One Year Farm Review

It’s traditional to reflect on the coming year and make New Year’s Resolution. However, because we’ve owned the farm just over a year, I also thought it would be a great time to reflect on our first year of owning the property.

I’ve got to be honest, things have moved at a much slower pace than even I had anticipated. Being an immigration paralegal who works with a lot of federal government agencies, I’m used to things taking longer than expected. I routinely give my clients the worst case scenario for a timeline when submitting applications, because I know it’s better to be a little pessimistic than overly optimistic when it’s completely out of your hands. I felt I had done that with the farm, but apparently, I still was too optimistic.

Of course, there was no way to predict the long-term effects of Covid on everything, especially housing and/or material shortages, price hikes and busy contractors. Nor could we have ever predicted that our culverts would be blown out by historic rain falls, or our back and forth with the permitting office.

None of those things were predictable. Do we feel a little discouraged? Absolutely. Are we giving up? No.

It does mean we’ve had to adjust our vision and plans many times over the course of the year. Things aren’t going to move as fast as we would like and that’s okay. Also, our long term goals aren’t necessarily going to happen in a straight line either, and that’s okay. Anything worth your time and effort isn’t going to be easy. That’s a difficult truth and a wonderful reminder when your in the midst of the really hard effort.

And sometimes detours aren’t really detours at all. It was the way it was meant to be, we just had too narrow a vision of our plan. I mention this because we’ve made a detour, that honestly, makes a lot of sense and will benefit us in the long term.

I saw a new construction duplex for sale in a very rentable area and at a great price. I immediately thought this would be a great opportunity for us to create another stream of income, and it means we’ll have an asset to sell if we ever find ourselves in need of quick cash (such as unexpected medical expenses) without having to borrow against the farm. It creates an emergency fund while protecting our land. It’s also an investment in our retirement income as well.

So along with farm owners, we will be a landlord…again. We both have experience with rentals, as we’ve owned rental properties in the past.

While the idea was never to buy a duplex, it truly is a blessing in disguise. One that will help us create and protect all of our vision for the farm.

So where are we now? Here’s what we’ve been able to accomplish this past year:

-Several acres cleared and mulched

-excavation of the small stream in the front acreage

-rocks placed on part of the culvert to prevent erosion

-three culverts placed (the largest blew out)

-scheduled for culvert repair

-scheduled for a road to be built

-lots of research and knowledge gained

Here’s what we want to see happen in 2022:

-front acreage tilled, and evened

-fence built

-guest house built

-the front acreage planted and shaped for it’s ultimate purpose

-all permits for electric, septic and public usage obtained

We’ve learned so much over the past year, and we’re excited to see what the next year holds for us and the farm! Happy New Year!