Finding Your Stride

SCALE

Life is funny. I mean that by middle age you have erroneously convinced yourself that very little, if anything will surprise you. Well, that's not quite the case. From a sustainability perspective Montpelier is plenty big at one hundred twelve acres. Four hundred acres or less is the federal government's official definition of a small farm. So I am small farmer. Nonetheless, when I walk out of the house and look in any direction I am often overwhelmed by its space. A bit like standing on the beach during rough surf. I am small and it is big and that makes me a bit afraid.

I do have help. My family pitches in when they are here and two local men, who frankly know more than I, work here as day labor twice a week. This is sobering when I consider that I spent seven years getting degrees and they cannot name a single Supreme Court Justice, but I cannot immediately see a mineral deficiency in a stand of vegetables and they can identify the problem before we reach the bed! There are several types of knowledge and learning that is humbling even at my age.

Eventually I would like to wean myself off the tractor, but for now it helps me manage. It's an old New Holland purchased with about eight hundred hours. You measure equipment in hours, not years. This helps you quantify how much you have actually accomplished. -Or not!

Projects on a farm are not really projects but daily chores. Feed the chickens. Weed the gardens. Clean up debris. Wash clothes. Make dinner. On and on. A start up is an entirely different conversation. Investing in sustainability adds another layer of thought and purpose. The farm is a bit like raising a child. The final product sits in your mind's eye but the daily work that goes into that product is difficult to measure until one day the final product stands before you and then you can judge your work. Currently my farm baby is about eight weeks old. The smile is really gas but wait a bit, eventually that will turn into a laugh.

FAMILY

Women are different. This seems trite but each stage in my life teaches me that no matter how much equity we achieve certain truths will never change. For example, my husband loves our children but I am the one who drives all night to check on a college aged child who developed pneumonia. I didn't like the sound of the cough. He heard nothing in the cough. She was very sick. I knew this. He did not. I am not saying that this is strictly the division but  in most cases this is true. Mothers are somehow tied to children in a different way than fathers and this link often requires time and effort. Even when the child leaves home.

Marriage is complicated. Strong personalities add another layer. When they say opposites attract that does not always mean one assertive and one passive. In our case, there are two assertive personalities. I like projects, food and constant learning. Large groups of people talking about golf or the status of someone else's yard is not for me. Wide open places with occasional people is good. My husband is opposite. He loves golf courses, gossip and cities. We both like to travel and eat but I like renting a house in Tuscany, he likes cruise ships. There is compromise. Lots of compromise. So we have two houses, the farm and a golf course house at the beach. He comes to the farm and works, or reads, for a bit and I show up for a cruise or a round of golf at intervals. Yesterday we returned from a ten day cruise. Family manned the farm. Tomorrow I return to pick up where I left off two weeks ago. 

This arrangement adds to scale. I factor in the realities of family with the needs of the farm.

As a farmer, mother and wife I remember to laugh. It's all good. Not easy. But good.

LAND MANAGEMENT

Fences necessarily manage fields, livestock and some unwanted visitors. Montpelier has roughly thirty acres of fenced fields. Some areas, overgrown by trees and thicket are patch worked with barbed wire from about the 1950's. Because the fields remained unused for at least two decades, pockets of serious disrepair need attention. This becomes a livestock concern as safe pasture enclosure equals contained livestock. 

Watershed necessarily drives the entire farm. Montpelier claims ancient springs, Montpelier Creek and an acre pond. The land sits on a bluff above an extensive bog. All water leads to the James River which lies southeast about ten miles away. We regularly pull sea shells out of the creek bed, telling the tale of when this land lie beneath the sea. Beavers busily dam to our east, a robust collection of ducks dot the pond and bog, and a large black bear reigns over the extensive animal kingdom. An untouched ecosystem, protected from development for acres in all directions, reminds us daily of our job as steward.

Our Resident Bear caught on a field camera. East trail.

Livestock necessarily completes a sustainable farm. Fences must be mended before adding any livestock, not only to manage the animals but also to keep the watershed safe. Livestock notoriously damage watershed through fecal contamination but damage from foraging also ruins habitat. In the spring we would like to add Leicester Longwool Sheep and Belted Galloway cattle. Both listed on the Livestock Conservancy as heirloom stock in need of stewardship. 

Favorites: The Livestock Conservancy and Builder's Discount Center

The Three Year Plan

Land Management




Trees

Aerial view of Montpelier before Florence and Michael.

Previous owners leased the far southern fields and the field west of the house. Everything else was untouched. Easy to start an organic and sustainable project!

Hurricane Florence made landfall the week we closed on Montpelier. Roads between Virginia and South Carolina, where we were, remained closed for two weeks. Arrival at the farm at the beginning of October was a mixed blessing. One third of the trees surrounding the main house were either down or split in dangerous hanging sections. An ancient cedar fell next to the house, scraping the west chimney but not causing damage.

Several more ice storms followed in January, bringing down the giant danglers and creating havoc down the driveway. A year later we are still cutting and chipping. Although it seems like a disaster, we knew that extensive arbor work was needed so God helped us by pruning on a very large scale! I hadn't counted on six months of tree service before genuine field work but the wood chips became composted mulch for the reclaimed field just west of the house. 

Here I define reclaimed as repurposing the land to sustainable and organic production as opposed to industrial monoculture. The difference rests in soil health as opposed to manufactured fertilizer and natural as opposed to genetically modified seed. Using historical farming methods which concentrated on smaller scale but larger yield per acre measured in both output and reduction in carbon footprint. A return to Montpelier's roots, so to speak.

Luckily, most of the land remained unused and untreated for nearly thirty years except the far southern fields and the west field adjacent to the house. The forty-five acres under cultivation were leased to a nearby commercial farmer. Much of the land remained open pasture which had been maintained but not used. Consequently, a historical property with eighty percent of the land readily accessible for farming but untouched by modern practice of single crop rotation which is heavily dependent on pesticides, commercial fertilizer and genetically modified seed.

The west field became my first project. Genetically modified corn from that fall sat in the field until spring. The stalks did not break down, which is common for genetically altered plants, so I pushed them over with the tractor and pulled them by hand. Nearly two acres. I did not till under and by this fall all stalks had either been used as weed suppressant in buffer areas or composted. Ironically, the trees were the first step in bringing the soil back to a sustainable state. The mulch composted directly into the west field created about a half inch of black compost. 

This will be the second season and the soil is reconditioned enough to launch a large planting. Pruning and removing trees remains a priority but the mulch is priceless.

Most valuable tools: DeWalt battery operated chainsaw and Woods Chipper. 

BEGINNINGS

The Farmhouse, circa 1750

Retirement seems like the end of work life but for us it is a beginning. Perhaps that is the purpose, or the repurpose, of life. Finishing one story and starting another. So this is our story of repurpose. Creating a new and meaningful life after careers and raising children. But also creating a new and meaningful life for an ancient house surrounded by fields, forest and history. Reclaiming what was lost, making relevant what is new and being mindful of what is meaningful. Consequently, The task at hand requires updating the old house, reclaiming fields for organic and sustainable farming and bridging the social and agricultural history of Montpelier to modern interpretation. So starts our adventure....