I mean, do people still blog? Judging from the list of blogs that used to run down the side of my page, it has been years since anyone has. Let's try to get that going again. I know that in this day of YouTube and vlogging, blogging may be the less flashy way to go, but here we are.
SO much has happened since I last blogged. We sold the farm, the remaining animals, and the bees, and moved to Florida for a couple of years. We tried living small - first in what we lovingly called our "bunker". It was a 12' x 24' shed conversion in our daughter's backyard. We gutted it, ran electric, plumbing, insulated it - it was a real live tiny home...complete with a full bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and living room. Unfortunately, someone decided to turn us into code enforcement - I know, I know, we should have gotten it permitted, but it was just a tiny space in the back yard, behind a fence - who would know? Who would care? Jealousy is a tricky bitch, sometimes.
Then, we lived in our camper for a couple of years. We bought (and still own) a 17 ft. camper, with a bathroom, kitchen, bunks, and a large bed. I bet you are wondering where we put all the animals and Fresh Eggs Farm kids... well, with all the time that has gone by, we were just down to three cats and one kid. Cora, at 22, is the only one who hasn't flown the coop yet. More on the kids later. Living tiny, and tinier, proved to us that we could not only do it...but thrive doing it. First we lived in a campground, in Homosassa, Florida - just around the bend from Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park (awesome place to visit, if you haven't already been). We taught at Crystal River Primary School - Oh! That's right, I became a teacher!!!! Oh my gosh, so much has happened. More on teaching later lol. After many talks, we decided to move to Central NY. That is where we are now. Fresh Egg's Farm...the urban edition.
Obviously, I'm not going to detail everything that has happened since the last blog - just too much time has gone by. Let's catch you up on the FEF Kids. Kait is married to David, with two kids (yep, Mark and I are grandparents...and loving it). She works at the same school we work at currently. Gage lives in Cincinnati with his girlfriend, Drew. He works in GIS. Drake lives in Indiana with his girlfriend, Heather. He is working for an electrical company. Cora lives here with us. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Education; however, she has decided to go back to school to become a Physician's Assistant. We are INCREDIBLY proud of our kids. They have all grown into fascinating adults - each unique from the other, so cool to be around, and we just adore them. Our goal as parents was to make "good grown-ups," and we have definitely surpassed that goal.
...and yes! I am officially a teacher now! I love it. After years of helping in Mark's classroom, I decided that I wanted to become a teacher too. While we were in Florida, I took the opportunity to get alt. certified and taught third grade and second grade. Since moving to New York, I've taught for an Autism 6:1:1, middle-level classroom, and now am a long-term sub for a 5th-grade class. Hoping to get hired on to our school district, because it just feels like home.
Where do we go from here...we live in Rome, NY. While it's not a huge city, like NYC, it's definitely the most urban setting we have ever lived. We live on just over an 8th of an acre. Tiny, compared to our mini-farm. We have decided to make this as much as a farm as we can, right now. We've decided to make our backyard into a food forest!!!! We've also decided to get back into beekeeping. We probably won't get to the scale that we were running before - with 10-15 hives...more like 2-3 hives, we believe, will go best in our yard.
We're going to try to document the transition of our backyard. Who will read this? Maybe no one...maybe our grandkids will find it some day and be able to see the cool stuff their parents and grandparents are doing. I don't know. Maybe it'll be just for me and Mark to look back and remember all that we've done.
