The assignment to interview my site "clients" has been a good reminder that I need to take the time to be inclusive when developing my plans. (I have received this feedback at work too...I often move very quickly to problem-solve, and haven't always taken the time that I should to step back, take a breath, and consider a wide variety of opinions.) I do most of the work on my site, because I enjoy gardening and landscaping far more than my family does, however interviewing them from the client perspective was more valuable than I expected it to be. At a minimum, my family's feedback and suggestions will help me to prioritize projects that can be completed this spring (in the context of my overarching plans). I suspect that tackling a few immediate projects that are of particular interest to my family will help me to feel more successful, and will likely encourage them to make more use of my site - especially my daughter, who is headed to college in the fall.
My daughter had a number of very specific priorities for the site, and my husband had more informed suggestions than I anticipated. For example, he mentioned soil quality as our biggest issue; I've been trying to convince him for years that just because a weed can survive in soil, it doesn't mean that it's quality soil for growing plants on purpose. Although I don't think I will be able to accommodate the stream that my daughter wants (!), I'm now thinking about many additional elements that I should and can easily incorporate into my plans, that will expand the aesthetic benefits of our site, as well as offer support for additional wildlife (including but not limited to bats!).
I've also been giving a lot to my own next steps, and I'm still very interested in developing my property as a demonstration permaculture site. Although this will mean a non-trivial amount of work for me (with the maintenance, etc.), it's something that I will be able to control from a time perspective (in terms of balancing permaculture activities with my day job). In addition, helping others to improve their own properties will give me a great deal of personal satisfaction, and it will provide me with another layer of client perspectives, that I can tackle moving forward.