I’ve always said that I should write a book. Not because I think I’m especially wise or wildly entertaining but because life is full of stories. But because usually after something completely unexpected happens and I catch myself saying out loud “Okay so this where I’m at in life.” And I love stories, first hand stories, the kind that make you laugh, cry, think, the ones you will just always be a part of you that you never want to forget.

And that’s what will live here, in my little piece of the world wide web and that I’m going to call The Back Forty Files. This is where I’m keeping the stories that matter. The ones I don’t want to forget. The ones I hope my kids and grandkids read one day and say, “yep, that sounds just like her.” or maybe even “Now I get it.”

This won’t go viral, it won’t win a Pulitzer, or get me invited to give a TED Talk but none of those are the point. This is the place for the stories that shaped me, broke me, built me, and make me who I am. A place for my kids and grandkids to read if they want. A place for me to read my memories when I get old.

This won’t be full of perfectly polished essays or how-to guides. It’s more like a personal archive – my space for the real stuff, not just the highlight reel. The everyday memories, the hard-earned lessons, the laughs that still make smile when I’m driving alone, the moments that put a lump in my throat out of nowhere. This is part diary, part legacy, and part therapy session.

They’ll be humor. Because if you can’t laugh at yourself because on the mornings you feed in your pajamas 50 cars drive past but on mornings you get ready no one drives by then your just not having fun.

There’ll be heartache. Because life isn’t easy. We lose people and good livestock, we’ve been exhausted and overwhelmed and stretched thin.

There’ll be chaos. Because that’s how my mind works, it’s just part of who I am.

And ther’ll be love. Because even on the worst days there is love.

Why the Back Forty Files -when people say “the back 40” they’re usually talking about a remote or less-vistied part of a piece of land or property. Ove time, the back 40 has become more of phrase that a measurement – a metaphor for memories, stories, or things that aren’t front and center anymore but still matter. Kind of like where the good stories settle!

These are the stories I don’t want to forget–the messy, the meaningful, the hilarious, the hard. Because someday, I want my kids and grandkids to know exactly who we were and how much life we lived.” Because I don’t want these stories to disappear.