I feel we’d be remiss not acknowledging our one-year anniversary here in the Boistfort Valley. It’s an important milestone, and we’ve done a lot in a short time. While we’ve been reflecting on our progress in real time (or close to it— some blog posts take longer to appear than others), now seems like an appropriate moment to review the full map of our journey.
Even though we moved into our new home in August of 2019, most of our farm-related accomplishments happened this year, alongside unusual world events. The past few months especially have been simultaneously overwhelming and delightful. When I was thinking about this post, lyrics from a song in the musical Rent kept floating through my mind:
The day we closed on our new home!
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love
These were our seasons/works of love:
Summer 2019
Getting the house painted and unpacked
Reaping our first Washington harvest (but not the fruit of our own labor)
Fall 2019
Making friends and feeling part of the community
Welcoming our first visitors
Learning about hay - the very first thing we sold from the farm
Trying our hand at new jobs
Naming the farm and creating our website
Winter 2019/2020
Increasing our pack by one crazy cat named KiKi
Coming to terms with the reality of Washington winters
Realizing just how much of our property gets flooded
Trying to start plant seeds with multiple failed attempts
Getting up to speed on our conservation responsibilities
Spring 2020
Bringing home two bee hives, which morphed into three
Welcoming the following to Star & Sparrow:
Creating housing for above animals
Prepping and planting the garden
Remodeling the kitchen and main bathroom
Feeling as if much of our progress in the community was hampered by COVID-19
Summer 2020
Getting the last plant stragglers into the ground
Bringing home 2 rabbits, then saying goodbye to one prematurely, replacing with another
Adding 3 adorable ducks into our mix (blog post coming soon)
Selling our first eggs
Purchasing a mix of unique berries and trees from an awesome local nursery, which I recently wrote about in LewisTalk
We’ve had highs and lows, tears and laughter, progress and backtracking. There are days I wonder what the hell we were thinking. Moments where we miss well-paying jobs, friends/family, and being surrounded by an endless variety of restaurants/music/art. But then I look out the door at our beautiful view. Or I collect several baskets of tomatoes, gather a carton of eggs, quack back at our new ducky friends, or rub the impossibly soft fur of Bunny and Mr. Hop...and it seems we are in just the right place. We have more adventures (read:work) ahead of us for certain. But we’re on the track to creating good food and fulfilled lives and love for ourselves and others. And really, that’s why we embarked on this adventure.