Returning to the Farm!

"Picture this: you're living in a city where grabbing a forgotten item from the store is a minor inconvenience, and neighbors are only an arm's length away, ready to lend a cup of sugar. Now imagine trading that spontaneous, bustling life for the serenity of the countryside, where you're surrounded by rolling hills and friendly cows, not convenience stores. We reflect on our big move back to rural living after five years in town, sharing heartwarming tales of community support and the unexpected challenges that come with a longer drive to the nearest gas station. It's a journey that takes us back to our college days, where borrowing from neighbors in apartment complexes was as simple as knocking on a door.

Is the slower pace of country life worth the trade-off for the spontaneous joys of city living? We weigh the pros and cons, reminiscing about the bonds formed in our urban neighborhood and the unique sense of community we found in the countryside. There’s a special beauty in knowing your neighbors, whether in town or out in the country, and we shine a light on the intentional decision to embrace the rural lifestyle. From longer drives to the irreplaceable peace and privacy, the contrasting dynamics of both environments make for a thoughtful conversation about where we truly feel at home.

Our rural adventures don't stop there – we dive into our experiences of homesteading and the sheer joy of raising livestock, even when facing challenges like unexpected wildlife encounters. Farming has taught us life's most valuable lessons and the magic of being connected to the land and seasons. We also share a preview of our Substack newsletter, filled with gardening tips and personal stories, aiming to inspire others to live intentionally and harmoniously with nature. Whether you're dreaming of country living or simply curious, join us as we explore the deeper connections that come with embracing the rural life."

Another doozy AI description. Thanks Jenkins.

Find us Elsewhere:
Instagram - @_ACommonLife - Morgan
Community Newsletter - The Common

DM us on the Socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co

Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:10

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of A Common Life Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor, and I'm here with my co-host and beautiful bride Morgan.

Speaker 2 0:19

Hello.

Speaker 1 0:21

And in this episode we're going to be talking about moving back to the country Country mouse. Yeah country, mouse town mouse. We were living in town for about five years. We just moved back out to the country. We thought we'd give everybody an update, talk a little bit about the pros and the cons and, yeah, go from there from there.

Speaker 3 0:46

Okay, before we do that, I do want to let everyone know about the advent calendar yeah, I think you should do that, okay.

Speaker 3 0:53

so we have friends. If you're local to huntsville, you know them, you love them. Um, piper and leaf Piper and Leaf tea company. So they have made this advent calendar that is so beautiful and it's the most well done advent calendar I've ever seen and just unique and different because it's not just a book. You know, you open it up and it looks like it's like a okay, looks like it's a box. You open it up, it looks like two bookshelves. It has every day on the spine of a book and then you take out the date and inside is two tea bags and then it's like songs. There's a QR code. There's a QR code.

Speaker 1 1:44

It takes you to an interactive post online.

Speaker 3 1:47

Yeah, and it'll either be a hymn or a Christmas book or something. And if you don't have that specific thing, you just go to the QR code and it says you dive deeper there, but it'll give you an activity to do with your family or a reading that you guys do together. And then the two tea bags you can either steep both together and make a big pot of tea for everyone or you can have it on your own. You know, anyways, there's, it's just so cool and I'm really excited about it. And so if you guys want to check it out, you go to piperandleafcom and it's right there on their homepage, and then when you check out, just use the promo code common 10 and you'll get 10% off. And you have to order by the 24th the 24th to get it on December 1st, when Advent starts.

Speaker 1 2:40

Yeah, Pretty sure about that. Yeah, our kids are going to love it. And it's cool you get to taste a new tea every day.

Speaker 3 2:46

Yeah, there's some in there I haven't had.

Speaker 1 2:48

Right and, like I said, our kids love teas, all teas Piper and Leaf Teas are awesome, so we'll get to have a different tea every day. Do a little activity. We've really enjoyed Advent. Doing Advent, particularly at night, and trying to keep our schedules and calendars as clear as possible, because the season just goes so fast and it's like a blur. And so doing the Advent calendar and lighting a candle at night and singing, and to be able to do that you have to really intentionally clear your calendar.

