Today I mowed the lawn.  Hopefully it’s the last time this season!  And maybe forever – I found out that Cincinnati allows for native grasses to be planted in place of this short green grass which is commonplace.  I’m excited to tear up the lawn next spring and sow some Cincinnati grass wherever we won’t be expanding the garden!

I also harvested the broccoli (yes!), cleaned the garden up, and threw down some green manure which will hopefully take hold before the frost hits.  Then I got to meet the new neighbors across the street.

Planting, harvesting, and meeting new neighbors all in the same day.  Hell yes.

As we begin the process of revamping this charming turn-of-the-century house into an off grid community-oriented home, all sorts of theoretical and pragmatic questions are raised: Which water collection/filtration system is going to work best through the winter? What are the city/county/state laws in regards to drilling a well? How does a hammer work? But I continue to research and ask questions and slowly the questions become settled.  I realize that they won’t be fully answered until each respective project is individually seen through.  I’m comfortable with this long path full of learning opportunities which we’ll be living and working in knowing that so long as we keep on truckin’ we’ll get there.

Currently, we’ve been preparing the house for winter: putting plastic over the windows, replacing weather strips, and raising the median house temperature by expelling a lot of hot air as we go on and on about all the low-energy and highly-sustainable actions we’ll be bringing to the house and Cincinnati. For now though, I’m mostly figuring out what’s going on with this hammer situation.