This Is What I’ve Been Waiting For | Slow Living in Vermont

My lacks remind me of my grandfather. He passed when I was young, so I only have a few memories of him. He ran National Geographic magazines to me on the couch, and I like to think that it instilled some of my love for the outdoors. He collected antiques, which I also like to believe is part of my own desire to collect. Although I am different than my family in many ways, I still find comfort in our small This last week in Vermont has been a bit more rainy, but there's a couple of good things that come out of that. The land around me is flourishing, and it's still kind of soup season. I'm most definitely ready for salads, iced tea, and berries, but I'm savoring the last of these days and making one of my favorite simple soups, minestrone. Even in the gloom, this is what I've been waiting for. After a long, dark winter, I've been dreaming of this time of year where I get to watch everything come to life again, including myself. So since I shared my porch last, I've acquired a few more plants. I think we all expected that to happen. My friend Melissa from Tangle Bloom Farm, she's a flower farmer, and she gave me some dahlia bulbs to try and plant. I know it's a little late to start these maybe, but I went to a plant swap recently and I got some seeds. And then, I couldn't resist. I'm just in a yellow mood lately. I think I'm going to do these in pots on the porch, and then the sunflowers in the garden with the dahlias. There's still so much about gardening that I really don't know. I feel like I just keep trying to grow the most simple things over and over until I'm really good at them, and then start to try other things, but my little zinnia garden is doing well. I'll show you that. For the last few years, I spent all of my energy figuring out how to support myself. Every morning I woke up and asked, what can I do today to help build a life I'm excited about living? It often meant being selfish with my time, my money, and my space, but my selfishness all of those years have paid off because I now have real space to think about how I can help those around me. There's that really cliche saying, it begins with self, and I believe it's true. You can't really tend to another's garden before you tend to your own. It feels nice to be rooted somewhere that I can get to know the people and find ways to contribute to the community. I started small, like helping at my friend's flower farm and shopping at small businesses, but as my time here grows on, I really hope to contribute through bigger volunteer work. So my frontal lobe finally developed at 30 because I made this practical car purchase instead of buying an old piece of junk. Although I still want the old piece of junk. In 2022, I bought a 1988 Ford Econoline van, and I lost a painful $9,000 from that. Then in 2024, I bought a 1990 Ford truck hoping to slide a camper in the bed. I didn't lose much money on that, thankfully, but the plan didn't really work out. It's still one of my dreams to own a vintage car of sorts, but it's now becoming a later in life dream when I have a little more disposable income and perhaps a few more mechanical skills. For those who don't know, I did van life for three years on the West Coast and a little bit in the Northeast here. It's by far easier on the West Coast. There's just more BLM dispersed camping land that's easier to find. I think it might be a challenge this year just because I'm a little out of practice with my off-roading adventure nomadic self. So I'll be interested to see what I can find this summer, but I'm excited to reconnect with that part of myself. Sorry, I'm at my mom's and it's a very busy road. I pretty much saved everything from my van life days except I gave the fridge to the person who bought my van. Kind of regret that. Yeah, I should have saved that. Anyway, here's the gear. Although I don't plan on doing any crazy big road trips just yet, I thought it would still be fun to show you a little of my setup. Starting with my sleeping pad and sleeping bag from Zenvivi. These two water jugs. I kind of like the brown one more, but the other one clearly goes with the blue-green vibe we have going on here. Some enamel bowls and plates, and some silverware of course. I have a headlamp and a multi-purpose tool that my brother gave me. This Sawyer water filter, although I'm pretty sure it's kind of old. This Stanley pot is one of my favorite pieces. It had bowls that sat inside, but I misplaced those. I also have a cast iron pan and this little enamel mug. My other favorite Coleman piece is this mini grill. I honestly don't even know if they make it anymore. I'm sure you can still find them second hand, but I haven't seen these in stores in a while. And of course we have some propane to go with that. I have this Therma rest pad just in case I want a little extra support. I have this towel that is most definitely Ethan's. And a little blanket. And lastly, I have a power bank and a solar panel from Blue Eddy. Well there you have it folks, my little haul of my camping gear. There's definitely a few more odds and ends that I'll be putting in, like my tent and my camping chair, which I'm pretty sure the chair is at my house and the tent is probably somewhere in this garage, so I need to go look for it. But yeah, this is pretty much the main pieces of my setup. And yeah, hope you found it useful, inspiring, I hope you go camping, I don't know. Get outside. I'm going to go finish organizing. Thanks Melissa. Dahlia. Folks. So we're going to try and plant. There's a red-eyed vario out there. It's a bird. My birdie. My birdie grandpa. It's okay, I'm a grandma.