It's hard to believe we've already been here for an entire season, but the view from Vista Point doesn't lie. I walk the trails now without a map and we know our neighbors on one side. (I'll be using the bearing-cookies-open-the-door technique for the others in the New Year. Feel free to comment with flavor suggestions if the grapevine has preceded us and you read our blog.)

We've unpacked the kitchen and other bare necessities but are being a bit slow in other rooms. Let's be honest --- most of us probably only use 50% of our stuff a few times a year. We did slough off obviously unnecessary possessions while packing, but clearly we still have more than we really need.

Meanwhile, in the garden, we've harvested one bowl of lettuce from under the quick hoops and may or may not get more before the really cold weather hits. I've already learned that the key to enjoying outdoor activities during an Ohio winter is a wind breaker, and our pipes froze up once due to lack of heat tape in a key exposed point.

What will our lives look like in one more season? It's hard to imagine when three short months has already taken us this far!

Happy solstice, merry Christmas, and jolly major winter holiday of your choice!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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