Farm Journal: Introduction, Spring Quarter, The Evergreen State College

This April through June, I will be blogging to document our farm projects, progress, and plans for the purposes of a college program. I am aiming for at least ten “Farm Journal” posts, i.e., at least one per week of the quarter, on average.

Crazy as it feels sometimes, Michael and I—at age 28 and 34—are enrolled full-time in college right now. We’re both using our respective G.I. Bill benefits to attend The Evergreen State College, both studying sustainable agriculture. He started in fall ’22, and I followed in winter ’23.

Plants, gardens, self-sufficiency, and the local food movement have been shared passions of ours from the very start. The dating app profile picture that caught my eye was of Michael looking fondly at a duck cradled in his arms. He told me about the raised bed he was building in the side yard of his rented house, and I knew we had to move our conversation to the real world. Our first date was at a botanical garden… in the dead of winter.

We joke that we can’t decide if we’re basically the same person, or a textbook case of “opposites attract.” The latter is much more obvious. Picture it, that January day: he roared into the Heronswood Garden parking lot in an obnoxiously loud Subaru WRX; I arrived in the 24-year-old Camry that had belonged to my great-aunt Donna (literally a little-old-lady car). He was brash, colorful, tattooed, pierced, hair in a topknot; my aesthetic has always tended toward the plain, practical, and subdued. I am six years his elder and have multiple degrees from Stanford University; he admits he barely graduated high school (thanks, ADHD…). He’s a consummate people person; I’m the platonic ideal of an introvert. I was still an active-duty NOAA Corps officer; he was two years post-separation from a career as an Army Ranger. He jumped out of planes for a living—climbs mountains in his free time—plays his music earsplittingly loud—is exciting; I always thought of myself as rather staid.

That first date lasted six hours. We got engaged within the year. There’s no one I’d rather tackle the life of farming and homesteading with than Michael. He’s smart as hell, open-minded, hardworking, emotionally intelligent, a great communicator and a true partner. It’s a dream come true. Who knew?

Right, so that’s our love story. Now, back to school.

My motivation to go back to school is to learn about the business and management side of operating a market garden. Michael is interested in transitioning his Army background in GIS (what I know as geographical information science, he as geospatial intelligence systems) from national defense to an agriculture and conservation setting. An invaluable side benefit of going to school is connecting with likeminded folks, and exposing ourselves to other points of view, and getting up-to-date on the technology, services, and resources that are out there.

This April through June, we are doing self-directed, independent study under the guidance of our winter quarter sustainable agriculture instructor, Steve Scheuerell. For us, this basically means we’ll be working on getting Laird’s Corner Farm ready and operational—at least, moving in that direction—and making sure we have documentation to show for it. Much of the work we need to do is hands-on, so I’ll be writing about how that work is going, the challenges we’ve encountered, and reflections on it all. Michael will be doing all that hands-on work alongside me, but in keeping with his interests, is planning his final products to lean toward GIS and drone imagery. The next few months will be lots and lots of hard work. Blood and sweat are guaranteed, and there may be tears as well. But Michael and I are a hell of a team, and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish.