Grandpa's Land

This year will begin a new era in our farming. I will be taking over eight acres that once belonged to my grandfather that is currently owned by my Father. This land is the sole connection that remains between me and my family's past history of farming. I cannot begin to tell you what that land means to me. My grandfather sold off the farm in the early eighties just before I was born. I have but one memory of going out to the farmhouse, and it is one of going out to put bricks over mouse holes. The memory is so vague, and I would have been so young that I am not sure whether it was even real or just dreamed from memories told to me about the farm.

My father had been give the option to inherit the farm, but he understood the difficulties inherent in farming, especially modern conventional agriculture. He had chosen a life as a mechanic and gas company worker. This paid the bills, and in the early eighties as thousands of farmers gave up, sold off, and moved to town, farming did not seem like a good prospect. My grandfather had bought a retirement home in our little town, and my dad built a house right across the road. The farmer never really left my grandfather. Even while living in our town he owned a store where he sold groceries and raised pork and eggs out back. There were times when he had a dozen varieties of poultry out back of the store when I was growing up, and also bunnies. I guess those genes passed on to me.

The parcel I will be farming for the first time is a mere 8 acres with a couple of waterways and an acre of trees in the back. It is mostly flat with alkaline soil that is high in gypsum. These are all just aspects, but it is the reality of the connection to the past that brings me the greatest joy. This land affords me the opportunity to farm with even greater consideration for the land. It helps me to be more rooted in the place that I am now, and it is allowing us to introduce another family to life on the land. Thirty inches of snow fell on this land the last couple of weeks, so it will, for the first time in two years, be well watered. This link might be what in the end keeps me on the land in our current location, or it might be a link to something else greater. Whatever the land is, it is more than soil and microbes. This land is a living link to a tradition in my family that I am working to revive. It is hope for my children and their children. It is not much, but it is all gift.

Pax,
Kevin