We Bought a Farm

It feels pretty surreal to write these words, but by some miracle, Matt and I are the proud new owners of our very own family farm! While we have been looking at farms for the last 5 years or so, this one was not on our radar in the least. But, God has a way of leading his kids- and now that we have found our new home, it makes sense why none of the other farms we looked at ever felt quite right!

There will be lots of time to share all about the farm, the house and our plans for it but for now I just wanted to share some of what I am most excited about when it comes to making this move.

I am SO excited to be able to create our own little “homestead” the farm has over a dozen fruit trees, including apples, plums, and pears. We would love to add to them some day… it also has a plethora of berry bushes all throughout the property. I am so excited to make jams, juices, and to freeze and preserve fruit!

I am looking forward to enjoying life’s slow and simple pleasures. Becoming more hands on with raising our own food has been a dream of mine for a long time, and that really becomes more realistic with a property like this. I am also so excited for our kids to grow up with this opportunity- they are already over the moon excited. Finley seems to think she will be getting alllll the animals, and she just may be right 😉

What is the farm like?

The home is an old cottage style farmhouse that has been added to over the years. It’s very unlike many old houses I have seen in Canada- and upon learning that the previous owner was from England, the style of the cottage made more sense to me. It’s not a typical “farmhouse” but more of a english cottage style home, complete with an english style garden. There are beams, and (lower) planked ceilings. A clawfoot tub and hideous tile. haha. There is a large stone fireplace and some interior walls that are stone as well. The theme of the home is woooood. Wood everywhere, while some of it is really special, other parts are not necessarily the pretty historic wood you might think of. There is quite a lot of wood and panelling. Overall it is quite charming, and we don’t have any immediate plans for the house.

For the most part we will be freshening up the home with new paint inside and out. And I am sure I will tackle some budget friendly makeovers to make it a little bit more us, but for now we won’t be doing anything too extreme- like building an addition 😉 We would like to live in the home for a while first, and see what updates are needed, and what makes sense for the home, and our family living in it.

It’s smaller than where we live now, and has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. But it is all main floor living which is nice- with plenty of additional out buildings- like a workshop, barn, and sheep barn. As well as a second home that we will be renting out. Oh yes… and a bus that was converted into a tiny house! I am telling you- it will be an adventure.

What will we farm?

It probably goes without saying that we will eventually be farming flowers, but we want to get familiar with the property and settle into a rhythm before getting too gung ho! There is a one acre market garden- which is a generous term as it is very over grown with weeds and grasses, but I think there is great soil and I am excited to create a beautiful and hard working plot. The farm has been owned by the same family for the last 70+ years and managed organically, which is exciting.

It was previously used as a sheep farm, chicken farm and market garden. There are many different soil types, pasture, and forest. It will be exciting to explore and add some order to the property. The fencing that was in place is a bit of a mess in many areas- so I am looking forward to making it make sense for our purposes.

There is a lot of clean up to do on the property- as you can imagine- but we are so thankful to call it ours. I will be sharing more with you as I can, but as you can imagine our life is in a big time of transition as I wrap up my flower season throughout September, pack the house, and prepare to move.

Where is it, and how big is it?

For privacy reasons we have decided not to share our exact location with our friends on the internet at this time- but we are moving quite a ways from where we are now! The farm is over 40 acres (small standards for some farms, but huge for us!) and is a mix of pasture and forest. We would appreciate your prayers that all the pieces would fall into place as we move a long way, pack and sell our home, adjust business plans, move animals (yep we are bringing the chickens and the cat- and we are also inheriting a farm dog and 3 barn cats!) and adjust to our new home.

This is a lifestyle change that we have thought and prayed about for a long time- and of course we have many hopes and dreams for this place. It came at an unexpected time in our lives, and hasn’t been without its challenges and heart ache as we leave our amazing community- but boy does it ever feel right to follow our hearts, as crazy as it may be! We are trusting God each step of the way. It’s a leap of faith, and our hearts are full.

-Miss Ash