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If you told me one year ago that we would be just a few weeks away from moving to a smaller home to start a farm I’d be like, “lmao wut”. But its really happening! I think most of our extended family doesn’t really believe us when we say we’re starting a farm, and sometimes I’m also still kind of shocked by the news. But last year was a *trip* and its time for a big ol’ change. Keep reading for the breakdown on 2022 and why we sold our beautiful home to start a farm.
Early 2022
January of 2022 brought the birth of our second daughter. A seriously chunky, seriously perfect little baby. We were loving life with 2 girls and had finally finished the endless renovations to our home (you can read about some of those here and here).
My husband works pretty hectic hours, and so I came up with a solid routine for me and the girlies during the week to keep us all busy. We went to the library, garden centers when the weather was nice, and took long walks. I was actually going on a pretty good run of major garden centers in my area when the weather warmed up since I was more passionate than ever about gardening as more than just a hobby.
We talked about having lots of land constantly. It was a main component of our 5-7 year plan, actually. Buy a plot with 10+acres, build a house, and have giant gardens and chickens for our kids to grow up with.
The day that changed it all
It was a pretty boring Wednesday, honestly. I wanted to go to a new garden center, but the weather was a little dicey and I bailed last minute. Instead, I took the girls to home depot for some gardening supplies since it was peak gardening season.
My husband was seriously injured at work around 11 that morning. He was hit with a 30ft steel beam and suffered internal bleeding and lacerations to his intestines. He drove himself to the walk in and was air lifted to a major hospital trauma center for life saving surgery. I barely got to the walk in before the helicopter took him away, and spent the better part of 4 hours unsure if he was going to be ok.
He spent 10 days in the hospital and is still not fully recovered. When I was finally able to take him home, there were several hard discussions about what our future was going to look like, and if our timeline needed to change.
Both of us agreed that waiting for “when the girls were older” or “when we had enough money to build” or, or, or, was no longer a viable option. We are not getting younger and found out exactly how fleeting life can be, so what were we *actually* waiting for?
A new chapter
We started looking at properties online almost immediately. Initially, we wanted undeveloped land to start from scratch. We pretty quickly realized that was not going to be the most economic (nor time friendly) way to get our farm going, so we switched to looking at homes with substantial land.
We cautiously looked at a few, but couldn’t really land on anything that had the right mix of checklist items. One place didn’t have much land at all, but had tons of really valuable out buildings. Another was basically a tear down, but on a beautiful 18 acres. There was a massive house that was actually in decent shape on 8 acres, but it was in the middle of nowhere. The town didn’t even have a grocery store! Ya girl needs a grocery store.
Finally, almost as a joke, I suggested we look at this tiny craftsman a few towns over on 12 acres. The house is more than 500 sq ft smaller than our current home, and was quite a bit over budget, but the land was amazing.
We were there for 5 minutes and I was sold. I shocked myself because I had such low hopes for it, but 1 step in to the back yard and it was all over. This was where we would start a farm.
Our “dream” house?
The property. Oh, man. 12 acres of quiet, park-like land. 2 ponds. Surrounded by protected land. Its on a main road, which is great for attracting visitors. The town itself is amazing with great restaurants and shopping and good schools.
But oof, the house. Its pretty small, and old. It has so much potential! There are seemingly endless projects to be done. Some necessary, some just because I am the person I am. But either way – lots of work.
The previous owners took the gorgeous front porch and walled it in… and then added a sliding glass door as the entry????? It will never make sense to me. My vision for the porch is crystal clear, though, and it will be so pretty.
Are we farmers now?
It was probably the toughest battle for a home we could have imagined, considering we were the only buyers (lol) but we finally broke their will enough to accept our offer!
Since we went under contract with them, I have acquired a mauve jumpsuit, a classic pair of muck boots, and well over 100 seed varieties to plant. I have also compiled a list of multiple breeds of chicken for their boujee rainbow eggs, and also decided we’re getting ducks. My husband spends almost all his free time looking at tractors, greenhouses, and fancy lawn mowers for his expansive lawn. My 3 year old shows me individual toys, asking if she can bring it with her to the new house. She doesn’t really get it yet.
Collectively, we’ve never been more excited or shit-our-pants nervous for the future. I think that’s an excellent sign that we’re on the right track.
Fox and the Buck Farm
This growing season is going to be our testing season. Growing a little of everything to see what we like and don’t. Building the right foundations to start a farm successfully. Getting used to a new town. Prepping the property for all kinds of passion projects and also to accept visitors to the farm. Its going to be pedal to the metal.
If you have any tips, advice, favorite crops/flowers to grow, cute farm gear, leave it in the comments! I am absorbing ALL the information. And if you’re invested in our very insane “let’s start a farm” journey, make sure you sign up for emails to hear everything first!
