Farm Owners

We closed on the farm today.

Ooooooomg.

 

This represents so much more than a real estate transaction. The person I was five years ago couldn't have done this - wouldn't have done this. I thought I was a lifetime boarder married to a guy who just wasn't cut out for farm life, and that was that.

But I've learned what feelings are and how to listen to them. That little voice in my head when I'm sitting on the tractor bush hogging that says "This is fun." The realization that shooting the shit with the old farmers at the feed store, and muttering "fucking horses" as I fix the latest thing they broke are actually enjoyable. I grew up on a hobby farm, and it turns out, that's who I still am.

I enjoy this.

I also couldn't have done this without the intense and sometimes painful process of learning what it means to allow people to get close to me, to let them help me, and most importantly, what it means to be deeply in love with a supportive partner that cares about me and the things that matter to me.

 

 

It's no coincidence that I didn't start the process of buying the farm until a couple years after the co-op began and until after I started dating Tim. I could not imagine owning a farm with my ex-husband, who once said "We can buy the farm, but I'm not even going to mow the lawn, it'd be all yours." 

(Joke's on him, the neighbor has mowed the lawn for years and plans to continue.)

Enjoying a beverage on the site of where we thought we would build our house after a long day working on the farm in March of 2024

 

 But we, together, these four ladies and Tim and I, are capable of doing so much more together than I ever could when I was my hyper-independent self. And it changes everything to have a partner who feels as much ownership of the place as I do, someone who sees me for me and loves me for me, and someone who will be shoulder-to-shoulder with me in the mud when the chips are down.

He, thankfully, loves cold weather.

Finally, it represents a lot career-wise too. Ten years ago, I was making barely more than the janitors working in IT for a county government, and I couldn't afford Connor's board without doing 8 hours of barn chores every Sunday. Over the last ten years, I've pushed myself to the very top of my industry, to leadership positions at the company that makes the software I once managed for a janitor's salary. And with a Bachelors in Equine Studies. It's definitely been some luck and some right-place-right-time over the years, but I've earned my position, and I love what I do.

Here's to the next chapter of our lives!

He makes me laugh