Speaker 1 3:29

You can't be going to and fro all the time.

Speaker 3 3:33

So we're starting basketball. Oh we are starting basketball.

Speaker 2 3:38

We have no activities.

Speaker 1 3:40

Practices are going to be pretty early, I think.

Speaker 3 3:42

Yeah, they are.

Speaker 1 3:43

So we'll be able to get back, because we're not driving two minutes to practice anymore.

Speaker 2 3:50

True, which is what we're talking about?

Speaker 1 3:52

Yeah, yep.

Speaker 3 3:55

Yeah, it's a. It's different, it's different.

Speaker 1 4:01

So you want to start talking about it.

Speaker 3 4:03

Sure, yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1 4:05

Okay, well, I thought we'd talk maybe about the pros, the cons.

Speaker 3 4:11

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You want to go good or bad first. Pro or con? Let's go bad, okay, okay. So I think one of the hardest things for me is that you can't just run to the store.

Speaker 1 4:28

No.

Speaker 3 4:29

There's no like we forgot the ketchup, but let me tell you we do have Mimi.

Speaker 1 4:34

Hey, Mimi is basically a local store.

Speaker 3 4:36

She is a local store.

Speaker 1 4:38

I don't think she listens to the podcast, but she's a lifesaver.

Speaker 3 4:41

She's our neighbor. We're like God. There was like three things last week. What did she bring up?

Speaker 1 4:46

here for me an onion there's always ketchup yeah, there's no telling she got, I think she buys extra stuff just for us when we call her yeah, probably so she's like, so that's nice but can I tell you a funny story?

Speaker 3 5:02

yeah, so when.

Speaker 1 5:03

So when I was growing up, we lived on Dead End Street in Hartford, alabama, and I thought it was normal to like, if you run out of sugar, you need some sugar, you need something. But instead of going to the store, you just go ask your neighbor, like, hey, we knew our neighbors. Of going to the store. You just go ask your neighbor, like, hey, we knew our neighbors. So when I went to college I lived with my buddy, harrison, and we live in this apartment complex called the brooks in auburn and we if, like my freshman sophomore year, if we ever ran out of something, we'd go to our neighbor.

Speaker 1 5:48

Just knock on the next apartment Knock on their door and we'd ask them for stuff, because that's normal right.

Speaker 3 5:53

Right right.

Speaker 1 5:54

The only problem is these two girls never spoke to us. They didn't know us. The only time they spoke to us is when we were knocking on their door asking for mustard, mustard or like a couple eggs, because we were trying to bake something you know did they tell you off?

Speaker 3 6:10

no, they were super kind.

Speaker 1 6:12

They were just like uh sure, yeah, go get us a couple eggs thanks.

Speaker 3 6:17

You probably should have been like what's your name or nah. Probably that would have been really nice. I mean, I'm sure we did.

Speaker 1 6:24

We said hey we were nice, we were what's your name? Nah, probably that would have been really nice. I mean, I'm sure we did. We said, hey, we were nice, we were nice guys. Yeah, they were just like yeah, that's really funny.

Speaker 3 6:38

I'm overly comfortable. Actually got in trouble this last week for well. I just I always commandeer things from my parents house, especially now that we live out here. If I forget something or my kids are hungry, we're going by mom and dads and we're raiding the pantry and we're you know that's the first thing I do every time I go to your parents house, which is pitiful because they never have anything they don't have food.

Speaker 1 7:08

But that makes it exciting because it's like if there is something gold, it's exciting yeah yeah, I open their fridge every time and I'm always disappointed but sometimes you're not. Maybe that's the fun of it maybe that's the fun of it, but they know when you take it, because there's only like five things in there. If it happens to be good, you know.

