Guest Blog

This is a monumental week at our house. Yes, basketball practice starts, but that is not it. We should have everything buttoned down and in place for the winter, and while that makes me happy, that is not it either. This week, Wednesday to be exact, Jennifer and I celebrate 20 years of wedded bliss. OK, so it has been 20 years of wedded bliss farmer-style.

You have probably played that children’s game where the first person tells a short story and one by one it is shared down the line until the last person hears a completely different story than the original. This is the issue with production agriculture.

When I was 6 years old, we got a pair of lambs. My dad built them a special shelter. I petted them, bottle fed them, put on little collars and broke them to lead. I would have slept with them if I could have snuck them past my mother and into the bedroom.

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. —John Milton

People like to say experience is the best teacher. Growing up on a ranch with a yard full of trees and pastures full of animals willing and able to both insult and injure my body, experience often came in the form of a good wreck.

There wasn't a son or daughter looking to take over my operation, and I didn't want to auction it off to just anyone either. I had years spent moving the operation toward a more ecological balance, and I wanted to transition to someone like-minded.