The dream…

I have always been a dreamer and promoted the idea that we should all follow our dreams.  Dreams are what keep me moving through life and a dream is what made Two Bridges Farm a reality.  As part of the new year I’d like to start blogging about the farm.  We are asked a lot of questions at the Farmer’s Markets and elsewhere and I felt this would be a great opportunity to open our doors and give you a peek at how we got here, what it is that we do, and why we do what we do.  In this blog we’ll be sharing what we do, i.e., how we raise our livestock and crops; why we've made many of the decisions we have; some of the challenges we face; and most importantly, the awesome successes we have along the way.  It is my hope that this will be a joyful journey for me and for you as the process unfolds.

And what better place to start then at the beginning where dreams really do come true…..

For several years my husband, Gary, and I dream't of having a small farm as part of our retirement.  We were a little vague about what we would do with this farm but definitely knew we wanted to live in the country, raise some sort of livestock and (being an avid gardener) have lots of gardens, both flower and vegetable. 

Back about three and a half years ago I received an email about a small farm in Louisburg, NC that was for sale.  I read the email, almost in disbelief, realizing that this was it, the farm we'd been dreaming of, and  something we could do now.  I showed the email to Gary and then quickly dismissed it as I was working from home as a consultant and needed high speed internet to do my job.  I was not sure I could get the internet speed I needed in the country.  Gary convinced me that it would be fun to take a look.  And so we did.  As we walked the property with the Realtor  I had a list of “requirements” that had to be met in order for us to pursue this venture, this dream, and  one by one the “requirements” were met.  WOW! Now we really had to decide on whether we would make this dream a reality, a bit earlier in our life that we originally thought.

Well…. We decided to go for it.  We made an offer on the farm (conditional of course on the sale of our home in Raleigh).  This was in 2008 when the housing market was slow but we were convinced we’d be able to sell our home and within 2 months we did.  Another WOW!  We were able to meet the conditions of our offer on the farm.  And off to the farm we went, hardly looking back...

At the time, we both had planned to keep our day jobs for a few years. Gary works at NC State and commutes daily, and I had my "work from home" consulting job.  This would give us time to do our homework, decide exactly what we wanted to raise, how to raise it, and what we wanted to do with what we raised.  In other words, how we wanted to move forward.

Well, as things would have it, things moved a little faster that we originally planned.  Next week I’ll talk a bit about how the leap to full time farming became a reality quicker than planned and how we've stumbled our way into full time farming.

Please forgive any grammatical, spelling or typing errors.  It’s never been my strength in writing or speaking and this is for my (and your) joy and entertainment so I’ll try not to let it get in our way.

Until next week…..

Ranell