Speaker 3 7:30

Yeah Well, halloween I particularly I borrowed one of Maggie's dresses so I could be Melania, because I don't have a Melania looking dress.

Speaker 1 7:42

She didn't need it.

Speaker 3 7:43

She's got so many dresses anyway, but she saw the pictures and she was like excuse me, that's my dress.

Speaker 1 7:50

That was Maggie's dress. I thought that was your mom's dress, maggie's dress.

Speaker 3 7:56

Anyway.

Speaker 1 7:57

Anyway. So one of the downsides is we cannot just get out scoot toot and boot to a grocery store, you gotta go go.

Speaker 3 8:05

I mean, the closest store is a dollar general listen, it's bad the kinds of people you see in the dollar yeah, I don't want to talk bad about people, but it is. It is like I don't know if it's just that's what I wonder, though is it just ours? I think we should maybe go to more in other places.

Speaker 1 8:24

I mean it is, it's rough, this specific one.

Speaker 3 8:27

I'm telling you it's depressing. Not a lot of teeth, not a lot of sunshine, not a lot of clothes.

Speaker 1 8:38

I mean, you just never know what you're going to see in there.

Speaker 3 8:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:42

You know, it's really bad I need Jesus' heart for those people.

Speaker 3 8:50

I know, you know, yeah.

Speaker 1 8:53

Yeah, make America healthy again Is gonna be. We need that. So bad Rural. Alabama needs that.

Speaker 3 9:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:03

They need to be made healthy again. So Dollar General is like what Alabama needs that, yeah, they need to be made healthy again, mm-hmm. So Dollar General is like what? It's like at least 17 minutes away, so that's over half an hour there and back.

Speaker 3 9:15

Have you run out of gas yet?

Speaker 1 9:17

Not yet, but I have pushed it to the limit. I'm going past the last line, oh, Taylor that's. Past the last line multiple times, so nerve-wracking. Yeah, yeah, you don't want to run out of gas. I mean, you don't want to push it out here in the valley.

Speaker 3 9:33

No, you don't.

Speaker 1 9:34

Zero gas station. That's the closest one.

Speaker 3 9:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:37

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 9:38

Can't forget.

Speaker 1 9:40

So the downside of living in the valley is the distance from everything.

Speaker 3 9:43

Yeah, the driving the distance. I think having a whole, you know this could go pro or con depending on who your neighbors were, but we had a pretty sweet street and just like a whole, a full neighborhood of people that are all different ages and life stages and, like today, we had to stop by our old house and Fred's out putting his Christmas lights out.

Speaker 1 10:15

Yeah, he is, he does it big. You can see that thing from space. Does it big, or he's like walking cha-cha Every year he says I ain't doing this again, and the next year he's after it, getting after it.

Speaker 3 10:27

Yeah, he's got to do it, but it's like those things are still happening, even though we're not there to see them.

Speaker 1 10:34

Oh yeah, you know, of course, I saw Miss Marjorie today.

Speaker 3 10:37

Yeah.

Speaker 1 10:38

Sweet Miss Marjorie. I miss the neighbors. That was the best part about it, Mm-hmm For sure they were awesome they were. That's what life's all about, too is community, is people.

Speaker 2 10:51

It is yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 10:55

I think a lot of times people don't you know, people don't know their neighbors anymore. It's sad, it is sad.

Speaker 1 11:09

Yeah, on Woodmont, though, we got out, we knew a good chunk of our neighbors the people that want to be known get to know them. And then there's a few that are just like, eh, we're okay, we don't really want to know y'all, I miss them. Yeah, me too. We don't really want to know y'all, I miss them.

Speaker 3 11:24

Yeah, me too.

Speaker 1 11:24

We'll still be going back. Woodmont has a. Woodmont was the name of the street we lived on. It has an amazing Resurrection Day party Egg toss, banging on pianos.

Speaker 3 11:36

Strawberry daiquiris.

