October 14th, 2025 Ten Years Later . . .

 It was ten years ago, September 30th of 2015, when we went to the County Tax Office with Collette Kramer to pay off the property tax lein and then contracted the purchase of what would become Creekside Farm.  Ten years where we noticed each day and counted this place among our many blessings. Ten years of toil and more blood than we expected. So much has happened and time is flying.

Up until last year I had kept a fairly complete journal of the history of Creekside Farm on this BLOG. I told the story as it happened and all those words remain here, published for the world to see. The story documented our bringing the land back from the lifeless and trash strewn landscaping nightmare, through the two years of hard work it took just to remove the trash. This BLOG journaled our home building effort as we first came to live in a tiny home and then built a place to call home. And since we were building a farm I told the story of our education in organic agriculture as best I could.

We have good soils today even if we are no longer trying to run a profitable farm which sells produce. All of this changed in mid-Summer of 2024 when I slipped out of my regular manic depressive cycles, which were more fun that anything worrisome, into a proper depression. I have mostly come through it and returned to smiling once more. But there is still much work to do.

 I was always a manic depressive sort, it was a large part of my creativity and endless optimism. But the above is enough said on the issue so I am going to leave this open discussion of my state of mind here. To be concise: the depression continues, as does our lives. I find my creative work in writing and art and the game Fallout 4 are the places I go to stave off dark thoughts when they come. Returning to a more communicative public persona is not in the immediate future. This is not to say things are at a dead stop here. I will talk on the positives when I find them. And there are a few to talk about today.

We are putting the finishing touches on a new greenhouse workspace so that we can sprout plants for our kitchen garden and work indoors on some other projects. The new building is twenty by eight feet with framed walls and an up-cycled roof. We used eighteen recycled storm windows for windows and the south facing wall is essntially glass from the floor to its ten foot ceiling. We get Winter sun at a fifty-three degree angle  so the greenhouse will be in full sun the whole year around. In Summer the high heat of mid-day will be well shaded by an eight inch thick foam and aluminum roof  we repurposed from Craig's List. The east and west ends also have large windows and a door which has been a part of all of our other greenhouses. The trailer we built the greenhouse on was damaged while building the house and no longer road worthy, so it has a new life as a foundation rather than being scrapped. The siding is also recycled so there will be no more film greenhouses to fix and no more all night snow vigils. We electrified the new greenhouse for lights and heat, then built a new chicken run right up close to it. There are fifteen new chickens and four new ducks living in there now.

There's been two litters of puppies since the Summer of 2024 so our income plans are still in place. We added one new female to our pack of hounds to extend the breeding project a few years. Today we have eight Bassets, four of which are still in our breeding program. This weekend the last puppy of the most recent litter goes to her new home.

While there is not an excess of cash in our living budget we bought a newer BMW. The newer car is an X1 with the big motor and all the buttons and bells. Higher off the ground is better since our bodies have begun to age a bit and gravity is not our freind anymore. Our older BMW was the low slung rocket coupe we bought to drive down to Las Vegas and meet Elvis at the alter. This Vegas trip was the beginning of our Creekside Farm Project. Both the car and the goals we made are over. New goals are needed. We already have the car.

Work on a new book progressed as far as 185 pages (an anime inspired saga based on the Fallout game). But I lost the muse so the half book has gone in the half a book file for the time being. Another book I started twenty-five years ago is front of mind right now. A compendium of stories I have wriitten through the years with new transitions. Writing gives me joy when the word come easily. 

Life continues.