Birthday Lookback
When summer turns to autumn, it’s my favorite time of year. The humidity drops, temperatures cool, and the mosquitoes and flies seem much less pesky than before. It’s the perfect temperature for sleeping at night, waking to find that the first of the red maples shocked their fiery colors against a background of green. Grasshoppers leap, with turkeys chasing close behind trying to catch them. Wild birds gather for their long migrations south, calling in groups.
It’s also my favorite time of year because early September is time for celebrating some birthdays—both my mom’s and my own. This year, we took a moment to look back at the milestones of our journey on the farm, and here are the highlights.
Four years ago (and a few months), we opened the doors of Farmstead Creamery & Café. The trim still wasn’t finished, and the menu had yet to be formed, but we were excited to share the farm with the public and build the network to become a local foods hub. Our contractor and his carpenters were first in line to be customers, enjoying cookies and coffee and waiting with anticipation for the first batch of our sheep’s milk gelato.
Five years ago, I finished graduate school in interdisciplinary arts at Goddard College. Looking back at my thesis, the concluding paragraphs regarding “what’s next” outlined our vision for fostering creative community in the project that would become Farmstead Creamery & Café—a dream that has now blossomed into the Summer Music Series, the Spoken Word and Poetry events, a local artist gallery, and this summer’s Artist Showcase. This quiet season, we’ll be offering open studio arts classes as well as starting a writer’s circle.
That same year, we undertook the construction of Farmstead Creamery & Café, the aquaponics greenhouse, and the remodeling of the barn for our sheep dairy. It was a whir of decisions and projects, the noisy sounds of construction, and high hopes for what was to come.
10 years ago, I served as the Wisconsin Honey Queen—a position much like “Alice in Dairyland” with a honeybee focus. Working with over 3,000 Wisconsin school children throughout the year, I taught honeybee biology, the value of pollination, and some basic beekeeping skills. I still keep bees today, which are an important part of the farm’s sustainably oriented ecosystem.
15 years ago, Kara brought home to the farm her first two sheep—Sweet and Heart. Each year the flock has grown, to the point where this spring we birthed 95 lambs! The flock has also transitioned from originally meat breeds to now include quality dairy and wool genetics.
16 years ago, we came up to the farm for our second summer and decided to stay, selling our condominium in Madison. Those first few winters in the farmhouse were a real challenge with the cold and snow. We were mostly heating the home with the fieldstone fireplace. I remember plenty of dinners enjoyed on tray tables while sitting on the sofa (or even sitting on the hearth!) because the dining room was too cold. I imagined we had our own “Little House in the Big Woods,” as we shoveled our way out to the coop and woodshed.
18 years ago, Bert Fullington (the son of Lloyd and Wilma, who sold the farm to my Grandpa in 1968) helped us move an old showerhouse from a resort onto the farm as our first chicken coop. Bert passed away before our first batch of chickens, so we always try to keep a rooster named Bert around in honor of his contribution to the project.
20 years ago, while we were living for a year in Arizona, I asked my mom if I could have a pet bird. My best friend and I had just finished an in-depth 5th grade research project on birds, including visiting a bird sanctuary. I was in love with these feathered wonders and really wanted a pet cockatoo. Like, really, really, really wanted one.
Who knows where Mom’s response came from, but her words stuck in my mind. “Oh no, we can’t have birds in the house. But if we ever move up to the farm, you can have chickens.”
20 years later, we’re still here at the farm, and we still have chickens. At the peak of summer, I was tending 750 laying hens, meat chickens, pullets (young hens), turkeys, and ducks. Other animals have joined the journey too—sheep, pigs, donkeys, cows, a mini horse, tilapia, and honeybees. We even tried geese one year and pheasants another.
But chickens still have a special place in my heart as the catalysts for the adventures that have unfolded in the last 20 years—many of which have made their way into the “Down on the Farm” stories I began writing over four years ago.
Yesterday, while working in the garden, I could hear the roosters announcing their territories. Bert (an Aruacana) and King Midas (a golden Buff Orpington) were dueling with their crowing. First Bert, then Midas took turns, until at last they managed to crow at exactly the same time, which seemed to settle the matter. Hens pecked and scratched, paying little heed to the showiness of their male companions. They clucked and strutted, as if knowing they were a special part of the story.
So pass another piece of the cheesecake brownie (my favorite birthday treat), and raise a glass to another exciting trip around the sun! Happy Birthday all you September babies, and we’ll see you down on the farm sometime.
