living in the woods

February 27, 2016

Hello. My name is Angela and I’d like to share my life as a gardener living in a cabin in the woods. I’ll likely sprinkle in bits of poetry and philosophy and wisdom, taken from the sources which speak to me. And occasionally I may ramble on about daily life, because, isn’t that what it’s all about?


No Comments

  • Reply upasna1987 April 26, 2016 at 10:46 am

    Hey Angela,
    I am just curious- If you live with your family. How do you manage? Its so adventurous to live in the Woods.

    • Reply thewoodlandgardener April 26, 2016 at 11:56 pm

      Hey Upasna,

      Thanks so much for visiting my blog! My husband and I live together with our 2 dogs and 1 cat (recently our other cat passed away). We have a nice cabin on 4 acres of woods. I wish I could say that we are completely self-sufficient and live off the land, but alas, that is not the case (yet…i like to think). I do have a vegetable garden that I increase every year. I am vegan and my goal is to eventually grow all or most of the food I consume. My husband is slowly getting there 🙂 We have an abundance of wildlife here, which means that we must be diligent and creative when it comes to protecting the garden (aka food source), without inflicting any harm on the critters.

      When we were looking to get away from the city, my initial desire was to buy property and construct a yurt. I couldn’t get hubby’s buy-in for that, so we ended up getting the cabin we live in now, which we both love. We are in a rural county but on the edge nearest the city, so we are far enough away from the city to be secluded, but close enough to get the amenities. We do have county water and electricity, so we don’t have to worry about that. Although, we will likely switch to solar powered electricity at some point. Our property taxes our lower here, which is nice. We have a lot of farmers and farmland nearby, which is also nice.

      We have had to purchase equipment we never imagined a need for: chainsaw, machete, brush cutter. Good thing hubby likes doing all that stuff! We have learned that Mother Nature will completely take over if you don’t take measures to contain.

      Some of the pitfalls we have experienced: snow plowing by the county is not as quick to occur out here (hence, 4-wheel drive vehicles), and gazillions of bugs! When we were looking at this house to buy, the inspector told us “you’re buying a wood house in the middle of the woods – you are gonna have bug problems”. He was right – there are hornets and carpenter bees and ants to deal with, all which seem to prefer roosting on or near the house. I am a tree-hugging hippie and my last resort is to kill the bugs, but sometimes, i’ve found that it is necessary, to protect one’s home, but it hurts my heart to do so.

      All in all, I love living out here. We both do, and i know for sure the dogs do. Even as I write this, we are experiencing a horrific thunderstorm and I’m praying that a tree doesn’t come down on the house. There is no attic – the ceiling of this house vaults right up to the roof. But even the thunderstorms are exciting! Good thing we are not in a yurt after all 🙂

      Well, sorry for such a long answer – got carried away. Are you considering a move in the near future?

      Angela

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