Retirement: It Started With a Farm
Farm Life - It all started with a retirement plan.
Well, sort of.
After decades of hard work, John had an idea for what came next as he looked to his retirement years. A farm. A place where family could gather, grow food, raise animals, and enjoy a little more space to breathe. The funny thing about John’s retirement plan is that it never actually involved retiring. John’s spent years in his work boots, and he knew he didn’t want to take them off quite yet. He’d seen others take off their boots, retiring to a beach or club with a golf course, then suddenly drop dead of boredom or the loss of challenging activity. And that just wouldn’t do.
Instead, the farm became a project. Then another project. Then another one after that - which was just fine with John, as he had been a superintendent for industrial construction projects that demanded his management skillsets. Now, with a farm to manage, the projects have morphed into land and animal management, among other things.
Somewhere along the way as John and his son cleared the land, planted trees, and made plans, the farm became much bigger than a place to spend retirement.
A Farm Built Around Family
The farm began with a simple idea: grow good food and raise good animals for the people we love.
It gave our family a place to work alongside each other, learn from one another, spend time together, and most importantly - teach the next generation.
The farm became a place where the next generation could experience a little of what it means to grow something from the ground up, literally. There are animals to tend, things that need fixing, and always, always, something else on John’s to-do list.
That’s farm life.
From Family Table to Community
For a while, the farm was exactly what it needed to be: a place for our family.
But as the farm grew, so did the idea that maybe we could share a little of what we were growing and raising with people beyond our own family. Today, that means Idaho Pasture Pigs raised with room to forage and explore. We’re also experimenting with gardening (for our own fun and kitchen recipes), plus fresh eggs from our free-range chickens. We may not have been farmers before, but we’re learning as we go and grow!
We’re still a family farm, first and foremost. Now we’re simply opening the gate a little wider.
And About That Retirement….
John may have technically retired from industrial construction and project management, but his devotion to hard work continues. These days, he’s usually somewhere on the farm working on something, solving a problem, building something, fixing something, herding pigs with his beloved farm dog, or coming up with the next project. Maybe that’s because the farm was never really about stopping.
It was about having somewhere meaningful to put all that energy. Somewhere the work could benefit the people he loves. Somewhere future generations could come back to.
And that’s what makes this farm so special to us.
So, what started as a retirement vision became a family farm, a working farm. Now, we’re excited to see where it goes next.