Everyone else is doing it, so why not me? ;) @rambo, @lyxzen and @missy have been assigning weekly blog topics for @bloghomework to get people into the habit of writing more often. This week's topic is "If you could run your own business, what would it be?"
For the last few years, I've had the dream of buying a plot of wilderness land somewhere and turning some of it into a farm.
Not a big farm. I'd get a plot of maybe 20 acres, nestled in the mountains somewhere in Beautiful British Columbia – Kootenay, Okanagan, maybe Vancouver Island – and I'd make five acres of it farmland and leave the rest as natural, rugged forest.
When I was growing up, I had an aunt and uncle who were farmers in the fertile lands west of Niagara and they grew grapes, peaches and cherries. Those are very fond memories and I'd mimic that to some degree. I'd grow peaches, cherries and apples, one acre of each. Then I'd have an acre for vegetables and an acre for grazing one or two dairy cows to have my own milk. I'd also have some chickens to make eggs and I'd keep bees to make honey.
I'd be vegetarian and never kill my animals, and the farm would be completely organic. There would also be lots of cats and dogs.
Now the main product would not be fruit, but wine. I'd make wine from the apples, cherries and peaches. An acre of each would yield 4,000 bottles each, so I'd make 12,000 bottles total. Then I'd sell 10,000 and keep the rest for personal consumption. There would also be a few thousand bottles of wonderful mead made from the honey.
We're not done yet though! somewhere in the rest of the property, among those 15 acres of forest, I'd build a community.
Maybe a dozen or so cabins. One would be for me and the rest would be for guests to come and visit. There'd be a few WOOFers – young people who volunteer to work on organic farms – to help with the labour. Half the cabins would be filled with artistic people – artists, musicians, models –who would come to find peace, to work on their art and to share it with others. In my various lives I've worked with many such people – for years I was a newspaper arts reporter – and I'd love to give them a place where they can come.
And then the rest of the cabins would be for odds and ends – old friends, travellers, vagabonds, anyone who's will to come and lend a hand and drink some wine and share the experience.
Does that sound like a terrible dream? Or would anyone else be into such an experience? I'd spend my days labouring on the farm, and then my evenings drinking my wine, listening to live music and sharing the company of great friends.
