We moved away from the family farm a little over 14 years ago. We gave up our dream of moving to the farm because my husband was offered a better job in Indianapolis, IN. So, there we lived in the suburbs of Indy for 13 years. During those 13 years we developed amazing friendships and our family had amazing opportunities such as playing in the school orchestra, wrestling, gym memberships, moms club, awesome neighborhood parties, restaurants and shopping galore and the list goes on. However, we always knew if it was possible we wanted to return to the family farm. We knew this because we made many trips home to help at the farm or hunt on the farm and our children loved it.
Fast forward to January of 2017 and our dream was finally coming true. Darin was offered a job as the Clay County Engineer which required that we live in Clay County. Thus began our adventure of returning to the family farm. To make this possible, we had to build a new house because there was not an existing house which meant I had to return to work full time to pay for the new house! I had only worked full time for a short period of time when living in the suburbs because Darin traveled so much that it made it difficult to keep up on everything while he was gone.
Darin started his job in February 2017 and we joined him Memorial Day weekend 2017. This was a massive life changing event for all of us. The kids started their new school in August 2017. I also started at my new school.
So, what do I mean by life changing? We moved from the suburbs and a school with graduating classes of 800 to a small rural community and a school with graduating classes of 40-50! The schools our children attended in the suburbs were literally 5-7 minutes from our house. Now the schools are 20 minutes by car and 1-1.5 hours by school bus. My job in the suburbs was 7 minutes from the house and now it is 35 minutes from the house. We had stores and restaurants within 5-10 minutes from our house. Now, the closest Walmart is 25 minutes away. Everything we do takes 2-3 times as long!
For those of you wandering, would we change it? No, not in a million years. Our oldest son is in love with the outdoors and always has been. Now he can hunt and fish to his hearts content. He has made more friends, real friends, here than he did in the 13 years in the suburbs. Our middle child, loves the farm. He loves planting, harvesting, raising goats and now raising cattle. Yes, we have only been here for 1 1/2 years and we have already had pigs, goats, cattle, 2 dogs, and a cat. Our daughter loves the outdoors as well. She loves both sides. She loves to hunt and fish and she loves raising her pigs and goats. Our world revolves around 4-H, farming, hunting, fishing, baseball, and basketball. It is challenging and rewarding! We miss our friends but we love our new life and I cannot wait to share our adventures with you.
Farming with the Koelms 