Speaker 1 11:38

Strawberry daiquiris. Good times, we'll be there. Yeah, see everybody. So it's definitely a con of living out here in the country is to travel. Not everybody that lives in the country has to drive so far for stuff. You know they have dollar generals now in every corner. Yeah, but we're not going to get one up here in the valley. We don't want one, honestly.

Speaker 3 12:02

No, we don't, we don't, but we're not going to get one up here in the Valley. We don't want one honestly. No, we don't, we don't, but we're really. I mean, for people who live in the city that are driving their kids to school or in work traffic, they'll be driving just about as much as we would be, you don't think?

Speaker 1 12:20

Well, relatively speaking speaking, you know people drive. Yeah, back when I was recruiting, people would drive 45 minutes an hour to get to work. You know, yeah, I mean if you live in country countries, if you live in cities outside of huntsville, but you got a manufacturing job in Huntsville, you drive, people drive to do that. And we were just so spoiled. I mean we lived right smack dab in the middle of the city.

Speaker 3 12:52

Right there.

Speaker 1 12:57

And now you know it's 35 minutes door to door. Virginia was saying on the way home from basketball practice. She was like some of my friends, if they knew where we lived we'd be driving out here and they'd be like are you sure we're going to the right?

Speaker 2 13:15

spot.

Speaker 1 13:19

Yeah, but you know we'd lived out here previously, so we lived out here for like five years. We moved into town 2019, five years Now we just moved back, so we knew what we were moving back to.

Speaker 2 13:29

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 13:30

And it wasn't a decision made lightly. No, it wasn't it was multiple years that we knew it wasn't long. We were living in town and we were like, all right, we're going to go back, we're going to be on land somewhere Might not be back at the farm, which is where we are. We looked at other places and prayed, so we moved back, knowing that the trip, the travel, was going to be a thing and you really just have to take it. It's just part of the package.

Speaker 2 13:57

Yeah.

Speaker 1 13:57

And I was thinking about it, you know. I mean, wherever you are, there's going to be pros, there's going to be cons, whether you're living in the hood, right in the middle of the city, suburbia or the country. There will be redeeming qualities wherever you are, and there will also be things that aren't great.

Speaker 2 14:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:15

You know trade-offs and we decided that you know the trade-off here is we're going to have to drive, we'll spend more time in the car, which is annoying.

Speaker 3 14:29

Yeah, but it also.

Speaker 1 14:32

But what else? Are there any other cons? Because before I switch and be like but we get this Like, is there anything else that you put down as cons?

Speaker 3 14:38

I just put, you know, like the last minute plans that are kind of spontaneous and fun, like y'all come over or like, yeah, let's go grab dinner. I mean we really didn't do that a whole lot as far as like let's go grab food, but I think that we did have. I mean, I remember being out here for the first time and saying, man, I just want someone to drop in.

Speaker 3 15:08

You know, somebody drop in. And then after we were right where everybody was and people just kept dropping in, I was like I'm done with people dropping in, don't be dropping in. You bought me a sign because it was when Wheeler was a baby and Moose was a baby Yep and Moose was still alive.

Speaker 1 15:26

Yep Rest in peace. 175-pound Ridgeback.

Speaker 3 15:31

Man, and did we have bear at the time?

Speaker 1 15:33

Probably.

Speaker 3 15:33

Yes, so someone would come.

Speaker 1 15:41

I mean, even if it was just, I mean we did have people come knock on the door.

Speaker 3 15:45

That were trying to sell us Google Fiber, trying to sell us dad gum, who knows what, and waking up my babies Super annoying.

Speaker 1 15:54

Now it's armadillos and it's.

Speaker 3 15:56

Bear and his yapping. I know Mimi did call me the other day and say is everything okay up there? I just hear Bear going crazy. Good grief, everything okay up there. I just hear bear she's going crazy. Yeah, good grief, um, but anyway, those like last minute spontaneous plans, or someone is like, hey, I really need to talk to you for me.

