I am confident that it will be a happy story, one that you will enjoy reading as our farm begins to take shape. It was not always a happy story, my fiance and I were once struggling with alcoholism and on the brink of disaster. Just over three years ago we decided that something needed to change. Our lives were not what we wanted. We had dreams and ambitions just like everyone else, but we weren't realizing our potential. We quit drinking, and at first, this was the only goal. Not drinking took our combined willpower, was a difficult struggle, and a story all its own. One worth telling. But I'd rather not dwell on the past. Our future is much more interesting.
Our goals at first were simple, get dried out and make something of ourselves. Once we were dry, we needed a plan. What did we want for ourselves? For our planet? For the children?
We saw the world around us, the direction it was/is headed and want something that most would call out of the ordinary. The current mainstream American culture is simply not sustainable. We cannot possibly believe that our current rates of consumption are capable of lasting forever. We want to grow our own food, use as few non-renewable resources as possible. Upcycle and recycle everything and anything. We want to be pioneers, but not in the traditional sense, taking over new lands, destroying the native plants, animals and peoples in our wake. We want to be pioneers striking out in a new direction. One that helps the planet, not harms it.
Gohn Greene Farms is, for us, a next step in our new way of living. It is a step that is not taken lightly, or without considerable forethought. We have been planning and saving and preparing for three long years to reach this point. Three years of careful budgeting with our ultimate goal in mind. Pay down our debts, save up capital, use the system that is currently in place to get out. To use the system that can and will eventually fail, to prepare ourselves for a sustainable path forward in an ever changing and unpredictable world.
The first three years were difficult, mainly because we didn't have anything to point to and say: Look! Progress! Step one complete! It was long and slow and seemingly never ending. Step One: Save money, buy a farm.
Well, here we are three years later and step one is complete. We purchased our 7.32 acres. Gohn Greene Farms exists not only in our dreams, but in our reality. We have a place that one day we will call home. Our plan is to take this land and make it our homestead. We are going to work with what nature has provided, carefully shaping our little piece of paradise. Hopefully teaching our children valuable skills that they can then carry forward through future generations. Making the world a cleaner, greener, happier place.
We want to clean up and restore what is already living and growing on the land. We want to plant a beautiful garden of our own. We want to get married in that garden. We want to build our dream house. We want to create a food forest, in keeping with the principles of permaculture. We want to plant an organic annual vegetable garden. We want chickens and goats. We want to shape this little piece of the world as an example. It is possible to stop being a consumer. It is possible to see the world from a different perspective. A perspective that sees the Earth as she is, hurting from our destructive ways, but not lost, not forgotten. We want to show people that there is a sustainable way to live. That by dreaming big and working hard we can be the change we wish to see in the world. Follow us, there is a bright future for all of us out there, waiting for us to choose it for our reality.
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