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A Farm of My Own:  How did you get started?  |
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sqrl
True Blue Farmgirl
605 Posts
Melissa
Northern California
USA
605 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 30 2005 : 7:38:58 PM
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Stories mean so much to me. I would love to hear how you gals got started farming or gardening, however you want to call it. My husband and I are still in school and we have a tiny piece of land that we grow the heck out of. And I'm wondering how you got to where you are, how did you find your land? How long did you look for your home before you found it? All that kind of stuff.
Blessed Be
www.sqrlbee.com |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Jun 30 2005 : 9:23:09 PM
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I wanted to be a farmer all my life even as a little girl. My grandparents were retired farmers (Jersey Dairy in CAlif) and always had animals and a big garden and I learned everything I love from them...my grandma all the homey handy stuff and gardening and my grandpa loved animals.
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
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Mollie
True Blue Farmgirl
88 Posts
88 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 06:55:00 AM
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| I'm a product of the "passalong" generation of gardeners. From my earliest memories, my family NEVER went to anyone's house for a visit whether a neighbor, friend or relative without coming home with several "passalong" flower plants wrapped up in newspaper. I still do this today, I love spreading my flowers around. It rooted gardening in me forever. I always take tomatos, beans and especially squash (which is hard to get rid of) to all my neighbors. I kept my little trowel and newspapers/string by the door so I am prepared. Mollie |
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sqrl
True Blue Farmgirl
605 Posts
Melissa
Northern California
USA
605 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 08:22:32 AM
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Oh I love this. Thank you these stories are wonderful. So inspiring.
Blessed Be
www.sqrlbee.com |
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atwell
True Blue Farmgirl
88 Posts
susan
Laporte
IN
USA
88 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 08:54:38 AM
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farm girls....
this may sound strange but it was a COOKBOOK that got me fantasizing about farming and wishing I had grown up on a farm!!
It's called "The Farmhouse Cookbook" by Susan Herrmann Loomis . "A cooks 2 year odyssey through the small farms, ranches, dairies,vineyards and orchards of America,with 300 fresh recipies fresh from their kitchens." I bought it back in 92 on an outing to michigan to a (what else?) quilt show. Its great because she tells stories about the families that own these places and you feel like you would like to stop by yourself...just to say hi and purchase some produce..or cheese or jam.the ISBN # IS 0-89480-772-2 FOR THE PAPERBACK.This woman had the Farmgirl sense way back too. we need to let her know about our extended Farm-sisterhood!!!!
susan aka schnoobie aka tawanda
FatQuarterQuiltFarm
Long Arm Machine
Quilting ~and~
Fabric Flea Market |
Edited by - atwell on Jul 01 2005 08:57:07 AM |
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atwell
True Blue Farmgirl
88 Posts
susan
Laporte
IN
USA
88 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 09:15:47 AM
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sqrl.......
I just love your website!! very personal and well done!You live in a gorgeous part of the country! I too hope to have something similiar within the next year. I however do not posess the knowledge nor skill to execute such a thing. My fiance has assured me that it can be done. I do have my domain name registered for 5 years sooooooo, thats a start!!Thanks for the inspiration!
Happy summer!!!!
Susan aka schnoobie aka tawanda
FatQuarterQuiltFarm
Long Arm Machine
Quilting ~and~
Fabric Flea Market |
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greyghost
True Blue Farmgirl
650 Posts
Lynn
Summerville
Georgia
USA
650 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 10:26:26 AM
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My parents are not gardeners. My Mom could care less about the outdoors and my Dad has the blackest thumb you ever saw. But farm dreams have always been good dreams. As a girl I sometimes wished I could spend a summer at Aunt Shirley and Uncle Mark's farm - they have acres and acres of land, raise cattle and farm soybeans and corn in Illinois. And I love to hear how my grandma grew up on the farm (she and grandpa were both farmkids, got married, and moved in town - couldn't get away from farm life fast enough!)
Maybe it's in my blood somewhere - but I love gardening, love putting things in the ground and watching them sprout and grow big. There's such a pride and joy in that. And I just like hard work. I do graphic design from home, but it never feels like "work." I'd rather be making bread or hoeing weeds - then I feel like I got some work done.
