Phew! The hardest part is always finding a good name. Now that the hard part is over...
A couple years ago I started a blog to talk about things that I was doing of a more technical nature; things related to computer programming, open-source, etc. That's one side of who I am. Another side of who I am is: Trevor the Farmer.
I have an undergraduate university degree in Applied Computer Science, and by day am a Senior Software Engineer (the truth is, I tend to do a lot of this in evenings and weekends too, because I love computers, programming, and electronics so much!). Additionally, my partner, Vanessa (who, incidentally is also a Senior Software Developer) and I own, live on, and run a 30-acre hobby horse farm North-West of Toronto. So when we're not slinging code, you'll often find us slinging manure (which, in many ways, is basically the same thing)!
Lots of the things that I'd like to blog about don't quite fit into the theme of my other blog; things that I've learned from, and that we're doing on, our farm. So I've started this blog as a landing-site for more of the farm-related things. Which isn't to say that farm-related things aren't or can't be technical! I hope to blog about a lot of technical things in and around the farm, but in a different way than I would were I blogging about them on a technical site.
I grew up in the city (Toronto). I lived a large part of my life there. When I was a teenager my family bought a cottage (Hemlock Point) on a lake just South of Parry Sound (Horseshoe Lake). I enjoyed that cottage quite a lot, I enjoyed the country, and getting out of the city. Vanessa grew up on the outskirts of a smaller, northern-Ontario city, and has always been a huge fan of the outdoors, horses, dogs, etc. We met at university in Toronto and moved in together in 1998: the city boy and the country girl. After roughly 10 years of living together in the city (East York), we moved to the country in 2008. Then, in 2014, we bought and moved to a 30-acre hobby horse farm.
For a period of time while attending University, I lived right in the most downtown of downtown parts of Toronto (Yonge and Carlton area). At the time I enjoyed it somewhat. But now that I've lived in the country for the last decade or so, I can't image ever living in a city again. I'm not saying I'd never do it again, but I can't imagine it. Although I don't live too far from Toronto, I haven't been past the very border of its city limits in a very long time!
As for the title of this blog... When I told my parents that I had met someone new and that Vanessa and I were dating, my mom asked me to tell them something about her. After thinking about it for a moment, the best I could come up with on the spot was: "I'll tell you this: if Vanessa and I stay together, I can guarantee you that over our time together we will end up owning a dog, a horse, and a farm!".
All of this has come true: twenty years on Vanessa and I are still together, we had one dog (Twist!) for a long time (she passed away), now we have two: Sandi and Brinley. We've owned a couple horses (Lexi and Joker), and now we have Glory, Roman, and Perri (we sold Lexi, and Joker passed away). In 2017 Perri gave birth to Ohneka, which brings us up to four horses. This winter both Glory and Perri are pregnant, so hopefully there will be two more horses to add to the family next year!
