You used to work in corporate America. Driven, obsessed, the top of your game.
A tiger in your profession. Well known, intense, consumed. But as you approach
the half century club on your birth certificate, you decide to downshift your life. To slow it down and change the scnery 180 degrees. Your brother Bob thought you were crazy when you first brought up the subject of selling out, moving to Northern Maine to own a patch of dirt.
A farm that was pretty much self sufficiency living, self sustaining. Or as close to that goal as you could get. Luckily, your wife was on the same page and ready to shake up the life that was full of material goods...but lacked the healthy, down to earth values both had been brought up with. Besides good physical exercise on the farm every day, the awareness of those sunrise coffesss after graining, watering, haying the cows, horses and small critters just plain "clicked" with you. What was missing and a new life direction came out of those early mornings in the barn where the only sound was the barn cat chasing a mouse, the animals munching on what you provided for breakfast. No traffic whizzing by this dead end road farm spread. Heck 
the town you live in has only one traffic light.
Small town community involvement came with the move too. In a bedroom community outside Houlton ME with a population of under 1000, you and your wife help the local church put up Christmas dinner packages. You coordinate the "wish tree" where an anonymous child with just their age and if they are a boy or girl is indicated for townspeople to take under their wing to shop for this Christmas.
You coach a little league team, a local hockey team and share the experiences learned with your own kids. Kids that are scattered around the country. And at first stratched their heads about the pack it up, head to Maine trek when you and your wife first broached the subject a holiday not long ago.
Your grandchildren spend summer helping Grampy, Buppy, Bumpy or whatever they nick name you.
They learn to help in haying, how to drive farm machinery and what real work is. Nana teaches those same kids about flowers, cooking, riding horses. And fills in the family history about what their parents were like when they were the same age. The kids learn about the weather, an awareness of many things in life that can not be controlled but that you work around, make the most of and accept. How to roll with it and not get all shook up. This life is not a "read thru". Your life. It is not a script someone else writes for you to follow.Are you in your right place? Would you like to be in an area free of crime, where you can see a sky filled with brilliant stars at night?
Hi Andrew-
That is the most provocative post! You almost made me want to move. We live pretty simply as well, and there's a lot to be said for that simple life!
--Sara in San Antonio
Sara..not many pyramids here although one of my friends with kids on the hockey circuit is a doctor and his parents came from Egypt. You can raise long and short horns in Texas...get yourself a patch of dirt, your own spread and a ten gallon hat. You need the farm to avoid the term "All hat, no cattle".
Hi, Andy. When I lived in Maine, we had a small flock of sheep, an endangered breed called "Cotswolds." I sheared them myself, dyed the fleece with natural dyes, spun the wool and used the yarn for weaving. We also put alot of meat in the freezer and enjoyed many a lamb stew on a cold night.
The rule was that we named the ones who were pets and numbered the ones who weren't.