A Great Big Texas Welcome, from teeny tiny Blue Ridge, Texas!
Blue Ridge is a tiny town, about an hour's drive north of Dallas. There are about 800 people in town. Nothing ever happens here. Actually, we're not even really part of the town. We live 3 miles outside of town and we're "newcomers." (You see, we've only lived here 4 years. Many of the locals have lived here long enough to tell me the entire history of our cute little1932-built farmhouse.)
One of these days I will post a picture of "town" right here for you to see. I'm pretty sure I can fit the whole town square in one picture.
So why a blog about 5 acres in the middle of nowhere?
8 years ago I married a young, handsome software engineer. We settled into a predictable life... with a predictable pay check. Babies came along and life was happy, full and comfortable. There was just one small problematic detail... My husband didn't really like his career. He didn't like sitting at a desk all the time. He wanted to be up on his feet moving around.
He came home one day when I was very pregnant with our third child. "Do you know what I really want to do with my life?" he asked.
"Be a software engineer." I told him. It sounded like the obvious answer to me.
"Be a farmer." He said.
A farmer?!?! Now wait a minute. Normal people don't quit good-paying software careers to go into farming, right? I was pretty sure this was just a passing flirtation with a midlife crisis that would go away. So, we agreed that he would stay in software until the baby was born. (After all, we had good health insurance!) I figured by the time the baby got here, this idea would be ancient history and my Mr. Steady husband would be... well... sane again.
Wrong.
The baby came and so did an inevitable layoff. On the day of the layoff he came home looking:
Relieved.
Refreshed.
Invigorated.
Excited.
Young.
Happy.
Refreshed.
Invigorated.
Excited.
Young.
Happy.
His eyes were sparkling in a way that I haven't seen them sparkle in a long, long time. I knew that another software job wouldn't be the right choice for him. Lucky for him, I had just read his copy of Dan Miller's book "48 Days to the Work You Love" and so we are opening a family farm.
So now I am a farmer's wife.
The funny thing is, I hate the feeling of dirt on my hands. I've never been able to get a house plant to live. Last year I planted our entire garden from seed and not a single plant came up. I'm not exactly a city slicker, but I'm really not farmer's wife material either.
But, I am my husband's cheerleader, so here we go!
