Dealing with discouragement

[Calista]

Calista, hugs for your DH, I cannot imagine

Thank you so much for your kind words. I'll give him your extra hug.

 

[mythreesons290322]

I too, feel very overwhelmed with daily tasks of dealing with a adult son that was born super intelligent but lacks all common sense, doesn’t drive at 25 years old because frankly I don’t trust his judgement and he would be on our insurance, a legally blind brother whom lately keeps getting sick, and my 86 yr old MIL who just moved in 6-weeks ago with us in our very small house that has dementia and is mostly blind..

Oh,yea my life feels like it’s caving in right now.

However, I just keep myself thinking that spring is around the corner and soon I will be seeing all my flowers that I planted last fall, watching everything bud out, wondering if my fruit trees and berry bushes will give me a good abundance of fruit, adding new raised beds to expand my garden...walking my edible/medicinal gardens..watching my chickens do their peck and scratch dance as I free range...I have to focus on what gives me the most pleasure to keep me from sinking into a deep dark hole...

Hugs to all that want one or need one.

 

[Chic Rustler]

I too, feel very overwhelmed with daily tasks of dealing with a adult son that was born super intelligent but lacks all common sense, doesn’t drive at 25 years old because frankly I don’t trust his judgement and he would be on our insurance, a legally blind brother whom lately keeps getting sick, and my 86 yr old MIL who just moved in 6-weeks ago with us in our very small house that has dementia and is mostly blind..

Oh,yea my life feels like it’s caving in right now.

However, I just keep myself thinking that spring is around the corner and soon I will be seeing all my flowers that I planted last fall, watching everything bud out, wondering if my fruit trees and berry bushes will give me a good abundance of fruit, adding new raised beds to expand my garden...walking my edible/medicinal gardens..watching my chickens do their peck and scratch dance as I free range...I have to focus on what gives me the most pleasure to keep me from sinking into a deep dark hole...

Hugs to all that want one or need one.

Wow. I am truly humbled

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@mythreesons290322 - I wanna give you a hug. I spent the last six months with my parents living with me after they lost everything in Hurricane Harvey. My dad is totally deaf and mom's dementia progressed at an alarming rate. I recently found an amazing Assisted Living facility that is working out well for them. It was the hardest thing I've ever dealt with so I have an inkling of what you are going through. Good for you keeping a positive attitude!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@mythreesons290322 , it sounds like you'll fit right in here! I like the sound of your edible/medicinal garden! I also have fruit trees and berry bushes, and a regular garden (adding more raised beds this year), and free range chickens. And we've got lots of medical stuff going on here too. Welcome to the group! What are you growing in your medicinal/edible garden?

 

[sumi]

@mythreesons290322 There is nothing like a bit of garden and chicken therapy to set the world straight I used to go sit on the coop with my birds when things got too much to handle. Or messed around in the garden, looking at the new seedlings, plants setting fruit… Small happy moments.

 

[baymule]

I too, feel very overwhelmed with daily tasks of dealing with a adult son that was born super intelligent but lacks all common sense, doesn’t drive at 25 years old because frankly I don’t trust his judgement and he would be on our insurance, a legally blind brother whom lately keeps getting sick, and my 86 yr old MIL who just moved in 6-weeks ago with us in our very small house that has dementia and is mostly blind..

Oh,yea my life feels like it’s caving in right now.

However, I just keep myself thinking that spring is around the corner and soon I will be seeing all my flowers that I planted last fall, watching everything bud out, wondering if my fruit trees and berry bushes will give me a good abundance of fruit, adding new raised beds to expand my garden...walking my edible/medicinal gardens..watching my chickens do their peck and scratch dance as I free range...I have to focus on what gives me the most pleasure to keep me from sinking into a deep dark hole...

Hugs to all that want one or need one.

My mom had a stroke at 88 and moved in with us. She died at 92, she got so bad that I had to make that awful decision that nobody wants to make. Sigh.... Big hugs to you and know that you are not alone in this journey. I quit my job to care for my mother. I expanded the chicken coop, got more chickens and worked in my garden. Small precious moments of sanity...

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

HUGS to EVERYONE!!! When I start getting discouraged and overwhelmed I come to sites like this one and talk/read with others who are doing what Im doing/dreaming of doing and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will my homestead. Hope everyone has a Great Heart Day and hoping you are having nice weather today too...(here in KS they are calling for weather to be a wonderful 56 degree and while its overcast and dark looking I will take the warm with the rain.)

