Barn



Our bedroom from inside the barn



And so it begins. Our life in a barn. Or rather, the home above and inside the barn. A separate dwelling from the critters. But still, how many peoples' bedroom windows look directly into a barn?





 You might wonder how this came to be. Why would a family consciously decide to live this life? Let me introduce you to Mom, but as her seventeen year old self. Here she is, serious and silly all at once, sitting in her Ag/FFA class for the third year in a row. It has become the only class that peaks her interest. Class discussion one day brings us to dreaming what our lives will be like as adults. Can you remember your seventeen year old self? Well, Mom can. She, in fact, remembers this discussion quite clearly. And speaking out of the dream she has of living in the mountains with no one but her husband and children around. Self-sustaining and home educating aren't words she knows of then. Just a vague idea of the life she desires to live. This idea takes root, deeply, like an acorn. Enter Dad. He is eighteen and recently graduated from the same high school that Mom is still attending. Going to community college, minding his own business, dreaming of  life as a self sufficient adult. Then WHAM! one day fate throws Dad and Mom together in a story for another time. Much to Moms surprise, she has not fallen in love with a cowboy. She has fallen for Matt. I mean Dad. And he has fallen for her. They get married, move around quite a bit, have a small brood of beautiful children and try to settle down in lovely Fort Collins, CO. This lasts for half a decade. A wonderful half decade. Until it just doesn't anymore. And then it really doesn't. So when an opportunity comes up to move to the country and live in a barn (a barn!), the decision is made to seize the moment. And Mom's inner seventeen year old squeals with delight. And maybe her thirty year old self does a little, as well.