Hello to any new readers who have stopped by thanks to the Big Based Book Sale. I'm honored that you chose to visit me here, and you're probably wondering what a guy who writes fantasy, sci-fi, mysteries, and steampunk superheroes is doing talking about living on a farm.
It's simple, really. When we moved out here in September of 2020, we had been living in a small town for the entirety of our marriage; our two youngest boys were born there, and raised in that same small town. But we always knew that wasn't our forever home; we just didn't know where we would end up.
The decision to move was an easy one; we knew that we weren't happy where we were, and we wanted to give our kids a better place to spend their remaining childhood years. But we were still thinking about suburban life, near a big city; San Antonio, Texas, was one place that we actively looked at, years ago. But moving to the States isn't easy, and during Covid...well, that was just out of the question. So, that eliminated Tennessee, Florida, the Carolinas, and a few other places we had been considering.
That left moving somewhere else in Canada. Again, rural life wasn't on our radar, but when we started looking at the Maritimes, the thought of living outside the city and out in the quiet land was more and more appealing. So, we picked a small hobby farm in western Prince Edward Island, bought it, packed everything up, sold our house, and trekked across Eastern Canada for five days to get here.
So, why farm? We're not doing anything commercially; it's a small, 20-acre farm, half of which is woods, so there's not a lot of room to grow anything significant, like wheat or barley. It's an old dairy farm, so there are buildings set up for that, and grazing fields for the cattle. But we don't have cows.
But we took a long, hard look at the economy in Canada, and realized that things were going to get much, much worse before they got any better. Inflation wasn't jumping up the way it is now, but the writing was on the wall for those who knew how to read it. Add to that the issues with the food in the grocery stores (overpriced, processed crap, for the most part, including the produce), and we decided that we'd have to learn how to grow our own food. And by 'we', it was obviously going to be 'me'. My wife is amazing at prepping food; she is a kitchen goddess, a living cheat code for cooking. And she even has experience working in her parents' garden centre when she was a teenager. But when it came to actually digging into the ground, planting stuff and making sure it grew, that was on me.
And it's a challenge that I have learned to relish. I've spent decades looking for some meaning in the work I do, whether it was working in retail, selling life insurance, bookkeeping, teaching...but none of it had the impact that this life does. It's an incredible thing to put seeds into the ground and watch them turn into amazing, delicious food. Not only that, but we've got plenty of meat as well: chickens, pigs, and possibly rabbits, if the ones we do have start producing young. I'm planting trees today that my grandkids will sit under and pick apples from. That's an amazing legacy to leave behind.
It's weird, especially for someone who grew up with a military father and a lifetime of city or small-town living. But it feels amazing. To get up in the morning and just breathe that fresh air (okay, it's not infrequently seasoned with fresh cow manure from the surrounding fields) is an experience in and of itself. And every morning as I step outside to go feed the animals, I thank God for giving us this opportunity. It's His farm, after all; I'm just tending it, like we were commanded to do all the way back at the beginning.
I've learned that this life isn't for everyone; there are a lot of people who would never be able to make the transition from city or suburban life to this way of living. And it is a fundamental change, something that requires a wholly different mindset. Out of the rat race, focusing on building something sustainable, something long-lasting, something my grandkids will be able to come home to someday. It's a challenge I never thought I could even contemplate, but it's a challenge I'm facing head-on. And with a beautiful, loving wife by my side, and three boys with their own unique contributions to make, I really believe it's possible.
And if the world really is going to hell and society is teetering on collapse, then we're giving ourselves the best opportunity to pull through it and make it to the other side. And if not, at least I'll eat better than ever before, knowing where everything on the plate is coming from: My own backyard.
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