My life Since 2003
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Farm Failures and the Future
This week I’ve been wrapping up 2024, catching up on bookkeeping and things like that as the spring 2025 nursery season will hit us just after New Year’s Day. I woke up with a mental list of my top farm failures of 2024. My mind quickly rattled off 10-12 of them and started sorting them…
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Permission to Thin the Herd
As of right now there are 337 million people living in the United States. “Two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans say they have a friend whom they have known since childhood” according to this study from the Survey Center on American Life. According to Pew Research 53% of people have between 1 and 4 people whom…
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The News Stand and the Farm Stand
I used to say that my life was really big and really small. It was really big because 100 days per year I lived out of a suitcase, flying around the world meeting people, promoting my business, and towards the end of that period living out my Savior Complex in a foolish attempt to reform…
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Poco a Poco
Poco a poco.Little by little. Our plan for this house is revealing itself more visibly. Originally, this house was the center of a 440 acre working ranch. They logged, sold timber locally to build houses and barns. They had an orchard, supplying the nearby Sugar Pine Mill workers with apples nearly year round, making cider…
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Dispatch from Neverland
The heat has finally broken here in Mariposa County. I’ll be the first to admit that I had no understanding just how hot it was going to get here from early July until late August. It was the kind of heat where you wake up thinking it won’t be too bad but by 2 o’clock…
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Dreams are Worth Pursuing
Five weeks ago Jackson and I pulled out of San Diego and headed for Ahwahnee in a 16 foot rental truck from Budget. Several hours later we pulling into our driveway, the truck took out a limb on an old peach tree, and Murray and Kristen greeted us. Tonight, Murray and Ms. Bey (our dogs)…
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“Hey dogs, want to go for a walk in Yosemite?”
We’re just over an hour to Yosemite Valley, truly one of the coolest places on earth. When I asked our dogs if they wanted to go… Murray immediately went and jumped in the back of the car.
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Our Journey to Ahwahnee
Last night, I sat on the porch of our century old workshop enjoying the timeless cool, evening breeze. The sun filtered through our towering pine trees. We sat in the silence with only the birds and mosquitoes as background music.
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Shifting Your Parenting Goals
My blogging journey started when we learned Kristen was pregnant with Megan. 21 years ago, using a Gateway laptop, and a now long-out-dated version of Microsoft Word, I wrote daily entries into a documents pouring out my hopes and dreams for my unborn child.
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Risky Business
It’s late. Maybe it’s still February 26th? Maybe it’s the early morning hours of February 27th. I can’t remember. But I’m awake. Jackson is snoring next to me. Megan is tossing and turning in the next bed over.