Farm visit

This evening we had a farm visit.

These folks wanted to come and bring their grandson who had never seen an animal being milked. Plus they wanted to introduce him to the family with eleven children.

This visit was particularly edifying for us because this couple owned the property before we did, we bought from them. When we bought this house a few weeks shy of five years ago there was a solid house, a garage and a storage shed. that is it. No barn, no dairy, no fences. A house and ten acres.

I was so nervous and self-conscious about our plans that we didn't even tell them that we planned to turn the property into a farm.

We started right away, with a small three-sided barn and pen for our first two goats. That was in place within two and a half months after we moved in. Slowly but surely we added to the size of the pasture area as we could afford fencing and as the number of goats grew.

Then last summer, just about a year ago right now, Tim lost his job. We had a small slush fund to invest and decided that it was time to take the leap and start the dairy. Knowing that the man that we bought the property from was a contractor, and having enjoyed the quality of his work in our deck, we called them and asked them to come over. They came and visited. They were very nice but couldn't have helped but be shocked at how kid-worn the house was! They marveled at how at home we seemed in the country, for a family of anxious uneducated city folk moving to the sticks.

They took the job and we worked together building the barn into a dairy (you can see a few pictures of it at the website). Now they come and visit not infrequently and each time it is just a delight. This visit we chatted about the changes that the property had seen, about the differences that they saw in us and our children for having moved to the country.

We all agreed that God has been very, very good to us.

Amen.