The way we came to the point of actually owning our own farm is due to a crazy idea I had one morning in November 2022.  Life was very hectic with the loss of my dad in August and all the tasks of cleaning out my parents house, managing their estate, the need to have to buy yet another used car, the approaching holidays and the dire need to find a place for our flock. Our March 1st move-out deadline for our current pasture lease situation would be here before we knew it and it was an extremely stressful thought to have a life without our animals. I had exhausted all avenues for finding another lease opportunity and had resolved in my head that I would just have to move on and leave the shepherd life behind. This was a devastating thought as having the flock gave me a great lifestyle and an outlet from the grind and I just couldn’t fathom that being gone. I laid awake at night for months trying to come up with a solution.

Then one morning on a whim, I Googled land for sale just to see what was out there and how big a leap I would have to take to make this happen.  I found a property about thirty minutes out with a home that was literally falling down but I wasn’t looking for a house, I was looking for a place for my flock.  After staring at the Zillow screen for a long time, I sent a link to my brother and jokingly asked him what he thought.  He told me I had nothing to lose and to contact an agent and go see it.  Something in me said to give it a try as I really didn’t have anything to lose.  So, on a Tuesday morning in November, I clicked the “Contact an Agent” button. 

Little did I know this would be one of the greatest choices I’d make!  I didn’t know any realtors firsthand so what the heck.  Less than a minute later, I received a phone call from the coolest and most on the ball lady I could ever meet.  She was driving but asked what I was looking for and I was brave enough to say a place for my sheep and not myself.  She said she’d call the county as soon as she was out of the car to get the regulations, and this got the ball rolling.  Long story short, the next day my brother and I went to look at this property and it was beautiful.  As I walked the property, he evaluated and dilapidated home and after a night of deliberating back and forth, he convinced me it was too much to take on.  The home would have to be torn down and due to the zoning, another one would have to be built.  There was just no way to pull this off, in addition to it being so far from my residence.  I was super disappointed and changed my search criteria to include homes with acreage and not just a piece of land.  The next day a house popped up in my search that was literally a mile from my residence which sat back in the woods.  I had passed this place for 30 years and never paid it any attention.  The woods were dense, and it didn’t seem likely it would have enough clear space to put in fencing for a pasture.  The price was more than I could pay but something pulled at me about this place. I got into the satellite view on Google Maps and surprisingly it looked like it did have some clear land around the house.  I contacted my agent and told her about this listing I found, and I also asked my brother to look at it.  He was concerned about the price and asked if I could swing it financially, but I told him I’d find a way. Two days later, on a Saturday afternoon, we went to see the house.

To say this place was initially a bit creepy is an understatement. It had a big old rusty chain latched across the long driveway and No Trespassing signs everywhere. The driveway was completely overgrown with brambles and weeds, and you couldn’t get into the driveway without the car rubbing along these.  My agent had to leave her car at the end of the driveway as it was so dense.  I walked around the back and saw piles and piles of debris but behind a bunch of growth was what appeared to be an old barn. I ran down and sure enough!  Wow, this wasn’t even on the listing or in any of the pictures!  The open area around the back and side of the house looked ample for our small flock and it was love at first sight.  This just seemed too good to be true!

I didn’t even need to see the house and didn’t care what it looked like.  This place had me and it was unimaginable that it was a mere one mile from our home!

My brother did his due diligence and crawled around and tested and inspected all he could.  The house was in dire need of improvement but seemed structurally sound. There was nothing overly scary with the condition and it seemed like it would be livable for the time being. After looking around some more and taking it in, I just knew I needed to proceed.  

As we walked back out and my realtor locked the door, I immediately said “now what do I do?”  I hadn’t purchased a home in over 30 years!  She asked if I had a mortgage company and I didn’t since this crazy idea was just a crazy idea and next thing you know, she’s calling her guy. That Saturday night I worked with the loan officer and got a preapproval letter around midnight!  The next day my agent made our offer and we found out there were several other offers on the table.  My heart sank a bit but then I decided if it didn’t happen, it wasn’t meant to be.  My agent is the top in the area, and she made several calls to plead my case and promised a quick closing.  After a long 24 hours, she called me that Monday afternoon to tell me my offer was accepted!  What did I just do?  Holy crap!  I bought another house!

Less than three weeks later I was sitting at the closing table signing up for another mortgage and was handed the keys.  It was surreal!  Good thing I had a job interview that week for a second job!  Closed on the house on December 15, 2022 and started my second job on December 17, 2022!  It was a crazy turn of events to go from a crazy thought to having the keys in my hand for a quirky old cottage sitting on a few acres right up the road from where we lived.  Now what?  Winter is setting in, I’m working two jobs now, the holidays are coming, we need to clear out my parents’ house and … we must figure out how to build livestock fencing, and get a run-in structure, in the dead of winter, all before March 1!   This was a lot to fathom but we had taken the first step. Fate had gotten us here so there was no turning back!