What do I foresee in the twenty-teens?  Honestly, if you'd asked me what my life would be like a decade later in 2000, the only part I could have imagined would have been the farm, so I don't think my predictions should hold much weight.  But I can tell you what I'd like to see.

In ten years, I hope that Mark and I will still be living on this same farm, but hopefully a slightly more advanced farm with a pasture or two, a growing forest garden, and maybe even an indoors bathtub and outdoors greenhouse.  By then, I want to have streamlined the garden process to cut back a bit on the time we spend on repetitive chores like weeding and increase the time we spend on the more fun part.  Maybe by then we'll truly be food independent, having figured out grains, oil, and a few more meats.

I hope to have built my social network a little more by then.  My college years were blissful in that regard, and ever since I've been looking for a similar community where I can feel accepted and at ease.  We're slowly making friends in the area now that we're settled, so hopefully this community will grow organically with time.

Last decade, I found Mark --- he and the farm were really the highlights of the 2000s.  This decade, I hope that we'll find someone to back us up on the farm when we go on our explorations.  Whether that will be a live-in apprentice, a nearby farmer who we can trade caretaking with, or something else entirely, I'll leave up to the toss of the dice.

Lately, I've started to find a good balance of computer work, physical work, and relaxation --- hopefully by the end of the decade I'll have it as well figured out as Mark does.  Maybe this decade will be all about balance.

This post is part of our Decade in Review series.  Read all of the entries: Decade in review Vagrancy, motherhood, and buying land Courtship The decade comes together Predictions for the 2010s

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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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