Hello, my name is Tracey Dugi. I am the wife/mama to this crazy family. My husband Jeff and I met in high school and were best friends during our years in school. It wasn’t until after graduation we decided to officially date each other and the rest is history. We have grown into a BIG family of 8. And now are creating our dream of living on a farm. We have six kiddos, 4 girls and 2 boys, ranging in age from 19 years all the way down to 18 months.
Meet the Dugis
Jeff works for our local county. In addition to being the chaos coordinator for this family I also work outside the home as a neonatal nurse practitioner. After about the 3rd child for simplicity we started calling them by their birth number and it stuck. #1 has moved away to college to get her Ag business degree. She still comes home some weekends and during the summer to help out on the farm. #2 and #3 are our sports kids. In addition to farm life we live the “Sorry I can’t… my kid has practice or a game or something” life as well with those 2. #4 is in her last year of elementary and had to make the hard decision between sports or raising animals. She chose an attitude filled Charolais heifer, Daisy. #5 is our proof of God’s sense of humor. She is our wild card. We thought we had a strong willed child until this one came around. And to round out the crew #6 arrived on the day I graduated from my masters program. Another boy…finally! #2 lost hope years ago of ever getting the chance of having a little brother.
How it All Began
#1 was the one to get us started in farm life with her heifer project back in 2020. When the kids were all sent home to stay what else do you do but go out and buy a cow (or 2 lol) for the backyard.?!?! We were still living in a subdivision at the time but far enough out in the country our deed allowed livestock for 4H/FFA purposes. And so began our herd. Darla and Darcy were welcomed into our backyard. After years of looking we finally bought our little piece of heaven in April 2022. The following month we closed on the sale of our previous home and we officially began life in the country. Our herd has grown to include Darcy’s heifer calf, Dave (long story), a steer called Dinner, and Daisy Mae.
RV Living
When we sold our house we didn’t have any other options but to purchase an RV. We have been living in the RV since May 2022. Our property was just property when we purchased it. There was nothing. We cut a hole in the fence to make a driveway and began the process of making it livable. We had water, electric and our septic system installed over the next few months. The kindest family took us in and allowed us to literally camp out in their backyard/cow pasture during installation of the basics on our property. What was supposed to be a short 2-4 week stay turned into a 3 month extended stay. We finally were able to move our RV on our property in August.
Coming Soon
This past week all the pieces FINALLY fell into place. Our construction loan has been funded and construction will begin MONDAY!!! Because the housing market went crazy we decided on holding off on building our forever home and are building a shop with living quarters. I refuse to call it a Barndo because that in my mind makes it sound a whole lot fancier than what we are actually getting. Its just a shop for the farm equipment and has living space. We have our neighbors old kitchen cabinets that will be repurposed for our kitchen. I do love the old farm house look and plan on channeling my grandmother’s house in the design process. Stay tuned to keep up with our build.
There is never a dull moment in this household. There are so many moving parts and we are always on the go (Probably the only reason we have lasted so long in the RV). I can’t wait to entertain y’all with our antics.
Welcome to Life with the Dugis!
