So about two years ago we decided to start looking for land. I had joked for a while that I wish we had about a hundred acres of land hidden in the woods somewhere, just in case things ever got too crazy, that all of our friends and family could move to. At that time, we had a lake house that we rarely went to except for upkeep. My husband’s big idea was to move closer to the lake and be somewhere in between the lake and our work so that we could perhaps go to the lake more often. The more we looked and talked about the plan, the more we decided that at pushing 60 it would be too big of a task to do all the work ourselves, clearing land etc. like we had done before when we built our previous house. So we decided to look for existing houses that were somewhat close to our ideal home. Mostly we just wanted room for a few cows, chickens, and pigs, and maybe a pond. Of course, to have this type of property you need to be out of the city. The more we looked at properties to fulfill this plan, the more we realized we didn’t particularly want to travel down some of these little back dirt roads every day to and from work. But we persisted and continued to look. I would write down lists of addresses and we would go off on the weekend looking to find them. As I continued looking on the internet I kept going back to one particular house. The land itself seemed perfect, fenced, small pond, ready to move in with no work needed. BUT…the house was bigger than we needed and was above our price range. The more I looked elsewhere, the more I kept going back to this one.
Fast forward a few weeks. My friend and ex-employee came by the daycare to visit. My husband was there also, and he asked if I had told her about the house and did she know where it was. It turned out to be the adjacent property to hers!
Of course I was excited, and we had to go tour it. Well, you can guess, we bought the house. My husband laughs and says that first time looking he couldn’t even tell you anything about the house because he was too busy looking at everything outside. The fact is, though, that he has pretty much never told me no to anything I ever wanted. He works miracles with our finances, so after juggling, selling, and combining our budget didn’t even change. Despite it being a bigger house than we needed, everything else seemed great. It had a shop, but we added another building as the barn. It had a pond. But when I told my husband a “stock” pond, like for the animals, he thought I said “stocked” pond. So, we made a bigger stocked pond to fish in.
As he found a job to drive the school bus closer to home, he found out that the route he was to drive actually turned around in our driveway. We felt then that it was meant to be, God’s plan, for us to be where He wanted us to be. Soon after moving in, both of our moms ended up wanting and needing to move in with us for us to help care for them. So, what seemed like a house too big for us ended up being perfect.
Fast forward two years. We now have 5 dogs, 2 cats, 18 cows, 10 chickens, 3 pigs, and 2 mothers lol. This “city” girl is learning how to farm. I am still working full time. Life is a challenge. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
Keep dreaming. What seems like a crazy thought or dream just might be God’s plan all along.
