In early March we accepted a contract on our farm here in Pellyton, and last Monday we closed the deal. The Konvalin family will be taking possession soon, and Tony Konvalin has promised to chronicle the transition on his weblog.
We’ve had seven good and enjoyable years here. Farm life has shaped our thinking and our characters in important ways, and we have no regrets about the experiment. But we’ve reached a point where staying in this very rural area would work against us as a family. We were unable to create a self-contained family economy, and opportunities to work off the farm around here are limited. As our three oldest become young adults, we realized that they would likely have to move at least 100 miles away to start lives of their own.
Instead, we decided to move the family closer to those opportunities. We’ll be in Frankfort, which is not only the capital of Kentucky but a delightfully small town of 25,000. Aside from the potential for work in Frankfort, Lexington is 30 miles east, Louisville is 60 miles west, and Cincinnati is 90 miles north.
Our new house is five minutes from downtown, in an older suburban neighborhood with an acre of backyard. It was custom built in 1950 by the previous owner, who recently died two months short of her 101st birthday.
There’s plenty I could write about what we’ve learned from our time on the farm, but it will have to wait—at the moment writing is far down my list of priorities. I’d like for that to change soon, but I can’t predict when it might happen. In the meantime, rest assured that our life continues to be richer, fuller, and more blessed than we have any reason to expect.
