Finding the farm

Before we even go out to see the place we checked the property listing against our "must have" list:

• 3-5 acres - check
• relatively cheap - check
• relatively flat, well draining land - check
• plentiful amounts of good water - check
• mature trees - check
• set back off the road - check
• agricultural zoning - check
• livable house - sort of (we'll get to that later)
• 3-4 bedrooms - check
• functional outbuilding(s) - sort of (again, that will be covered in later posts)

The land is perfect! It sits back off a very quiet road and is surrounded on the windward sides by mature tree lines. There is one neighbour across the road and no other neighbours around. The three acres had long, long ago been a u-pick strawberry plot. The native grasses have reclaimed the fields and saplings are starting to encroach from the tree lines. There is a well with plenty of water and several outbuildings in various states of disrepair.

Here is the first view of the house. Not bad for a 100+ year old building that has been empty for anywhere from five to eight years. One of these winters I'm going to set myself the job of tracking down the genealogy of the house.

Now, as anyone that has ever looked at old houses will know, cheap usually translates to "needs to be gutted and redone." We have looked at countless numbers of old places over the last 20 years and have seen some real doosies! Turns out this one has been very well maintained for being empty. The plaster was mostly in good shape except for right around the two chimneys. At some point the chimney flashings had begun to leak and there were very obvious water stains.

This leads me to the list of items that would need immediate attention (and, of course, money):

• the old boiler system was toast and needed to be replaced
• the water needed to be turned on and tested
• there were no appliances
• two chimneys both needed to be demolished or fixed ASAP
• the roof was in need of attention
• one wall of the foundation needed to be fixed
• no fences

There were lots of other things we wanted to do, but they could all be planned, saved and scheduled for.

Yay! We did it!

After 20+ years of looking and waiting we found "the" place. Home From Away Farm is our little piece of heaven on Prince Edward Island, Canada. A place to breathe, learn and grow.

The name comes from a local colloquialism. If you are not from the island then you are "from away." If you were born here, went away to school or work and then came back you are "home from away." Hence, Home From Away Farm. :)

We have been here a year and a half now. We always intended to write a blog to document our journey towards self-sufficiency. However, there has been so much to do this first year that we never actually got to the blog. Now is the time! As much as possible we will show events in chronological order. Life being what it is that may or may not always work out. :p

Come on in, grab a cup of tea, and join us as we share what we do and what we learn.