Say what you will, 2020 wasn’t that bad.
You don’t even have to like the Washington Post to agree.
And if you don’t it wasn’t that bad from my point of view.
In 2020, Jordan and I planned to do 1/2 of our food forest preparation. We were going to do the front yard.
- We ended up doing the whole thing.
- Lots and lots of shoveling wood chips. Lots.
- We have zero grass.
- We planted 40 fruit trees.
- We took down 3 large mulberry trees.
- I got hit by one of them, and I still need to finish fixing the bone/muscles affected.)
- We planted a garden and harvested more than 1200 pounds of fruits and vegetables
- We want to grow at least enough to sustain us, and we got about 60% of that this year. Lessons from this will continue to be implemented.
- In July we took a random drive down to Texas for fun–very spur of the moment.
- We remodeled the whole house (except the kitchen), adding a bedroom and a bathroom, as well as face-lifting the whole place.
- Sold most of our stuff. It’s time to live more intentionally.
- Obviously we only made 40-60% of what we originally paid for the things, but it’s ok. We paid to learn we didn’t need those things. (And to use them for a while.)
- We put offers down on five houses, but pulled three of them in due diligence.
Actually, in reviewing the pictures, I forgot at least the following:
- Tried our hand at beekeeping
- Raised 20+ chickens
- Built our own bed
- Lost a car
- Gained a car
- Car across the street blew up while the owner was at our house
- Installed solar power
- Lost chickens to a dog the neighbors hadn’t collared or leashed
- Moved our washer and dryer to a better location
- Got threatened with “see you in court” twice
- Sold the shell of a tiny house on wheels (never again)
- Tried IVF (no successful implantations)
- Published three audiobooks
The list honestly doesn’t do justice to everything that ended up happening, and these pictures don’t either. (Nevermind on the pics. WordPress doesn’t want to load them. Apparently they are too good. :D) However, it is worth realizing that even in a bad year, you can get a LOT done, change a lot of what’s around you, and make your life better.
The new year brings all the hope of having more experiences.
In January, we will
- Move out of our current house
- Close on a new property two weeks later
- Sell the current house (might be February close, but it’ll go under contract in January
- Live with family for those few weeks.
Later in the year (probably in Q1), we will
- Build ourselves a new house. Might be smaller than your normal house.
- Start a farm.
- Landscape as many as 9 acres.
- Possibly build a few more small structures.
Honestly, I have no idea exactly what we’ll do. It’ll be an adventure, though. And that’s all that really matters.