This blog was born out of necessity. 

To save a dream.

You see, my husband and I used to have a quarter of an acre with our 1960s split-level in Washington state. When we moved in it was all grass in the large backyard save an old apple tree that had seen better days and a patch of raspberries.

Slowly, starting about 12 years ago, we transformed the yard to almost half garden and in the last few years added over a dozen chickens. 

People were always shocked when they walked into the backyard or when they spied it from the kitchen window.

The house sat on a busy street – the kind of street you didn’t want your kids playing on and your guests didn’t want to linger next to after a visit. But the backyard was where we spent our time, where we puttered, where we dreamed, gardened, sat, relaxed, played, where we raised our kids, and where we built our future. A small urban farm in the making. 

Yet we had talked about moving for years. We needed to get off the busy street. Get some more quiet. We even did once. Fixed up a little, moved out, and it sat, not selling. We ended up moving back.

God knew we weren’t done with the house. Our dream hadn’t been born yet. The dream that had been in my heart for probably as long as I had been, just under the surface. We had always known we had wanted to live out a bit farther, not be in town the way we were. A bit more land, more like where I had grown up.

After we moved back to our same house four years ago a dream started to grow of moving to an old farm. Something old, with barns, and space. We even started looking. We knew it was the wrong timing, but we looked anyway. Oh, don’t ever do this unless you are looking to drive yourself mad.

It was exciting when we found a beautiful old farm with multiple outbuildings with established trees, pasture, fences, with a creek that flowed through it.

Yet, heartbreaking because it worked its way into our hearts and even though we knew it wasn’t the right timing, we could see ourselves there, raising our kids and growing old. Then another farm, a historical gem a bit farther out of town. Oh, this one still tugs at my heart. It felt like a fairy tale touring this one. A dream come true.

We took the kids to see the farms and the dream started growing in their hearts too. We told our friends and family our dream. Some started sending us farm listings.

Then after realizing that the second farm was not going to be ours as things were just not coming together, I struggled. I had to ask my friends to stop sending me real estate listings they found. It was too hard. I knew this was a dream God had placed in my heart, but that the timing was off. I didn’t understand why, but I did swear not to look anymore. I didn’t want anymore heartbreak. It sounds silly, but it really was an emotional time for me.

Then two summers ago my husband and I went for a drive in the country on our anniversary date. We drove out a bit farther in a different direction than any of our other drives had taken us. We drove right past it at first. It was that boring. But then we turned around and got out. An empty turn of the century farm house for sale. Brown, unassuming.

But my God, that land, the trees. Oh, what were we doing falling in love again? We called the agent. Why did we do that? Such a great price and 19 acres! Round three heartbreak ensued and this time I swore off looking for good. Wait, we weren’t even looking, it just came to us! But it still wasn’t the right timing. 

What we couldn’t see was that we had an amazing opportunity waiting for us just a year down the road. An opportunity that would take us to Arizona so my husband could become a pilot. We swore our next house would be on land, our forever home. Well here in Arizona we are definitely not in a home that we would say is either of those. 

That is why I said this blog was born out of necessity. A fear almost, that I would lose my dream. Get comfortable here in suburbia. Our yard is made of brick pavers and turf, oh and an HOA. So, you see, there is nothing that I have to do outside. I have never lived this way, but it sure could get easy if I let it. 

Yet when August turned to September and there were no farm fresh apples to be bought and turned into applesauce, when there was no summer garden bounty to be stored away from winter, and no more laying hens to feed my leftovers too and collect eggs from, I started to panic. I felt a little out of sorts. I knew I couldn’t live like this forever. So how was I to keep our farm dream alive while living here and loving so much about this special time in our lives? 

Well, I figured I would blog about our future homestead. What I have done with gardening, our chickens, and all the from scratch cooking and food preservation I have learned over the years. It can also be a place where I learn and share new skills that will be useful once we find that future homestead. But most of all it will be the place where I can make sure my dream grows instead of fading away. 

I hope you stay and poke around a bit. Get some inspiration and say hi.