Facing an illness, such as breast cancer, helps put a little perspective on your life. For me, at least, it moved the dreams we have for the future to the present. We have always wanted a farm. Some place where I can have a horse, where we can grow our own vegetables and raise a few chickens.
It has always been, when we retire, we'll ____. But facing a serious illness truly makes you realize that you may not have a future. So this past winter we started seriously watching the real estate listings in the Valley and looking at our options. We viewed at a couple of different places ranging in size from four to twenty-five acres. We were looking with an eye to a place within commutable distance to my work (Rob can work from any where with high speed Internet).
Then our real estate agent called with a property we both determined was too far away...until we went to see it and walked the fields. It's perfect. An old farm house, fields, a barn and view of the Bay of Fundy from the back field. We put an offer on it and now we have a weekend place. Now we're just waiting until September 1 to take possession.
While may not be able to raise chickens right away we do plan to garden as early as next year. This fall we'll walk the property and assess how many apple trees are on it and we may even plant a small orchard right away.
It's important to find a life/work balance and not put all your dreams off to the future and we're trying to find that balance every day.
