barbeque. We are trying to figure out the healthy balance between hosting people and events, and just being the two of us alone. We are always cold these days, the winter sun is bright and warm, but not enough to change the temperature of the house enough to warm our bones. We recently found out the hard way how expensive heating is, and are seeing it as a new challenge to overcome. How do we stay warm, what is the most efficient and cost effective way to heat the house? 

The days are growing longer and longer and I know that as soon as we have that question answered, it will be time to figure out how to keep the house cool and keep mosquitos out. There will always be new challenges, but it doesn’t feel daunting. It feels hopeful and exciting to be constantly learning. It feels like we are learning a new trade, but it’s just learning how to live, how to do life with the living things around us. We are learning how to go back to basics, the thing we abandoned years ago when factories and consumerism conquered the world. People learned how to take the ‘easy way out’ by having machines do it for them, then they were able to work more and more hours in offices designing computers and then the corporate world boomed and the dot com world took off, and what was made ‘easier’, in effect became ‘harder’, and the need and desire to produce, produce, produce took over.  

When I visit the U.S., I have learned that when you say you are ‘busy’, what that actually means is that you are important. The busier you are, the more important you are. But what people don’t realize, is that the busier they are, the more they miss out on life and love and spirituality and just the people around them. Slower life isn’t always easier, but it is always more rewarding. When you make time for connections to the earth, to people, to plants and animals, depth happens and your soul gets filled. In the lives of busy people, their souls are ignored. 

I want a soul that gives and receives, that is full and deep. I want time to notice the generosity and kindness around me, and time to be generous and kind. That takes thought, which takes time. So I think I’d rather be judged for being slow or ‘un-productive’ rather than soulless and unkind. And that, we are just figuring out as we are going.