Have you ever had a point in your life, where the only way you can move forward, seems to be by going back to your roots?

Well, that’s what seems to be the point I’m at, now.

I grew up on a subsistence farm, the youngest of five.  I remember a time before we had running water or an indoor bathroom, and using a wood burning cook stove.  We had cows and chickens, sometimes pigs, geese and ducks (I was too young to remember the sheep) and any number of sundry creatures my parents’ city friends passed on to us (because there’s always room at the farm, right?).  We grew a lot of our own food, milked cows by hand, butchered our own meat and basically lived that “sustainable” life that’s oh-so-trendy right now.

After moving out, getting married, raising and home schooling two daughters, and moving more than a dozen times across Western Canada, we are now in an odd situation.

Since my husband has had to go onto long term disability, things have been challenging, of course.  Our daughters help as much as they can, any way they can, but as much of a blessing it has been to be on private health insurance for an income, a 40% cut in pay didn’t come with a 40% cut in bills.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the family situation has left the old house unoccupied since before my father’s passing.  And empty houses do not do well.

So when my mother once again asked me if we could move into it, this time we said yes.

Which means we’ll be going from living in the downtown area of a sprawling prairie city, to a fairly isolated farm two provinces away.

Oh, and it’s a cell phone and internet dead zone.

But in the end, we feel that this is going to be the best thing for us, as a family.  Especially for my husband’s health.  At least that’s what we’re hoping for.

And so it is that, in order for us to move forward with our lives, we’ll be going back to my family home, and to a lifestyle that is going to be wildly different from what we’ve known for years.

It’s going to be an adventure, if nothing else!

The Re-Farmer