Canning is something my husband and I tried out once - we'll do it again (maybe next year)- we loved it.We had 27 Roma tomato plants and more tomatoes than we knew what to do with (we don't have the heart to thin things - we just find another space for the extra sprouts) I think he and I both long for life to be simpler, even if the work is harder. It's just more rewarding.
And simple things like opening a can of tomato sauce we made, from tomatoes we grew, brings a smile every time. |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 11:14:59 AM
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This may sound strange but it was a little asparagus fern and a stone garden nome that cast a spell on me almost 40 years ago... I had always prefered the outdoors to indoors, nature to man made... Green was my favorite color. I made my own little garden of edens on my parent little suburban lot and very 60's ranch home. Gardening was in my DNA as sure as the sunshine I craved. I sprung from a long line of gardeners, farmers, and people of the land. My father put in a substancial vegetable garden in our back yard and did it with the precision of the civil engineer he was. We had corn, tomatoes as tall as a windmill, onions, beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. He took me to the hardware store one spring morning, gave me a dollar or two and said I could buy any seeds I wanted to plant in his garden! I did. Zinnias, rose moss, marigolds, and pumpkins, lotsa pumpkins. I was hooked. I also bought a little asparagus fern that I moved around the yard in various locals to suit my fancy. I kept it in an old stewpot. For my 11th birthday my mother bought me a green painted stone garden nome, that sat on a mushroom. He moved with the fern. My parents still have that nome, although most of the face is gone. I told them to keep it safe for me, in their backyard, and that someday I will take it home with me. It just seems right the nome should be in that first garden, with my beloved parents, where it all started.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 11:44:54 AM
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I have never wanted to live in a big city. I live in a small city, and it is too big! Since I was four or five, I felt true joy on a farm. My grandparents had a dairy farm in Iowa, and the best memories of my life are the times I spent there, and they always put me to work. I milked, fed pigs, helped load bales into the hay mow, picked garden veggies. I hated getting in the car to return home. I was up when I heard milk cans making noise in the barn (5 am) and did not set foot in the farmhouse all day.
So one day, I would love to stand in the farmyard and listen again to the breeze over midwestern farm fields. I would be ready to take the good with the bad, because I know it is a heck of a lot harder than my dream pictures it. That is why so many of our parents could not get away fast enough when they were young.
For now I garden, quilt, try to keep life simple, and look up at the trees and away from the pavement. But that farm in Iowa calls to me and has never stopped in fifty years.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
Edited by - jpbluesky on Jul 01 2005 11:46:19 AM |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 12:12:19 PM
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I hope you get to go back to that Iowa farm JP...Sounds like a beautiful place.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 1:47:12 PM
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Thank you Meadowlark! And I loved your gnome story - I think you are right, it is living where it belongs for now.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
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sqrl
True Blue Farmgirl
605 Posts
Melissa
Northern California
USA
605 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 3:24:01 PM
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meadowlark I love your Gnome story, so magicala and special. Everyone stories create such fun picutres in my head. I would love to collectthem all in a book alonlg with pictures. Susan ( atwell) If you have any questions regarding websites let me know, my husbands a complete genius when it comes to that stuff. The webside is changing as we speak, so check it again in a little while. It will have a fresh face and new topics, I'm going to post all the farmgirl mail art so all can see.
Thanks for your stories,I love them, keep 'em comin'!
Blessed Be
www.sqrlbee.com |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 3:44:18 PM
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I should take a pic of my gnome and use it for mailart, He is very rough and seasoned because he has been out in the prairie elements since 1967! But he has spirit. He has always wanted to travel. Now I am sounding a little strange...YIKES!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
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therusticcottage
True Blue Farmgirl
4439 Posts
Kay
Vancouver
WA
USA
4439 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 5:10:05 PM
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Jp -- you sound just like me. I moved to Washington 20 years ago from IL. Born and raised in a small farming community of 3200 people. I had never been west of the Mississippi (except to go to Missouri) until I came out here in 1985. I lived in Vancouver, pop over 100,000, until we moved out here in March of this year. But my heart is in Illinois. I would move back there in a heartbeat. But my husband is a born and bred Northwesterner and until I can convince him that IL is the place to be we'll stay here.
I go home on vacation every summer and don't want to come back. I get strength from the flat land and the corn fields. I love listening to the wind rustling through the tall green stalks of corn.
