I'm finished. Goodbye.

 

It is with a sad, and very tired heart we are closing the Cockeyed Homestead blog and partnership. I'm grateful to all for following along with us on this journey. We've shared our successes and failures with y'all. I've also learned a few things along the way from y'all. This will be my last post here.

I'm moving back to coastal Georgia into a senior, independent living community. I'm moving by my #3 daughter and her family. They'll only be 5 minutes away. Over the past year and a half, my health has taken significant downturns. Between a bad heart, thyroid issues, surgeries, and a new diagnosis of moderate Hashimoto's disease. I am no longer feel safe and confident as I once did in my abilities to live this lifestyle. 

Mel will be staying on until the property can be sold. Then, she's off to greener pastures back in Florida. The winters here though not as bad as up north aggravate her seasonal depression which is worse now. The affects of last year's COVID flu continues to impact her heart and stamina.

We are still friend despite our differences. I wish her future success in wherever life takes her. Homesteading is a younger, able bodied person's lifestyle. We had the deck stacked against us from the start but we both had to try. All the hard work and money we've thrown into this has not been wasted. It's been an adventure worth doing. You don't know what you are capable of if you don't try. Well, we tried and it honesty beat our butts. We are cutting our losses.

Will I totally give up my homesteading ways, not hardly. I'll still be grinding flour to make my daily bread, making friends with community farmers to get the freshest, humanely raised, no chemical added vegetables and meats available to preserve to supply my needs whenever possible. I may even u-pick some. 

As far as gardening goes, the administrator and I have been talking. We'll be setting up a small high tunnel and elevated, raised beds to grow some herbs and vegetables. So, I can still get as dirty as I want and so can other residents of both the independent living, assisted living and memory care residents. They started two weeks ago in the memory care enclosed courtyard by planting a few dwarf fruit trees and berry vines. I'll also be digging up some of our perennial herbs to carry with me in pots.

Once a homesteader, chef, and gardener, always a homesteader, chef, and gardener. I think I've even convinced my daughter to keeping a few hens and quail. Wohoo!

Y'all have a blessed life!!

Cockeyed Jo