Dreams of a slower life at the Farm
Farm Shenanigans #1
“Carrie: And just like that I went to Aidan’s farm.
It wasn’t Howards End. It was better.
It was our new beginning.”
Welcome, to the first newsletter of hopefully many, where I ramble on about our farm and the plans and dreams we have about it!
Just like Carrie in the quote above from And Just Like That, I want to be going to, not Aidans, but our farm, over the weekends. But, I now really want to see Aidans farm in And Just Like That too. Is the house as dreamy as he made it sound? How many chickens are there, and how does the chicken coop look? Anyone else got curious on his farm? Or is it just my farm obsessions that is making me want to see them on the farm and not in New York. I want to see Carrie in boots and not Manolos (or what is the red-sole-expensive-trendy-shoe nowadays? I really don’t know, I am just Pinteresting chicken coops).
We bought the farmland unseen, sitting at our kitchen table in Sweden, looking at shaky videos taken by a friend we asked to go there to scout it for us, and at the same time searching on Google Maps, to see where exactly this piece of land was located. My husband had some things on his list that he wanted checked of. Preferably water, not completely flat, some forest, fertile. I just wanted views and big enough to not need to live too close to neighbors. We both got a bit of what we wanted.
It is 10 hectares of, more or less, unfarmed land about 70 km out of Lusaka. It takes us around two hours to drive there because of city traffic and the last 20 km of gravel road. It is a good gravel road but still gravel and hard to drive faster than 40 km/h on it. It has a small hill with a small forest, and the river is the border on the opposite side from the forest line. It is fertile, it has very pretty views. You can hardly see any other buildings from it. We lovet it!
Above are some photos from the farm during rain and dry season. As you can see the Zambian seasons give us vastly different circumstances around the year. The sun is always shining, but between early May until November, we have no rains. We have a small river on the farm, but it overflows in rain season and is completely dry now, in the middle of dry season. To be able to grow all year roud we need another water source.
We have a lot of dreams for the land. How we will take care of it, what we will grow on it, how we would build and when we could relocate there. The long term dream has always been to be able to live there, when the kids have moved out and not need to be driven to school anymore. A short term goal is to be able to go there over the weekends, plant trees and grow vegetables. I will take you along on this long dream in the making.
Bit by bit we are moving at least towards the short term goals. We are building a chalet with local and natural materials, almost done. The bricks are made from clay that has been dug up from the land. The roof is grass that has been collected in the area. The windows will be made by Mr Changala in local wood and glass. The floor will also be made with clay, don´t ask me now how that will work in the long run, I am yet to see. It´s an interesting feature to me.
After finishing the chalet, so we are able to sleep there, we will build a traditional outdoor toilet and finish an outdoor bathroom. We have started on the toilet so can tell you more about that next time. The Nksaka above is a traditional meeting place that protects from the sun while enjoying company.
This is just a small introduction to our farm and our dreams and I hope you will want to come along on this journey. I would love to hear your thoughts, questions or ideas on what to write about in this installments about the farm. What are you curious about? Building, farming, weather, whatever, ask on and I hope we will all learn more and have fun. I find new flowers and plants every trip we take there so thats something I will myself try to learn more about. Do any of you recognise these?
Happy Friday to all of you! We have a long weekend infront of us and are planning a small farm trip.
Stay safe and keep dreaming!
/Jenny
This is an interesting Journey
So interesting- love to hear about all your plans and how they all come together. My husband is Zambian but we live in Canada and he has a farm in Ndola. Dream would be to build something there one day to live part of the year in.