But at least I'm out of the city, back in a small town, and on property with room to spread out. I'm thankful for that and grateful to be where I am at this time.
Kay
North Clark County Farmgirls |
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pegC
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Peggi
New Jersey
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 6:13:22 PM
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sqrl,
Threw together my first garden as a newly married woman, only home on weekends from my traveling job. That garden made me feel so peaceful, so hopeful. I wish I could explain the dirt under my finger nails, the rain-fresh smell of warm earth, the peace and solitude and time to just be after rushing around all week catching flights here and there for a job I was good at but had no heart for.
I guess even this has roots. My parents had "container gardens". We grew up in apartments, but our porch would always be cramped come spring and summer with plants -mostly tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, carrots. I loved that green smell, right there, on a concrete balcony overlooking a humming metal generator, the concrete stairs to the building, the other white brick apartment buildings - I guess it was that lack of color all aroudn that made those plants so beautiful and special.
Now, I'm no pro. Got a 11x11 foot garden that grows enough to eat fresh salad everyday, can up tomatoes for winter, make lots of zucchini anything. I start almost all from seeds. I love seeds. I love to hold them, check their progress (is it possible to hover over seeds).
Oops. Gotta go...kids.
Jersey Farm Girl in Training |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2005 : 8:39:28 PM
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Kay, yep, you feel the same way I do, alright. I knew exactly what you meant when you wrote about getting strength from the flatland.
Once in 1974 I drove home to Illinois alone. I was single and young and had my dog with me. Even then I was living in Florida. When I got into Illinois, I stopped at a filling station in the middle of nowhere, and got out, looked out over the land and just stood in the wind. My skirt blew against my legs, and my whole scalp cooled off from the breeze in my hair. I just felt like somewhere, maybe in 1874, I had stood just like that, against a wagon. It was the strongest feeling that swept over me. That is what seeing for miles, and smelling farmland does to me.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
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LJRphoto
True Blue Farmgirl
760 Posts
Laura
Hickory Corners
MI
USA
760 Posts |
Posted - Jul 13 2005 : 12:41:13 AM
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| My mother always did some flower gardening when I was a kid. I remember one summer that we had strawberry plants. I loved going out and picking them just to eat as I picked. There was a fairly large pond behind our house and a great big snapping turtle found it's way up the hill into our little strawberry patch and ate so many strawberries that he couldn't get back into his shell. The cats tormented it until it was able to make it's way back to the pond. I really got hooked at the first home I owned. It was a house built right at the beginning of the Great Depression and the yard was grown over with neglected grape vines (the little curlies were still on the electric line to the house when we moved out several years later). There was what I was told was a "transparent" apple tree (an heirloom variety?) and a half dead pear tree that I didn't have the heart to cut down because even though the trunk was completely rotted out it kept on producing it's heart out with the tastiest pears I'd ever had before or since. The ground was so soft and fertile that gardening was easy and the results were really rewarding. I got many, many starts from my sister and my mother who were both avid gardners by that time and filled my flower beds. I think it was the perfect place to get hooked because it was so easy, so in subsequent homes where the ground was harder and I had to work harder for the results I found that it was worth it because I already knew what was possible. |
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citygoatlady
True Blue Farmgirl
82 Posts
82 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 01:32:35 AM
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We didn't live on a farm and my parents wouldn't allow pets. But the few times we visited the two families we knew who lived in the country were so memorable and I longed for living on a farm myself. My sister and I always pestered our family to "buy land" which was really cheap in those days, but no luck.
When I was 19 and I left home I headed straight for various farms which I could visit and stay on, and I did this many times over the years. I still live in the city, but I farm here, with chickens, dairy goats and other assorted animals, and a garden which some years is mostly weeds.
One thing that is different about the farm lives I lived among, vs. mine, is that teamwork is essential to a successful operation. But my farm is my own, and until this year, my husband would barely pitch in. That also made the kids resistant to pitching in. And, not being in a community of farm neighbors or farm relatives, it's a lot of work for just one person. That's why I rarely succeed in doing the animals plus the garden.
Last summer I decided to give up entirely (after 13 years of work and buiding) because I felt so isolated and my husband and family are so uninterested. I gave away the goats, hay, and all, and was going to mow down the garden.
