For as long as I can remember my wife Krista and I have dreamt of owning a farm, but we always thought it would be sometime in the distant future. After our two boys were out of college. When we were nearer retirement. When we had more time. When we had more money. That all changed in early July when we decided to look at a property for sale a mile-and-a-half from our home. We both knew instantly this farm was the one. We settled by the end of August.
The only problem for me was that the timing was all wrong. I was right in the middle of drawing the dummy for my next book: Turkey’s Eggscellent Easter, my fourth collaboration with author Wendi Silvano . I also had a full schedule of school visits and book events lined up. Basically, all my time was accounted for for the next six months. Where would the extra time come from to move sixteen year’s worth of collected stuff, set it all up our new home, and prepare our old home for market?
That’s when I became semi-nocturnal. For the next six months I worked on the illustrations for Turkey’s Eggscellent Easter from 4:00AM until 3:00PM and worked on all things related to moving afterward. I also began scheduling all new requests for school visits for after the book’s due-date and rescheduled a few book events. I took advantage of the natural break I’d get after drawing the dummy. During the window of opportunity I was afforded by the week it would take my publisher to get back to me with their comments, I moved my studio from my old house to my new barn. That way my paintings and I would be out of the old house while we were trying to sell it, and I wouldn’t be losing any work time. There were some complicated logistics involved.
With the help of our neighbor Patrick and his truck, the studio relocation was accomplished. When I received approval from Two Lions to go ahead with the final art, I hit the ground running and began painting at the new barn studio. I was in heaven. It was the first time in my life I had a dedicated place to paint outside my living space. And where better to paint a book featuring barnyard animals than in a barn? Barnyard textures surrounded me!
I witnessed many beautiful nighttime scenes during this time of nocturnal painting, and made friends with other creatures of the night.
During the transition to the new farm we had our fair share of missteps. There was the time the golf cart rolled off the side of the bank, for instance. And more tragically, the loss of our first batch of chickens. Who knew they could fly? Though all too brief, we enjoyed our time with Cheryl, Ann, Ellen, KP and Lori.
While there was a lot of work involved in transitioning to the new farm, there was also a lot of work to be done at our old house. Because everything happened so suddenly, we were very unprepared to put our house on the market. My sons Will and Dan did most of the heavy lifting during their Christmas break from college. Krista single-handedly returned our swimming-pool-come-fishpond back into a proper swimming pool. We all chipped in with the spackling, painting, cleaning, packing and tossing. We hired a professionals to do the roof. At times it was overwhelming how much work there was to be done and details to manage.
Although I had already been painting in the new barn studio for a couple of months, it wasn’t until a week before Christmas that the entire family moved in.
It was a great feeling when we were finally moved out of the old house and into the new. Here are my wife Krista and dog Stella high-fiving on our first morning waking up at our new home.
I worked on Turkey’s Eggscellent Easter in my new barn studio from the dog days of summer, through the winter, and into early spring. By mid-March I was finally done, and the artwork for Turkey’s Eggscellent Easter was delivered on time.
Once we built the fire-pit we knew we were really home, and ready to begin in earnest our new life on the farm.
