A Life On--and After--the Farm: the farm

I started this blog in the early days of our life on the farm. We bought the land and built the house in 2003, and we sold the farm in December of 2016.

We raised chickens, goats, vegetables, and cats. (Raising cats wasn't intentional.) We once had a llama--for a very short time. It scared our grandkids! We had horses that forever left an imprint on our hearts. And we shared this adventure with my hubby's parents and lots of grandkids!

We rescued a lab named Sadie whose life was cut short by cancer. You'll see her in many of the stories. A couple of years ago, we brought another fur baby into the mix. Boo is a Weechon--West Highland/Bichon mix, that is now living the Florida life with us in the RV.

Here is where this story begins...

The Land

Ray didn't really like my brick ranch in the suburbs, particularly the crazy terraced backyard, so shortly after marrying, in 2001, we started looking for a country home. We found this land for sale, right on the bike path, and bought it.

...and the journey began!

There was a lot of work to do on this overgrown corn field.

In the spring of 2003 we laid a gravel lane and built a barn.

The House

I drew up some plans and we found a builder. Then, on August 12th, we broke ground.

Our first night to sleep here was on Hubby's birthday in early December. (I always throw it up to him... "What are you giving me for my birthday?")

Someday our farm will look like this.

I embellished this photo a bit. There is no wood fence for the back pasture. The grass is not that green. The flower garden is not finished. The chicken house, bicycle shed and boiler were not here when the photo was taken, so I painted them in. I erased Mr J's junk piles and all the vehicles. But truly, it does look like this in our minds.

The Garden
Mr J has come along way with his green thumb! His father has grown vegetables since he was a small boy and helped in the family garden in Kentucky. Mr J wanted to garden with his dad (Dad was 85 in this shot) and learn all the old ways.