Building Again!

 I'd love to keep the blog up to date, and I do have the pull to get back into it. Until then, I am posting daily updates on Instagram. 

Instagram Account

In 2020, we started our hunt for land to move our family and give the boys an experience of life at a slower pace. We found beautiful 90 acres and were so close to moving, but not everything was falling into place, so we decided to stop pushing the idea.

Creek on 90 acres

In 2022, we found another beautiful but smaller piece of land and this time, everything fell into place. We spent 2023 getting it ready to build a house and get it ready for animals. 

creek on 16 acres

We broke ground on the house in January and things are moving at a fast pace. We are using a lot of the same contractors, and adding some new ones. We are building using ICF again.

I also bought a drone so I could have my updated version of Google Earth. This has been especially helpful for landscape planning.

I'm excited to bring you along on this new journey!

Hobby Farm Dream

Hello!!! It has been a long while, and the last time I wrote it was about a hobby farm. Well … we are making it happen! Crazy!!!

The dream started so long ago when the boys were little. I wanted them to have the experience. But with Mom living with us, we didn’t want to uproot her, so we squashed the dream… temporarily. 

Mom moved back to FL and we started dreaming again. This was at the beginning of the market rise. The up side, was that land that had been owned for years, was becoming available. Land you thought would never be available. We had our search area wide: Tennessee, Alabama, anywhere within reasonable driving distance. Depending on the location and size, we would either relocate or just have it as a place to visit on the weekends or vacations. 

Mr. JCrew started dreaming of chickens and animals, but that would mean relocating. But we kept our options open. It really depended on what we were drawn to and what worked out.

Back in February of 2021, there was 90 acres we loved. It is a hilarious story about the process of almost having it. I’m surprised the sellers were so patient with our family. We even listed our home to sell, and we were going to relocate. We had an offer on the home and then … .silence. I can’t explain it. I still don’t have an answer. But it all happened for a reason. We begged to remove our listing; we were not going to move. The timing was not right. We were to stay where we were. In hindsight, we see all the positives of staying. This last year has been so rewarding for the boys. 

All of 2021 was wrapped up in making this work. At the end of 2021, we took a pause. We moved on with a plan to save money and wait our turn. We had faith our time would come and we would know when it was time. That’s when the land popped up. It was NOT in my search filter. It didn’t check all the boxes. I was being very picky, but I took a second look at the listing. I don’t know why I was looking either. The were some pluses about it. We visited and fell in love. Then we reached out to the seller. The more we learned, the more it became evident it was THE ONE. 

We went ahead and gave our land a name … ten16 Farms! Mr. JCrew came up with the name. He wanted something that had meaning for us. I plan to share more about the name on social media. We started an Instagram handle to provide up-to-date videos and pictures and use the blog for more information. I’m excited to write about our projects again. There will be SO MANY projects on the land. I can’t wait to share!