Speaker 1 16:13

She can hear bear. She can probably hear me when I'm yelling carrying on anyway, I'm sorry. What are you saying?

Speaker 3 16:21

I was saying that, like those last minute plans, yeah. Or like hey, I need to talk to you, can I come sit on your porch? None of that, that doesn't happen. You're not doing that. Yeah yeah, that was my last con.

Speaker 1 16:40

Yeah, I was going to say maybe if there was a con, you know it's community.

Speaker 3 16:52

You know you miss out a little bit. Yeah, we have a bunch of our really close family, families that we're really close to live like basically within a mile of each other, which is pretty.

Speaker 1 17:01

oh well, one lives like two houses down and the rest of them are all in the southern kind of part of town. Super quick, get to them. Yeah, not us.

Speaker 3 17:12

No, but here's how I think of it. So are we moving to pros?

Speaker 1 17:21

Well, yeah, well, when we moved out here the first time, um, let's talk a little bit about that. The difference between living out here now we've only been out here, what three months give or take, um, but the difference between living out here now and when we lived out here the first time Because you know it's different now with traveling, eh, kind of not really Traveling is the same.

Considerations for Country Living

Speaker 2 17:57

But community is different.

Speaker 1 17:58

The first time we lived out here, we were young, married with a baby.

Speaker 2 18:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1 18:08

And you were pregnant with our second. So then we had like a one-year-old, three-year-old out here and you were super lonely.

Speaker 2 18:19

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 18:21

And we hadn't really made our connections. We hadn't really made our connections, we hadn't really established our community. And so when you live out in the country and you don't have that to go into town for, or you know what I mean- right you're trying to make it. You're trying. And you were a new mom, mm-hmm, that was really hard.

Speaker 2 18:44

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 18:46

So I think my suggestion to people who are thinking about you know, because a lot of people are wanting it feels like in our circles at least, there's this glamour or this appeal to live on some land, to move out, you know, to be in the country, homestead, homestead, homestead. And I think if you have an established community, you know, and you've lived in the city for a few years or your whole life or whatever, and you know your people, then, yeah, take a little risk, go out and get you a little piece of land, do the homestead thing. But if you're moving to a new town and you don't know anyone and you're trying to build a life there, it might be not a bad idea to rent in town, build some connection, get to know the people, the culture and then find some land further away once you're more established.

Speaker 3 19:48

That's good yeah.

Speaker 1 19:51

So it's hard to move to a new place and live out in the country, far away from everything.

Speaker 2 19:59

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 20:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:02

If you don't have a community already.

Speaker 3 20:04

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's move into the pros okay I was just gonna say a pro as far as, like, the whole dropping in thing is like. When people do come out here, I feel like they have an experience that it's like I make sure I've got some good food going. You know, they're coming in their being for a little bit.

Speaker 1 20:36

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:36

And everyone's always like man, it's so quiet and like it's memorable you know, yeah, and I like fostering that kind of feel, feel and just the idea that it will be less surface and more of like deeper connection with the community

Speaker 1 21:06

yeah well for me, I think that one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to be out here so that the kids can be in the woods can be in the woods yeah, kids can be in the woods and they can just go out and roam and play and as they grow, they'll be able to have those experiences, especially since you know this is your family's land and it was here. It was like man, let's take advantage of that. And I know people would tell us, you know people would say, well, you could go out there on the weekends. And one of the things for us is that we wanted to put down roots.

Speaker 2 21:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1 21:51

And like steward the land kind of thing, have animals and do the homestead kind of thing. And so another thing that is a huge pro for me, and I'll just say it it's like privacy, privacy. And when I'm in town, you know, on our house at Woodmont, it's like at any point in time I could see at least seven houses in my backyard.

