So...where am I, and what have I been doing?
I find myself, once more, in a new place, making new plans, and having new...adventures? They seem rather banal for adventures, but at the same time, I find them exciting even if I'm sure no one else would.
I've moved to a new farm. If I saw you over the winter, I probably mentioned the possibility to you, and after much thought, and hand-wringing(not really), I decided to go for it. Still taking the scary path. I'm in a good place, and I can say, without reservation, that if things go as they're meant to, that I'm making a positive difference in my little corner of the world.
Forty years ago, or thereabouts, Lisa Painter and Jeane Clenendon bought Twin Vista Ranch; thirty some-odd acres in the center of Marrowstone Island, overlooking Indian Island and the Olympic mountains in one direction, and with Mount Baker peeking over the horizon in the other. During their time they did many things with the land, and became an integral part of the community at large, ensuring, just as an example, that the island has it's own ambulance, and helping out members of the community who found themselves in hard times. Earlier this year, Jeane passed away, leaving Lisa to manage the farm on her own.
She decided, with her friends, that what she needed most, was to know that the farm will remain a working farm, in perpetuity, and so she began looking into the possibility of deeding the farm to WSU to become an educational facility. That arrangement, is still in the planning stages, but everyone who's involved is optimistic that it will happen in due course, and that everyone will benefit from it.
My part in all this, so far, at least, is to manage the farm, the day to day details, and to see that the transition goes smoothly, and that as WSU takes over the farm is refocused in a way that allows it to serve a new sort of purpose. Before, and for the last decade, the farm was a private enterprise, between thirty and forty cows, and was not especially profitable. It didn't need to be. Now, however, we're going to reduce the size of the herd, until it's a more appropriate number for a modern management style. We're going to return to cutting our own hay, rather than buying in hay from eastern Washington, and we're going to bring in other animals, sheep, pigs, ducks, each to serve a purpose, and provide another stream of revenue, for the farm(and for me). As WSU takes over we're going to move towards an intensive pasture management system, where the animals will be rapidly rotated through small paddocks, rather than larger fields, which will allow us to leave some sections of the farm for growing green manures, to improve the health of the soil, and we'll even experiment with growing dry-land cereal crops, which we'll be able to sell to local breweries, or perhaps use as feed for any poultry which we're raising on the farm. One of the other things we'll do is expand the orchard, which is currently thirty trees, all of them probably as old as I am, or more. We'll use the farm as a germ-plasm repository for older apple and nut varieties, which will allow local farmers to come and buy cuttings to graft their own trees, rather than being restricted to trees they buy from commercial producers. Finally the farm will serve as an educational facility for people who wish to learn about different aspects of modern agriculture and about alternative energy, which is a great passion of Lisa's. young farmers, and the interns who are participating in the FIELD program(which I completed last year) will be allowed to lease chunks of the farm for a fee, providing that they have a business plan, which will enable them to put their idea into practice without needing to buy property before they've got any hands-on experience.
These are all exciting prospects, if everything goes according to plan, I'll be able to learn so much, get some much needed management experience, and have the chance to do some of the things that I'm personally interested in doing, and feel passionate about. I'm going to be buying some pigs, in the next few weeks, and I'll be using them to prep the ground for the new orchard expansion(in addition to raising them to sell to my neighbors for bacon). I hope to buy a few sheep in the coming months, probably fiber sheep, rather than lambs for meat, and if I can find a source, I'd like to raise a small flock of ducks, preferably muscovies, although it might be harder to find a source for them, than some of the other varieties.
None of this will make me rich. It will, at best earn me enough money to maintain the life I have now, which is what I want. I like to think that in doing this I'm gaining valuable experience, which will enable me to better run a farm of my own some day in the not-too-distant future. I'm busy al the time these days, and I find myself having to make a conscious effort to take time for myself to relax, because it would be all to easy to work all the time, and while in that not-too-distant future, where I own a farm of my own, I will undoubtedly find myself doing just that, for the time being I'm still at at transitional phase. Working at Twin Vista Ranch, and working in my spare time at Spring Rain farm(to earn that day-to-day spending money). I'm building a greenhouse, right now, which has been a learning experience, to say the least. What have I learned? That drilling through metal sucks, and is dangerous, and the less said about it, the better.
I'm still knitting compulsively, and baking for myself and my friends. As the season begins to kick into high gear I look forward to having a gardens worth of food to eat, and am excited about all of the fruits and vegetables I'll have in the months to come. I look forward to having animals to take care of on a daily basis, as odd as that may sound. Raising livestock is such a fascinating thing. You make this commitment, and it becomes an integral part of the fabric of your life. It's a multiple times a day choice, and it's work that never really lets up, but it can be so rewarding. It's never in the moments that you think either. It's getting to sit in the pasture, next to newborn calf, in the weird half-light of the sunset, which, here in Washington, is unlike anywhere else I've experienced, the sky is clear and golden, dark storm clouds on the horizon, and cow chewing contentedly, cool grass under your palms. I'm lucky, and I try to not let myself forget it.
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