Urban Farm Tour

Our property was invited to participate in the First Annual Urban Farm Tour, Saturday, May 7 hosted by the Greenville Organic Foods Organization: "Come see fantastic examples of how city residents are practicing sustainability by growing their own food and implementing energy efficiency. The self-guided tour will showcase urban farms, edible gardens and energy efficiency located within 10 miles from downtown Greenville."

We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of it! See below the blurb for our property:

"This urban homestead is where the action is! Urban Acre Farm is truly a site where you can get exposure to a little of everything. The family originally established the Urban Farm with the hope of moving eventually to the country and starting their own farm. At this site you’ll learn about making great compost through vermiculture practices. Three hives of bees along with a multitude of various fruit trees and bushes makes this site perfect for all those aspiring to “give it all up and move to the country,” but don’t want to do it just yet…If you have been looking for economical ways to insulate the roof and reduce summer cooling costs come see their Supertherm white roof. And to top it off on May 7 site owners will be cooking with a solar oven to show folks how easy it is."

The link can be found here: http://www.greenvilleuft.com/tour-sites?page=2

Aerial View

Here is an aerial taken off Google maps of our property. The house is center. You can see the pool and to the northwest of the pool are two outbuildings: a prefabricated shed that is wired for electric and an old barn that I'm going to use for a wood shed. To the northeast of the pool is a "cottage" which has a kitchenette and a bathroom. I use it as my office since I do all my work teaching online from home.

New Pantry

Take a look at our pretty new pantry. This doorway used to go into what I think was an old dining room. Jen thought it would be better as a closed off pantry for food storage. It sits right off our kitchen and Jen is already filling it up with food stores!

The old dining room is now closed off and is considered a bedroom, making our homestead a six bedroom domicile with three up and three down. Good for extended families!

2 Cranberry Bushes

I forgot to write that Jen also planted 2 teeny little cranberry bushes by the front walkway. They are small little guys!

In utero is the project to close off the downstairs den, making a storage pantry on one side and a sixth bedroom on the other. The pantry will be used for the purpose of our goal for 1 year food storage.

Projects to Date

--2 raspberry bushes planted on south property line

--Planted four dwarf apple, 2 dwarf cherry trees

--Built sixteen 4' by 8' garden boxes along south property line. Jen filled the boxes with leaves, top soil, and compost.

--Built a six foot privacy fence along the front property line facing busy cut through street (where cars frequently speed past at about 60 mph. Fence runs along all of the front and part of the sides of the yard for about 240 feet. A gate was built across the drive way which locks from both the inside and outside.

--Purchased freezer which holds 250 lbs of meat. Filled it with 1/4 of a cow bought from local farmer.

--Set up three 55 gallon water barrels (linked). All filled up in one night of rain!

Back yard!

This is a picture of the backyard with a view of the back of the house in the background, the pool in the foreground (covered) and the front porch of the office/brewery!

Kitchen!

Here's a pic of the new kitchen. It's so much bigger than our galley kitchen we have now, and it'll be a great central room for our family to cook and eat together!

New House!

After some searching, we are closing on a new house June 30th! Jen and I couldn't decide whether we wanted to be town or country mice, so we decided on a compromise. Our new house is located on 1 acre (with no restrictions) just 3 miles (about 8 minutes) from downtown Greenville, SC. Jen searched every night on the web for the right place, and we lucked into this. The first buyers financing fell through, and we were next in line of 17 other interested parties! The sellers priced the house at 152, 500, and it's got about 3,000 square feet (if you count the separate office with full bath and kitchenette). If Jen hadn't kept plugging away at this, we would never have found the house.

What's more important is that we can get down to the business of degriding. We have lots of plans for this 1 acre plot, but it's incredibly exciting! It even has a little underground pool (this was a happy happenstance as a pool was not part of our criteria).

Featured above is the front yard and house!

Prefab Workspace

To enhance my productivity Jen came up with the idea of building a small, one-room, prefab study where I could set up wall to wall bookshelves, a desk, and a daybed (for naps!) With a wireless network and electrical hookups, it would make for a nice, quiet getaway considering I do all my work from home now. These can be fairly cheap to build, anywhere between $5,000-$10,000. The April/May 2008 issue of Readymade has a great article. Below are some of the websites of companies that sell prefab work spaces.

Modern-Shed

Modern Cabana

M Finity

Firstdaycottage.com

Go to www.firstdaycottage.com to find a selection of do it yourself houses which are modular and affordable! I don't know if we'll go this path, but the houses look cute and there is something rewarding about erecting the frame of your home yourself (at least the idea of it). Realistically, it might even be possible to hire an expert who could guide and help an amateur through the process. It might still be cheaper than buying your own home.

Strawbale House

Jen and I are fond of this strawbale home. It is a beautiful 1800 square foot house with four bedrooms and two baths. It has a great open kitchen/living area with walled bookshelves. It also has an indoor/outdoor fireplace. Really beautiful. It may be a bit large for us, but we're really leaning toward the strawbale style. In addition to being energy efficient, there's something very cozy about them. Here is the link: http://www.architecturalhouseplans.com/home_plans/44 as well as the site which has plans of all shapes and sizes.