Hey Everyone! Here’s a little about who we are.
There is more about us, but we are just focusing on the basics. My name is JoVonna and my husband’s name is Jason. We are the parents of 4 daughters (21, 19, 15, 13) and several fur babies. We’re active members in our church, help take care of family (Aunt T, Uncle D and Papa) and keep up with errands on the farm.
About our city life
Prior to being on the farm, our days were filled with school, work, running errands and nightly activities. We enjoyed taking daily walks (depending on weather) and hanging out in our backyard. We lived close to tons of shopping, restaurants and entertainment. Our income was stable and the girls had great schools to attend. Life just seemed to be amazing. Everything seemed like it was perfect and everyone was happy. Or so we thought.
Everything that we thought would make us happy was actually causing the biggest problems. The great job my husband had been working at for several years was becoming toxic, some of my girls began to have fears of a school shooting, and then COVID hit which added a new level of fear to them. All of these things and others things as well began taking its toll of everyone mentally.
The mental health of our family is important. My husband began the search to find a new job and we decided to pull our kids out of public school and begin homeschooling them. Over the course of 2 and 1/2 years my husband hadn’t had any luck on the job front, so that brought on more mental health issues on top of the toxic work environment. So, what were we to do now?
Well, what should we do? As unexpected twists and turns began to happen and we found ourselves wondering what would be best for our situation. After praying and pondering, we found ourselves making the decision to leave our comfort zone and move to the farm we visited annually. None of us were quite ready for what we were going to experience, but we knew we needed step up and do our part. This move has become an opportunity learn more about ourselves in more ways than we ever imagined.
Where we are today
This move has been a rough one, but we wouldn’t change. We have only been here a year, but the learning continues. Each day gives us the opportunity to be more independent, frugal, and self-reliant. As we continue living on the farm, we will learn more about who we and who we want to become.
Each new day, is a new day to learn. We spend our days taking care ducks and chickens, maintaining gardens, and helping where we need to. My husband didn’t find his dream job, but found a job that takes care of our needs. Everyone’s mental health has been improving and breathing the fresh air is amazing. The beauty we see each morning and evening brings so much peace to us. We are also finding joy in some of the most simple things, we never thought we would. Sometimes we ask ourselves, why didn’t we do this sooner? This answer would be, we were afraid to leave the lifestyle we had grown accustomed to. This move has caused us to realize, we can do hard things and we need to step out of our comfort zones.
Our purpose for this blog
As we continue to learn and grow, our purpose is to share what we are doing with others. We know everyone has their own story to share and this is ours. We will post a variety of things. The posts will include things about gardening, ducks and chicks, family activities, and much more.
Here are a few things we’ve had to gain knowledge in.
- We’ve learned to adjust to frigid winter weather to not so humid summers.
- We’ve had to research how to raise chickens and ducks to building decent runs for the feathery friends.
- We are continuing to learning more about self-reliance as we study ways to grow a garden to feed several families, plus help those around us.
- We are learning to be frugal in what we buy and make the most of what we have.
- Learning to live with a substantial decrease in our income.Â
There are many other things we have gained knowledge from our experiences. We’re not an experts, but we make adjustment to what is needed for our situation. It takes determination and focus after losing a
substantial amount of your normal income. It takes motivation to keep moving forward when mother nature runs havoc in your area. A move like this takes hard work and dedication to keep learning new skill sets to help improve the situation.
Join us as we share what we have learned, are learning and continue to learn as we gain new skills from this unexpected move in life. The city life was good while it lasted, now it’s time to to be more simple and efficient on our own. It’s time to enjoy the beauty of mesmerizing starry nights instead of city lights all around us.