This Is How It Began

A rerun of my first post...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Beginning

Where do I start? We are not what you might call "spring chickens". Mid-life is what I hope we are, being that we are in our 50's. What started our search for a different kind of life?

Steve lived in Colorado right out of college and led a ski bum/hippie kind of lifestyle for a short time. He read Mother Earth News, was interested in alternative building, etc. I was a hippe "wanna be" in junior high but that phase passed as I went to high school. A few years back, in search of a healthier lifestyle, I attended a talk on raw foods at the local health food store. That talk was all I needed. We started to eat raw, organic fruits & veggies right away. The asthma I had lived with since I was seventeen was under control within a month. No more meds. Not for asthma or allergies. Steve could stop taking his cholesterol meds too. Amazing. One thing led to another. Reading about gardening, the environment, starting to study natural medicine is what led us on the path to a better life. We tried to find a farm in our area in Illinois, but prices were too steep. We set a limit of 2 to 4 hours away from our home to find the place we dreamed of. Southwestern Wisconsin fell into that category. We started to look online at farm property. An Amish owned farm kept coming up as a favorite. But no electricity or water was a huge drawback. Steve kept saying that it would be too much work. I kept showing him the listing. While we were looking at other properties, the realtor said she could show us the farm. It was her listing previously so we could just stop by.

I didn't get my hopes too high, but after we saw the property in person, Steve was excited. This was it. We put in our offer.
That was the fall of 2006. We closed in March of 2007. Since then we have been going up to the farm on every available weekend to work on it. Yes, it's been a sacrifice in some ways, but a dream is a dream. We know some day it will be worth the countless hours we and other family members have put into it. We look forward to the day we move in for good. Sitting in front of the woodstove, enjoying the falling snow out the picture window while we read a book. That is what I see in the future. Home sweet home...