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A Farm of My Own:  How did you get to the country?  |
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Bag Lady Diva
True Blue Farmgirl
130 Posts
Viola
Spearfish
South Dakota
USA
130 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 06 2010 : 7:09:11 PM
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I grew up in Calfornia. I joined the Army, and met my husband of 34 years. He had grown up in a small town in South Dakota. When my husband retired, I resigned from the Army and we bought a small 80 acre homestead. We leased additional land and ran sheep and cattle. We raised our sonin the country. He had his pets, of his horse, and his pet sheep. He was involved in 4-H. It was a great way to raise our son. When my husband decided to retire from ranching, I cried. I knew that I did not want to live in the city, but I knew it would have to be his decision to sell our ranch. We moved to 2 acres, but still it was close to town. So we decided to sell the 2 acres and buy more land. We purchased 10 acres, and designed and built this house 5 years ago. I have enought chickens that we get enough eggs for our use. We have fice pet sheep and 3 miniture ponies. We love this country life. We have the country life, yet we have time to garden, enjoy our yard. Our grand daughter loves to come out. We also have a miniture Astrialian Shepherd puppy, and 1 cat, named "Cat. Oh our puppy's name is "Skeetles". So how did I end up in the country. I married my husband who had a dream to own a ranch. We did and we consider ourselves very fortunate, to still be able to live in the country even if it is only 10 acres.
Quilting in the Black Hills |
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KaleidoscopeEyes
Farmgirl in Training
20 Posts
Stephanie
Amesbury
MA
20 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2010 : 4:51:47 PM
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I feel the same way as "paradiseplantation", I am being led to it by my heart. I was born in the city and I am still there currently, but I have plans to start my country life in the summer. My boyfriend is from a rural town, and he shares the same dream.  |
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5 acre Farmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
1007 Posts
~~~*Terri*~~~
WA.
USA
1007 Posts |
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shepherdgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
1008 Posts
Tracy
California
USA
1008 Posts |
Posted - Feb 22 2010 : 11:50:46 AM
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I grew up in a small town about 26 mis from where I live today. My grandparents had a ranch that I spent quite a bit of time on growing up, but there were no animals, except dogs, and an occasional cat. I loved the peace, fresh air and lots of room for a passel of cousins to run and play, but my TRUE passion for country life started the day one of my 3rd grade classmates brought a dairy cow to school for "Show-and-Tell." We all got to try our hand at milking her and I asked God right then and there to let me live on a farm when I grew up-- and here I am! I've lived on this 20+ acre farm (my husband's family's) for 20+yrs now, raised my kids and LOTS of critters, and have loved every minute of it, the good, the bad and the UGLY! I wouldn't trade this life for anything in the world!
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. ~~ George Carlin |
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gr8tfulmom
True Blue Farmgirl
143 Posts
Sarah
South Haven
MI
143 Posts |
Posted - Feb 22 2010 : 4:57:50 PM
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So many great stories ladies. It is amazing how we can all start from such different places, take different paths and wind up in the same dream :)
dig your screenname KaleidoscopeEyes!
Farmgirl sister #779
http://symbioticstitches.blogspot.com/ |
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KaleidoscopeEyes
Farmgirl in Training
20 Posts
Stephanie
Amesbury
MA
20 Posts |
Posted - Feb 23 2010 : 08:12:30 AM
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Aw thanks gr8tfulmom, I'm a fan of the Beatles and I just think Kaleidoscopes are beautiful because they remind me of patchwork and quilts. LOL.
I agree, I really loved reading everyone else's stories! |
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classygram
True Blue Farmgirl
1812 Posts
Brenda
Pleasant Hill
Mo.
USA
1812 Posts |
Posted - Feb 23 2010 : 09:57:03 AM
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I grew up just on the edge of Kansas City. City girl all the way!!! Mini Skirts and gogo boots. And back then I loved motorcycles! Won't get me on one now. Probably couldn't even get my leg over the seat! But any way I met my first husband there and he was raised on a farm. We married and had two children and we decided country life is the life we wanted for our children. When we first moved here, first morning I woke up and heard chicken and cows mooing, I looked at him and asked "where in the ---- did you move me!" We were in a new addition and I didn't even think about the animals close by. My bother-in-law would stop right out in public and yell, Brenda look, that is what they call a tractor! But I quickly grew up and could keep up with the best of them. My mother-in-law canned all the time. So I thought I'm going to do it too!!! Well a got my canner and read my instructions and preparded my veggie's and started. My gosh! By the time I was finished I decided this was not for me! I was plain tuckered out!!! I didn't know anyone else besides his family and they weren't the kind to introduce me around. So I just got out there and joined into everything I could fine. I loved the young farm womens group and that is where I started picking up alot of my crafts and today I do like using all the fresh veggie's. I may not be on a farm but I am a farmgirl in my heart. I wouldn't leave here now for anything. My two children have married and made a good life for themselves and families right here where they grew up. Why would I want to go back to the hectic city again. If there's a time I miss it, I jump in the car and go for a few hours. Then back to my slow way of life in P. Hill.
Blessings, Brenda |
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walkinwalkoutcattle
True Blue Farmgirl
1675 Posts
Megan
Paint Lick
KY
USA
1675 Posts |
Posted - Feb 23 2010 : 1:00:53 PM
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I grew up in the city. WAY in the city. The Bay Area, very close to San Francisco, California. I had a great childhood-My first word was horse. I rode my first horse at 6, and after that, I was hooked. I owned and trained many horses growing up in 3 day eventing-I was also active in my youth group until the age of 17 or so. By the time I turned 18, I wanted OUT of it ALL. I was in with bad friends, and into bad things. I wasn't making time for my horses, leasing them out, etc. etc.
