Our family is moving

[4Kids]

After my mother's death and my sister's death and a few other things, I have decided to take my little family and move away from civilization.  No I am not kidding. I considered all of this a long time before my sister's passing. My husband is a farm boy and he gets uncomfortable in the city. We live in a Prairie city which isn't exactly big but to him, anything is too big. My son is a tornado and I live in fear that kids like him get into trouble without sufficient space to do stuff and hard work to keep them busy.

So we bought a farm with 480 acres--that should be enough to keep my husband and boys busy. WE can have hay land or rent for grain, whatever, but I do not allow fertilizer or Roundup anywhere on our land so we will likely deal with it ourself.

We plan to have chickens and his Dad already farms cows so we may pick up a few, mostly to control our food source. My husband will continue to work off farm and I will stay with the kids until Tornado is in school in 2 more years and then see what I need to do. I LOVE to garden, spend the weekend planting two gardens as I can't get into the farm until July 15.  I planted all non-gmo, open pollinated seeds, with no roundup or other treatment.

Now on to the Sjogren's:  I am so much better it is crazy. Yes, last week I had a swollen face and felt like I was wearing lead pjs. Was that plain grief or a flare? Who knows. I got through it just fine.  My mouth is still dry but that is the only symptom I pretty much still have all the time. Metformin causes me diahhrea, and maybe that is the cause because I wake up fine. (weird, hey.) I don't know what the future will hold for me, or my family, but I am reasonably sure that I want my kids to have the best start possible. I took what Nat said very seriously about food and healing the gut, and I worry about them being susceptible to AI. It is too easy here, for me included, to eat junk. We are so far out in the country (think 15 miles from a tiny little town) that people do not bother fertilizing etc as it doesn't pay and that is why I picked it.

I am thinking either the Plaquinel has helped so much I should always take it or I don't need it    I know my rheumy will ask me to stop it come fall to check. I guess we will see.

Wish us luck.  We are here until July 15, so the kids can finish school of course.

[MissyLouWho?]

That's so exciting!  Tornado won't be getting in any trouble with the daily chores of farm life, he won't have time.  The kids will learn a really good work ethic too.  I always wanted to live on a farm.  Raise chickens and cows, plant lots of veggies and fruit.  I have a 900 sq ft veggie garden and feed the wild ducks, that is my tiny version  .  So good for the soul!

So happy to hear you're feeling better.  I hope it continues!  Will you be far from your doctors?  If so you might want to check out new ones before you move so you have one if the need arises sooner than expected. 

I wish you lots of luck, tons of energy and an easy move 

[Gayle]

Congratulations! It is so good to live where you are happy! I moved 7 yrs ago to the mountains, in a forest and LOVE IT! Moving was hard but was a great relief to be where I love. You have plenty of time to plan the move so it will be not too hard on you. Great job!!!

[Daisy1234]

4Kids,

In my book you are going to be living the dream!

I always wanted to have a farm, I eagerly spent every summer as a kid on my uncle's farm and also worked on some farms in the summer for student summer jobs.  My husband and I tried to buy a farm about 15 years ago, before my sjogrens really got bad and we looked into sheep farming.  We were having a hard time getting the Farm Credit Corp to let us get a mortgage because they would only mortgage the place if I quit my job and stayed at home to be the full-time farmer instead of my husband.  We wanted him to stay home instead so it didn't work out for us .

So instead we bought a very very small acreage though and love it here, but I'll always be a country girl. 

Best of luck in your new place, and I can't help thinking that getting all of that fresh country air and no chemical pollutants will only help your health and happiness.

Wishing you the best,
Daisy

[4Kids]

Daisy we had the luck of being on the good side of the Regina house situation. We sold our tiny old condo for 1.5x what we bought it and then my Mom passed away  and left me a fairly large amount (for me anyway) so we have a hefty downpayment. The Credit Union was happy to help us.  We won't full time farm because I would imagine dh's income will always be more but I can't wait to try and do the market garden thing.  The Credit Union is not as strict as Farm Credit and I got a better deal anyway.