Then things changed. This year I built a goat barn for a family just a mile away, and they are trading back doing my garden - so the vegs are doing great! I didn't like being without the goats and got just one milker and two babies. Then a few months ago milk customers started appearing and this makes it so rewarding! (My family is unenthusiastic about the milk).
Now things are falling into my lap about farming. I'm giving talks on Urban Homesteading, going to schools with the goats, and enjoying my customers, and enjoying having another urban farm family down the street. I'm really revved up. A local tv station is about to do 10 minutes on my farming activities. Then there was a fracas about someone else in my burb getting chickens, and I decided it's time for me to come out of the closet and get this kind of thing really public. Your neighbor's opinion that it is "low class" is a bunch of malarky. You can't determine their hobbies, and raising food is protected by a lot of ordinances around here. And, I'm trying to set up a network of other farmers in town, as I give my talks...
Find local raw milk on www.localharvest.com. "If you complain about farmers, don't do it with your mouth full." |
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sqrl
True Blue Farmgirl
605 Posts
Melissa
Northern California
USA
605 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 08:26:36 AM
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Citygoatlady, Wonderful story. I can't imagine the city you live in. All the citys I've lived in couldn't house goats. I love it, I'm happy you are back doing this and wish your family cared more.You're meant to be doing this because when you gave up life said" oh no you don't" and you listened and got right back up and started again. Wonderful good for you!
LJRphoto, I just love over grown gardens ya know they stay thats where the little people live. That you should always keep at least a small courner of your yard over grown for fairies and the like. I could just picture this house and it's magical pear tree. I felt like I was standing there by that house looking around at what you were describing. Thanks.
Blessed Be
www.sqrlbee.com |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Jul 16 2005 : 09:27:23 AM
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citygoatlady,
I love your tag line!!!!!!!! "If you complain about farmers, don't do it with your mouth full" HOW TRUE!!
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
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Lazycreek
Farmgirl in Training
39 Posts
Charlee
Mt Ida
AR
USA
39 Posts |
Posted - Jul 22 2005 : 10:22:14 AM
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I read an article in Money Magazine that the next real estate boom would be retirement property. As the Baby Boomers got rid of the McMansions once the kids were gone, they would go back to some of their Hippie roots. I told Dh that we needed to buy our retirement place while we still could afford it. He laughed! My family was poor and we always had a huge garden and chickens and pigs and lived on acreage. Dh is a city boy from San Francisco.
A few months later, we were scheduled to go to Sante Fe on vacation, but came down with a horrid stomach flu. With only a couple of days left to do something, we got in the van with 3 kids and 2 dogs and headed NE to Arkansas. Stopped at the Queen Willamena Inn, which just happened to have had a cancellation that day. Over breakfast was reading the real estate ads and talked Dh into going and looking at 2 places advertised. We signed a contract on the 2nd place (12.75 acres) before we left that day. Got home and had a nervous breakdown practically, because we could not afford the place. We lived paycheck to paycheck and had no savings. After a week of trying to look at the reality, we just could not seem to call the realtor and tell them we couldn't do the deal-----we loved this place so much and wanted it so much. We borrowed on credit cards for money down. We borrowed from relatives what we could. We downsized our home. Drove old cars. Bought clothing from resale shops. I can't begin to tell you what all we sacrificed to pay for this place, but we bought it and got it paid for and even put in a well and electric and found an old travel trailer to put there. We spent every free moment driving up and being on our place.
In 2002, Dh was laid off from his job and we just sold everything and moved to our place. We make the comment all the time that going ahead and figuring out how to buy this place was absolutely the best decision we have ever made. We came so close to not doing it because of the money. We have spent the last 3 years building our own house together and our workshop/studio----they still are not finished, but livable. We got the garden in this year and fruit trees and bushes were planted last year. We are just finishing the chicken coop and our chicks arrive next week. I nurse in the next large town for our income and Dh does most of the work around here.
Charlee
Believe in the power of your dreams |
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hapyhrt
True Blue Farmgirl
129 Posts
USA
129 Posts |
Posted - Aug 06 2005 : 05:46:45 AM
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I love reading these stories, it's so heartwarming to find others who feel like I always have about farming and country life! Thank you for sharing!
