Welcome to Wendling Family Farm, where we are celebrating finding our forever home. It’s been quite the journey and we’re actually thankful for the time it took to get here.
It Wasn’t Our Initial Plan
We’ve always appreciated the “real” things in life. Both Chad and I come from families that chose being outside, gardening, cooking from scratch, repairing vs buying new, and all the other old ways of doing life. Looking back, even before we decided on farm-life, we chose to live as naturally as we could. We raised our family taking the not so trendy vacations (camping, back-packing, kayaking, etc.), and the not so popular eat-at-home meals. We even homeschooled for awhile, way before it was widely accepted. We weren’t happy or comfortable following the particular norms of the day and kinda did our own thing. As a result, our kids have had experiences many people their age have not. On the flip side, our kids have also not experienced all the touristy places that many of their friends have. They are now old enough to head on to the shoulder-to-shoulder, breathe on each other destinations. I’m still not interested.
As it goes, our choices for our family evolved to wanting a bit more space around our home. Chad always joked he wanted to be able to walk around in his underwear outside without any neighbors around to be traumatized. So, we began to talk and dream about some initial plans. It wasn’t for several years, that seemed to go molasses slow, that we actually began to officially start looking for properties. Even then, it was like dipping your toes in freezing cold water and snatching back in a full sprint. I mean…prices, responsibilities, prices, ignorance, prices… Basically, it was insanely expensive this crazy plan we were devising!
After all four kids graduated from college, our excuses to continue to sit in a holding pattern, afraid to jump in, diminished and we needed to commit to this dream. By this point, we were pretty clear on what we thought we wanted. The only problem was we had way too many scenarios, too many if-thens and what-ifs. I wanted to find a nice house, with land, shop, and a pond would be nice. Basically, I didn’t want to remodel, and I definitely didn’t want to build new. Chad was open to any and all possibilities. This time we committed and went all in on the search. It was two years of looking online, driving the roads, talking to anyone that would listen, and seeing soooo many properties. Really, it was hard, and it was disappointing. We were ready and yet, there was just so little to choose from on the market. Apparently, according to the experts, the housing market was in a tough position for buyers as sellers weren’t listing due to the high interest rates. Whatever – it was frustrating.
Bottom line, we have been on this journey, leading us to what we have now found, for the 38 years we’ve been married. I’m fairly certain farm life would have sounded bananas to me 30+ years ago. And now…I wouldn’t trade one minute of what it took to get here.