one month and a couple of dreams later

I know it's been awhile.

It was a busy time, what with finishing up at the Farm, and transitioning into whatever was next. Potentially moving to a new house, applying for long-shot jobs, postponing a roadtrip.

By the last couple of weeks of my AmeriCorps term at Beardsley I'd begun to help out my friend, Levon, with some house-painting, when I had the time, with the comforting incentive of employment insurance should none of my post-AmeriCorps plans pan out.

After my last day (June 29th), I took a little time to buff up my resume and look for exotic job opportunities. I got excited about a couple of positions, then got un-excited about them. So I've been painting.

Levon's a good boss, and I'm glad to have learned the basics of the trade from him, but it still feels like work, and not a job. I know that life isn't always about the follow-your-heart, supremely fulfilling kind of jobs, but I still want to do something I love.

Summer squall rolling over downtown Knoxville.

Here's the dream that's been hopping from back burner to front burner, on and off, for the past couple of months:

Custom garden & sustainability consultation, design, installation, and maintenance for those who want to garden/live more sustainably, but may not have the time, diy skills, or know where to start.

Seeing it written out like that my mind immediately jumps to the words "market over-saturation", but I feel like I've gleaned, out of the past year at the Farm, that what I love about gardening is the design and construction of gardening/sustainability systems, and I want to do what I love.

Surely someone out there wants to pay me to build some raised beds for them to grow vegetables in. Right? I sure hope so. And before long we'll (we? I have employees now?) be able to offer chicken coop building, and beekeeping, and rooftop vegetable gardens for urban restaurants, and other neat stuff.

But for now, I just need to find a couple folks who need a simple wooden box built to plant some beans in, and maybe some advice on heirloom vegetables or composting. Don't be shy.

Sorry the pictures are so foreboding. All I had.