live on a farm

A bizarre turn of events has altered my situation, and I am closer to living on a farm than ever. Of course, it will be a struggle to get there because my hubby would rather divorce than move, but with God’s help we are going anyway. The gang across the street is getting worse, and their confrontations with their enemies are happening right in my front yard (almost literally) and are getting more violent. My husband, as sweet and caring as he is about eveything else, seems to be oblivious to the dangers here, and doesn’t want to get our family away from here and out of this situation, even though I begged him to, and I even mentioned moving locally instead of to the country. He flatly refused… offering a divorce instead. I’m calling his bluff and getting our house ready for sale. Alone. I’m not even mentioning it to him until he asks why I’m painting and recarpeting eveything. He earns the living, while I keep house and homeschool. He says the one who earns the living is the one that gets to make ALL of the decisions in life. So, I’m playing by his rules, and I’m going back to work. My job, conveniently for the life I’m aiming for, is way out in the country in Tennessee, where my Dad lives. I’ll be bookbinding, which will provide a good living for us. I won’t have much time for the farming I want to do, but at least my children will. They so desperately want to live near their grandparents and have the land to roam and the animals to care for. It is fully worth every sacrifice I might have to make. Hopefully, DH’s threat of divorce was empty, and we can all go together.
I know this is what God wants for us, I just hope DH goes along with it.

I have always wanted to live in the country, preferably on some 100 acres or so. I want to have a farm, but not so much for the money making aspect of it. In fact, I get the feeling it might cost more than it would bring in, but that’s fine. I just want that life so badly. Yes, that includes the hard work and long hours. It would be worth it. I homeschool my boys, so I figure it would be a great education for them as well. I also hope to have my family (or at least some of them) live on the land with us. We could all help each other, and enjoy the fruits of our labor together.

I’d like to raise the typical farm animals, but with a little bit of a twist to suit me. They would be (depending on the animal) either a heritage breed or a miniature. We wouldn’t raise great herds or flocks of anything, just enough to be a self-sustaining family farm, with perhaps a little left over to sell.

I’d like miniature Jersey cows, just a few, and a lil’ Jersey bull to go with them, so I can keep the milk going and have tiny steers for beef. They’re expensive, but worth it, in my eyes. We could make our own butter, cheese, ice cream, you name it, all from grass fed cows with gentle personalities.

I’d like Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, and RI Red chickens, to raise for eggs and meat. We’d probably have a few ducks, a few geese, and a couple of turkeys. I’d like a few pigs too, probably Berkshires or Guinea hogs.

I don’t know about any others… There are lots of options, but these so far are all I have looked deeply into.

I’d like to have an orchard, growing apples, pears, peaches, and cherries. I’d like to grow strawberries, blueberries, etcetera, and grapes too, but I’m not sure what kinds. And I’d like the standard home garden veggies too, like tomatoes, cucumbers, collards, lettuce, peppers, squash, and so on.

I know it would be a lot to do alone, but with my family involved (and that’s a lot of people, since I’m one of eight children) It can be done quite well, I’m sure.

Ah well, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, the only thing standing between me and my dreams is… my own husband. He likes where we are now; on a postage stamp sized property in highly built up area where owning even a pet chicken is against the law, with Mexican Mafia neighbors who do drugs in the street. If we sold our house now, even in this rotten market, we’d have enough to buy over 50 acres of gorgeous already-running farm with a nice house and have no mortgage.