It’s a funny thing, trying to think of where to start the story. If you’re here, buckle in. New stories will be added at least every two weeks. This first post will be lengthy. I was raised in a rural area. My grandfather and uncle both raised cattle. The closest I came was being on the local FFA Livestock Judging Team. We actually competed at the National FFA Convention my junior year of high school. I thought that was the end. I got jobs and moved on with life. I started a career in my early/mid-twenties and didn’t look back at agriculture. Years passed by and it became just another faded memory of my past.
Then I met her. You can guess who “her” is right? She was at least half hippie and the other parts were dreamer & explorer. So we did what young couples often do. We got married and had a son. Though the order of those events is a bit foggy. He was perfect and we knew nothing about being good parents. Next, we did what we thought we were supposed to do. I had my job transfer us closer to home for all the help we would need with a baby. We quickly saved our money and bought our suburban house in the good neighborhood with the two car garage. Then, we waited for our perfectly planned life to set in and all our dreams to come true. The End, right? Not even close.
In our perfect neighborhood, our neighbors could see in our back yard and we could see in theirs. When it rained, the water from their backyard channeled directly into ours and made a river. They would have friends over, and stayed up late. That’s obviously fine except that our newborn wanted to sleep. So content with the happiness of our perfect life, we decided to have another son. He actually wasn’t planned at all but the last sentence sounds much nicer. The bills stayed paid and my career kept me out on weekends and holidays and the hours were never consistent. To get beyond all of that, co-workers and myself consistently reminded ourselves about the retirement fund.
We were both still very young (she still is of course) and somehow we began to dream of a bigger yard, maybe with a garden. We constantly talked, researched and dreamed. She had a notebook, and still does somewhere. The chickens we’d have were picked out two years before we’d even move. We began growing things in our backyard. Correction, she’d grow it. Somehow, I would manage to see that it died. I once put undiluted Miracle-Grow on a plant because I thought it needed fertilized. I even made raised garden beds. I trimmed overhanging tree branches for more sunlight. Here’s a well kept secret of mine, I once even boasted to a neighbor that I was going to cut down a large cedar, plant a sugar maple and tap it for syrup (true story). We had no clue where it all was going, but we knew that we didn’t fit where we were.
Our next step was finding the place to make our new lifestyle become reality. I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that I was the one who found our farm, not her. Claim the small victory when you can internet fans. We felt pushed by everyone in our lives to find the perfect spot they had picked out for us. When we saw this place, with its huge yard, big back porch, and fenced pastures, we were hooked. Somehow, we managed to close on our house in town and the farm on the same day within hours of each other. Our small family had survived phase 1 in suburbia unscathed. With our big, new yard, and acreage, we did what any responsible young husband and wife would do. We had another son. Though, she was sure that he was a her. I knew better. I’ll be the first to admit, three small children made things more difficult.
We had a new farm, new baby, and two other small sons. I had consumed all internet content available on Permaculture. I’d planted a small orchard, built a chicken coop with a small run and began repairing the old fencing on the property. We even ran out and bought five sheep. I know what you’re thinking right now. You’re thinking that life was perfect and we all lived happily ever after. Wrong again, but I’ll be back in a week or so to share more.
Thank you ahead of time to all of our present and future customers. You’re the ones who make this all possible.
Nick
