Let me introduce myself…

“Just remember: the people that say, ‘your dreams are impossible’ have already quit on theirs.”
~Grant Cardone

Hello! I am so happy you’ve found my little space here on the interweb. Although I enjoy writting, it comes at snail pace speed but I don’t mind. Mostly though I speak through my photographs. I want to introduce myself. My name is Caryn Prouty and I live in a very small town (like no traffic lights, only a few stop signs) with my husband and daughter on a piece of land I like to say is “two properties, one farm.”

My husband and I began dating while I was still in high school after his younger sister introduced us. I remember the first time I met him. We were finished with basketball practice (it was cold) and she called him to come pick us up. He drove a little red jimmy. Before winter was over we were dating. Fast forward a few years, I’m in college and he is starting his first full-time job as a career firefighter/EMT. We bought a house in that city (they call it a city but really it is a town) and made it home as best we could. He of course was elated having his “dream job” with firefighting being the only thing he ever wanted to do. So for him he was pretty content for a while but me? I am a country girl. I grew up in the outskirts of a small town nearby where my sister and I were outside more than we were inside. By the time I was a teen I was out trail riding (alone) through the back hills behind our home exploring the beautiful landscape that surrounded us. Still to this day that patch of woods is my favorite place in the world. From grassy fields to steep inclines, gorgeous tall pines with lush ferns spread across the forest floor underneath, and a beautiful gully that in the winter time was somewhere otherworldly. I felt like I was stepping into Narnia. As you can imagine, having to live within the constraints of a city for 12 years was no easy task and it weighed heavily on my heart. As the years went by my husband also became restless as he too wanted a place in the country.

Lucky for us, my Mother owned 13 acres first purchased by my uncle when I was a child, which then my Grandfather and Grandmother purchased from him. When they passed on from this world, Mother was able to buy out her two brothers and the farm was hers. Although it’s not a lot of land and it’s certainly not the extraordinary landscape of my childhood it is still a place of peace and beauty. We were able to escape here on weekends which fed our restive hearts.

In 2015, the small house that borders my mother’s property was purchased by (if I remember correctly) a contracting company for a whopping $6,750 according to records. It was is pretty rough shape after sitting empty for some time. From top to bottom the house was repaired and remodeled, new everything. My father used to come check things out and he managed to get us a look inside once it was finished. First time I walked through the door I fell in love. Although everything was new and re-finished the place still had an old feel to it which fed my soul (it was built in 1875, 76 years after the town was first settled). I first noticed the ceilings which were simple wood paneling – nothing fancy but painted white and I loved the look rather than a plain ceiling. The beautiful black counter tops, glass door cupboards, stained glass windows, ship lap on the stairwell wall, and on the landing there’s an amazing vintage lantern light hanging from the ceiling. I was smitten. But… it couldn’t be ours yet. There was no way we could finance a home at that time, plus my husband was still employed by the city. Someone else bought it in 2017 and I was crushed.

At the risk of sounding cliché I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. We found ourselves in the middle of hardship and for a couple years it got really bad. Financial struggle, problems at work for my husband, of course this put a strain on our marriage. While you’re navigating rough waters you may not know the reason why and may become bitter or angry and may even decide to raise the white flag and quit but going back to the quote I opened with, if we did that where would we be? We did not give up on our dreams. Granted they did not happen as quickly as we wanted to but after all, it’s God’s perfect plan. Not ours. My husband was finally free from his job and although it wasn’t a pretty departure, we still had an opportunity we never had before: to get the hell out of that place. The very same house went back up for sale in 2018. This time, it was meant to happen. We pounced on it before it even made it to market because I couldn’t let it go again and in a whirlwind 2.5 months we were moving in.

I’m truly living the dream. I couldn’t be happier on this small swatch of land that’s all our own. There’s room for our horses (on my mom’s side), my beloved chickens, dogs, cats, and this summer we planted our first garden too! The area has rich history and we sit on an old railroad bed which provides the most beautiful trail to walk. Our daughter is finally free to play outside without me worrying (too much). She has neighbor friends and lots of grass, dirt, creek water and trees to get dirty by. And day by day I document our lives with my trusty camera which is always by my side. For one day we will be gone from this earth as the generations past, and I want my future family to be able to get a glimpse into our lives. Every picture has a story to tell. I hope you’ll join me here, as I tell our story of this new adventure through my viewfinder.