Whew! I bet you all thought I dropped off the face of the earth, didn't you? No such luck!
We have undergone some major, life altering changes here at the farm so, out of necessity, I've been laying a little low for a while. None of the changes were bad - the adventure just changed course slightly.
First, I had a baby! Oh yeah, life has changed a LOT this year!
Second, I finally admitted and accepted that my time and resources were spread too thin. This was true before the baby, but became glaringly undeniable after the baby came home. They say "everything" changes when babies are born. Sometimes what changes is not the situation itself so much as your perspective. In an effort to correct this, we made the decision to downsize and limit ourselves to only maintaining the livestock we are able to keep at our residence. This meant we had to sell our goat herd and our horses, as both were housed at different properties (the horses were more than 20 minutes away!). I admit there were some very tearful goodbyes, but after it was all done and we had time to reflect on the decision from the viewpoint of hindsight, we still feel that we did what was best. If we are ever able to purchase a home with more land, we hope to add these back to our farm again, but for now we feel we have made the best decision for our family.
Aside from the obvious joy of having the most perfect baby ever enter our lives, the changes our farm has undergone will bring some new benefits. By no longer spreading myself all over the countryside (in some ways quite literally), I will be able to focus on some things I never would have been able to accomplish otherwise. I have some goals and dreams for our little in-town-homestead that I kept pushing further back on my to-do list. Now I will actually be able to take steps toward acheiving those goals, but I am going to keep them a secret just a little longer because we have not decided which direction to go in just yet. You are, however, invited to follow us on our adventure as things begin to move forward.
PS - I will give you a hint of one thing coming in September - we will be attending the Family Safety and Preparedness Fair at the World's Fair Park in Knoxville on Saturday, September 26th. We hope to see you there!
We have undergone some major, life altering changes here at the farm so, out of necessity, I've been laying a little low for a while. None of the changes were bad - the adventure just changed course slightly.
First, I had a baby! Oh yeah, life has changed a LOT this year!
Second, I finally admitted and accepted that my time and resources were spread too thin. This was true before the baby, but became glaringly undeniable after the baby came home. They say "everything" changes when babies are born. Sometimes what changes is not the situation itself so much as your perspective. In an effort to correct this, we made the decision to downsize and limit ourselves to only maintaining the livestock we are able to keep at our residence. This meant we had to sell our goat herd and our horses, as both were housed at different properties (the horses were more than 20 minutes away!). I admit there were some very tearful goodbyes, but after it was all done and we had time to reflect on the decision from the viewpoint of hindsight, we still feel that we did what was best. If we are ever able to purchase a home with more land, we hope to add these back to our farm again, but for now we feel we have made the best decision for our family.
Aside from the obvious joy of having the most perfect baby ever enter our lives, the changes our farm has undergone will bring some new benefits. By no longer spreading myself all over the countryside (in some ways quite literally), I will be able to focus on some things I never would have been able to accomplish otherwise. I have some goals and dreams for our little in-town-homestead that I kept pushing further back on my to-do list. Now I will actually be able to take steps toward acheiving those goals, but I am going to keep them a secret just a little longer because we have not decided which direction to go in just yet. You are, however, invited to follow us on our adventure as things begin to move forward.
PS - I will give you a hint of one thing coming in September - we will be attending the Family Safety and Preparedness Fair at the World's Fair Park in Knoxville on Saturday, September 26th. We hope to see you there!
