We have always sought adventure.
Adventure and self-sufficiency are values that we hold close. These are the values I instill in my children every day. But these are values of action, and not just words. So we took a risk on a run down rented farm that had once been a dairy, and our real adventure in farming began.
In 2010 we bought an aging farm - over 100 years old- and the hard work of rehabbing buildings, replanting pastures, fencing acreage, and restoring tired soils got underway. It was a wreck with seven charming falling-down buildings, a home with no heat, and fields so saturated that tractors feared them. But it also had a resident barn owl, a stunning view of Mt. Baker, and 27 acres of potential. It felt like a farm should. It felt like home.
We spent the first summer living in the barn while I rebuilt the house. By Thanksgiving the snow started to fall, and we had our first meal in the plywood kitchen. That next winter and spring the first field crops and livestock became part of our daily routine. We bought our first ewes and ram, built up our layer flock, repaired, uncovered and discovered the property, and sent out our first CSA boxes. That year we sold fresh weekly veggie boxes, lamb, eggs, and raised a couple of free bull calves.
Our first year was a success & we were hooked.
We have come a long way in our business, but it has been a lifestyle choice as much as anything. We work hard...every day...like it or not. We participate in the constant drama of life and death and natural forces that we can't control. At middle age, I have learned a new way to live and to earn a living. It has been a true adventure for our family - complete with laughter, learning, tears, sore muscles, and lots of love.