 

[mythreesons290322]

@mythreesons290322 , it sounds like you'll fit right in here! I like the sound of your edible/medicinal garden! I also have fruit trees and berry bushes, and a regular garden (adding more raised beds this year), and free range chickens. And we've got lots of medical stuff going on here too. Welcome to the group! What are you growing in your medicinal/edible garden?

Thank you !

I have been on this journey of adding edible perennial foods over the past 9-years and medicinal 5-years so when I post it might seem overwhelming but this is my passion.

Peach,apple,sour cherry,sweet cherry,plum,pear,mulberry,juneberry (29 in total.
Raspberry,blackberry,blueberry,gooseberry,currants,chokecherry bushes (75 plus bushes.
Grape vines, rhubarb,walking onions, sunchokes,strawberries,asparagus.
Herb and mint gardens.


Medicinal is elderberry, catmint,catnip,bee Balm,lavender,borage,st John’s wart,valarian,oregano,sage,rose hips,comfrey,raspberry & blackberry leaves.

Wild on my property is dandelion that I use to make wine and salve, nettles for pesto, blackcap for jam,fiddleheads to eat,ramps to eat,chicken of the woods mushrooms and morell, pine trees needles can be used for tea, maple trees, sycamore and birch trees for syrup,lambs ears used it for toilet paper but wasn’t very absorbing , wild onion and garlic for food.

Just recently learned that muellin,plantain,self heal all grow on my lawn.

This year I’m adding to my perennial gardens marshmallow root, feverfew,licorice root,yarrow(mine died),skullcap,witch hazel,red rose bush and more lavender.

I learned to make a all natural muscle relaxer tincture of valarian root and vodka that is amazing stuff! And also growing quadruple cayenne peppers that I will ground into powder for a muscle rub plus my homemade hot sauce . Same for the calendula that I saved seed from so I can dehydrate the flower heads among others for my homemade skin products as they are awesome for skin health.

Would love to hear what you grow also.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I'm soooo excited! You're where I want to be in a few years.


We've only had this property for 17 months, but many years ago someone must have thought like we do. Much of what we have was here before we came but was wildly overgrown. We're trying to bring some of it back to it's former glory.

This is what we have so far:
Trees: walnut, pecan, oak, pine, apple (4 kinds), Asian pear, fig, peach, lime (3kinds), olive, pawpaw, flowering pear, redbud, tulip, magnolia, dogwood, Japanese Maple, and a few others. 1 more peach, plum, tart cherry and maybe one or two more fruit trees planned for late this year or early next... Adding sweet shrub soon.

Berries: black (5) and blue (16 bushes). Hoping to add strawberry and raspberry this spring. And we have 2 kinds of grapes on very very old grapevines and rotting trellises, with more planned for this spring.

Oregano and mint are growing. Onion, garlic, dill, basil, celery are always around. I'm adding more herbs this spring. We always plant lots of different peppers. Rhubarb is planned for this year. I'm adding several more flowers this week (all perennial). A partial list of flowers (either growing or I have the seed) are iris, wisteria, tiger lilies, canna lilies, tulips, daffodils, amaryllis, angel trumpets (this week), four o'clock, daisies, moon flowers, morning glories, cone flowers, marigolds, hollyhocks, clematis, Cyprus vines, sunflowers, day lilies, roses, azaleas, camellia. I might have killed my honeysuckle when I pulled it out of the overgrown grapevines when we pruned them. We plan on adding a LOT more flowers this spring because we want to add bees next spring and want something flowering all year. Much of our back yard is planted with white clover.
We have dandelions and nettles, but I haven't fully identified everything else growing here yet (I'm not from here, so I'm learning as I go.) I'm hoping to get involved with a local master gardener club here to meet others who can help in that department.

Our chickens free range, and get Fermented Feed. We hope to add rabbits this spring. We compost. We hope to add bees next spring, and a possible fish tank next fall (tilapia or catfish, then water and guts would be added to the garden, and fish to the freezer.) If we plan it out right, we'd raise rabbits for about 6 months (not during the summer here) and fish for about 6 months each year (probably spring to fall). Then the fish water, and the rabbit and chicken poop would all be composted into the garden as fertilizer while the bees pollinate everything.
Besides all that, we'll be planting a vegetable garden soon, and I have a few small greenhouses.


@Britesea is a really good source for medicinal plants. I've learned a lot from her posts. I think she's also really knowledgeable about mushrooms. I've grown mushrooms before, but not extensively, and not here.

I'm looking forward to more of your posts!