Last year, our dear friends had land for sale across the street from them in Gardner, KS. This land was pretty great. It was bare land with had a few trees and a shared pond. We were so excited at the thought of living across the street from a great Godly family that we truly adore.
We jumped at the opportunity and bought 10 acres on 207th Street in Gardner. We started dreaming of a new house, some animals, and what would be our new lives out in the country. However, things quickly changed.
Not long after signing the papers, we learned the properties a 1/4 mile down the road were hiding in shell companies and part of a secret plan to build the largest logistics park in the United States. All of our dreams and plans came to a screeching halt. We sat in limbo and a pool of frustration for months, not knowing what the future would hold. The only thing we could do is pray. Pray for God’s direction and understanding as we started to make another big decision: stay or sell.
As the year went on, we looked for new land to purchase. We didn’t see what we liked or what we thought would be better for quite some time. When we were fighting alongside the other landowners, we found that we loved the area but were not ready to move out to the country-country, more like the city-country. We thought it would be safe to build out on a gravel road at the very bottom of the county but learned the sprawl could get you where ever you are.
Another significant change was what we wanted to do with the land. We have had secret chickens for years. We were always nervous when someone would walk by the house, and one of the hens was laying an egg, and her voice echoed to the front yard. Chickens don’t respond to “Shhhhhhh” as children do. We wanted beehives, goats, and maybe a few cows down the road. Our roots of growing up in different sections of Southern Missouri started to come out. The memories of being on the farm with our grandparents and remembering how much joy comes from raising animals and growing food.
Our property in Gardner ended up not being the place for us because our dreams changed once we put our hands in the dirt and started working on the land. In the end, the warehouses will come. Still, if you take a moment and step back, you will see that the warehouses are not only in this area of rural Johnson County but, they are coming all over the metro area. There is very little you can do to stop it. Every politician looks good if they bring “jobs” to a town, Republican or Democrat.
Our friends from church told us they were moving to Colorado in God’s time, and their house with 40 acres was on the market. As beautiful as the house is, this was too much for us. Not only financially, but we weren’t ready to sell our current home. Several months pass, and we kept in contact with them as they traveled. When they got back into town, they told us they would split the land properties from the house and sell them separately. Oh, really? We wanted to say goodbye before they left town, so we asked to look around to see if it would fit our budget and our big dreams. After the tour and much prayer, we felt God nudging us to make a move, so we did!
We are blessed beyond words with the amount of generosity this family has shown us. The new home of Julian Farms is going to be a perfect fit for us. It will give us time to start the farm before we live on the farm and invite our friends and family to join in on the fun.
As the weather starts to cool off, we plan to invite folks out for a farm tour to see what we are doing and let them take a walk on the trails and meet our animals.