Here's my story: I grew up in what used to be a very rural area. Dad had grown up on a country farm that his father purchased shortly after coming to America from Poland. It was a hard life for Dad and his family, especially after his mother passed away. Dad was only 3 years old and the youngest of 4 living children at that time, having lost 2 brothers shortly after their births. My Aunt (the only girl) took over raising Dad and brothers, she kept the house, made the meals and had to grow up quickly to care for the family.
Dad always loved the country life but didn't want to be beholden to the whims of mother nature. He had seen the years of crop failures and hardship of growing up on the farm. When he left the farm he moved to a small nearby city. There he found employment and bagn to save for his own "Ponderosa" as he liked to call it. After marrying Mom they moved to a house outside the city limits. Dad quickly built on a large garage, back patio and put in big gardens. He planted fruit trees and dug out a pond for us kids to skate on in winter! It was an ideal place to grow up. Sunshine, green grass under our feet, trees aplenty and next door was a wonderful dairy farm with many places to explore! I loved drifting off to sleep with the sound or raindrops on the roof and in summer the lonely wail of a distant train on the old railroad tracks in the next township over. Oh how I longed to live on a farm (of course my dreams had little to do with the actual hard work of farm chores, etc. lol). One summer night as Dad and I sat outside gazing up at the stars with full hearts of thankfulness for the good life we had. I told Dad how I wanted to live on a farm and have cows, chickens, etc. to care for. He took another puff of his pipe and looked at me with love in his eyes. It was then he told me softly, "honey, living on a farm is not as easy as it seems in books or tv shows. It's a lot of very hard work. It takes a special person to live a geniune farmers life of long hours under the hot sun, worrying about weather,crops, animal care and things like milk prices, etc. Farming is a good way of life if it's in your heart to work the land and be strong enough to put up with whatever comes your way." He continued on to say that he respected my dreams but that the next best thing to living on a farm was to live in the country- grow a large garden which he did- put up tomatoes, pickles, etc. and live with a heart full of gratitude for having the best of both worlds. He gave credit to those with a strong will and heart to live and work on the family farm. They were seen as special people indeed. His Sister married a dairy farmer and moved only 1 mile down the road from the famiy homestead. They continued to farm for most of their married life until age set in along with sickness. Auntie thought nothing of going out back to kill a chicken and roast it for Sunday dinner while we were visiting. She and my Uncle butchered their own meat, made blood sausage and head cheese- things that I had never thought or heard of before and wasn't sure about eating. It was a different life on that farm from our country life on the "Ponderosa" and I soon realized that the country life either living or farming it was the only place I wanted to be!
Today hubby and I live on a small acre of land in a tiny ranch home not far from where I grew up. We've planted fruit trees, along with maples, oaks, cedars and put in flower/vegetable gardens. Our home is located next to an old farm that recently housed work horses and let me have the experience of raising an blind, orphaned foal from birth after it's mother died shortly after giving birth. I spent enough time working at the farm to know that Dad was right, it does take a special type of person to be a farmer. I'm more content with sitting on the porch quilting, caring for my flower gardens and just sitting quietly looking up at the twinkling stars above on a peaceful summers night!
Thank you Dad (who passed away much too young) for giving me my love of country living and wonderful sense of awe and appreciation for anyone who works the soil and feeds America. God Bless Our Farmers and Good ol' country people alike!
"Think HAPPY Thoughts...any others aren't worth your time!" Ü |
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Barn Goddess
Farmgirl in Training
29 Posts
Mary Jane
Henry
Virginia
USA
29 Posts |
Posted - Aug 06 2005 : 06:56:07 AM
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What wonderful stories. My husband and I spent our entire lives in a large city. I always wanted land so that I could have all the animals I wanted. It took me two years to find our 35 acre farm. We moved May, 2003 when he retired. We rescue cats and have goats, sheep and a donkey as well. My veggie garden improves each year. It has been quite an experience learning how to take care of a farm and I love every minute of it. Our city friends say that the theme song from the old TV sitcom Green Acres goes through their heads when they think about us on the farm. I think I'm living in heaven on earth.
Mary Jane |
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BuckBellHill
Farmgirl in Training
32 Posts
Fern
Belfast
Tennessee
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - Aug 06 2005 : 07:50:56 AM
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As a journalism teacher, I try to convince my students that "regular" people have the most inspiring stories. No celebrities. Nothing dirty or sensational (except real dirt and the sensations it conjuries up!) They rarely believe me. This thread is proof that I'm right!
