The Farmer has obtained his real estate license. This is a great achievement, after months of study, but it is more than that. It’s a new phase of life.
In the past seven years since I have been partnered with The Farmer, we have already experienced many phases of life. Most of the job-related ones have been mine, because as a writer, I have been rather transient. I came home from 3 years in Asia, lived at my parents’ house for a few months until my father started dropping hints that it was time for me and my brood to find a nest of our own. So we moved into a townhouse. Then it was one job after another until I finally found my niche at the radio station.
The Farmer and I didn’t live together until we were married, about fifteen months after our first date. That day, life changed forever, for the better of course. It was a bit of a shock, though, waking up in the farmhouse and realizing I was married not only to a college professor but a sheep farmer. I was a Farmwife. Manure would be involved in my regular routine.
Then the kids had to ‘find their corners’. A couple moved out, a couple moved in, and one visited often. The Farmer and I learned not to get too attached to the elusive creatures known as our daughters. Even those living with us were rarely home and when they were, they were happily ensconced in their rooms, listening to strange music. Just this past weekend the last of the five moved out. This time she took furniture so it’s probably going to last. All that is left is a crumpled collage of rockstar and superhero posters on the wall, and a closet full of discarded clothing that is going to make some new owner very happy.
With the acquisition of this new title of Real Estate Agent, The Farmer has reclaimed one of the girls’ bedrooms. He painted over the pink walls with a colour like sun-kissed sand, hung a few pictures and a map of property zones. He’s a large man so it took him a while to find the right desk but now it looks like it was made for that room. The window blind is always up and he has a view of the pasture. I must admit there is pretty good feng shuei going on in there.
It took us a few days to get the kinks out of the Internet at home, because The Farmer has considerably less patience than I do for slow, stalling and freezing wireless services. He seems to have mastered his very first smart phone in record time, and we tease him because now he is the one who keeps picking up his phone and looking at it when he’s supposed to be paying attention to something else. Like our youngest daughter’s graduation services. Or the Canada Day fireworks.
Facebook is a whole new world for him too. He had a personal profile on there before but rarely used it. Now he needs it for business purposes, so I will be introducing him to some of my 1000+ friends to get him started.
With his college retirement just a few years away, now is the time for him to slowly transition into real estate. He has taught business for over twenty years, and built four houses himself. When I was taking my real estate courses (I made it to part three and then gave up!) he was very interested. With a mind for math and marketing, the lessons were right up his alley.
Not much will change for us on the home front, except the occasional dinner time might be interrupted by a sales call or appointment. I might have to pitch in to cook Sunday dinner sometime too. He will have to let me into his kitchen if he has to go and host an open house somewhere.
At the end of the day, the farm is always there. Season after season it brings new challenges and routines that mark the passage of time. It’s a relief to come home from a stressful day at work to walk among the animals and do something simple like pitching hay.
And I am still The Accidental Farmwife, because The Accidental Real Estate Agent’s Wife just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Email: dianafisher1@gmail.com
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