Speaker 2 22:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1 22:23

I could count seven houses, that's true. There was not a single place on our entire property in town that I could relieve myself outside. As I'm working. You know I'm working hard. I'm a man. It's my God-given right to be able to, just as I'm working on my property, to be able to relieve myself outside. I'm not trying to be crude, I'm just saying Wheeler and Wendell didn't have any problem doing that. Well, no, they didn't have any problem doing that, no, they didn't, but I did.

Speaker 3 22:58

I could not, nowhere.

Speaker 1 23:01

Is that truly bothers you? It did. It just didn't feel right, it didn't feel natural To be like, literally, in my backyard I can see seven houses and you know, out here there's just, it's just more private and I don't have to like close my windows at night. You know, you remember being in town. You just get, you know you close my windows. It's dark, you close your windows. There's plenty of people can see in Right right here. We don't have shades on any of our windows. Nobody's looking at. We got a long driveway.

Speaker 1 23:36

It's just private, yeah, and I feel like there's a big buffer around us and you know it's nice it is I like that maybe it's not for everybody. Some people love living in the city and being all around people, and we're talking about Huntsville, alabama, so is it in a Chicago, new York kind of thing? I mean, clearly that's not for me.

Speaker 2 24:03

Right Sorry.

Speaker 3 24:06

You could never navigate those roads.

Speaker 1 24:14

Yeah, it's brutal Golly, but if you're wondering the automatic AI cars, robot cars, can't get here fast enough for me.

Speaker 3 24:21

If you're wondering, I am the better driver of the two of us. Just in case you're wondering.

Speaker 1 24:28

Man city. Driving at night is brutal for me. In a town I'm not familiar with, it's like I have to. Everybody's got to be quiet. I need my navigator and I need to be focused 100%.

Speaker 2 24:43

Sad.

Speaker 1 24:43

People are going to be taking my keys when I'm in my 50s Golly, golly, but I love the space and I love being able to work outside and just work on the farm.

Speaker 3 25:00

Yeah, so good.

Speaker 1 25:07

It's really really good for my soul and being able to be outside and see the kids running and playing in the woods barefoot.

Speaker 2 25:16

It's really good.

Speaker 3 25:19

Yeah, I said, it does just feel slower and it kind of forces you to decide what you really want to commit to. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 25:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:34

Like it's not just like sure, yeah, we could do that. It's like we have to actually think like is that something we're willing to give up time to do?

Speaker 1 25:47

Yeah, Because anything we do do we have to drive forward. It's going to take up a lot of time. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2 25:54

Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 25:54

Because anything we do do we have to drive for it, it's going to take up a lot of time.

Speaker 3 25:58

Is that what you're saying, mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, feels more like a sacrifice, I guess.

Speaker 2 26:01

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 26:05

Also fire.

Speaker 1 26:08

Fires, mm-hmm. Yeah, we have a nice fireplace.

Speaker 3 26:13

Mm-hmm, Even just like fire pit yeah we have a nice fireplace.

Speaker 1 26:18

Even just like fire pit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is super quiet out here.

Speaker 3 26:22

Super quiet. It's super quiet. Oh, the rain Super nice.

Speaker 1 26:26

It's nice, super quiet, and then when it's rainy? It's super nice. We have a tin, super quiet, and then when it's rainy, it's super nice. We have a tin roof on the porch and it is loud.

Speaker 3 26:36

You can't really even have a conversation if you're on the porch, if it's really coming down, it's loud. Forget it. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 26:47

Yeah, I mean, the opportunity is also we can have animals out here and that's something we want. I get a lot of satisfaction around having a garden and also managing land, thinking about managing the woods, managing a pasture, those kind of things, growing an orchard and doing like you know just the other day yesterday. I seeded clover, I drilled clover into our pasture and into the orchard, and it was just so fun yeah.

Speaker 1 27:19

I can't wait to see that clover come up. Yeah, satisfying, very satisfying. And I can't wait to have you know some type of livestock. Whether it be a dairy cow, just a few sheep you know out there on the pasture. Whether it be a dairy cow, just a few sheep, you know out there on the pasture and rotate them around and figure out the right rotational schedule and, you know, get the most out. Like that's so exciting to me.

