8.22.2018

farm dreams & memory lane....

.... farm dreaming' ....
 Good morning! I am up early and downing my coffee before heading to the gym soon, but wanted to share a bit about my realization last night while doing farm chores. I noticed that Ellen, my little rebel goat, who was born on the farm to Eli & Ellie a month after they were rescued, wasn't as chunky as she used to be. She was allowed to nurse until she was pretty much the same size as her mom - yes! She was a stubborn little gal. Anyway, thinking about how she seemed to be a little less 'meaty' as she used to be, and going back and thinking about her little bout with pneumonia a few months ago, I started realizing that my 'babies' are all older. They aren't babies anymore! Eli & Ellie are close to being NINE YEARS OLD!! Misty & Ellen are almost eight!! Jeez. So all this has prompted me to recap my little dream of living on a farm as a kid, to acquiring a small farm all on my own, and keeping my eyes on the prize.... Let's take a trip down memory lane.... I found a bunch of old pictures from the very beginnings - actually all the pics in this post are from around 8 years ago!


(look at little Taylor!!!)
This blog keeps me happy, and gives me a platform to share my experiences about getting to where we are, in hopes that other folks might take the plunge on their dreams even if it doesn't seem ideal. I have been blogging about my dreams of homesteading, farming, rural living, off-grid living, and other forms of self sufficiency living for several years now... This life attracted me because my whole life, I have loved animals, and the fact that I never actually grew up on a farm, made the struggle of farm life seem romantic - yeah, weird, right? I mean, my earliest memories of wanting to live like this came when I used to watch the old black & white 'Lassie' show in the mornings before going to daycare. Timmy running or riding his bike along the dirt roads, getting home late for dinner where fresh eggs sat on the table in their old farmhouse.... I always wanted farm chores because I never really knew what farmwork was - ha! Wow. Fast forward to about ten years ago (2008). I saw the film Food Inc., and it forever changed the way I viewed food - before that, honestly my farm dreams revolved around just having lots of animals :) ..... later I started a blog called 'about an acre'..... because that is all I had access to - about an acre... on a friend's land.... 30 minutes from my rented home... that was to be an experiment in learning to actually grow food.
(Eli, 2011 - check out my farmer's tan!)
(the surprise baby Ellen 2011)
(the proud new parents of an unexpected baby Ellen!)
Yeah, I started out wide-eyed, bushy-tailed, and with high hopes of 'living off the land' - my own land, and it wasn't even really a thought as to how that would happen, I just knew I would find a way. My mama engrained that way of thinking into both my brother and myself. Until Christian & I bought this farm we now call home, I was taking baby steps farm-sitting where I would milk other people's goats, field trippin', where I was picking someone else's blueberries & peaches, tending to chickens on someone else's farm, and investing in other people's properties by being a renter.....


Fast forward to now. 2018. We live on a nine acre farm. A beautiful farm that we have worked tirelessly on....It was an overgrown mess when we moved in, but I had a vision... Although I have done most of the work, just because I am a control freak ;), and this was really all my venture, this place is what I envisioned as a child. Dirt road living, in an old farmhouse, with actual farm chores! We have newly discovered wild blueberries that are in the process of being 'trained', an old apple orchard, pastures for goats & horses, and a garden that I am good working in for cool weather crops, but I fall short on in the summer.....(dang this heat)!! If I could eat the spinach from the garden year round, I don't know that I would need much more personally besides potatoes... too bad the spinach bolts in May and can't come back until fall....

I am so happy I stuck with chasing this dream. Christian never had dreams of living on a farm, although now he appreciates the food when we grow it, walking the dog in the fields and trails that have been cut out over the years, and opening the windows in the spring & fall to let in the sweet country air. This was a dream I had to make into my reality all on my own. Not that he wasn't supportive, this just wasn't his thing. I trudged through the days, at one time driving 30 minutes to a farm each morning before work, and again each night after work, to learn and tend to livestock.

Neither of us grew up with money, trust funds, or that security cushion of knowing if times got tough, there was a parent that could bail us out of a pickle....so, buying a farm, was a little scary. We pay a mortgage obviously, and sometimes struggle to keep things the way we love it out here. We don't own a tractor, and for the first two years, paid someone to come and help us out with the stuff that required one... We have learned to maintain this life by being resourceful and grateful, and learning to live out here was both fun and terrifying. I rarely make the time to sit down and write longer blog entries anymore because I am usually out living this life, but this morning, I was feeling it. My life is sometimes hectic, but I honestly do get lost in the perfect sunsets, dirt road walks, and all the pretty things about this life. Last night was a reality check, and a nice little reminder of where all this started. Lassie & Timmy.... while little four-year-old Sandice sat in the floor in front of the tv watching Lassie in our little single-wide trailer, before preschool .....

There is still lots to do on this little slice, and some people think my life is chaotic, but I enjoy learning about all things. Of course there are things I don't like so much, but the reality of life, is amazement and heartache, winning and losing, and learning through trials and errors.. Each day excites me and I anticipate seeing what will come of it.... Every day is a blessing. I get to come home to my dream....

Happy Wednesday, folks! I am off to the gym to walk up 100 flights of stairs. Ugh. You gotta do you.<3

xo

-s

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