Our Deam of Having a Farm Coming True...

I have always loved the idea of living on a farm.  I don't know if it is because I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie or because my mom would tell us of her visits to her uncles' farms as a kid.  Maybe it was even the memories I have of the times my dad took me back to his home country in Tonga and I got a taste of that simple life.  But whatever it was--I wanted it.

On New Year's Day while we were at my in-laws I got on craigslist just to kill time, just to satisfy curiosity and I found it--a post for a 25 acre farm for only $355k.  I thought, Are you KIDDING ME!?!?  Not only was it super cheap for that many acres, it was an animal farm and included ALL THE ANIMALS!

We toured the farm.  It had chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks, geese, peacocks, goats, animal guard dogs...well over 300 animals.  The house was just a small 3 bedroom mobile home.  I didn't care.  I loved it.  David, couldn't take the smell.  It was a clean farm though.   They raised animals for sale, not for food so they had to keep everything clean because people came out there to buy pets all the time.  It seemed that the owners were hoping to turn the farm over to someone who would continue with the same business plan they had.  We only wanted to have animals that could help sustain us food wise,  not to raise for pets and sale.  The owners also didn't have too much faith in us since we didn't have a whole lot of experience on a farm.  Understandable.  So we left the farm, and my dream, back in Hubbard, Texas.  You can see the video I took of the farm by clicking HERE.

Let me just tell you, my favorite movie right now is one that I have watched over and over again on Amazon Prime called "The Biggest Little Farm".  It was an independent film, a documentary about this couple who ended up buying and building this farm because of a promise they made.  Its heartwarming, inspiring, and spiritually uplifting.  A couple of my kids could watch it everyday.  Filimone said he doesn't know what it is, but he never gets sick of it.  Every night Nifai asks, "Can we watch the farm?"

As I drove around our hometown that night I felt irritated at how close the houses all seemed to be together and the numerous headlights that blinded my vision just down main street.  I walked inside the house to find the kids lying on their beds, phones glowing in their faces, everybody was present and yet our home still seemed vacant.  We lacked something.  Life.  A hard day's work. Satisfaction that you've done something with your day.  I wanted my kids to have that.  I still do.

David and I talked about it that night.  Despite the farm smell which he insisted was making him sick, we both agreed that eventually we want to have a farm.  We want animals, a garden, a nice ranch style house with a wrap around porch and plenty of space for kids or grand-kids to play.  Hubbard, Texas is way too far.  Too far from the airport, too far from family, too far from our church and our Tongan community.  But a farm is still on my VISION BOARD for 2020!

About 3 weeks later our dog had a puppy.  We called him "Ranger" for awhile because he was the only puppy born (aka The Lone Ranger).



There was something about that new little life that brought excitement, wonder, and vitality back into our family life.  The kids were attentive, took part in the care and upkeep of this little puppy and found so much joy in watching him grow.

In fact, he grew so fast with not having siblings to compete with for food, that the kids renamed him Biggie Smalls.  He was so fat and husky! We call him Biggie for short. I felt having him in our home was the beginning of a new era.

I loved that new life so much that I thought, why not start a garden?  More life, animal life, plant life--I craved it!  I could start small by growing herbs from seeds just inside a few plastic cups.

Then transplant them into bigger pots so that if we DO move, we can easily transport them.

I also planted spinach in a makeshift greenhouse idea I got from Roots and Refuge Farm.

I transplanted the spinach too after the dogs tore up my bag when I left the top off.  

They seem to be doing okay after relocation--the spinach, not the dogs.  

With the onset of our COVID-19 pandemic people have gotten a little crazy.  One day there is a store refrigerator section full of eggs and 2 days later it is completely empty even with signs limiting "one egg carton per customer".  Ya'll know I bake.  I need my eggs.  So how can I have eggs when I need them without relying on my local grocery stores?  You got it--buy CHICKENS!  Do you see where I'm going with this?

David called from work yesterday and asked what we had done all day.  I told him that we took a drive to get out of the house before the "Stay-At-Home Order" took effect at 11:59pm.  

"Where did you go?" he asked.  

"We drove to Joshua, Texas and bought chicks!"  I announced.  

"You DID!?!?"  I could hear the excitement in his voice.

"No." I told him.

"Stop doing that to me!" he said.  I could hear how disappointed he was.  So I told him the truth,

"I'm sorry.  We WERE going to do that today but when I called to make sure they were still open and told them that we would be on our way to get some chicks, the guy told me they were sold out.  But he said they were getting more in on Thursday so we can go then."

"Okay," he said, "we'll  need to get all the stuff for the chicken coop so I can build it tomorrow when I'm off".  OMG, he was so on board it seriously thrilled me.  David actually picked out the coop he wanted to build.  

This is when I totally knew it wasn't just my dream but OUR dream that was coming true.  We found all these chicken coop plans on a DIY Chicken Coop site and this one seemed simple enough, inexpensive and mobile.

I called a friend of mine who lives on a little over a 1/2 acre of land and owns 14 chickens herself.  She gave me a good amount of helpful information and lots of encouragement.  Honestly, I've been researching raising chickens for a few years now.  I interviewed another one of my friends a few years back for the same reason.  I just didn't feel ready back then.  

It is 1:10am on Thursday.

I'm SOOOO excited to introduce another element to this lifelong dream of having a farm.  I'm even  more ecstatic that David and the kids are excited too.  The older ones are kinda like, "So we're going to have more chores and cleaning up to do?"  But the younger ones are like, "Can we each pick one?!"   With all this change occurring in our lives right now and with our family needing a little something to keep our spirits up during self-quarantine...I think this is just what we need.  We have the time, we have the desire and we have our Heavenly Father's blessing.  With that and a little faith, I think we're headed in the right direction.  Stay tuned...

By the way, I'm already planning on goats for the next addition!