5 Things That Have Surprised Us About Owning a Farm

HomesteadingFamily

Jun 26

A little background to frame this post. I, Leslie, grew up in rural Louisiana. While we didn’t have a farm, we were surrounded by farmers. Most of our neighbors and friends farmed or had land so it wasn’t totally foreign to me when we considered having our own farm. David grew up in the city but spent a lot of time at his family’s ranch and loved every minute of it. While day to day farming was not a part of our everyday life growing up, it’s not a completely foreign experience for either of us. But as with anything, if you haven’t personally done something it’s new and there’s a lot to learn!

Moving from Austin to Fredericksburg has brought a lot of adventure into our lives, a whole lot of that has been amazing and some just downright surprising.

The hours it takes to accomplish all that we need to accomplish each day. The list of things we need to do, things we need to fix and things we want to do is never ending. It’s like owning a home on steroids. A fence needs fixing, a coop or pen needs repairs, and the house always needs something. We are definitely not idle!
The cost of EVERYTHING. I’m sure that 2020 - 2022 has something to do with this but it is still surprising at how much you need and want when running a farm. The tools, the feed, the fencing, the equipment and the costs of livestock. It takes a good chunk of change to get a farm up and going. And it seems like the list keeps growing. We are looking forward to this coming year, we both have confidence the acquisitions will slow down and we are working on lowering how much feed we purchase with rotational grazing and making things last longer.
How physically tired we consistently are. Maybe we’re old but wow, we are dog tired at the end of the day. I think we have both been surprised at how we seem to never feel completely rested anymore. We wake up early and go to bed late. We know that’s normal, and it’s what we are willing to do but not something we really thought through. BUT we know that God created us to work, and we know it’s good for us. We want to stay busy taking care of ourselves, our family and our land. This is just part of that package!
We knew we’d love having animals, but we didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as we do. They are not only cute but just enjoyable to be around. And we like to think they love us too! It’s been a joy to watch them grow and to watch our kids come to love them too. Overall owning goats, sheep and chickens has been the best part of the whole lifestyle change.
It’s been really neat seeing how much all 5 of us enjoy the peace and quiet of living out in the country. For the most part we are content to spend days here on the farm not leaving or seeing anyone. We all enjoy the time here working and hanging out. It’s exactly how we hoped it would be, but we weren’t sure how the kids would take to it. Thankfully they love the quiet and stillness as much as we do.