Dashed Hopes and an Opportunity

I have recently learned that Dearest Boyfriend is not nearly as interested in animal husbandry and homesteading as I am.

The plants?  He thinks my obsession with growing things is cute and quirky.  He calls me his dirt child when I come in from a particularly messy evening spent in the courtyard garden.  I put a huge grin on my [usually dirt smeared] face and ask him to turn the faucet on for me.  Ya' know, so I don't get dirt on it.

We're moving at the end of July to a new townhouse.  No yard to speak of, but one of my "must haves" was a place to keep my plants.  So it has a tiny back "patio".  The unit backs against a forest buffer, so I'm not sure how much light I'm going to get at any given time, so I may be stuck with plants and veggies that can tolerate partial sun.  We'll see.

But back to the unenthusiastic DB.  We were walking to dinner downtown one night last week and I made mention that the next place we look for (I'm really excited to move to this townhouse, it's really nice, but I'm a dirt child.  I need space to play.) needs to have a yard so I can have chickens.  This elicited a reaction I wasn't prepared for:

          "Why would you want chickens?"

          "Uhm...Eggs?  I thought that was pretty obvious.  Also, chickens are tasty."

          "We can buy eggs and chicken at the grocery store.  Plus chickens smell.  I don't want to live on a farm,  or anyplace that smells like a barnyard.  They'll be a lot of work, and we're not the kind of people who can keep up with that...."

Speak for yourself DB.

I stopped talking and let him rant.  If there's anything that DB is really good at, it's ranting.  I love that I never have to wonder how he's feeling about any given subject.  If I just shut up and let him go, I'll learn everything I need to know about what he thinks.

Post-tirade, he and I remained silent for about half of a city block before, "I just dashed your hopes, huh?"

Yes, DB, yes you did.

Now, to be fair, I haven't been on the BE SELF SUFFICIENT bender that I was on about three years ago.  Which is before DB was in the picture.  At that point, I lived in the country, and I could garden and plan and farm it up to my heart's content.  Now I live in an apartment with about 50 sq. ft. of outdoor living space, most of which is poured concrete.  So I have my container garden, but everything else is totally out of reach.

Now, DB is a smart boy, he's a grad student pursuing his PhD in molecular virology.  But sometimes, he's an idiot and I want to beat him over the head with something hard and heavy.  I have at least a year to convince him I totally have the right idea of it.  Especially since I have had a really amazing opportunity pretty much fall into my lap.  If all goes well, I won't be too misplaced for much longer.  I'll just be setting some roots down on borrowed soil!