Normally the tone of this blog is “casual farm-y talk and information”. I don’t delve much into the personal (human) lives on the farm. I figure you come here to learn about running a small family farm, not learn THAT much about me.
I will digress today.
Mark and I both work full-time jobs in the city in addition to raising two very young girls and managing and growing our small farm. Needless to say our days are long and full with many things left undone. And it often times creates a feeling of not being able to give anything our 100% best effort or undivided attention.
Mark works for the Federal Government and works from home two days a week and drives in the other three days. When he drives in it is about 160 miles roundtrip! He’s been with them his whole career (20 plus years) and it has been a great, stable and (mostly) rewarding job for him.
I work in technology as a project manager. I’ve had the luxury of being able to change companies, industries and from employee to contractor and back whenever I needed a change. My commute involves five different modes of transportation (feet, car, ferry, bus and vanpool) to get to work and THREE hours a day of commuting.
Mark and I have decided to pull the trigger on our long planned for move out of the corporate world. We have both given our notices to our employers.
Our last day in our offices will be February 1st. J
We definitely are not going into this blindly. We have been working our small acreage since 2006. We’ve saved money like it is going out of style. We’ve honed our budget to a razor’s edge. We feel as ready as we’ll ever be to take this leap – and we are!
What can go wrong? Well, plenty. From financial burdens, to driving each other crazy, to the kids driving US crazy and more. But, we feel confident in our intelligence, work ethic, creativity and frugality that we can ride out most storms. And if something REALLY goes sideways? Well, than there is Plan B.
Plan B is me going back to contract work!
Congrats and hats off to both of you!
Thank you! And i’ll be stopping by often when everyone is driving me nuts!
Good luck with your leap of faith in yourselves…..sounds like you will be fine.
Congratulations! How exciting. I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’ve found that the great thing about taking risks is you learn that you can adapt and adjust as needed and don’t have to depend on having a ‘secure’ job to survive. In other words, you develop confidence in your own ingenuity and ability to meet challenges (like taking contract work if you need to!). That’s real freedom. Best of luck to you!
Hi there Adrienne,
I saw your latest blog post on FB and thought I’d check out your blog to see what you guys have been up to. I came across this post and wow! yes, truly a leap of faith, and a giant step, but extremely exciting! Congratulations! Since I just did this as well (or a version of it anyway) last August, I can attest that it is freeing, scary, relieving, unknown, exciting, and everything else! Wishing you and Mark a memorable 2013 as you start your new, exciting, unemployed journey together on Feb 1st! Good luck and enjoy!
All the best,
Kathy
Thanks, Kathy! We are pretty stoked about it!
Wow! Congrats! I have been wanting to become a small independent farmer for years, and after reading your blog, I have given my notice and will devote all of my time to getting back to nature, like you two. I thank you for giving me the fortitude and strength to take such a leap of faith!
Sincerely,
Paulie
Well Paulie/Liz you will have to let us know how it goes!
Congtats on following your dreams! Maybe one day I will be in a position to do the same thing. God bless!