Homesteading Flashback - Oregon: Moving onto the Land

At the end of April 2014, it was time to move to our new land in the  Coastal Range of Oregon.  We packed all of our belongings into various  vehicles and left the suburbs outside of Seattle to pursue our dream of a  life with our hands in the soil. 

Nicholas using the tilling feature of a machine that came with the property.

We arrived at the perfect moment to till garden beds and prepare the  soil for planting of our garden.  The area inside the fence had  previously been tended as a garden, but the cover crop had gone wild and  seeded everywhere. After clearing this as best we could, and tilling  beds, it was time to plant.  We had a full supply of seeds left over  from a homesteading experiment in Costa Rica that had gone awry; we  decided to plant almost all of our seeds because we didn’t know their  current viability. 

Elke and Gabriel planting the first seeds in the new garden beds.

Adding mulch to the blueberries to prevent weeds, amend ph, and increase yield.

Along with new tilling and planting, there were also many established projects and resources that needed to be upkept. In anticipation of bountiful berry harvests later in the summer, we  lovingly dove into the labor intensive job of mulching around all 120+  blueberry bushes. 

Our first up close meeting with our new bee friends.

An integral part of any homestead, the beginnings of our compost heap.

We also had a man come over who was able to help us open the bee hive  that came with the property and introduce us to our new bee friends.   The hive was healthy and thriving, to the point that we were just in  time to maintain it before they left looking for more room.  He helped  us to add a “queen excluder” and a “super” to the hive so that there  would be more room to store honey in an area where the Queen bee would  be unable to lay larva. This would mean that we would be able to consume  honey later in the fall, without disturbing the store of honey that the  bees had created in the main section of the hive for their own  nourishment. 

Gabriel and Nico found a new play sanctuary on the stream.

During this initial period of activity, driven by our excitement of  being freshly activated in our homesteading projects, we also made sure  to take time to explore the more wild areas of our property, in order to  harmonize more with the spirit of the land.  These were also moments  that helped Gabriel to acclimatize to an outdoor lifestyle in the woods  after living in the suburbs of a city. These very initial phases, when the members of our small family unit  were the only people on the land, were a very exciting and idyllic phase  for us.  We were in love with our new home and full of energy to invest  and create there.

Originally posted, with little reception on wordpress.com - so happy to migrate this tale to the #steemit platform!