Open eyes and long thoughts

I don’t think either one of us ever thought we would own a farm, much less that we would be ecstatic about the prospect of milking a cow, eating eggs from our own chickens, sewing clothes, and canning our own jams and jellies. But here we are, on the precipice of a whole new way of living for us, that is actually just going back to the way mankind has lived for most of its time on this Earth. People ask us why we decided to give up our comfortable, well-paying professional careers in order to scratch in the dirt for our living. Well, in some ways it was a long road and in some it was a very short one. Here we’ll give you a taste of both.

Short Road:

Seeing the way the government has been handled, especially over the past few years, caused us to be greatly concerned for this country. It seemed that more and more, common sense was out the window and people were being intimidated and oppressed if they did not say the same thing that the popular culture of the time was saying. We figured that we should try and become as independent from the country and the consequences that their foolish decisions would reap. Sadly, this is only possible to a relatively limited degree considering the way that the government wants to dictate an ever growing chunk of our daily lives (including children working on their family farms!).

Long Road:

Both of us have long family and educational histories of reading the original documents and asking our own questions. No textbooks for us, no sir-ee. This has lead to a spirit of free-thinking and question asking that is not already convinced (as so many young people now-a-days seem to be) that the best way to do something is to knock down what is present and rebuild something nice and shiny. Nope, we learned that just because something is old doesn’t make it useless, and just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s progress.

We have watched, with ever growing awe and horror people becoming disconnected from each other while they were ‘chatting,’ hating those they ‘had friended,’ and refusing to spend time with people without an ear bud jammed inside their head. The world around us has become removed from the real world to such a degree that sitting down is followed by the reflex action of pulling out a smart phone and life without constant stimulation is an unthinkable evil. More, more, more. Faster, faster, faster. And in the midst of it all not only is simplicity lost, but time to sit and contemplate life and reflect upon one’s character is as well.

As we have contemplated our lives, our marriage and where we believe God is calling us, we continually stumbled upon the need to do more for ourselves and become re-connected to the Earth that we were left as stewards of. A desire to live simply, learn the old crafts and pass on the goodness of the land to the next generation was born.