As many of you know we purchased a new 200 acre Oregon property in the town of O’Brien. Southern Oregon is beautiful! We are now located 45 minutes from the Pacific Coast, 90 minutes from the Ashland (home of the Shakespeare Festival) and 2 hours from skiing in the Ashland Mountains. Our climate is similar to the Mediterranean, with a mixture of Madrone, Oak, Redwood, Cedar and Douglas Fir. We’ve introduced our KuneKune Pigs to acorn foraging among the Oak trees and they love it!

Agriculture in Idaho was a positive experience overall, but we intent to move away from most industrial practices. Our inspiration is “The Biggest Little Farm” (Netflix) and our vision is driven by Oregon State University’s Permaculture Courses (available on YouTube). Our dream is to build a self-sustaining Permaculture Food Forest. Our focus has always been quality, not quantity. Sustainability, not wealth. People and community will always be more important to us than profits.

Last summer we experienced an eye opening wildfire scare. We were under wildfire evacuation for a month in July. We worked with neighbors and local firefighters to widen roads in our area, create firebreaks, cut branches up to 12 feet and cleared underbrush around O’Brien. We also volunteered our tractors, D4Cat, excavators, pond and water stores. The fire came within 1 mile of our property. In Spring 2024, we will be working with NRCS (National Resource Conservation Services) to develop a wild fire plan and water conservation plan. We will also apply for a grant from the Farmer Veteran Coalition requesting funds to purchase Scottish Highland breeding stock to control undergrowth, build soil and build another income stream for our farm.

Our long term plan for this property includes the installation of several high tunnel green houses through the EQIP program, planting an terraced, diverse orchard similar to “The Fruit Basket” at Apricot Lane Farm in California, and building several cabins to support eco-tourism as well as our Veteran Internship Program. We also plan to build on the success of our Veteran Internship Program and have had several visits from veterans the previously graduated our Idaho program.

We will continue to nurture many of the relationships we established in Idaho and Washington, while growing here in Oregon! The future will be full of challenges and we are excited to meet them.

As Mark Mason says, “Happiness comes from solving problems. The key word is ‘solving’. Every one of us have problems, but we live in an age where we can largely choose what problems we are most happy solving. The key is often to choose a career path which has a set of problems you can see yourself solving.”

This lifestyle and these goals are all problems we enjoy solving. We truly consider ourselves blessed.

LINKS:

Apricot Lanes Farm: https://www.apricotlanefarms.com/about-the-farm/

USDA NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/conservation-by-state/oregon

EQUIP Grants: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/eqip-high-tunnel-initiative/oregon/high-tunnel-initiative-oregon

Farmer Veteran Coalition: https://farmvetco.org