Well, I moved in with my at-the-tme boyfriend, and I moved my horse out with me. We lived on a small farm (About 13 acres). I had built my horse a corral out at the place where I was living, and shortly after moving he kicked a cattle gate and broke his cannon bone in 4 different spots. The vet says there was really nothing they could do, so I had to put him down. I was devastated.
Shortly after that, I broke up with my first boyfriend and then moved to Sacramento, California, where I ended up living with boyfriend #2. Boyfriend #2 was a HORRIBLE person, with HORRIBLE motives, and abused me physically, and mentally, for 4 years. My parents finally literally "kidnapped" me, and I saw the light. I broke it off with him and moved into an apartment in Sacramento, and I swore off men for the rest of my life. Boyfriend (now ex) #2 became crazy, and I had to file a restraining order against him. At that point, I was so lonely and scared, I called up the first horse-related charity I could find and asked if they needed any help.
Thank heavens, they did. Horses were always a "safe" place for me, almost a therapy. I started volunteering at a place that helped disabled children in horse therapy. I tell you, that was more therapy for me I think than it was for them! Working with horses again made me miss the rural side of life.
So, after some real therapy, I signed up on a singles website called farmersonly.com. There, I saw the profile of this guy EVERY time I logged in. I didn't contact him at first, because I couldn't see really what he looked like. Well, finally I decided that if this darn singles website kept popping him up for me, I was just going to contact him. So I did. He was a farmer from Paint Lick, KY. (My first thought-PAINT LICK?!?! WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT?!) He farmed tobacco, and he wanted to get into cattle. We had talked a few times, passed a few emails,but, I never, in a million years, expected to move from California to KY.
Well, about a month and a half after we started talking, he decided to come out and visit. I was so nervous! When I went to go meet him at the airport, I wasn't sure which terminal he was going to be at-and I was all dressed up and I looked so cute-I was running around the airport in my heels looking for him, when all of a sudden I heard a knock on the plate glass of the airport terminal, and there he was! He'd been watching me run through the terminal the whole time!
And then I flew out to KY, and fell head over heels in love with that farmer, and that farm.
And that pretty much sealed the deal. It's been difficult at points adjusting to living WAY WAY WAY out in the middle of nowhere, but, I love it. There is no lifestyle more rewarding than this.
That's my story!
Starbucks and sushi to green fried tomatoes and corn pudding-I wouldn't change it for the world.
www.cattleandcupcakes.blogspot.com |
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Ms. Hannigan
True Blue Farmgirl
57 Posts
Shari
Middle
TN
USA
57 Posts |
Posted - Feb 27 2010 : 8:22:31 PM
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My hubby grew up a "townie" in Oregon City, OR, and I grew up in a one-stoplight town in rural ME. We ended up in a restricted lakefront subdivision in middle TN, and by most opinions we were doing well. But we wanted something different. A clothesline for starters. A garden. Less of a "bug under glass" feeling from having no trees. So, we found our home two years ago and moved to the country. We now live on the outskirts of a TINY one-stoplight town, and I feel like I can be myself again. We now homeschool our girls, raise 40 chickens, 4 rabbits, 3 cats and 2 dogs, and have a garden. Instead of sitting at PTA meetings and soccer practice, now our lives are full of 4-H and farmers' market days. We can only see our neighbors in the dead of winter, and the closest one is almost a mile away. I love our rural life, and I don't ever plan to leave!
...some women are drippin' with diamonds... some women are drippin' with pearls... look at me, lucky me, the only thing I'm drippin' with is... little girls...
Farmgirl #1158
blog: http://www.lifegetsmessy.com
website: http://www.eatlocaltn.com |
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alterationsbyemily
True Blue Farmgirl
689 Posts
Emily
Chambersburg
PA
USA
689 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2010 : 06:02:15 AM
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I grew up in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. Jerome Betis lived less than a mile from me. We were really suburb people. I went to college at SRU, even dated a dairy farmer from clarion....I thought him and his lifestyle were nuts, plus he had the stinkiest barn ever, I get sick everytime I think about it. I never graduated college and got married to my hubby rich. We bought a house in the next township over (because we couldn't afford the 500g's near my mom) we had our baby girl and lived in our cookie cutter neighbor hood. Rich worked everyday of the week at two different jobs, and I worked downtown, and bridget was in daycare. We saw each other for about 4 hours a day, and the commute was 45 min to an hour for the 8 miles i had to go. Then UPMC layed off their workers and my husband was one of them. We sold our house in two days and rich landed a job out here in York county within a few days of loosing his job. that all happened the last week in october. We closed on our house dec. 31st and moved into our little duplex on January 3rd.
I am now a mostly stay at home mom, except my ghost tours in gettysburg. I have gotten to see bridget grow, learn to make do or do without. I never figured how much we lived on credit cards in the Pittsburgh days... but man am I paying for it... for the next three years of my life.
It really was the biggest blessing ever for him to lose that job.
See my custom costumes, download free patterns, and hear some spook EVPs from Gettysburg, PA on my site, www.alterationsbyemily.com |
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Laurie Rae
Farmgirl in Training
17 Posts
Laurie
Bend
OR
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2010 : 8:37:47 PM
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At age 30 I could not dream of being anywhere else. I was raised in the country and moved to the city for college. Once that was over I could not wait to get out. I did not have animals at first but chose a modest home with acres vs the biggest house in any city. I know have horses cows rabbits chickens, barn cats a 2 corgi's and a sweet hound dog, a goat or two and my heart is warm. I work a lot but this place is my sanctuary. I would clean out any stall before going out to dinner, a movie or a shopping spree. Follow your heart it will lead you home!
While my mind is at work, my heart is back home on the farm. |
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A Farm of My Own: How did you get to the country? |
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How did you get to the country?
