week 27: curiosity at first sight

this week on the little dream farm

On July 4, 2021 at around 5:00 a.m. Chris and I were sitting on the couch drinking coffee in our Philadelphia row home cruising around on Zillow curiously looking for farms in the New England area.

This is the story about how we found the Little Dream Farm. But first, let’s go back in time to a few key moments leading up to this point.

A Few Years Prior

In 2018 we brought home our kitty, Boonce, as a foster for who we’d planned to try and find a perfect forever home. Because of some very strange litter box habits, we quickly learned our home was going to have to be that perfect home. She’d spent more than a year sitting in a cage at Morris Animal Refuge waiting for someone to want this senior sassy tortie cat, and we immediately knew that instead of looking for someone else to love her, that we already did.

It was Boonce who planted the seed in our hearts of wanting a farm. She sparked in us a little curiosity of what it might be like to get out of the city, to have more space to breathe, and maybe rescue more animals.

Fast forward to 2020 and me having some serious regret about passing on a big, beautiful home for rent outside the city in Collegeville, PA. The rent was far higher than what we were currently paying in the city but the house was incredible and had a nice, big yard. We’d ultimately decided that staying put and saving the extra money was the more practical move, but it took me a bunch of days to come to terms with that. It’s funny thinking about that now in hindsight.

That Year

In 2021 we got bit by the curiosity bug of what it might be like to rent a farm, if that was at all possible. Our search took us in almost every direction outside of Philadelphia as we looked at all kinds of different farms, all of which turned us down because we had six cats in tow. We’d sort of put the dream of a farm aside and wondered if we should just stay in the city another year.

The Week Prior

On June 26, 2021 we drove down to Beach Plum Farm in Cape May, NJ. I shared this post on Instagram:

“After spending so many years in the city, I daydream about selling all our stuff, building a small farm on some land and escaping to a slower, more intentional life, connected to the earth, the animals, and sharing that with people who crave the same.”

Six Days Prior

June 28, 2021. I’m at my best friend’s bridal shower in Carlisle, PA and I’m in the kitchen helping her family prep for the event when they start talking about a gorgeous nearby farm that went up for sale in their area.

I start a little conversation on the side with her brother while we’re making up a charcuterie board about how I’m really feeling like Chris and I are ready to find our farm and ready to make the jump to farm living. I said I was curious to look at that farm they were talking about but never ended up pursuing it.

The Night Before

On the evening of July 3rd we happened to be at home and on Zillow climbing the map and looking at places in the New England area. We found a farm in New Hampshire and a farm in Vermont that we were interested in seeing and traded emails with one realtor and phone calls with another but got cold feet and decided not to pursue them.

I just went back through our old email exchanges of those two farms and looked through the photos again. What a wild experience that is to think about how different our lives would be now had we chosen either one of those farms.

That Morning

July 4, 2021. Chris got me curious to really start looking for places in that region of the country, as we’d have to sign the paperwork in just a few weeks to commit to another year of rent in Philly in order to renew our lease. We’d considered moving to Colorado (at the time Chris’ dad lived outside of Denver) and we looked at places in Florida, too (my mom lives there) but Chris felt really tied to Upstate New York/New England because of the climate and for the fact that there’s so much to do.

Always up early, at this point we’re both on Zillow on our laptops looking around at places and showing them to each other as we find them. And then, there it was. Up pops this photo in the right hand viewfinder of an aerial image of rolling hills, red barns, a little home, and hay bales dotting the fields.

“Oh my God!” I said to Chris. “You have to see this place!”

I have the same feeling looking at these listing photos now as I did when I first saw the farm.

This was the farm’s description:

Interested in a small working organic farm? Ready to expand your gardening, raise animals, or simply love admiring your pond, hiking and reflecting? This beautiful sustainable farm is located in the heart of the lush rolling hills of farming country yet minutes to the quaint village. Two barns, chicken coop, electric fencing, developed gardens, pasture and hayfields, orchard, woods, a pond, and views of the Green Mountains. There is cleared pasture and room for large growing areas. The tidy and efficient home has been well cared for including many improvements and updates to the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, roof, well, with solar panels which supply all the power. Several stunning building sites. Excellent Condition.

I text my sister. It goes like this:

Jackie saved this text conversation too and sent it to me exactly one year later on our 1 year anniversary of finding the farm.

Chris and I decided to put in a request for a showing and we headed out to the gym. On our walk home, we get a call from a local realtor who says he can show it the very next day. Chris wasn’t able to go because it was too last minute for work and because Boonce was having a pretty off day, but I had a military Family Day because of the holiday weekend and would be able to make the 4 hour drive from Philly.

I call my mom next and tell her about the farm and show her the photos. She (btw, my mom is a medium) couldn’t stop talking about how she had this feeling there was something very healing about the land.

Was it love at first sight, finding the farm? Initially, from the photos and description, yes. More accurately, I say it was Curiosity at First Sight, actually seeing the farm in real time, because it was such a big decision for us.

