Our family started in two countries in 2001 when Katrina and I met in an online group, and we married near the end of 2002. The first eight years of our married life together we lived in the UK, where she is from. In October 2010 we came to America to help with my aging grandparents. Not long before we left, two things happened that helped to determine what we would pursue when we arrived in the US. The first was a book we picked up in town one day called “Lost Crafts,” by Una McGovern, which covers many of the old ways of working, such as coopering, coppicing, waddle and daub, stone cutting, and many other skills. The second was that our next door neighbor watched after her daughter’s four hens in her back yard. I was stunned by these cat sized animals that fertilized the grass, ate insects, and made food daily.
Only a couple of months after we arrived here, we got our first flock of chicks, and began our hobby farm in its smallest beginnings. The flock did not last long as our only animals because of Chicken Math, and three horses given us, as well as our own purchase of some turkeys and pheasants.
We spent the first 18 months in the US in the desert of Nevada, about 45 miles East of Las Vegas. After that we moved up to Idaho so grandpa could spend his final days close to his family. He and grandma have both passed now, and we have been in the house here since; about nine years now.
Each summer we have looked at houses for sale elsewhere, and as of the summer of 2021, we are finally giving serious consideration to moving off to a new place, to start anew, and free of some of the ghosts and memories of unpleasant days toward the end of my grandmother’s life. Look forward to our next life adventure. We do!