From living outside a major city to living in the rural country. This is our journey as we chronicle our transition to living on a farm.
This journey started many years ago with my wife and I talking about someday, moving to the country, and retiring in a picturesque setting. You know, a little garden, maybe some mountain views, a stream, abundant wildlife, no traffic … basically a nice place to retire that was quiet and away from the city. This always seemed like something that we would do later in life and as I’ve learned, later gets here pretty fast!
With the arrival of our first daughter we began really looking at the foods we were feeding her (and ourselves). Shortly thereafter, along came our second daughter, and like most parents, we wanted the best for them. We knew we wanted to raise them in a way that they learned about life and responsibility, a way that fostered creativity and exploration, and a way that taught them that hard work can be, well hard, but rewarding. Those goals for our children combined with a few Netflix documentaries, a sudden interest in gardening books, the idea of a few chickens in the backyard, and yearning to try something different, led us to finally pull the trigger, and say “yep, lets do this thing!”.
The stars aligned when my wife came across an 1800s farmhouse in the quaint little town of Scottsville, Virginia. We decided one day to go visit and immediately knew this is where we wanted to be. After driving many beautiful miles through the country, we came upon a narrow, two lane road, populated with family owned restaurants, a bee supply store, Kayaking / tubing company, a fermentation store, appliance dealer, art / nature center, local church, and the first building in Scottsville is a local brewery! Can’t go wrong there! We immediately shifted into full gear acquiring a second mortgage (yikes) and putting our house on the market. We were very fortunate in that it worked out that our city house sold at the same time as we closed on our farm house. And thus begins our journey into starting a farm.
This blog is intended to chronicle our journey and experiences as we embark on this transition, from a suburban life to farmsteading. We plan to share our ups and downs, experiences, photos, probably a few cuss words, and hopefully our children won’t look back and think, “What the hell where they thinking”! Thanks for reading, more to come.