Speaker 3 27:43

You love. I mean, it's what you love to learn about.

Speaker 2 27:48

I can't wait to try my hand at it.

Speaker 1 27:50

Hmm, I can't wait to try my hand at it. Hmm, I can't wait to try my hand at it.

Speaker 3 27:53

Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say we've never had, except for, like our first experience on a farm that we were working, we had goats, yeah, and that didn't turn out well.

Speaker 1 28:10

Well, didn't the cougar got one Mountain? Lion Mountain, lion got one, then we had to put the other one down.

Speaker 3 28:16

No, there was three and it got two, and then we had to shoot one, oh yeah, and then we put it in stew.

Speaker 1 28:25

We did All right. So the story with the mountain lion was Northern California.

Speaker 1 28:33

Northern California, northern California, we had three of them, three goats, and I don't remember if it was the first one or the second one, but we go down this long road in between mountains and there's this field and the horses are in the back. So you kind of have to go around what was the garden and get down to where the horses are in the back, and the horses were way up in the front of the field and the horses would kind of come out and graze. We didn't even have like a pen for them really. They would just gang out and I mean there's really nowhere for them to go. They weren't going to climb up the mountains or anything, and we didn't have any neighbors out there either, and so but they had.

Speaker 1 29:20

They had come way up and I was like that's weird, what are they doing up here?

Speaker 1 29:26

and they just you know acting very strange yeah, very strange, which is kind of funny, you know. So I look forward to getting animals. It's nice having animals around because you get to know them, they have personalities. And then, yeah, and these horses, we kind of got to know them a little bit and all of a sudden their just behavior was erratic and I'm like what is going on? This is so weird.

Speaker 1 29:57

And then we go down to this open air barn where, if you can imagine, you know it's got the center of it and then it makes like an eight, it's like a. It comes to an a. Well, there's a point in the middle and then it comes down and there's like stalls on the side and like a breezeway in the middle, but it's all open air. And on the back side it it was the pen that we had the goats in and it was just eerie and the goats were two of the goats, I think it was two of them were standing in the corner, not moving. They were just like in shock. They were just like standing there there, like huddled up together, like they had just seen a murder take place because they had, because they had yeah, we saw the carcass of this this goat like pulled through the fence and it had gotten stuck, mm-hmm, couldn't get it out, oh and it was a mountain lion and Made its circle.

Speaker 1 30:59

Which, yeah, took about three weeks. Came back and we knew, you know it was going to come back. But they have a huge range and, yeah, we didn't know what to do. I mean, you can't really legally kill them. I don't think.

Speaker 3 31:18

No.

Speaker 1 31:19

And even if we were going to try, you didn't know when it was going to come back and you really didn't want to be down in the barn. Shoot. Yeah, it was kind of sketchy. So yeah, it did. It came back, it got him another one and then we were like all right, we can't let this happen again. So we had to put the other one down.

Speaker 3 31:40

And that was our only experience with livestock. Yeah, so hopefully the next round will go better.

Speaker 1 31:53

I'm so excited about getting some animals.

Speaker 3 31:57

Well, we've had chickens, that doesn't really count.

Speaker 1 31:59

And bees.

Speaker 3 32:01

And bees.

Speaker 1 32:04

So it feels like animals are kind of far away, though we just I feel like we're going to make some.

Speaker 3 32:09

Well, you're just.

Speaker 1 32:12

Got to build the barn. Got to build the barn.

Speaker 3 32:13

Got to build the barn so much build and projects.

Speaker 1 32:17

Projects All right. Well, I don't know, did we properly weigh it? I mean, if you were to put the cons and pros on the scale, I think it so depends on your person yeah if you were talking about like advice to other people.

