Did I Ever Imagine...

I have been asked this question a few times in the last couple weeks, "Did you ever imagine that you would be a farm girl?"
The answer is no, not to this extent.
I have always been an animal lover and we have grown vegetables throughout the years but I never thought we would be where we are now. John and I always dreamed of owning a large piece of property, and I always wanted a farm house, barn, and ponds but never thought we could possibly afford to get all that we desired. For 12 years we lived in our first house which is only 1 mile from where we now reside. As our family grew our little gambrel home became smaller. I drove past this house for years and actually knew the older couple that lived here from back in my waitressing days. I use to admire their gardens which sprouted way before ours ever did, their lawn was well kept with lots of beautiful daffodils & lilac bushes. The years went by and they eventually both passed away. As I was driving by one day I saw the "for sale" sign and did a little research and the price was rather high so we did not even come down to check it out. I am not sure how much time passed but I saw a "price reduced" sign as I drove by and I immediately looked it up on line and the price was reduced significantly. I was excited and called the broker and we came to see the house and the property. It was discouraging, the place needed to be completely re-done: plumbing, electrical, sheet rock, you name it! There was no way we could afford the house and the essential renovations to make it at least livable. John was in nursing school and money was real tight so we decided to make a low ball offer and see if they would come back with a counter offer. We never received a response so we gave up and within a month or so the house had a new owner. We were distraught having to drive my the house and land daily regretting that we were not in a more financially sound situation at the time. We would always make statements to one another like well if we had the land we could..... It was frustrating and it was driving us nuts. We noticed that the current owner was only there about once a week and we started wondering if maybe he was not able to sell his other home. This went on for about one year! One day on my way to work I spontaneously decided to stop by and talk to the gentleman that currently owned this place and let him know if he ever thought about selling and the price was right we would consider. He said he had not really thought about selling it but said he'd give it some thought. He had a home that he not yet sold (as we suspected). He asked if we were to buy if we would want the house as is or finished. I said as is as I knew we could not afford the house finished and John is handy, actually he can fix anything! (we are very fortunate to be blessed with his talents) The next night he knocked at our door with a proposal and there began our journey. We had 3 months to make it happen. We listed our house, I gave it a month and courageously went and took out a bridge loan to cover both mortgages so that we would not loose this house this time around. John was still in school but the count down was on, he only had 6 months left from the time we closed on the house which was December 2006. We closed just in time for his holiday school break. He had 1 month off to get the house to a livable state. John worked 16 hour days putting up sheet rock, taping, sanding, painting, etc. With the help of my brother who went above and beyond helping us every moment he had and a few friends we made the deadline and were all moved in by the end of January. Around this time is when house sales were dropping, it was no longer a sellers market. We heated 2 homes through the winter of 2007 and I swore if I did not sell by September I was going to rent even though I knew that was the wrong thing to do. Miraculously we sold that house closing on August 21st, 2007 - I will never forget that date when the stress of owning 2 homes was relieved at last. When we bought this place we really had no idea where it would bring us. We were just happy to have a bigger house, a barn, and 93 acres. Starting last fall we started to accumulate some animals and I finally made the decision that I was going to put my schooling on hold so now I had time to focus on this place. Becoming "farmers" was never really a conscious decision it is just kind of evolving. I really wouldn't even consider us true farmers but I'd say were on our way to becoming hobby farmers. This move has forever changed out lives for the better! We can only imagine where what we will be up to in 10 years from now!