I Can't Believe We Did This
Two months ago while on vacation, my husband happened to show me a property just south of our beloved town of Nolensville. It was beautiful so I agreed to put vacation on pause and drive 3 hours back home to check it out. When we returned that night to our family vacation we agreed to make an offer. Here we are 8 weeks later. We sold our house in the suburbs and moved out to a 20 acre mini farm. New schools, new neighbors, and in a lot of ways, a new way of life. To put this in perspective, we used to live on .19 acres and we had a LAWN SERVICE! It sounds ridiculous to me now to read that, but with two corporate America careers and four kiddos, convenience was a tool for survival. Do you know what is convenient about living way out in the country? Nothing. Literally, nothing.
We've been married for 14 years and although I knew that this guy was quirky, I would not have imagined that I'd be moving our family out to a mini farm complete with chickens and livestock. I don't remember anything in our vows about "in cities or in the country" but I digress. The bright side for this city girl is that I'm learning to love this beautiful place more and more each day. The kids have started pitching in with farm chores and with no other kids nearby, they've been forced to play together.... a lot. I'm watching their relationships grow right in front of my eyes, and it is beautiful. Our hustle bustle life in the suburbs gave them opportunities to rush out the door with friends the minute they got off the bus. Here, they're forced to play board games, explore the property together, and spend time getting to know one another. I think I'm convinced.
There is so much work to be done. We discovered an old rusty barbed wire fence that the previous owners decided not to remove, but rather to just bulldoze into the dirt for us. How thoughtful. :) And if poison ivy were a money crop, we would be very wealthy farmers. The plan now is to rebuild our run-in barn, tear down old fencing and replace it with stronger fence so that we can get goats next spring. Did you know that goats eat poison ivy?! They're not only adorable, but also incredibly useful.
Lots of plans ahead. I am going to need to be reminded that this is a marathon and not a sprint. I may also need someone to build a grocery store less than 30 minutes away.
