Where Did The Goat Cheese Lady Go?

Posted on January 20, 2015 by The Goat Cheese Lady

She went to Penrose, Colorado, a small, unincorporated town 45 minutes south of Colorado Springs, to a five acre piece of irrigated land with her husband, two boys, six goats and two dogs.

She is me.  I am her.  I am The Goat Cheese Lady, beginning Chapter 2 of the life I am fortunate to be living with the family and animals I am grateful to have.

This new beginning is leading us down a road that we are confident will be the best for ourselves, our marriage, our family, our business, our finances, our stress level and our smiles.  We are now the 100% complete, hands down, debt-free owners of our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1080 square foot house, and barn complete with five acres of currently-used-as-a-hayfield land irrigated with snow melt runoff from Pikes Peak.

161

But the question begs to be asked:

If you were ever in our last house and enjoyed the breathtaking view, you might just enter our new house and secretly wonder…WHY on EARTH did they give up the spacious, window-laden, deck-skirted house they had to move HERE?

I hear you, and I might ask myself the same question if it weren’t for one simple fact:

1.  Our mortgage payment was $2300.00 per month at our 1 1/2 acre farm and 3400 square foot house in Colorado Springs.  (aka: the old house).  You read that right: $2300.00.  (Which, as a side note…we paid on time every month we lived there…to answer the question my son’s friend asked….”did anyone ask you to move?”….No.  We made a  grown-up decision to live WITHIN our means, which meant choosing to move.)

One of our goals in life is to be DEBT-FREE.

By selling our house and using the equity to BUY this house and land…without a loan…with cash…all-money-down…we are now free of personal debt.  And we plan to stay that way.

Some other reasons we chose to move…We didn’t have enough space to increase our herd size to 15, which is what we want to start a cheese creamery.  There wasn’t room for horses at the old place.  We wanted more land.

We have lots of plans for our new farm, I’ll share them with you in the near future.  We also plan on having classes again, and I’ll let you know more about that too.

Keep your eye out for future posts on: How We Moved Our Farm, Cooking With My New Pressure Cooker, Moving In, Fixing Up, Downsizing To A Small Kitchen, Converting The Hayfield To A Food Forest, Starting Up New Chickens, Starting New Ducks (a first time experience for me!), Kidding Season (coming soon!), and Introducing Our New Goats!

It’s good to be back, and I’ll look forward to seeing you or hearing from you soon!

–  The Goat Cheese Lady

 

About The Goat Cheese Lady

I am Lindsey. At first I was a city girl. Growing up, the closest thing I had to farm animals were a cat and a cockatiel. In 2009, Herbert (my husband) and I bought our first milk goat and I instantly became an urban farmgirl, attempting to balance city and farm life..before I knew “urban homesteading” was a thing. That’s when we began The Goat Cheese Lady Farm, hence The Goat Cheese Lady blog you’re visiting now. After moving to the country in 2014, I embarked on life as a rural farmgirl. We continued teaching farm and cheesemaking classes, raising more goats and began construction on our cheese creamery. But life had other plans and in 2017, we decided that, due to financial and health issues, we had to close the farm for business. No more classes, no more creamery, a lot less milking. We went back to off farm jobs, I as an Occupational Therapist, Herbert in construction with his business, D&A Home Remodeling. At that point, I made a silent promise to myself that I would corral my entrepreneurial mind and focus on a job for a year. Well, it has been a year and I am back. Not to classes, cheese, soap or lotion, but back to writing. I love it. I’m not sure where it will lead me, but that’s where I’m starting. I’ll continue to write as The Goat Cheese Lady for now, and whatever the future holds, I’ll let you know. Our two boys are 14 and 11 and continue to be louder than my sister and I ever were. We have two dogs, Montaña and Flash, a cat, Jumpy, a flock of chickens and three goats. Yes, we still have Lucy, the goat who helped us start it all and was milked by over 1,000 people. She’s retired but still the boss. Chocolate provides enough milk for our family with some to spare for the dogs. Soccer friends, school friends, coyotes and mice are frequent visitors. There are way too many flies and every so often we see an owl. I’m glad you’re here. Sometimes you’ll laugh out loud, other times you’ll be inspired to appreciate the small things. My hope is that, over your morning cup of coffee or your afternoon work break, you’ll enjoy the antics and inspiration that are my daily life. Lindsey
This entry was posted in chickens, classes, Dogs, Farm Life, goats and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

14 Responses to Where Did The Goat Cheese Lady Go?

  1. Sue Best says:
    January 31, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    Hi GCL :o) I ran across your site while surfing the net about farm animals. I saw a post from Aug 2014 about you giving up several foods. It struck me as odd that you would be told to eliminate such a long list all at once. How are you to tell which “food” is causing problems if you give up so many all at once? I would like to suggest that you go on Facebook and look up “Wheat Belly” the results that people are getting by eliminating GRAINS is remarkable! And reading this site is FREE. And FREE fits right into your “downsizing” very nicely. My husband and I have been mortgage free for 30 years, I’m sure there are people who look at our 960 square foot house and think how do they live in such a small place (all the while THEY are freaking out over their mortgage payment) and I’m out riding my horse or feeding the pigs and chickens :o) You will not be sorry for paying cash for your place….. now you can truly say “this is OUR place”. Check out Wheat Belly, it could be the answer to some of your health problems. Congratulations on YOUR house. :o) Sue.

    Reply
    • The Goat Cheese Lady says:
      January 31, 2015 at 6:56 pm

      Thanks Sue! I’ll check out Wheat Belly. My doctor had me cut out all of those foods for three months while also taking a few supplements, then, one at a time I added them back. Each time I added a food back, I had to be aware of return of symptoms. If any symptoms returned or I had a two or more pound weight gain in the four day period following the introduction, I was considered still allergic to it and had to avoid it for another three months. A few of the foods, including wheat and gluten, I have to avoid for a year, then can reintroduce. I’m feeling MUCH better since starting the food and supplement regimen!!! Congratulations to you for being thirty years debt free!!! Lindsey

      Reply
  2. Rebekah Shaffer says:
    January 28, 2015 at 5:55 am

    We made the transition from Colorado Springs to Penrose as well! We have our chicken’s and a couple dogs in what I refer to as “Dowtown Penrose.” We love it here – even if we aren’t in love with the lack of trees. Good luck and I can’t wait until you have things up and running!

    Reply
  3. florasforum says:
    January 23, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Congratulations on your new debt-free homestead! I have a friend who lived in Penrose for a few years – she had a small apple orchard and a huge garden. Both were organically tended and amazing.

    Reply
  4. Melina says:
    January 20, 2015 at 10:57 pm

    Our loss is Penrose’s gain. I’m sure you will enjoy the new place and make it flourish and prosper. Love you, girl.

    Reply
  5. MollyO says:
    January 20, 2015 at 1:06 pm

    I *love* the fact that you bought the “new” farm free & clear! Congratulations!! What a relief to not have a mortgage! Downsizing to a small kitchen makes my heart melt…that’s my passion in life…living simply and helping others do the same 😉

    Reply
  6. Megan Kreger says:
    January 20, 2015 at 12:04 pm

    Congrats on the new and awesome debt free home! I look forward to hearing about your new flocks of foul and starting the creamers. You are truly an inspiration. 😁

    Reply
  7. antoniadianne says:
    January 20, 2015 at 10:49 am

    Great decision ! Good luck on the new farm.. From a New York girl living in Georgia who loves reading your blog.!

    Reply

Leave a reply to The Goat Cheese Lady Cancel reply