Jacked On Farming

Since closing on the Hive House nearly 2 months ago I’ve been jacked on farming. There’s so much to be done, and so many things I want to do! Farming is a drug I just can’t get enough of. Each morning I awaken eager for the day ahead, and for the chores and projects I will accomplish in the name of my farm. I am bound to this one small piece of Earth for the rest of my life, farm steward at 344 School Street in the remote western Maine village of New Portland. Everything I do now is for Runamuk, and for my kids to some day have this amazing legacy to be proud of.

I’m all jacked up on farming; it’s an energy that floods through my veins, a mixture of excitement, anxiety, and elation. I’m eager to get Runamuk established here, to begin shaping the conservation farm I’ve so long envisioned. I’ve held onto that dream all these years, feeding it gingerly as you would a flickering campfire that might be snuffed out by the next gust of wind. I’ve protected and nurtured it, and now─with my #foreverfarm beneath me, that dream is burning stronger than ever inside me, and  it’s ready to burst into a raging conflagration.

There’s a sense of romance about the union too, that stimulates me. She is wooing me, this piece of land; with every caress of the wind, and every waft of pungent earthy soil that’s kicked up by the broadfork. I find myself sometimes just standing there gazing out across the field at Mt.Abram, or taking in the tall pines across from the garden, or imagining bird-families taking up residence in the weathered old birdhouses that stand as sentries all about the property. With every blazing sunset and each booming thunderstorm─this farm is seducing this farmer.

It’s a powerful feeling─to be steward of this special piece of Earth─and every time I think about the journey that brought me here, I am filled with humility and this incredibly profound sense of gratitude. I am just so damned grateful to be here, doing this work, here on this beautiful property─and that feeling fills me up, driving me on. Runamuk will be the conservation farm I promised, if only to give back that which I’ve been given.

Oh yes, I’m all kinds of jacked up: high on farming and high on this farm. Runamuk is settling in, there are chickens and bees on the property, various workspaces are emerging, the garden is in the process of being cultivated, and I’m beginning to see how my plans for a pollinator conservation farm can take shape here. These next few years will be big years for Runamuk; stay tuned folks, cause this is gonna be good!