I am sorry your Sjogren's went so fast   15 years is not much time   An acreage is wonderful.

I am very, very glad to be able to shield them, at least some of the time, from chemicals and the noise of city life.

I will be 45 minutes from an ER with a cat scan etc. and a good 2 hours from a University with a rheumatologist and department of rheumatology. I may keep mine cause I love her though.

[susanep]

It sounds wonderful what you are planning. It will be good for your kids, and whole family. I live in the country, and we love it. I have also lived in the big city when growing up, so I know what both are like. I send you and your family much happiness with your new life.

susanep

[quietdynamics]

Oh my How Absolutely exciting it this GREAT News!!!

Do say you will get a Goat! Supposed to be the best milk for humans...maybe it will keep Tornado busy....could name it BUTTer...lol

I read a book called the "Hot Zone" bit old now, but still relevant. Anyway, it explained how one could tell older viruses from newer ones.
Older ones do not kill the host...a matter of survival.
So (my way of thinking) viewing how humans, as living organism are killing their host/earth, we are pretty new on the evolutionary timeline.

We had picked a lake area to move to in another state. My Mom will come with us, although she insists on her own home (she is 82...grrr)  And happy it was not far from a good, reputable medical institution....then learned they are doing fracking. The good news is that Google and a large Japanese group are to build wind farms off the east coast. So there are some good things coming in your childrens generation.

Thank you for sharing this.

[eye2dry]

Hi 4kids.

Wonderful ....wonderful!

I grew up on a large farm, as a matter of fact my husband and I just live 5 miles from where I grew up...we ourselves only have 30 acres here.

Your kids will love it.

Will you home school? Will you still have internet access...so you can continue with this forum?

eye2dry

[cargillwitch]

fantastic news! for all of you!

yes Saskatchewan is doing really well right now isn't it?

What a wonderful possibility your mother gave you.

I grew up on a mixed family farm( we grew EVERYTHING we ate, wheat for bread, milked our own cows and made cheese and butter daily)

I now live on my hubby's family farm ( 150 acres which is kind of a standard sized farm here in Ontario) which they have had since 1862.

We have our own free range organic  chickens /eggs, horses and I organic market garden ( I am a nurse in my day job life).

I just .. really ...could not imagine living anywhere  but a rural setting.

Two of our six kids live off the farm now, but return anytime they get a chance. It is really a great place to raise kids- especially active ones LOL!

I also appreciated Nat's posts- I had only just started visiting the board when she seems to have stopped posting. Unfortunate.

[4Kids]

I am very excited!  Of course the yard we can afford is quite run down but we are young and can work on things. There is internet in the yard, via satellite???, but not cell phones so no tower internet. Very confusing I know. But I will still be here.  I am better to the point that I probably don't need to post but once I invest in a forum I (has happened three times, lol!) that is all there is to it. Besides, Sjs is so weird there is always something.

I totally agree and am so happy you all are excited about the opportunity as well! They are giving us their Great Pyranees sp? who knows her territory and happily does away with any critter who gets in her territory. Sounds harsh, but this is bear, wolf and bigger country. I guess she has brought coyotes etc to the current owner which makes me quite happy as the kids will be safe. The wolves, which came to eat apples (?!) do not come with Molly on the job. And they have only seen a bear once... which means Molly keeps the bears a fair distance.

I have amassed quite the collection of seeds. I can't get in to my garden this year because of circumstances but next year... look out!  All my heritage seed (i.e. non gmo, non hybrid, open pollinated and organic) sprout and grow so well I cannot imagine going to treated seed. Why would I need to?  It made it quite a bit easier to walk right past the huge tomato plants at Costco when I remembered all the details... normally I would have needed to just buy one... lol.

So cheesemaking, eh, cargillwitch! I know I could do ricotta etc. but cheddar is something I would love to learn.

And YES we are getting a goat! I have heard wonderful things about the milk, cannot wait to try!!!