I love our farm.  It truly makes my heart happy to be home, no matter if I’m in the pasture, barn or the house. But my porch…my porch is a little slice of heaven. My porch is where I spend a lot of my time. My porch is what gets the most compliments from visitors. Like Sheldon on Big Bang Theory, my porch is my spot. My porch is the most important part of my house; here are a few reasons why:

I can see the whole farm

From my outdoor sectional on my porch, I can see most of the entire farm. Our house sits up on a hill so I can see the front pasture where we have the goats and weaned heifers, and the big pasture with the horses and cattle. Nothing makes me want to sit down for a minute more than my animals. I love to sit and watch them. Doesn’t matter if they are grazing or laying down chewing their cud, I just want to take in the cuteness of all of my animals.

In May of 2017, we sat on our porch one Sunday and watched our barn being built. We hired the same company that built our house (it started as a pole barn) to build our pole barn. These guys are awesome. The materials were delivered on Friday, and Sunday morning by 7 a.m. they were at our house digging the first hole. From our spot on the porch, we watched as they had the entire barn finished by 6 p.m. that evening.

My “kids” love the porch more than I do

While I don’t have human children, my dogs are my kids. And they LOVE the porch. They lie on the cool concrete and catch a breeze as it blows through. Also, just like me, they love that they can see everything that’s going on around them. Denim is known for sitting on the edge of the porch, and “looking over her spread” as we call it. The ranch kitties reside on the porch, which is great for mouse control… not so great when they kill a mole and feel the need to bring it to me for morning approval. Trust me on this – not much will wake you up faster than almost stepping on a fresh mole kill barefoot at 5:30am. The animals love the sectional too – I think the ranch kitties sat on it more than I did the first two weeks we had it.

It makes me slow down

I’m one of those people who never slow down. My brain is constantly running: thinking of what I need to do, if what I’ve done was done right, what needs to be done three months from now. My body never stops either. I definitely have gotten on a few peoples’ nerves for the “bouncing leg” or the “pen clicking”. My mother-in-law always laughs at my ability to read a magazine while still being fully engaged in a conversation. But on the porch, I can chill out. I can sit down, kick my feet up, and take it all in.

Increasing it’s Awesome-ness

I love looking at homes, and I find myself wondering how people survive when I drive by a house without a porch. My husband would spend 100 percent of his time on the porch if I would let him. We are always discussing ways to make our porch even more amazing. This spring’s purchase was our sectional. The husband is working on plans for building our outdoor dining table (we looked at one at Home Depot, but we are a DIY family…). Future plans are to put a fireplace at the end so we can enjoy the porch even more year round.

What is your favorite place at home? Where do you go just to chill out? Drop me a comment below to let me know where your spot is.