Can a City Girl Make it in the country? Part 1

Farewell Hectic City, Hello Mellow Country Life - Right?

Enjoying a relaxing daytime fire . . . .

Simply Amazing!! I'm trading in my hectic urban jungle for a tranquil, dreamy cottage where my sweetie and I can sway on porch swings sipping sweet tea. The only sound in the air is the birds chirping and leaves rustling in the breeze. I'll grab a juicy pear and stroll about in the garden, soaking up the calm and serenity.

It all started off like a dream come true. The perfect ranch, like it leaped right out of a postcard. But, as the days passed, I realized something was missing... animals! Jeremy warned me to be careful what I wished for and that made no sense to me. I mean, what's a ranch without a few furry and feathered companions, right?

And then came that spooky Halloween night that Jeremy left town, just me and my teacup Yorkie, where I suddenly realized that the city did not prepare me for the pitch-black, siren-less, silence of country life. So, I packed up the husband and the yorkie and we journeyed to Fort Worth the next day, in search of a loyal guard dog.

That's where we met the legendary Lucy, the wonder dog! And that's when it dawned on me, why stop? Why not add some cows and chickens into the mix? I mean, it's a ranch after all! So, I asked the dog breeding, ranch owner if her cows and chickens were also for sale.  She said Yes, all of them are.  I said – Deal we will take them all.  We headed back with Lucy, 17 cows and 30+ chickens. 

That’s when everything changed! No more living the easy life on the porch, sipping cocktails, and watching sunsets. The farm life chose us, and we're now on a crazy adventure for example:

·         milking goats and trying to keep them out of our groceries. They always find a way to get what they want!

This is Lambie. Lambie loves all soft bedding. He followed me everywhere.

·         We welcomed a new bottle baby lamb who moved into our house, wore two diapers, and loves to steal our dry spaghetti.

·         Goats decided to give birth during the coldest days of the winter. Baby goats have a hard time surviving cold weather. This goat came in to rest and get warm under a heating pad. He ended up to grow into one of our biggest goats.

·         Our cow decided to take a plunge into the icy pond and we had to go on a rescue mission - that was enough to give someone PTSD and I will spare the details.

·         Our well went on strike, leaving us high and dry with no water for weeks.

·         And don't even get me started on the chicken coop, which decided to take flight during a storm! We had to round up 120 chickens at midnight to relocate them. I picked up a chicken for the first time ever that night in the dark! Check out our youtube video: Chicken Coup Flight Night

Delivery was so easy in the city!

·         I’m also learning to cook on the fly because no one will deliver to us.

·         Goodbye Whole Foods, Walmart is now my only option.

Rattle Snake that I raked up gardening.

·         Met a few new challenges in the wild, my first rattlesnake, first wild tarantula, and first coyote having a staring contest with me.

·         I discovered a new phobia - grasshoppers!

·         And to add to our list of newness, Amazon Prime takes a week to arrive.

Life on the farm was unexpected!

The first year was a heightened learning curve for me! My husband, Jeremy, was quite the pro at navigating the chaos, having grown up on a farm in upstate NY.  But for me, the unexpected drama of country life was a thrilling challenge.

While Jeremy was tending to our animal friends, I decided to tackle a different project: giving our outdated home a fresh facelift. The place was stuck in a time warp from 1988 - brown, brown, and more brown! At first, I thought we should just bulldoze it and start over. But Jeremy, the house rehab master, encouraged me to work some magic with mostly just paint. Challenge accepted!

Jeremy went to work outside and I went to work inside.  To be continued . . . .