People ask what made us want to start farming. Well, Andy and I dreamed of trading in city life for country living for quite sometime. The dream started in our teens (actually, I think at birth for me) when I introduced Andy to the idea of farm living soon after we started dating. Andy was already intrigued by the idea of farming since his extended relatives farm, so it didn’t take much encouragement by me to get him to explore the lifestyle.

We spent countless hours at my dad’s working dairy farm and it didn’t take long for Andy to love farming.  Andy’s sisters even painted him a huge cow to use as décor for his high school graduation party, which was a good conversation starter about Andy’s future plans in life.

Anyway, Andy is a hard worker so he jumped right in and started learning what he could about farming.  My dad enjoyed teaching Andy what he knew since it’s not everyday you have an 18-year-old volunteer as free labor.  Andy soaked up what he could whether it was hands on at the farm or through his own research.

Unfortunately, willingness to learn and determination only gets you so far. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the logistics of farming, the initial costs to establish your own place are extremely expensive.  In addition to buying the actual farm/land, you need to acquire equipment, livestock, etc., none of which are cheap. Really, quite the contrary. Startup costs are a huge barrier for beginner farmers and the costs leave many people stopping before they even start.

Knowing the expenses that were to come, we faced reality and knew we couldn’t possibly get into farming straight out of high school.  We knew we needed to find real jobs to pay for the farm and the safe, responsible thing to do would be to table the idea of buying the farm in the immediate future and wait a few years until we were further established in life.

Fast forward 20+ years…

So, our five-year plan turned into a 20 year plan. But, as cliché as it is, things really do work out for a reason.

I wouldn’t change a thing with how our living situation progressed over the last 20 years. Okay, maybe a few things but not much really. Had we purchased a farm right after high school, we wouldn’t have lived next to Andy’s sister and her family. My children have cousins that are like their siblings because we lived next to them for years. We also have many fond years of spending quality time with the rest of our family in the city. Andy and I had countless road trips with his grandparents and mom to the casino. The gambling may not have been the best, but the conversations were irreplaceable.

Anyway, after many years of searching for the perfect place (a story for another day) we saw our wildest dreams become a reality when we purchased our farm.

Our farm. I love saying that!

The farm we purchased is down the road from my dad and is a place I admired for years. I remember driving by when I was younger thinking how blessed those people are to have such a beautiful farm. Never in a million years would I have allowed myself to dream that someday that could be our home. But as fate and the good Lord would have it, the owner of the property came into our lives, the door was opened and the rest is history.