14 Acre Farm

Our story

From the time we bought the farm, we started with chickens. We added a couple goats, mostly for pets for the kids (but they were mean little goats!) We got our daughter peacocks for a time, until she outgrew them and sold them.

In 1999, we made the decision to go bigger. We stepped out and purchased around 25 Katahdin Hair Sheep. We jumped in and had to learn fast. Steve and another friend Carl Ginapp, both started around the same time and leaned on each other for growing their flocks. They traveled around the country together, going to sheep sales and Katahdin Hair Sheep conventions, learning a lot along the way. Steve’s dad, Jack, helped us with many projects around the farm including many days of installing fence with Steve. We grew to a flock size of 120. But as the kids have been leaving home, we have scaled back a bit. We currently run between 50-75.

Around 2015 we qualified for a high tunnel from the NRCS program. It took us a few years to learn how to grow a much larger garden and in a high tunnel and with drip lines. It became clear that tomatoes were a new staple in the tunnels as they grew so much better than we ever had grown them before outside. When we decided to go big with tomatoes, we purchased a second tunnel (a smaller one) for our own gardening needs. We tried our hand at market gardening in 2006 and 2007… and again in 2019-2020, but found it is pretty competitive around here and the dates weren’t always friendly to our home plans. Around 2022, we qualified for a second tunnel from NRCS and we put up a second larger one. We had already begun doing CSA styled Garden Boxes and a second tunnel seemed to be just what we needed to have more consistent results in our growing. The next year we added a larger raised bed in which we currently use for squash, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and trellising snap beans. We added more apple trees along the way, and are just beginning to dabble with grapes. Our Garden Box subscriptions started slowly around 2021 with a start of 3 boxes. We grew to supplying 24 customers in 2024. In 2025, we decided we needed to step back a little bit, as doing all of the sheep, chickens and the garden boxes on a terrible rainy and bug infested year was really hard to keep up with… we want to enjoy working on the farm and not be so uptight each and every day trying to keep up.

The farm is now our retirement gig. We keep busy with daily chores and bring in a bit of money so we can afford to visit the kids and grandkids more often. We’re using our farm to stay connected to our community, our friends and family; and using it to stay healthy as we’re finding aging creates a host of new challenges. 😛

Our approach

Our approach started as a way to have a little income for vacations with the sheep. We’ve grown bigger as we’ve had need to improve our health and it is a way we can share that with others who also are finding that food isn’t exactly what it used to be. We grow as naturally as possible, avoiding things we learn can be toxic to ourselves and our water table that we share with many around us. We’re thankful for our life together. Steve enjoys rethinking how we do things and is always on a look out for a way to make things easier, which seems especially helpful now that age is creeping up on us. Life is about being happy, enjoying the family we’ve raised and having a connection to our community and those around us. Those priorities affect our daily choices in life and our time on our farm.