New Beginnings

With spring right around the bend, the season of new beginnings, with it’s warmer days, endless dreams, and mile long task lists , it seems like the perfect time to share a bit of news…

But first I should probably give you a bit of context.

See, it feels as though we’ve been triaging life for years.

Rushing through chores at the crack of dawn every morning so we can commute into work and school an hour+ away only to turn around, rush home with take-out in hand, and push through chores as darkness approaches each evening has become physically and emotionally exhausting.

And it makes everything we love about our farm and this lifestyle feel like a burden.

And, as a piece of a large and intricate puzzle, my health began to suffer through anxiety, exhaustion, and unexplained and persistent pain.

Last year, in the wake of a very rough spring kidding season, we started talking about the changes that could be made on the farm to make our lives a bit easier. So we…

• re- homed a few animals
• simplified a few of our processes
• scaled back on our commitments

We took some deep breaths and dove into the growing season with a fresh perspective, a shifted work load, and had our asses handed to us by the weather with hail storm after hail storm.

I focused on my health… scheduled doctors appointments (that gave me zero answers), visited some alternative practitioners (that gave me some answers and next steps), and began paying close attention to how different experiences affected me physically and emotionally.

All the while, we chatted and dreamed and planned, taking stock of where we were and where we wanted to be.

We harvested what remained of the fruit, the chile, and the corn after a brutal summer and we ate like Queens.

Then we added a couple of pigs to the mix.

And a massive puppy.

We relished these new beginnings and planned for the future while trying to stay present with all that is in each moment.

And we kept coming back to the fact that our non-profit jobs pay the bills and fill our hearts in very specific ways, but farming and homesteading are the lifeblood of who we are.

Then I spent nearly three months battling respiratory infections and both Influenza A & B which prompted the conversation to shift to how we might might truly find balance between work life and farm life and how that could happen sooner rather than later.

Because life is short, you know?

So it was decided I’d quit my day job…

To focus on the farm and on our family…

To dive into all we have already going on here and to focus on doing it all really well…

To find joy in kidding season, planting season, and harvest season…

To find an equilibrium…

To grow and produce as much of our food as possible and then actually make the time to cook it up into delicious meals and preserve the rest.

Imagine that.

No more triaging.

At least not in the same ways we’ve been doing for years now.

And I have to tell you, I am psyched to find a new normal…

I’m psyched to shift my title from Program Director to Farm Wife.

The job I’m leaving is a good one. Challenging in ways I’d never imagined before taking the gig, but also quite fulfilling.

From the farmers and colleagues I’ve grown to know and adore, to the programs I’ve run and the programs I’ve developed, to the small ag community and the larger local foodie community, it’s a lot to leave…

But I know I’ve done good work there and have set the programs and the community up for success to the best of my ability…

And the truth is, I’m leaving my position, not the community.

The community is, again, the lifeblood of what we’re doing here.

But the choice had to be made to either give up the dream or give the dream a go…

And so, we’re giving the dream a go!

And isn’t spring just the perfect time for new beginnings?

xoxo,

M

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