The Story of Ellis Acres
I often wonder if the word “farmish” should become an actual word. Maybe one day we will see it added to the dictionary as the beloved new word of the year. Regardless of its actual vocabulary status, it is the perfect word to describe the kind of people Matt and I have become. Now before your eyebrows raise a little too high, let me inform you that there are instruments everywhere throughout our farmhouse. There just also happens to be goats, a pig, and an assortment of chickens outside to add to our musicality.
In 2020, we purchased twenty-three acres of land outside of Abilene, TX. Raw land. This means we began our dream of a homestead with no power or water, so they were the first items on our to-do list. While taming the land, we rented a two-bedroom, 1-bath home and crammed three kids into one tiny room. For two years. During Covid. Thankfully they loved it and we had to threaten them most nights to stop laughing and go to bed!
During our second year, we built a dream of a home; a simple, two-story white farmhouse designed to take your mind’s eye back to the late 1800’s. Our builder saw us through the sheetrock and texture phase of building and we did all of the finishes. Well, all except for the tile because Matt hates tile with a passion. He’s actually our resident woodworker while I make sure the paint goes on evenly and all of the caulk and putty is nice and smooth.
These 23 acres were a physical representation of a massive change that happened in our family in 2019. We were scattered here and there. Our kids in public school, Matt working and drinking too much, and I was burying myself in worship ministry by seeking a platform. Amazingly enough, in the middle of our rat race, we sensed a little nudge from God that it was time to center back on Him. Before Covid, in December of 2019, we began homeschooling, Matt gave up alcohol for good, and I laid down my ministry aspirations. We decided to live within the boundary lines that God said were best for us rather than trying to live our own way. We opened our proverbial hands, let go of the things we worked so hard to control, and received God’s best for our family of five. Turned out that his way was better. The raw land we purchased was HARD WORK… we had to put in a solar water well, trench lines for electricity, hire a tree service to clear 5 acres of cedar for our home and farm, and grub some of the trees ourselves. It was hard but holy work, in our hearts and with our hands.
Before we moved in to our mostly finished home, we spent weeks upon days upon hours getting our home livable. One of the first things we did when we moved in was have our small group over… In the middle of the mess and in the midst of continued construction. We let our friends celebrate all of the hard work God had done inside of us that could get us to the risky place of tackling such a major family endeavor.
Every ounce of sweat and tired muscles was worth what we are getting to live now. When we moved into our mostly built home, many home finishes were waiting on us, but we couldn’t shake the strong desire to put the finishes on hold and allow each kid to have their farm animal of choice. Richard chose chickens, Lucy chose goats, little Nora chose pigs, and the miniature farm was established. It’s fun to experience the natural rhythm of the seasons through raising animals, but it’s even more fun to see your kids grow in work ethic, responsibility, and joy. There are days when none of us want to go out in the cold to clean and refill the dirty water buckets or lug fresh hay to the goats, but we always come back inside with genuine smiles on our faces and the uncanny ability to breathe a little deeper.
Ours is a life we would have never dared to dream of because it seemed too far out of our reach. Yet here we are, enjoying our, well, mostly finished homestead and getting to create and share music with our pocket of the world.
