blogversary

Eight years? Really?

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

It’s a good thing WordPress remembers for me, because I forgot completely.

Eight years ago today, we started this blog.

Image created by Grok

I say “we” because, originally, my husband and I were both supposed to be writing posts here. Which my husband did try to do, when he and my younger daughter found themselves coming out here earlier than expected, when his father was suddenly hospitalized. Since then, his condition has deteriorated and, with all the meds he’s on, he just doesn’t have the motivation, nor ability to focus, on keeping it up.

Things sure have changed a lot in 8 years! Our original goals have shifted, out of necessity. Meanwhile, our physical challenges have increased. At this point, at age 57 and now officially designated as disabled, I am actually the most able bodied person in the household!

Image courtesy of Aria AI

While my original reasons for needing to remain anonymous have changed, it just went from having to keep some crazies we left behind in the city we used to live in from knowing where we were and what’s going on, to having another crazy we have to be concerned about.

My goal for this blog hasn’t changed, though. I wanted this to be a place to basically document what we are doing here at the farm I grew up on, the good the bad and the ugly, in hopes that others can learn from our mistakes and be at least somewhat inspired. If a short, fat, broken, middle aged woman with a disabled husband can do this, most other people should be able to do much more, and much better!

For those long timers who have been following this blog for years, thank you for your loyalty. I do hope you gained at least a little something from my ruminations, foibles and current gardening obsession. As for the more recent followers, welcome! Glad to have you on board!

While looking at my stats before I started this post, I noticed a huge spike in traffic today. Most of the viewers of this little blog from central Canada have been from the US, and that has been true from the start. Second place had been Canadian viewers, but that spot has now been taken over by the UK, putting Canadians in third place. I’m curious how Chili and Australia show up as tied for fourth highest country of origin views, followed by a tie with Denmark and Germany.

I would love to know how people have been finding this blog, since I do zero promotion of it. Do feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

The Re-Farmer

Seven!

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

I can’t believe I missed it.

Well… yes I can. Things have been pretty crazy, lately! If it weren’t for the reminder from WordPress, I would have forgotten completely.

Yup. Yesterday was officially our 7th blogversary.

Boy, have things changed since then! Many of our plans got turned completely upside down, while others got thrown out the window.

Yet, here we still are, chugging away at it!

Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep at it for many more years!

Many thanks to everyone that’s chosen to follow along on our journey!

The Re-Farmer

Six years

/ Re-Farmer / 9 Comments

I’ve just been reminded of an anniversary today.

This blog’s anniversary!

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

Yep. We’ve been plugging away on here for 6 years now!

At this time six years ago, my husband, with our younger daughter as his mobility assistant, had flown out earlier than planned, as my FIL was suddenly hospitalized and we weren’t sure he would make it. They stayed here at the farm, with a car loaned to them so they could travel to the hospital in the city. The house had been empty for two years and it showed. Thankfully, my FIL recovered and is still with us.

Meanwhile, my older daughter and I were doing everything we could to sell, give away, donate or throw away as much as we could, while packing other things in preparation for the movers, and for our own drive out in the middle of November.

In the middle of all this, we decided to start this blog to document our adventures getting here, and living here. We had such plans!

A lot sure has changed in six years!

We still have plans, but things had to shift quite a bit. Some have pretty much fallen off the priority list entirely, while others that were intended for later had to be dealt with earlier.

For all the unexpected challenges we’ve faced, I’m still glad we were able to make the move. From what I hear, things were we used to live have only gotten much, much worse (don’t ever live in a housing co-op, unless, perhaps, if it’s managed by a separate, professional property management company!!). I’m also incredibly thankful we weren’t living in the city when the world went insane in 2020, and still hasn’t recovered from.

While cleaning up my parents’ stuff in the first couple of years, I found an old journal of mine, written “to” my husband. In it, I’d found long forgotten dreams and plans of being able to buy this farm from my parents (unrealistic dreams, since my parents intended the land to go to my brothers; girls didn’t get land!) and build as self sufficient a life as possible – what today would be considered homesteading and off grid living, but no one really used those terms that way, back then.

It’s taken over 30 years, and some very unexpected twists and turns in our lives, yet here we are. Getting old and rather broken, but with the help of our daughters and the excellent stewardship of my brother as our “landlord”, we’re actually starting to live that dream.

The Re-Farmer

It’s our anniversary!

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Four years ago today, the very first post was made on this blog!

It’s certainly been an… interesting… four years! Mostly in a good way! I’m certainly glad that we are here, even with some of the less than positive things that have happened over the past while. The world has gone crazy, but we’ve managed to maintain a certain level of normalcy that we could not have done, if we were still living in the city.

We made plans, adjusted plans, dropped plans and made new plans. Which we did expect to have to do, even if there was no way to predict the how or the why behind it!

One thing I can say for sure is, I am really excited and looking forward to the next few years out here!

The Re-Farmer

Blogversary! We’re three!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

The Re-Farmer blog is three years old today!

“What are you looking at?”

A few more weeks, and we’ll be celebrating three years of living here.

Three years and 2,324 posts! That’s a lot of documenting our journey, and recording how things have been changing in our lives since moving out here. As of today, we’re even up to 410 followers, which is amazing to me. Thank you to you all for joining us on our journey, in our little corner of the world! :-)

Our journey has certainly taken some unexpected turns. Among them, I was not expecting to spend this day filling out the form and typing up an affidavit (then editing, tweaking, and editing some more!) to get a mental health order for our vandal. I’ve given him several days to respond to my email, asking him to get help but, at this point, it’s time to take the next step.

I’m also realizing that I’ve forgotten to eat both lunch and supper today. *sigh*

Time to grab a quick bite, then head to bed early. Tomorrow, I drop the van off first thing in the morning to get the winter tires put on, along with an oil change. From there I’ll head back to the court office and finish filing for the mental health order. Hopefully, I’ve included enough information this time.

“Happy” Blogversary. :-(

The Re-Farmer

Second Blog-versary!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

My goodness! It’s hard to believe that, two years ago today, we made our first post here at The Re-Farmer blog. Now it’s almost 1,550 posts later! What a journey it has been.

I wish to take this opportunity to say thank you to those of you who have been kind enough to take time out of your busy lives, follow along on our journey, and peek through this little window of our lives. It is really appreciated! I hope you continue to visit as we muddle our way through the re-farmer life! :-)

The Re-Farmer and family

Blog-versary

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

1.year.starburstWow.

Well, here it is.

One year ago today, I made the very first post on this blog.

At this point, my husband and younger daughter had already been at the farm for over a week.  My older daughter and I were purging and packing like crazy until we could join them.

What a year it’s been!

Thank you to those who felt this little window into our lives was worth visiting, following and commenting on!

The Re-Farmer