They’d already had several showings and were due to show it again that coming weekend, and the offers on the farm would be competitive. We knew we only had a day or two to make a decision, and my mind was all over the place.

I saw the farm that Monday, loved it, and then drove to the Walgreens on the main street in the village and called Chris from the parking lot.

“I love it. But it’s so far away. And we don’t know anyone here. And this town feels so unfamiliar. And what if we make the wrong choice?”

By the time I’d driven the four hours home I’d overthought it to death and backed out of wanting to pursue it and told Chris as much. That night, Chris said that he was sad that I hadn’t called with raving excitement because he was really wanting us to go for it.

I’d put my focus on Boonce when I got home, we slept on it that night, and the next morning my mind was spinning.

What if this is the right farm? What if this is the perfect town? What if this is the perfect time? What if we never find another farm like this…at this price…in this location…with this many wonderful features that we care about?

I went for a walk and called my mom to clear my head and then came home and Chris and I sat down to make our final decision.

We arrived at this conclusion: At the end of the day, what’s the absolute worst thing that could happen? The only reasonable answer we could come up with was that maybe we decide we don’t love it and then break even or lose money when we sell.

So we asked ourselves, is that so bad that we’d pass up an opportunity like this?

Ultimately, we decided life is short, nothing is promised, and if we stayed in the city another year we knew exactly what we were getting. If we took the leap and chose the farm, though, it could change absolutely everything.

We found the farm on a Sunday. I saw the farm on Monday. We made the decision on Tuesday. We were under contract on Thursday.

And as I sit here at the kitchen table recounting this to you I’m looking at Molly-Max and Dominic out in the pasture. Little Lady was just wiggling her butt like she was trying to chase after one of the hens from inside as she walked by the patio door. Black Kitty is sleeping on an ottoman on the patio. Black and White Kitty is sleeping on the rocking chair inside. The windows in the house are all open, the sun is shining, and I just got done mowing part of the lawn. David was here visiting us last week. And our fruits, veggies, and flowers are all growing in the gardens. Pop and Mary are across the street. A handful of our friends here live just down the road. And we know so many lovely people in this familiar little town we now call home.

And Boonce…she’s laid to rest at the front of the Big Garden, her permanent place in the sun on the very farm she inspired and enjoyed almost three really good months on.

Life is funny like that. That you can still make good decisions in spite of yourself. If it had only been up to me, I fear I’d have blown it. Thankfully Chris has a more level head and my family a supportive and encouraging nudge.

This moment…me sitting here telling you this story now, couldn’t have existed if we’d somehow let my fears run the show.

David had the hunch to sell the farm years before he ever actually made the moves to follow through. I often think about all the unseen things that were happening in his and mine and Chris’ lives that connected all the dots for us. There’s so many teeny tiny things that had to happen for it all to align like this.

So when David stood in the front yard with me during the home inspection process and said to me in front of both our realtors, “When I’d finally made the decision to sell this farm I walked the farm and said aloud to the trees and the land, ‘Please send someone who will steward this place as I have,’ and then you and Chris appeared and I knew that you were the ones,” I cried tears of comfort and peace, knowing deep in my soul we’d made the right decision.

When I asked David, “I saw that you had a farm sign holder down at the front of the farm but no farm sign. If you’d have given this farm a name, what would you have called it?” and he said to me, “I always wanted to call it, ‘The Little Dream Farm,’” I instantly thought of my father, who passed away in 2018.

It was he and my mom’s little retirement dream to one day buy a pre-fab house and put it on a big piece of land but they never quite got there before my dad sadly passed.

The LDF is a 1500 square foot manufactured home on 58 acres.

It was David’s little dream to buy a farm and raise Brown Swiss Cows, and he did.

It was Jay and Linda’s little dream, who lived here before David, to raise their family and rescue horses on this farm, and they did.

It was our little dream to find a farm, get out of the city, find more space to breathe, and rescue more animals. And we have.

Yes, we’re living our dream…and in some ways it feels like we’re living my parents dream, too, In some ways it feels like we’re carrying forward the dreams of the families and farmers who came before us here on this very farm.

As a culture we’re obsessed with romance and intimacy and stars flying and butterflies and bursts of passion and love at first sight.

But sitting here, three years later on the LDF…on this little farm of our dreams, I sure am glad for my quiet curiosity at first sight. Certainly in our wildest imagination we couldn’t have dreamed up a journey or a love like this.

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In case you missed last week’s Farm Note, in it I shared with you the complete list of all of the Sarah’s Favorites installments since we started this feature in November 2023. Now, instead of going back and trying to find links within each Farm Note, I’ve compiled it all into one, categorized, organized list that you can shop as you please! I’ll continue building this list and plan to keep it in a permanent place here on our Substack so be on the lookout for that!

Here’s the Complete List of Sarah’s Favorites for your shopping enjoyment!

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