A new phase

So, as I said last post, I am really starting to understand the importance of owning your own stock when training a dog. Every time I take one of my green dogs to a lesson, they are SO excited and SO intense and the sheep are SO worried they might be eaten that there’s really no room for anyone calming down in my world. Kathy had fantastic, experienced sheep that knew they might get a bit of a chomp but no one was going to die and that made a difference.

And I now understand why she kept telling me never to work my old boss’ sheep with my dogs (I used to be hired to train and take care of a kennel full of dogs on property with agility equipment and a large flock of sheep) – because those poor sheep were hysterical. I have always known, in hindsight, that she was right, but now I think it was not entirely because of training mistakes I made, but just the kind of atmosphere stoked dog and fearful sheep create.

Anyway, so I have stopped actively pursuing lessons or outside livestock. Yet the tale is not over.

Despite me thinking we did not make nearly enough money to make a mortgage fly, my husband encouraged me to pursue it and, yes, we do.

We live in one of the prime real estate locations in the country, but it’s also surrounded by a lot of ag land. I LOVE living in the town I do – and where I do. I walk downtown for just about everything, my running club meets down the street, my climbing gym I run is a quick bike ride away, etc. However, if we want to stay in town, we’ll need to find a fixer upper in a less desirable location, but we can do it.

But . . . I find myself looking wistfully at the little farms in the town north of me when we pass, and when we talk about the future, it always includes land. We went on a real estate tour in the beginning of the year and found a house I love that we’re second in line for (it’s a short sale, so who knows). It even had sheep on the property when we viewed it. But . . . it opened up possibilities.

Yes, we would have to double our income to get an equivalent property in the town of SLO, but ten minutes outside of SLO there are farms we can have right now (well, relatively right now). And so, we are looking.

I find myself thinking of greywater recycling, solar panels, and, of course, livestock management throughout the day. It also doesn’t hurt that the community we’re targeting is special. It’s one of the last holdouts that I know of in this world where on July 4th, the town has BBQ parties on the front lawn and you party-hop. Square dances. Kids run to and fro to eachother’s yards all day long. It’s safe. I don’t need to lock my doors (not that I need to now, thanks to the dogs.)

At first our tactic was “well, we’ll see what we can afford and what works best” be it city or country, but I told my dude yesterday I need it to be country and land. He said okay. And here we are. So, hopefully by the end of 2013, I’l l be writing this blog again, with my own sheep, maybe some ducks, and in a house I can call my own and finally plant the trees I’ve got in pots . . .