Sunday 18 September 2016

Change


As we are moving towards the last quarter of the year, I'm taking stock of 2016. It's been a weird year, with the gentle yet steady undercurrent of change accompanying most of it. Work life has been dominated by change so much that people are dreading that particular C-word more than the other C-word (I meant cancer - get your mind out of the gutter!).

We are still in the process of selling/buying property, but I'm holding off on updating you guys until we know more. Nothing is decided yet, and I don't want to jinx it by writing about something that is still up in the air. We have found two places we really like, and hopefully one of them will be our future home! As soon as we know, I will share.

One of the unexpectedly difficult aspects of the moving saga has been figuring out where we are headed in the future. Not only physically (as in, what town?), but even more so in regards to our lifestyle. Do we want more land or less? A bigger or a smaller house? Do we want to expand the farm, or downsize it? Will we travel more? What is it we want to see? How much money will we need on a daily basis? Are we more into things, animals, or experiences?

We went way back, first to the beginning of our relationship, and then to the beginning of our individual adulthoods. What were our goals back then? Have we accomplished them, and if not, do we still want to?
We are very aware that the time for realizing our couple's goals is now. Rich is 62 years old, and while he may very well have another 20 or even 30 good years ahead of him, he also may not. The same applies to me - none of us knows how much time we have left.

So we really took our time to form a mental image of what we want our future life to look like. This upcoming move is so much more than a simple change of location; it will be a new life.

We will always live with animals. They are our friends, soul mates, and companions. For Rich they are his daily meditation, therapy, and fitness program all wrapped into one. But over the last decade or so, our farm has grown out of control. We have collected such a staggering number of  animals that the amount of work is threatening to overshadow the enjoyment.

After losing our mind temporarily and toying with the idea to buy a huge piece of land (to fill with more animals, obviously), we luckily returned back to reality and changed our tune.
Instead of going big, we decided to go small(er). Smaller house, less animals, less clutter. Our ideal home (fingers crossed that we'll get it!) is 1,200 square feet, which is perfect for the two of us. We are planning on cutting down dramatically on the amount of animals, and only keep maybe a quarter of what we have now.
We are envisioning a simple life with lots of time spent in nature, more travelling, and less stuff.

I also did some soul searching about my blog. What to do with it? For a while now I haven't been that happy with the name. "Farm Girl" just doesn't fit any more. While living on a hobby farm is part of my life, it doesn't define the purpose of the blog very well. It's deceiving because it probably makes people think that I write about breeding cattle and chicken varieties, and nothing could be further from the truth.

What I love to write about is life, how to deal with the ups and downs of the human existence, and how to find humour and happiness in every day.

After thinking about it for a good long while, I have come up with the perfect name!
I'm in the process of converting it, so I won't tell you just yet - you will see it over the next few days! I will also do little tweaks and updates where necessary.

I'm so excited, and hope you will like it as much as I do!

Farm Girl out - [it's a surprise] in!





 P.S. I changed the layout - what do you think?


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10 comments

  1. Thanks for the feedback Jane! You were completely right, so I made the font bigger. I hope it's better now?!

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  2. Haha yup, and so much of it is out of our hands, depending on other people. This is such a hard lesson to learn! Which only means I desperately need it.

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  3. Yep, loads better. One other thing I've just discovered. When I checked it on my phone the comment section only showed your replies, not my or Jennifer's comments...

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  4. Change is good. I feel a big shift coming for us as well. Whatever decisions you two make, it will work out for the best!
    I can't wait for the big name reveal!!

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  5. It's funny how sometimes in life you think you want one thing and then it ultimately turns out that you don't at all. Such a bumpy road you are on with all the house hunting stuff, but I hope you find the perfect place to fit your needs. The blog name matters! I changed mine a few times until it finally felt right.

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  6. Agreed. It's nice to change things up to feel fresh and excited again! Nothing worse than when life is starting to get stale.

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  7. And I'm curious about your upcoming changes! Are you ready to share yet?

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  8. Change will happen whether we want to or not, so we may as well embrace it! ;-)

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