All my life I've wanted to be a farmer. I come from a long line of farming families and have fond memories of summers on the farm with my grandparents, as both of my parents grew up on farms. As a child, people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always enthusiastically responded, "a farmer!" At a young age, my parents moved to the suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul, in Farmington, MN, I began realizing the idea of that actually happening lessened and lessened, but my desire to plant, grow, harvest, tend animals, do chores, drive machinery, and all that goes with being a farmer still remained.
My dream started becoming a reality after meeting and marrying the love of my life, Katie. Our little family of four lives on an eight acre farm site in southern Minnesota where Katie grew up. It's been in her family for nearly 100 years and our boys are the fifth generation to live on the site. We have two boys: Brock is five and full of energy. Bentley is one and a spit fire that wants to be just like his older brother. The boys are one of the biggest reasons our family is going on this wild adventure ahead. Growing plants and doing chores teaches kids about the meaning of hard work, patience, and seeing the beauty God has placed in front of us each and every day.
With all the necessities needed: dirt, sun, outbuildings, and some elbow grease we plan to get our acreage into a beautiful working hobby farm with the hopes of becoming more self-sufficient each year. Over the next few months I plan to roll out phase 1 of my 3 phase plan.
- Phase 1: Plant a small orchard, grow a decent size garden, raise a handful of chickens and hopefully raise a few hogs.
- Phase 2: Get a few bees to help with pollination of our fruits and veggies while also getting some honey and beeswax to make all sorts of good things. If we didn't get hogs in our first year, then we would this year.
- Phase 3: Increase the number of animals such as a few beef cows, goats, sheep, and more birds.
Eventually, my hope is to grow feed and hay for the larger animals but that may be years down the road.
I hope you enjoy our little slice of living the good life using the tools God has graciously provided for us. For the rest of our journey we'll live by this verse of scripture, praising the Lord for his gifts he gives us each day:
"You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth"
- Psalm 104:14
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