A Moving Column

We are moving. No, we are not moving away, just closer to the main part of our farm. I guess this is what I get for poking fun of my friends who have moved recently. I had always said that I was never moving again and the next time my stuff needed to be moved it was going to be the kid’s problem. The main lesson in all of this is to never say never.

We have lived at this house and on this farm for eighteen years and I always dreaded the thought of moving eighteen years of accumulated “stuff”. Keep in mind during the eighteen years we have raised two kids and accumulated their “stuff” too. In some ways, this might be the perfect time to move and down size a little. In my younger years, it appears I moved everyone to two years and it was a good way of purging things I did not need and I am admittedly a pack rat.

I am excited about the move. It will all work out much better. I will be a lot closer to the farm and travel much less each day. This will be especially important during calving season. What started as a wild and crazy idea now makes a lot of sense and will make life a lot better. That does not make the moving part any easier.

Sure, I am dreading the physical part of moving. In addition to our personal and household items, we have also accumulated a lot of equipment and other farm related things. Someone told me I needed to have a farm sale and let other people haul away things for me and start all over. That thought is very appealing but it took me eighteen years to find all this treasure. Why start over now?

No, the hardest part of this move is the mental part. All of us in agriculture understand the attachment to our land and it is hard for anyone outside of that to grasp. Over the past nearly two decades I have come to know every square inch of this farm and become very attached to it. Until the past two or three weeks, it had never occurred to me that I might leave it someday. Remember what I said about never say never.

Then the kids started talking to me about their memories of the house, barns and land. It is the only house Tatum has ever known and really the only one Isaac remembers. All their childhood memories are connected to this place and it makes moving bittersweet. Isaac’s first deer and turkey came from the timber. Buster, my bird dog, is buried up on the hill. Isaac pushed Tatum down the hill and over the creek bank in her little red wagon as Jennifer watched and tried to catch up (it is funny now, not so much back in the day).

I understand it is not that different from most people. Nearly everyone in our society moves many times in their lifetime and most several times during their childhood. My kids have been blessed and somewhat sheltered in that aspect. Farm kids never move, period. There is that never word again. Just like me moving had never crossed their mind, until it became reality. Farm kids grow up with the same attachment and deep love for farmsteads and land, I guess it is just bred into them as the children of farmers and ranchers.

Seeing the for-sale signs go up and working on the descriptions with the realtor really put a pain in my heart and kind of put me in a funk for a day or two. We had officially gone from kicking the idea around to this is going to happen. I admit it too some getting used too.

Please don’t misunderstand me., I am beyond excited about this move. Life will be so much easier when I can just pop over to my barns and check the ewe that is lambing. Right now, it is almost an hour round trip from my place to Dad’s. When we are lambing, and calving that just does not work very well. This move will be the best thing ever this winter when I don’t have to worry about the distance and how I am going to help Dad if we get a big snow storm. The miles, the time and the worry this move will save will all make it worth the effort, but in the meantime, I will have my moments.

So, if you are in the market for a great place that is peaceful and tranquil with some great qualities and even better memories to be made, let me know, I can fix you up. In the meantime, I will be boxing, sorting, packing and, even, throwing away the accumulated stuff from eighteen years’ worth of living. All the while reminding myself to never say never again.