First Post #2 (huh??)

Yay, now it's my first blog! Sweet. Thamara touched on most of the main points about what's been happening with our lives. We moved up to Orillia when the job offer for Lakehead came through. I left my job as a vocational instructor and moved on up with her to a totally new adventure in life. It was a big move for sure, but in the end it was an easy decision. Well, when there is a love and a bond like Thamara and I have found with each other, it's not hard to make a decision to uproot your entire life; you just naturally do it! (If anybody knows a cliche expression about relationships please insert here; I haven't been able to bring one to mind.....)

Alright, enough with the mushy, relationship stuff, geez!!

So, moving to a new city, and trying to integrate into a different social scene is usually a challenge, and it has definitely been that in Orillia. Orillia has shown itself to be an interesting city in a couple of respects. It is a city with an interesting dichotomy; there is a large population of economically depressed people, but then there are people that have a high earning potential as well. So, this means that Orillia is on the rise, correct? Well, almost. The main problem the city seems to be having is that the population that have the highest earning potential in the city don't spend their money within the city limits. Barrie, Vaughan, and other 'major' shopping centres are too close for comfort. As well, Orillia has a lot of undeveloped brownfield sites that are ex-industrial and require a lot of environmental cleanup in order for the city to truly develop. Orillia is a city on-the-cusp of true growth. Which way it goes, only time will tell.

So, anyhoo, what does this have to do with us? Besides being the city that we are currently living, it has been the final push for us to look at creating a self-sustaining lifestyle for ourselves up here. What do we mean by self-sustaining? (I can see the eye-rolls and the 'hippy-tree-hugger' comments flying out right now!!) No, we aren't planning on going out in the back-woods, building a log cabin, installing bicycle powered generators, nor growing a "I haven't seen civilization for years' beard. We simply want a low-impact lifestyle that is healthy, happy,and Fun!! For the past couple of weeks, we have been busy in a make-it-yourself phase that really has been amazing! Homemade food from local sources really is different. For some reading this blog, I am sure there are a ton of stories in your head about how bad food is now-a-days compared to when things used to be grown close to home and prepared fresh. Well, we are starting to understand that now.....

Here's a couple of things that we've been reading up on:

http://100milediet.org/

http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/

http://smallfarmcanada.ca/

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/

We are going to start (read 'attempting') incorporating the ideas we've been so busy reading into our everyday lives. Starting to make everything from scratch, and sourced from local suppliers has been our first step. This weekend we are going to an organic conference in Guelph to hopefully find some seeds/plants to start a little home garden. Hmm, guess that means I need to go and get that shelf put together in the kitchen.....