When my family and I moved to Tom’s family farm in 2019, I had big goals, big ambitions, and probably a few crazy ideas. I had never lived on a farm before, but Tom had grown up here, on the very same place we moved to.

The old 40-cow dairy farm he remembered is now a distant memory, and today, seven years later, the farm looks very different. What started as a step of faith has slowly grown into raising beef cattle, pork, chickens, and eggs, along with a business we never fully imagined in the beginning.

Back then, I had a lot of ideas about what farm life would be like.
Tom would smile and say,
“Just wait… you’ll see.”

I didn’t fully understand what he meant at the time.

Over the years, I realized I’m a dreamer at heart. I love the vision, the possibilities, the feeling that God might be leading us somewhere bigger than we can see right now. But building a life on a farm, and building a business, takes more than a dream. It takes patience, hard work, prayer, and a willingness to keep going when things don’t make sense.

There are parts of farm life I love, and parts that don’t come naturally at all.
I don’t always love working with manure (even though on the farm it’s basically gold), throwing hay in the middle of winter, worrying about water for the chickens and pigs, or pushing hay up in the round bale feeder when the wind is biting your face.

But the love of the animals, the quiet of the country, the people we meet, and the farm-fresh food we get to grow and share remind me again and again that this is where God has us right now.

Here are five surprising things I didn’t realize about farm life.

1. God often provides through people.

No matter how hard you work, you cannot do farm life alone.

Over the years, family, friends, and neighbors have helped us more times than I can count. From loaning equipment, to helping round up cattle that got out in the middle of the night, to baling hay, fixing machinery, or giving us hay when we came up short — we’ve seen God provide through the people around us again and again.

Farming has a way of humbling you.
You realize quickly that you are not in control of everything, and you need help.

Sometimes that help shows up exactly when you’ve been praying for it.

2. You learn to trust God with what you cannot control.

On the farm, you are always watching something such as 
the weather, the pasture, the feed, the animals, the fences, the equipment, the markets, the fuel prices.

And even when you do everything right… things can still go wrong.

There are droughts, storms, breakdowns, predators, sickness, and days when it feels like everything happens at once. I didn’t realize how much farming would teach me to pray about the little things and the big things.

I also didn’t realize farmers have to be a little bit of everything —
a mechanic, a veterinarian, a builder, a scientist…
and sometimes the one hauling pails of water because everything froze overnight.

Farm life reminds me daily that we can work hard, but the outcome is still in God’s hands.

3. I wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would be.

One of the hardest surprises for me was how much my heart would be involved in this life.

When we brought our first animals in to be processed, I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I cried. You care for these animals every day. You check on them in the cold, worry about them in the heat, stay up late when something isn’t right, and celebrate when calves are born.

And sometimes… you lose calves too.
That part never gets easy.

I’ve learned that caring deeply is not a weakness.
It’s part of the responsibility God gave us to care for His creation.

Every time we send animals in, I still say a quiet prayer of thanks for the animal, for the food, and for the families it will feed.

4. God doesn’t call us to know everything — just to keep learning.

Before moving to the farm, I didn’t know the difference between
a cow, a heifer, a steer, a bull calf, or a yearling… and honestly, I’m still learning.

Now we have cattle, pigs, chickens, and more responsibilities than I ever imagined. Every year brings something new to figure out, fix, or understand.

Farm life has taught me that God doesn’t expect us to have everything figured out before we start. Sometimes He just asks us to take the next step, learn as we go, and trust Him with the rest.

Tom, the kids, and I are all still learning Every.Single.Year.

5. I finally learned… I can’t do it all.

This might be the biggest lesson God has taught me out here.

For a long time, I thought I should be able to do everything.
Run the house, help on the farm, raise the kids, cook from scratch, build the business, keep up with everything, and do it all well.

But farm life doesn’t work like that.

There are interruptions, emergencies, sick animals, broken equipment, weather problems, and seasons where nothing goes the way you planned. With young kids especially, I had to learn that I cannot do it all, and I was never meant to.

I had to learn to leave room in the day for the unexpected.
To let some things wait.
To trust that God knows what needs to get done more than I do.

I can’t control what happens, but I can choose how I respond.
And many days, the best thing I can do is keep showing up, do the next thing in front of me, and trust that God is working even when I can’t see it.

Farm life has stretched my faith more than anything else I’ve ever done.
It’s harder than I expected… but also more meaningful than I ever imagined.

Have you ever started something new and realized God was teaching you things you didn’t expect?
What surprised you the most along the way?

Warmly,
Tessa