For those of you who grew up in the south, you know it's a bit sacriligious to leave. My parents packed up three little girls and moved to California where we became the black sheep of the southern clan. Every summer we were shipped off to Tennessee to visit the grandparents and cousins. Ahhh, farm life and actual grass and trees and no cement. I never longed to live on a farm though. I thought all those country people were backward and uncultured; they teach you that in California ya know. But, by the time my sisters and I graduated high school, we had had enough of traffic and smog. One at a time, we migrated back to Tennessee where we were born. I still didn't want to live in the country; Nashville was as country as I could get for a long time. But, school and work took me to Alaska for five years, then South Africa for several years and lo and behold, I couldn't imagine living the city life ever again. Life has come full circle by divine plan I think. I'm still not a farmer, just a farm girl for now, but I'm working on it with all your help. I do actually cry some mornings on the porch when I'm surrounded by 45 acres of my own, especially when I think about all the truly suffering people I've met. I now feel like I'm obligated to use the farm to grow and give back. Owning my grandfather's homeplace is a blessed responsibility. Across the road is a cemetery that is cherished by its board so it's always decorated and people drive in and out to visit their loved ones. I feel like I watch over them and they watch over me. There's so much regional history buried right across the street. I have a pond and a stream and sometimes I just feel like I'm undeserving, but I get over that quickly! This website has given me new life because sometimes I feel like no one understands how emotional it is to own the land and watch things grow. Thanks for all these great personal stories.
Fern of Buck Bell Hill |
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Linda
Farmgirl in Training
32 Posts
Linda
Swanton
MD
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - Aug 06 2005 : 12:16:32 PM
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I loved your stories. I think it's incredible how so many of us have been pulled back to where we started from - or at least some part of that. I have always felt the pull of the earth and the need to have quiet space away from the hectic normal pace that others seem to thrive on. In my 20s and 30s, I was too busy trying to survive and the jobs were where the hectic pace was. But now that I am in my 50s, I know that the country place is not far away. And either are those dreams of serenity and getting back to where you came from. We have made where we are as close to simple life as possible, and when we move to our 10 acres in the mountains, then we will be back home. Just knowing that it is coming closer is satisfying enough for now. It's also comforting to hear other's stories. Thank you.
Linda |
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TiaLD77
Farmgirl in Training
27 Posts
Tia
Punxsutawney
PA
USA
27 Posts |
Posted - Aug 10 2005 : 08:43:17 AM
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Farming & Flowers have been in my family going back to my grand Parents, My Grand father would take Pictures of his flowers even though they only came out in Black & white. My Great Grand father always had a Garden my Mother tells me & he would make Gifts of his excess to the other folks in the area....Unfortunatly no one would eat it because it was rumored his used the compost out of his out house ;-) Growing up we had a farm we always had a garden, Chickens, Cows & Pigs. Dad became a full time Truck Driver & the farm Slowly dwindeld to a stop Now mom only has cats & A dog. After High school I went to work instead of college & moved in with My Fiance in a 2nd story apartment...I had always though living in town would be convient by the end of 2 years I had a nervous breakdown. My engagement dissolved & I found a first floor apartment with a yard & flower beds I could do what ever I wanted with. Morning Glories, Blue salvia, Purple Clown flowers Pansies Etc started coming out my ears I was at Peace. 2 years after that My Fiance' & I had patched things up but Our finances had gone to Greatgranddads Out house. ;-) We moved in with my parents. 5 years with my parents flew By, I thank them for all they did & sacrificed for us while we were there, But once you have lived on your own there truly is no going back....I started House Hunting & applying for loans after another year we found our paradise. 1.75 acres on the Back side of a small town we are Bordered by woods & a creek that ocasionally turns into a lake with heavy rains. this year we got a small garden in along with 2 Blueberry Bushes & 3 apple trees. The grape vines have finally arived & will go where the garden is now. Next year I plan on adding Black Berry bushes, plum trees, pear trees & maybe some cherries a raised bed garden & I hope to expand my herb garden, wich is now confined to pots. I am also hoping to convince my Fiance that Chickens would be good too!
Why not go out on a limb? That is where the Fruit is! |
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A Farm of My Own: How did you get started? |
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How did you get started?
