Suburban Homestead

From a desire to live more simply and the knowledge that Peak Oil is upon us, my husband and I have been exploring different options for our life.  I work in a large city – should we move into the city so that I can be closer to work, probably getting rid of one of our cars?  Would the lower transportation costs offset the much higher mortgage and tax payments?  Or should we ditch this area altogether, and move to a much smaller town, where costs would be lower?  Full-time country living on a farm is out, due to some health issues my husband has.  Plus, we would definitely be dependent on our cars in the country.

We decided that moving from the area is out for the next few years due to some family reasons.  Moving into the city is too expensive, even if we look at the savings we would have by getting rid of one car.  Besides, I do not plan to work in the city forever and we had no other compelling reason to live there. So we decided to make the best of what we had, and make our little half-acre in suburbia as self-sustaining as possible.  We both love to garden and already grow some of our own food.  I read Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture and got very excited at the possibilities for permaculture.  Please join us as we continue in our quest for sustainability.