So originally I started this blog to document what its like to move from a regular suburban life to life on a farm. Except its not really a farm, maybe a small farm in the making we'll call it. To start from the beginning my husband and I both grew up in Seattle. He spent a few years in Mexico, where he was born and lived till the age of 5, then Los Angeles, and moved to Seattle around the age of 10, but that's a whole other story. Fast forward to when we first moved in together and rented with my parents. It was a two story house in south Seattle, Beacon Hill to be exact, where I grew up. They gave us the downstairs which was small but pretty much a full apartment. I was 19 and pregnant and took the bus everywhere. Eventually, as parents and newly weds should NOT live together in my opinion, we started inching south. First Tukwila for our very own first apartment. I still took the bus even with my one year old who was very big for his age, and we lived at the bottom of an enormously steep hill which I usually carried him up since I felt the stroller was fairly bulky to take on the bus. The apartment wasn't well managed and was even on the news for not properly caring for its parking lot during a snow storm. People were literally trapped for weeks in their homes. It also had mold. We were young and those were the days of no food in the house and lights being turned off by the electric company. After a few years, and more financial stability, I decided that I wanted a little brother for my son. His tears whenever his older brother left convinced me it was the right decision, and we moved back in with my parents to save money till the baby came along...who turned out to be a sister. When she was two months old we moved to a two bedroom apartment in SeaTac where we lived for four years. I know what people think about SeaTac but I never felt unsafe there and I miss it often. My sons school was within walking distance, so was the 7/11 where we would get icees and red box movies every Friday. There was a park right in front of my window where I could watch my son play while I nursed my daughter. And there were tons of kids. I really loved that apartment. My husband on the other hand did not. He hated coming home after work and never finding parking...and many other things, but mostly that. I think it was also the point of just wanting to move forward in life, he was embarrassed of where we lived. So he bought us a house on the border of Federal Way and Auburn. It was the perfect area for me, less than 10 minutes to the mall, Walmart, Starbucks, Safeway, AND Winco which has the cheapest prices on groceries- bar none. Only about a 30 minute drive to Seattle, nice neighborhood, close to parks and schools. I liked living there. But after only two years, my husband decided that not only was it too small (by this time we'd had our 4th kid), now he wanted...FARM ANIMALS. Ok really? This was getting to be too much (I think you might see a pattern here, my husband CANNOT leave good enough alone). I literally contemplated telling him to go and leave me behind. It was hard enough for me moving so far outside of Seattle in the first place and now this guy was talking Enumclaw and Spanaway. NO NO NO. I became very depressed and told him that I was having doubts about our marriage. Never in my life did I imagine living out in the boonies with a bunch of farm animals. Did he know how much work that would be? And what about my career?, not that I really had one, but I planned to! Lastly, I was not sure we were financially ready for all that. But he was determined. I helped him find the right house and about two months after selling our first home, we bought a fixer upper on two and a half acres in Tacoma. Ten minutes from Puyallup, five minutes to the closest grocery store, but everything seems so far. My beloved Seattle is an hour away. Within a month he bought the animals. First pygmy goats, then pigs, chicks, and then came the horses. There have been several days that I feel like I live in a children's movie, chasing after mischievous animals that get out their pens and run down the street. I have to say its growing on me. But it took time. I rebelled at first, by not helping out and having a shitty attitude about everything, but you can only live that way for so long, right? Caring for the animals really isn't that bad, they know me and call me when I pass by (in their own baaing and neighing way). The kids love it, it's peaceful here and scenic enough to take pictures everywhere you look. I'm starting to think I'll probably survive, but I'm going to need some sturdier shoes...
Labels: that farm life
