The Farmstead
On finally becoming some sort of farmer
As I child when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I always answered “a farmer’s wife”, well it came second after being Snow White but as I grew older I realized that that was not going to happen. I didn’t fall in love with a farmer so plans were changed and I spent my mid twenties up to my late forties in Georgian houses with high ceilings and large rooms with lots of windows and ornamental frills. Secretly I kept longing for wide green views, low ceilings, beams and wood burning stoves to brew a bit of stew on. I’ve been pinning images of farm life for many years on Pinterest dreaming of owning chickens and sheep. And now at almost 51 I have become the owner of a farmhouse! In a historical town in the rolling hills of southern Funen in Denmark.
Damgård is the name of our new farmstead which means “pond farm” but there’s no pond in sight. It’s a typical square Danish farmstead from 1827 and it consists two barns and 3 cottages. We are going to live in the middle cottage and use the other two cottages for holiday rentals. Eventually the two barns will be used for a wedding/party venue, shop, gallery and painting studio for Boris. We will be renovating and decorating for the rest of our lives and that was something we were looking for as we have to stop moving house. This will probably be our forever home and our forever place of work.
We are aiming to open the holiday cottages summer 2026 but definitely for Christmas 2026 so I’ll start taking reservations in May. I already get so excited to decorate the farm with fairy lights and Christmas trees as this Christmas we will be moving so I will be missing out. But also the excitement of creating a whole new garden and the smell of the lilacs, that grow on the side of our new road, in springtime. We will be moving to Denmark in December and start renovating in January.
I want to start a vlog on my YouTube channel but I don’t know if I should do that in English or in Dutch. Please help me out by selecting an option in the poll below.
Lots of love, Yvonne