Last month marked our tenth year of living on the farm in Wisconsin. I know it sounds trite, but it truly does not feel like a decade. A DECADE!
And that means 10 Christmases on the farm. I indulged in an entire afternoon of scrolling through the last 10 years of pictures and now that I’m a sloppy, emotional mess, I thought I’d share some of our highlights.
We started with no animals, then got our first 2 heifers Patsy and Loretta. We learned the lingo, grew our herd to 5 cows and all of their offspring. Through the past 8 years we witnessed the birth of 16 calves. We experienced the incredible and miraculous joy of an animal’s birth on our own farm and watched in disbelief as nature took over. We woke up to one of our first beloved cows dead in the pasture. We hobbled a momma who refused to nurse and watched her eventually overcome her resistance to becoming a mother. We learned to tube a calf and feed her with guidance from our vet and friends on Instagram.
We learned why people told us not to name our animals after deciding to sell most of our herd this past fall.
We learned about bees, started with 2 hives, grew to 6 and last year didn’t have any. We’ve learned how to capture a swarm, requeen a hive and extract and sell our own honey.
We asked for help and relied on our neighbors, family and both new and lifelong friends. We got help with cows, sick animals and swarming bees. We got even more help renovating our chicken house, cleaning the cow barn, planting flowers, weeding flowers, arranging flowers, parking, cleaning and setting up the event space.
We survived a polar vortex, flooded hydrants, a global pandemic, a dead well pump, blown out windows, lost LOTS of trees, sat in the basement for tornado warnings and witnessed what a TON of snow really meant. (I still hope for this every winter)
We knew we needed cats to help around the farm. I wanted at least 5, Anthony agreed to 3 and we then adopted 3 who ran away immediately. We learned another valuable lesson and listened to our neighbor about how he kept farm cats around. We adopted 3 more, lost Foxy to the road 4 years later, but still have Walter and Dusty living large in their own little barn.
We put up fencing, painted, power washed, painted, painted and are still painting. We re-roofed some of the buildings, put new doors on, rented all kinds of equipment and surprised ourselves by doing things we had no idea how to do. We battled asian lady beetles, corn borer beetles, raccoons and groundhogs.
We learned how to start seeds in the basement. We planted thousands of tulips, dahlias, sunflowers and every other kind of flower you can imagine. Anthony became a master of herb and vegetable gardening.
We sold at farmer’s markets, went to state and county fairs, canned and preserved everything in site and presented to a local 4H club
We had barn sales and yoga and flower arranging, photo shoots, jewelry making, family reunions, baby showers, graduation and birthday parties. We hosted plein air painting and even had a visit from Fox 6 in Milwaukee. We worked and worked to get approval from the township, county and eventually the state for a liquor license and our own event space.
We painted every single room in the house, remodeled the kitchen and pantry, wallpapered and added lighting. We survived a fire, moved out for 6 months, moved back in and redid everything all over again.
We finally got chickens! And got more and more until we had 70. We sold eggs, had an egg delivery route, nursed lots of chickens back to health and decided to scale back to just a handful.
We hosted friends from all over the the country, parties, girl’s weekends, Thanksgivings, family birthdays, and our own family reunions.
We lost our constant companion Gialla, and our cats Priscilla and Foxy. We got our beautiful new puppy, Eleanor
And we had Christmas. We decorated the barns, the house and even tried to decorate the cows. (They were, sadly, VERY unwilling.) We hosted parties, tried new recipes, gave the animals special treats and baked, cooked and indulged like we never had before.
And we REALLY lived. We have lived 5 lifetimes on this farm and were given such a gift with the opportunity to live here. We don’t take that for granted. It has been incredibly difficult, at times gut wrenching, while at the same time so happy and unbelievably rewarding. I cannot say enough about how much this farm means to us and how much it has changed our lives. It’s been the HARDEST thing we’ve ever done and the best decision either one of us has ever made.
Happy 10th Anniversary to Lucky Break Acres
We are SO excited to see what the next 10 years will bring, and thrilled that you will be along for the ride.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, sweet friends.
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