“If it doesn’t excite you and scare you at the same time it’s not adventure.” Zero to Farm.
At the South Bay of the beautiful Flathead Lake on a Reservation in North West Montana rests a gorgeous town. Polson. My life has been located here for 25 years. Close enough to main street to walk to parades and far enough from the lake we can still afford the property taxes. Most often you can find us backpacking in the summer, paddling around the lake or floating the river. It’s been a great place to raise kids. But something was missing.
Obviously what’s missing is a farm. I decided a few months back I am going to write a book about sustainable farm living on a Rez whilst living in town with little to no property and a deep dislike of animals. I know nothing about sustainable farm life but I will learn as I write. My husband can grow loofah seeds so all my family can have sponges and dish scrubbers from our vines. I feel like a homesteader already. We can grow lentils and garbanzos. I will walk out onto my porch and wrap a blanket like a shawl around my shoulders as I look to the heavens for a sign of rain. Incredible. I think my hilarious lack of knowledge of anything pertaining to farm or sustainable living will hopefully fill my book with much humor and relatable failure. I recently bought a pair of overalls from a local thrift store so Im totally a farmer now.
Noteworthy sidebar, I am prone to be more absurd than absolute. More daring than dull. I often find myself on the outside of level-headed, practical conversations with little input to contribute. Watching all the sensible people talk, wondering when they last dreamed, who stole their excitement for life, and what causes them to process information like plain toast. Listen. I married a first born male who is incredible in his level-headed ways. It is truly a gift to us dreamers as we may find instead of eating or paying bills we forget altogether and float away in a hot air ballon. I need, WE need all the sensible, practical people in this world. And we need all the free-spirits. And this is where the next chapter in our farm life begins.
This farm thing has been a thought for years. Not sure how it would materialize we researched city ordinance for chickens. My level headed husband learned how to make sourdough bread and got obsessive about owning quail. My mom and I joked about buying goat girl dresses and learning how to can. I bought overalls and a seed catalogue and listened to James Taylor and Kenny Loggins for inspiration on peaceful living. Then bam!
This week we bought a farm on accident. More accurately, by chance. It presented itself in a place we weren’t expecting. 2 hours South of home. Victor, Montana, on the Bitterroot River. Fly fishing anyone? We fell in love with a piece of property that most describe as “It has potential.” We couldn’t live without it. We are selling our houses on the Rez and moving into a commune style life with my family on this farm. Away from the familiar to foreign.
We are cramming 2 families (possibly 3 if we can talk my brother into joining us in our absurd farm dreams) into one house much smaller than our current houses. Shedding off some of our spacial comfort in exchange for acreage, river front, and doing this farm life together. In community with our people. Our family. Ridiculous and incredible. Stay tuned for the continued adventures of zero to farm.
PS. I bought our first goat. She is majestic. She will have friends. Not sure how many yet. Thanks to my dear goaty friend for hand picking our herd. Our pack? What are a group of goats called? Gawd… I have so much to learn. 
Trip. They are called a Trip of goats. Thanks Google.
#tripofgoats #sustainable-living #farmlife #reservation #montana #flathead-lake #polson #victor #river #bitterroot # flyfishing #riverfloat #paddle-board #goats #familycompound
!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!! 2/10/21
Over the last 2 weeks we have been busy! (I know, I know… we are ALL busy. We all have the same 24 hours with which to operate under. High fives to all of the busy people reading this. Thank you for taking a moment to send your attention and web traffic my way. I appreciate you.)
Bullet points update:
- We had our first family farm meeting,
- Finances have been discussed and my gorgeous other half and I are contributing our stunning personalities as my parents contribute most of the financial pieces. Seems more of an IOU type situation. They have assured us it is not.
- Hot husband and my dad are on the same page with first remodel piece after we move in. It will be amazing as they are both incredible humans and master builders.
- We spotlessly cleaned every surface of our homes,
- We packed more things away,
- We put our houses on the market,
- We waited as realtors paraded couples through our homes with bated breath,
- We got our first offer and are now under contract,
- We may be moving sooner than we thought,
- We watched videos of our inherited goats and trauma llama, and I fell even more in love,
- We watched countless YouTube homestead videos. All were very droll, boring, yet informative, but serious snore fest’s. Some said things like teat and doe vulva, (none of which we were ready to hear) and others showed goats milk butter recipes, frolicking goats and endless ideas for building things out of other things. Many had ugly cabinets, and no desire to have a clean house. Im not sure where I fit into this new land. These are not my people.
- Which makes me even more set on filling a gap in the homestead community by infusing it with humor, beauty and not just logical boring facts and poorly made lean-to’s. (No offense to the dude building his new storage shed from hollow core doors and asbestos)
- We (mom and I) have already planned our first theatrical vlog post complete with characters, wardrobe, style, and props. I cant tell you yet. It would spoil the fun,
- Side note…Has anyone met my mom? She is pure comedy. Between her and I and our ridiculous propensity for belly laughter at any given moment over seemingly benign things this journey together should be incredible. Also she is really good at making houses homes. Our new home will be lit. Dope. Rad. Just Trying to cover all the 90’s cool kid terms I can think of.
- We have all had many emails, phone calls and text from well meaning friends and family to ask us WTF we are thinking selling our gorgeous, giant houses in the beautiful town of Polson in exchange for a small house and a farm,
- Let me illustrate: A friend/coworker lost a few friends this week in a super random, freak accident. Sobering to say the least. I don’t fear the great beyond but today was a reminder that anything can happen at any time. We could stay here, in our cozy, big, beautiful homes enjoying the expansive elbow room and comfort this space affords. But I am convinced now more than ever that I don’t want to get to the end of my days and wonder why I didn’t take the leap. These doors have flung wide and we are collectively walking the path laid out before us almost as grandly as if it were velvet carpet. Thank you God for clear direction, thank you also for well meaning family and friends. I assure you we haven’t lost our minds.
Whelp….*said with a drawl, a clutch of my overall suspenders and a piece of wheat in my teeth* there’s the latest. To my people who know I’m fabulous but quirky, thank you for following our adventures. We have purchased our domain name and YouTube channel and yes… this will be a thing. Id like to showcase our current ranch dog.
