While I pretty much grew up in the city, I’ve always been a country girl at heart. It could have something to do with the fact that I also grew up going fishing and camping. Exploring the great outdoors and learning how to use a gun from a young age was also part of my upbringing. It should be no surprise that I ended up dating and marrying a farm boy even if he did end up taking on the title of U.S. Marine.
We’ve traveled the countryside as the Marine Corps sent us from one location to the next. We took advantage of the many beautiful locations by exploring them. We embraced the nomadic lifestyle and learned new things with each duty station. Many times we were still in the city, but the great outdoors, the country-life was always calling.
We knew that city life, in the end, wasn’t really for us. Yes, the convenience of having everything right there was always nice, but the quiet solitude and crisp, starry night skies were more of a draw for us. The simplicity of life on the land definitely called our names.
When the opportunity presented itself and with the Lord’s leading, we purchased our future homestead. We have a long way to go to turn it into a thriving homestead, but it’s the beginning of our true country life even if that reality won’t come into play until D retires. It’s interesting watching the Lord bring twists and turns into our lives as we honestly never know where those things will lead us.
At this duty station, we our in the country even though we’re technically in the city. It was a pleasant surprise for us as it’s not what we envisioned for our CA life. The community we’re currently in has a small town feel. People know each other and help each other out. The churches in the community set aside their denomination differences to help the community. While there are aspects of the community that we don’t embrace, it is nice to see a working community where the church is doing the Lord’s work.
Little did we know that the Lord would give us a jump start on our homesteading by bringing horses into our lives. We definitely did not see this coming any time in the near future. We always knew that horses would be part of our retirement homestead, but we are thrilled to have them part of our current “homestead”.
We’re using each step of our journey to help us prepare for our final homestead. We’re learning new skills along the way and doing our best to continue our education in a manner that will help us achieve our long term goals living the country life. I look forward to seeing what else the Lord has in store for this country girl at heart.
