Such a beautiful photo of this Iowa winter storm at the farm. This is us making the best of it. We did after all make the decision to buy a farm in Iowa knowing how brutal winters can be.
What you don’t see in this photo is us rushing out on our breaks the day before from our corporate careers to make sure all of our animals are holding up in this storm. We of course work from home and don’t ever have snow days which is the trade off of a virtual employee. I wouldn’t change it for the world and know that there are many people that would appreciate a job with this kind of flexibility. Not complaining as it has its perks.
While everyone we come into virtual contact with is expressing how ready they are for the weekend, I have a list of very important tasks I must tend to and finding a way to complete my work expectations so I can immediately rush out into the belly of the storm with Ryan to make sure our farm is still standing with no lives lost.
We rushed out right at 5 and immediately knew it was going to get worse before it got better. We power-housed into our barn and made space for our ducks and farm dog. Running the ducks one in each hand to the barn as our farm dog right beside us running back and forth. We got them in all safe and sound. The chickens were safe in their coop along with the geese in there house. The peacocks were sitting on their stoop just living their best life… they had a dry coop to seek refuge so we let them do them.
Running back and forth in waist deep even shoulder deep drifts is exhausting. We landed back in the house 3 hours later and looked at each other and smiled. We did it! At least for the night we could rest easy knowing our farm is safe.
As we woke up the next morning we walked out with the wind not letting up. This was the first photo I took to represent this very day. The farm was still safe but new challenges ahead of us. Waist deep drift’s literally everywhere we walk, Ryan is digging out but not quick enough as the wind continues to fill the paths back up with snow. It took us 3 hours to do our chores and as I am falling every other step thinking about what everyone else is up to I think to myself I still wouldn’t trade this for the world and continued to carry 5 gallon buckets of water to our livestock. I would do it 100 times over if I had to. That’s what this photo will now be a forever reminder of why we do what we do.
Moral of the story… Find what fuels your fire even on the toughest of days. Trust me you will know when you find it. It won’t be a matter of asking yourself if you are sure, it will be a matter of you telling yourself lets conquer the world regardless of the storm♥️
-Jamie
Moral Of The Story 