Rachel So you're buying a farm?? Tell me more.

jillianmb · July 2012

I just find this really interesting! How did you come to buy a farm? What kind of farm? Do you come from farming families? Is your house on the farm?

I grew up and still live in a city/suburban area so this is fascinating to me. Hope you don't mind the questions!

silliestbunny · July 2012

Yes!!!

Rachel Sonnier · July 2012

Haha! Yes, we are. I think its pretty neat that you guys are interested! We are VERY excited about it.

So, yes, DH and I both come from farming families, but neither of our own parents are farmers. My grandfather had a small family cattle farm, and DH's grandfather was a rice framer. We are both the eldest grandchild in our families, and very close to our grandparents, so we spent lots of time with them on the farms growing up.

The farm that we are buying belongs to my family. It is roughly 190 acres of rice fields and pasture, with a pond, a large storage building and a farm house that was built by my grandparents. My dad grew up in that house, and its where we spent almost every holiday until my grandmother passed away in 2010.

My dad passed away when I was younger, so I currently own a portion of the farm with my siblings and my two uncles, who live in Houston.

DH and I are the only family members who currently reside here, and we spend a great deal of time at the farm with our LO. It is about 5 minutes from where we live now, so its pretty easy to just pick up and go for a few hours of quiet family time. No TVs, no laptops, no neighbors, no noise?and the cell phone reception is pretty awful there as well, so basically no interruptions :-)

In short, the way that this all came about, is that a few months ago my uncle called to say that they had decided to sell the property. I was reluctant at first for sentimental reasons, and because we use the land quite a bit. We even have a little organic garden there.

When I mentioned it to DH, he said that he thought I shouldn't sell, but rather attempt to buy out the other owners. It wasn't exactly the best timing with the adoption costs and everything, but if they are ready to sell, its now or never! I talked to my uncles and my siblings, and they all agreed that it would be great to keep the farm in the family, if we wanted to buy it.

For me personally, its very sentimental. The farm was originally established by my great grandfather in the early 1900's. My grandfather ran it as a small cattle farm when I was growing up, and it became a rice farm after he passed away. I can remember riding on the tractor with him, and swimming in the pond as a child. There are also lots of fruit and pecan trees there, and I used to be my Gram's little helper during the summers. We would go out and pick them, to can and make preserves.

Now, LO is my little helper. He loves following me around, doing whatever I do, and it is really special to me to be able to pass that on. I also really like knowing where my food comes from and what's in it, so having the space to make that happen, has always been a little dream of mine.

For my husband, he grew up farming rice, crawfishing and gardening with his grandfather, so it is a little bit of his childhood that he can pass on as well. Our LO is so into gardening with him. He carries the bucket around every afternoon (its almost as big as he is!), and DH shows him which vegetables are ripe and lets him pick them.

Another big motivation to make the purchase, is that we want our LO's to be able to get out into nature, and have someplace to explore, run around freely and just be kids.

Plus, we currently live in a subdivision with lots of restrictions, so besides our little backyard garden, there isn't much we can do here. Ideally, as a little project of my own, I would like to expand on our organic/homegrown garden, and be able to provide our little community with some healthy foods that they don't have to drive 30 minutes to purchase. And I want a little pumpkin patch too, just because I think it would be really fun!

Eventually, we would like to build our "forever house" there. :-)

We didn't always live in the middle of nowhere, by the way! My family lives in San Antonio and I lived there with them until I was 18, and moved back here for college. DH lived in Michigan for a while between high school and college, then also moved back home as well. After DH and I graduated we lived in Fort Worth for a while, and we really liked it there. Ironically, that is where our adoption agency is located! It was really fun to go back and visit this past April.

Somehow, we keep ending up back here! I was a teacher before we got pregnant with LO and DH is a chemical engineer, so I am very curious and excited to see what kind of farmers we will make!

So, I guess our motivation is part family hobby, part preserving a way of life from the past that we feel is special to us, and part investment property (its a working farm that produces a rice and crawfish crop each year, so part of it will pay for itself).

I am not sure when everything will be finished and we can close on it, but hopefully it will be soon! I hope that covers everything, you guys wanted to know :-)

And thanks for asking! You ladies have been such an encouragement to me these past few months.

jillianmb · July 2012

I love everything about this- the memories, the history, the way of life, your goals for bringing fresh produce to your community. That is amazing! Not that you have much spare time on your hands, but you should think about blogging through this adventure! Sounds like a great story in the making. :-) Thanks for sharing!

IRR · July 2012

That is awesome, it makes me want to come visit. Best of luck with that and when you do close post some pictures. We have our little 4'x8' garden on the side of our house which has broccoli, tomatoes and strawberries. Wish we had more room for bigger crops, but I love growing and eating our own food.

Chele · July 2012

What a fascinating story. Much luck to you, Rachel, as you go forward!

MarionB79 · July 2012

I LOVE it! What a great adventure! Your kids will keep the memories you have growing and then get to pass them on to their children. So nice to see that people are willing to farm. There aren't many out there anymore!

Best of luck!!!!!

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