Indy - I think the original idea came from the 2-3 years we lived on a 200 year old farm in New England when I was a kid. I feel like it's something that I've always wanted to do. Even as a child, I always felt that I was born in the wrong century, actually. I was fascinated with old stuff and things that worked by hand. I was never much interested in technology (pretty funny considering my field, huh?). Since my husband is pretty much always up for an adventure, when I suggested it, he was game.

The main reason this happened now (instead of waiting for a better finacial position or 'retirement') was kind of a 'perfect storm' of events. 1) We realized that NC was not what we were hoping it would be 2) my husband couldn't find good career-related work and hated his job with a white-hot burning passion 3) we learned about peak oil and 4) we saw the economy tanking and knew if we didn't do it soon, we'd have to wait for years. So we did the research and decided that the PNW was the best location for us in terms of climate and career (I have a specialized field and one of the companies happened to be located here - the other in Greensboro, NC where I was working at the time). When my husband also got a good job here, we moved. We bought our 'farm' and went into it head first. Luckily, we both love the animal husbandry part. I love planting and planning, he loves 'engineering' things to make them work. And it turns out that we both dislike crowds and most aspects of urban life, so the solitude of our tiny plot of land surrounded by acres of farms feels peaceful and 'right' to both of us.

Additionally, a month after I left my old company, the you-know-what hit the fan and I was damn glad to have left when I did. Lucky, I guess.

Honestly, I struggle with the stark contrast between milking a goat by lantern in the morning and problem-solving on high tech electronic equipment by lunchtime. It's even funnier if you consider that I came to these two 'careers' by way of a career that had my foot partly in the door of high fashion (I worked for Polo Ralph Lauren before I quit to move to FL). I used to have a closet full of cashmere and croc. Now I wear Carhart and $hit kickers every morning...

What is life without variety?