We Bought A Farm

We bought a farm

It has been a dream of ours to move to a farm “someday.”  In fact, this was a separate dream we both shared for most of our lives.  We spent hours talking about what we wanted and what we would do with a farm one day.  We drove around looking at different areas and a few years ago started actively looking around.

But this was always just a dream, and dreams do not always come true; until they do.

Last August I saw a listing for an open house for a 24-acre farm 25 minutes from the house we lived in for 20 years.  We planned the visit into our weekend with absolutely no expectations. 

The area is truly lovely farmland with rolling hills, older farmhouses, and lots of fencing and cows.  When we drove down the gravel drive for the first time, we came around the turn and saw the house and barn for the first time I had the strong feeling this could be home. 

We toured the house and barn and walked the fields and woods, and I could so easily picture us happily living and working here.  I pictured where I would plant my garden and my peonies, where we would put the glider to watch the sunset.  The feelings were overwhelming.  I could tell my husband felt the same way but was being stoic about the whole thing so as not to get his hopes up.  We went home that day and talked about all the things we liked about the farm.

The next day we sat at the kitchen table and had a serious conversation.  I actually teared up thinking about the house and the farm and that just clinched it; we just knew we had to try to make it ours.  We called our real estate agent.

What happened next was some of the most stressful months of my life.

We put an offer on the farm which was accepted less than a week from the open house.  Then we literally only had 14 days to put our house on the market.  14 total days. 

First came purging.  My life advice to anyone thinking of moving in the next 5 years is to start cleaning out now.  When you have a big house with lots of storage you tend to fill it.  We were moving into a much smaller house and so much had to go.   I spent hours putting together donation piles for pick up, giveaways and sales on Facebook, and trying to get our kids to take things.  Not to mention the dump runs.  It’s emotionally draining and enormously hard to part with things you’ve had for so long. 

Next came the painting and staging.  We had so much to do.  My son’s room was still blue with a train I had painted on the wall 20 years ago.  I took pictures, cried a little, and then painted over it.  Purging, painting, new carpet, mulch, and quick gardening came in quick succession.  All in 14 days.  We were so busy it didn’t leave much time for feeling sad or even excited.  We just needed to get things together by the deadline.

Thankfully, our house sold within a few days, but next came the dreaded inspections.  Long story short, our house failed the well inspection, and the farm failed the septic inspection.  If I thought getting the house ready to sell was stressful, I didn’t know stress.  There are so many moving parts when you sell and buy a house at the same time – I do not recommend.  Also, toss in a weeklong jury trial for me and Tim’s mom passing and we had ourselves an insane, roller-coaster, emotional October.  I went to the signing for the sale of my house so I could meet the people who would be living where I raised my children.  They were lovely and it made me so happy to hear they loved my garden and planned on keeping it.

Moving day came fast and I was still throwing things in boxes.  Since we were moving close by, we must have taken at least 10 carloads, plus a family/friend caravan prior to the move, but we still filled two trucks.  Clearly, despite feeling like I purged successfully, it was lacking.  Good thing we had a big, empty barn, which is not so empty anymore!

The night after the moving trucks finally left and we were able to take a breath; Tim and I stood on our new front porch and looked out over the 24 acres we now owned and felt such happiness and peace.

Now we are planning and learning.  We are plotting out the vegetable garden and setting up my apiary for bee hives.  I am pricing wildflower seeds and gravel deliveries.  I learned how to drive a tractor recently and have been pulling down the overgrown vines.

Toby leading the way into our back field.

I try to walk the property with Toby, my cat, as often as I can. 

And we are both so happy and content as we move into our next adventure.

Dreams do come true if you know when to take the leap.