In the spring of 2005, I was out for a drive in the country and saw a piece of land that simply called to me. Though I couldn’t have told you why I felt the way I did, I knew that I needed to live there. It was crazy, really: I wasn’t looking to move to the country, I had no intentions of leaving my city life, but there it was. I let the idea marinate in my mind for awhile, and it simply would not let me go: this was a Leading I had to follow, and so, with more than a little help from my boyfriend (who is now my husband), six acres of cattle pasture became our home.

This book is a collection of the blog postings that chronicled the early days of the adventure: building the house, living in a shed during construction (in the winter), dealing with scheduling problems, acquiring and losing animals … I can’t believe we made it through all that without losing our grip on sanity and each other, but we made it, and we are still here, loving our country life.