LOVELL — For years, the Fitzgeralds traveled from Boston on weekends to their log home in Brownfield, taking in the outdoors and the fairs. Four years ago, their teenage boys started to lobby: They really, really wanted to move to Maine.

“I said: ‘You’re out of your mind! Absolutely not. We’re Bostonians!'” Nicole Fitzgerald said, laughing.

Eventually, the couple warmed enough to the idea to tell them: OK, write an essay with your best pitch.

The teens did. And they moved. Now they run a full-blown farm, learning as they go.

“I pick brains all the time, ‘What do you think of this?'” Fitzgerald said. “I have an appreciation that I never had for farmers who have been doing it for generations. It’s hard work, and it’s harder than anyone could ever imagine unless they’ve actually done it.”

It has been rewarding, too, she said, in ways you might expect, like watching the births of cattle and sheep, and the unexpected, like a little rooster who hatched in the horse shed, lives there now and, they’re pretty convinced, thinks he’s a horse.

“We get such a kick out of it,” Fitzgerald said. “Little things we appreciate that we just never would have experienced in the city.”

The boys were 13 and 14 when they penned their essays. The oldest, in particular, wanted to work with animals when he grew up.

“(Their arguments) included the hands-on experience with the livestock, it included just being outdoors and not being so congested,” Fitzgerald said. “I had been with the same company for 23 years, my husband was retired, and we said, ‘OK, they made some really valid points.'”

The unexpected ease of the process — their Brownfield log cabin sold in four days, they quickly landed on a home and 10 acres in Lovell, and their Boston home got an offer before it even hit the market — cinched it.

Next up: Starting Fitzgerald’s Funny Farm from scratch.

Her husband, William, came up with the name.

“We were thinking a couple cows, maybe a sheep,” she said. “Never imagined. …”

It has grown to 17 head of cattle, Shetland sheep, alpacas, pigs, draft horses and chickens.

“We have learned — and are still learning — an incredible amount about these animals,” Fitzgerald said. “We hooked up early on with 4-H groups so we could learn from people who have been doing it for generations.”

They sell eggs, beef and pork, as well as animals to show and breed, mostly through word-of-mouth and a farm Facebook page.

“Because of COVID, we did have more people seeking out farm fresh food because you couldn’t get to the store, so a lot of our stock depleted earlier this year than it normally would have,” she said. “It’s been kind of crazy.”

Boston friends have been in awe when they visit — “When you guys said that you had a farm, we never imagined it was an actual working farm” — and they’ve taken some light razzing from locals.

“We are still city kids,” Fitzgerald said. “We aren’t up at the crack of dawn. Our animals are fed at 9 in the morning, not the usual 5 or 6 like farmers do. I actually had somebody who was working on our property say, ‘Your animals eat brunch.’ It’s not unusual to hear our tractor going on at 9 o’clock at night doing work and putting hay bales in.”

It has been a lot of labor and a heavy investment in infrastructure, including barns, tractors and fencing. Fitzgerald worked in housing development in Boston and became a real estate agent here to supplement their income, “because I quickly realized there’s really not money in farming.”

Still, she said, the family has not regretted making the move for even a minute.

In the beginning, “we would call the vet out for every little thing because we didn’t know and we wanted to make sure the animals were well taken care of,” Fitzgerald said. “Now I look at it, 3¹/₂ years later, to be able to administer your own shots, identify what might be going on with an animal and troubleshoot without calling the vet, I think that’s amazing. To me, that’s so cool that we’re able to do that.”

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