Why Walnetto Farm Got From There To Here or We Really Aren't Nomadic People!

We moved from Fresno backwards in many ways. First off we the parents "ran away" a month after our youngest Granddaughter was born. We always dreamed of leaving the area but Geoffrey got a position at a then small rural school district and we settled in. If a teacher leaves a district for another their benefits go back to ground zero with the change. So for one's retirement plans it is better to stay put. And we did for thirty-five years. 

Of course by then the goats were in place for show and production. We had them twenty years at this point and I was in love. Also they were our suppliers of all things dairy. So we tripped off to Mendocino county. We needed to find a farm and soon . We had sold the Fresno house on two acres to the second couple who saw it and we were locked in . It was a good deal prices were up and we owned the home out right. I had a gnawing feeling if we backed out at this point (the house went on the market in late October and we had to be out by January 2nd) we would never leave.

So after much searching in late November we had finally found a place on 4.3 acres in a small town called Redwood Valley half way between Ukiah and Willits . We had the coastal area in mind to land but the prices were out of reach (this was still eight months prior to the big crash in reality) and we had no idea Redwood Valley even existed.

The link below will take you to my blog by another name. You can follow those years on it from 2009 to 2013. You have to look closely behind the Marmee's Pantry link for the beginning. I have tried every which way from loose to get into this blog which is why the blog name is now New Life On The Farm. If anyone has a solution I would love to go back to it. But I think I somehow managed to end it on Blogger but can find it on the internet. I encourage you to go back in time if you have time to spare and get a feel for those lost years.

http://walnettofarm.blogspot.com/2011/08/barn-day-at-walnetto-farm-that-is.html

In very short order those years were a journey in so many lessons. We didn't know it but had landed in a hornet's nest of ugly people who made our farm their target. Finally after waiting two years to put the farm on the market so we wouldn't loose money capital gain wise, the farm was on the market due to the reality crash  for three years. At that point I was entertaining buying a t-shirt that said "We are being held captive in Redwood Valley by the crash". Then finally in September of 2011 a buyer and we left two months later.And yes we lost a considerable amount of money on the sale. But it was part of the journey. There were more weird twist and turns but airing dirty laundry in public isn't my thing so you will just have to take my word on it.

The 42 Acres of Paradise is aptly named. I will tell anyone who will listen that God put us here and it happened in the manner it did for the journey we were on. This property was on the market for quite awhile before we made our offer. So at that point I was stunned that this much land and such a beauty was offered for such an amazing asking price. The house was what we had talked of for so long a log beauty and it was totally off the grid another plus for us. It was "in the middle of nowhere" even though it was thirty minutes to both Redding and Red Bluff to the north and south of us. The nearest neighbors are a mile plus away. The middle of nowhere was coined by the reality agent as a lot of folks don't want to live as we do and they knew it was going to be attractive to a small percentage of the population.

So with the comfort of knowing the few neighbors we had were like minded and the asking price was doable we did it. Little did we know that only two months after Geoffrey finished with the last goat barn and field fencing was up the challenges were to become larger. We had been placed in a home that was turn key . The exception being we needed barns and fencing up for the goats. The only existing structures were the house and the pump house.  Another blessing in having the barns finished and fenced.

If I seem embarrassed about my lovely home it is because I am used to making do or doing without. I am in my heart so grateful that God saw that everything we would need to survive the coming years was in place so I could focus on Geoffrey's journey. That I would not want for shelter for my critters that I couldn't provide. And in addition to the gift of that weren't enough the people who have come into my life in the last six years has been amazing. That includes my blogging friends who have many times kept me afloat especially during the times Geoffrey was so ill he could not do more than move from bed to couch and my time was mostly to myself.

This journey still in progress has hills and valleys. Joy and pain. I have learned much about myself, Geoffrey and those who are family and friends.  It is one of the few things I would do again in a heartbeat. Am I crazy? Maybe don't have the answer to that one but I do know I am blessed and for that I am eternally  grateful.