Speaker 3 32:37

It just depends on your where you are in life, where god has you, what he's calling you to. Because I mean there are times like I love listening to john tyson church of the city in new york and when he starts talking about New York I'm like I love this place, like I could live in New York if I went to John Tyson's church and got really involved and like let's go, you know. And then I'm like no, morgan, it's not for you. And then I'm like no, morgan, it's not for you. But yeah, I think it just depends on your season and not trying to just do it because other people do it, because then you'll be miserable, for sure.

Speaker 3 33:26

It's not.

Speaker 1 33:29

Yeah, I mean, for me it's like literally all I want to do is just work on the farm and homestead. That's that's what I want to do. I'm I'm literally trying to figure out, like that's this, this, like how how can I just do that every day?

Speaker 1 33:47

you know, yeah um you know, yeah, and so that's definitely a key motivator and driver for me. And yeah, if you're not, if you're just in love with the idea of it, then I can relate, because I fall in love with a lot of ideas and then I really think about it. You know, it's taking me all these years to learn like, no, I'm just in love with the idea. I'm not in love with the process that's going to take to do it, whereas here I love the process. You know, I love the process.

Speaker 1 34:30

You know I love the process. The end goal is not even as exciting to me as the process of making it all happen. I feel like that's what everybody should try to find Find the thing that you just love the process of.

Speaker 2 34:47

That's good, Taylor.

Speaker 3 34:50

Yeah, yeah. Wendell said something to me in the car the other day. That was like mom, when I grow up, what can I do to make a lot of money? And I was like, how about? What can you do that you love every day that you can make money at?

Speaker 1 35:14

Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:14

Because there's a lot of things you could do to make a lot of money, but you might be miserable. It was just funny. He's a hoot.

Speaker 1 35:29

Well, I hope this was helpful, filled you all in and, moving back to the farm, I hope this was helpful and if you have not visited our Substack, go to acommonlifesubstackcom. Check that out. If you're listening to this on Spotify, then that means you're not getting access to it early. So if you're a paid subscriber through our substack, you'll have access to all of our podcasts a week early, but our substack is you can. Also, you don't have to be a paid subscriber and you'll get all of our newsletters. So go check that out if you haven't done that.

Speaker 3 36:19

Some of them are really helpful. You know just what to do next for the season, or in the garden and yeah, and summer reflections on life.

Speaker 1 36:33

Yeah, so every month I send out a kind of looking ahead like what to do, what you're going to be doing in the garden, around the home, and you know there's a lunar calendar on it, a night sky calendar of firsts, just something to encourage you to get in touch with the seasons and live intentionally, and then, of course, the garden tips. And then a lot of the other letters are just personal stories and reflections, like the next one that's going to be coming out and we'll be talking about Rodney's world and boiled peanuts and Morgan, you've got to share more on the newsletter when you find time.

Speaker 1 37:16

I know People really like your writing. Thanks, you share some more poetry. We need to find you an open mic night, poetry night, and tell everybody to come. And also, by the way, we're going to have a cohort, our inaugural Common Life cohort in 2025. And essentially it's just going to be a more personal connection with some of our community and we're going to have live calls each month with a few people, a few individuals, and offer some more one-on-one garden support. We're gonna have a community group on the circle app and quite a few.

Speaker 3 38:02

we're gonna end it with a potluck end it with a garden to table dinner out here yeah, at the farm, here at the farm, but if you feel like you need extra help and support you, you're like I don't really know what I'm doing. This is really perfect for you.

Speaker 1 38:19

Yeah, there'll be other people in similar shoes.

Speaker 3 38:23

Anywhere from. You've had a garden for a few years and you just want to like talk to other people and get some advice, or like this is your first time ever yep, yeah.

Speaker 1 38:37

So if you're interested, email you. Yeah, send an email taylor at a common lifeco. It'll be in the show notes. Um, just message us. We're we're going to be locking those people in. We don't have a lot of spots for it, so reach out, let us know. And yeah, I think that's all for this episode. We'll jump back into the book series podcast next week and until then, happy gardening.