Happy New Year AND some big news!

Happy new year everyone! Everyone, including me, is looking forward to this new year with anticipation that life might start to turn more normal again. We are right there with you.

We wanted to drop a line to let you in on some exciting news…

Exciting news: We bought our farm!

This month we closed on our very own farmland in Western Colorado! 🥳

Since our engagement, I (Madison) have dreamed of having a piece of land right outside of Montrose. It was a specific piece of property that we’ve driven by often. Every time we went past it, I thought to myself how beautiful it was and how nice it would be to live there, and had thought about it often since.

13 years later, in 2020, we’d decided we were going to settle in Western Colorado and started looking for land there. We’ve been scouring the real estate market for the past two years, in search of a place in Montrose where our family could build a home. Having found a piece of land that peeked my interest, despite it seeming to be way out of reach, I decided to try to find it on a map. Having no luck, as I am very directionally challenged, I told Evan about it and he opened his maps to find it for me. Upon finally locating the plot he said to me, “You’re not going to believe what this is…” It was the exact property I had been ogling over for years, and it was on the market!

We quickly put our house in Texas up for sale and it (thankfully) sold as planned. The timing could not have been any more perfect.

The property is big enough to farm our next hemp crop on, have animals, and of course live on for years to come. It’s in a gorgous and convenient location not too far from the center of town. We are thrilled to literally and figuratively put down roots near Evan’s childhood home.

Short term goals

Subdividing

First, we will have the land surveyed and subdivided out to help us offset the cost of the purchase. We definitely had to push ourselves financially to make this happen, so subdividing the land has had to be part of the deal. Luckily we have people interested in some lots next to ours.

Planting hemp

The first order of business on the agricultural front will be to plant a hemp crop on our new farmland (what Twin Pine Hemp fans are probably most interested in!).

Finding seed

We plan on growing the same variety as the last time we farmed hemp, but we are looking on the horizon into new varieties and strains that are different from what we did before. Why? Well, different strains of hemp have different terpene profiles. When you play around with different terpene profiles, you get different effects from the hemp oil.

Though there’s a whole wide array of terpenes out there, they don’t come close to our main goal: adding more CBG to our products.

What’s CBG? CBG is the new kid on the hemp block and is touted as super beneficial, especially for your brain. CBG crosses the blood/brain barrier more quickly than CBD. It’s a better product for brain function and it’s especially great for people who suffer with Alzheimer’s. More research is needed to know for sure, though.

Currently, we have a lot of CBG in our products. Our goal is to have a product that contains mostly CBG in the future (something that is currently difficult to find in the CBD world).

Planting

Before we even think about making more products, we need to figure out where to plant the hemp on the land! We need to decide on a spot and apply for the necessary permits to plant hemp there.

Last time we had someone else start seeds for us, but this time we will try seed starting ourselves. It will definitely be an adventure as we have never done this before. The tiny hemp seeds will start in greenhouses before they go in the ground as mature plants.

Animals

As you will read about more below, animals are going to be a big part of our farming venture. We are bringing cows and horses from Texas to their new home in Colorado. Three bottle-fed calves will be brought there too, one for each of our children. Evan’s family raised sheep and cows when he was growing up, so there’s sure to be sheep too. In the future, Tatum wants goats, all the kids want chickens, and I want pigs…so we are probably going to be full of animals!

Build infrastructure

Right now there’s nothing on the land. We are still working out the details of where to start building a house, barn, and workshop. The first structure to go up will be a workshop. Until a house goes up, we will be living between our Cimarron mountain house and our motorhome in town.

Looking forward

This whole process of finding a farm has been more than logistics. For the past few years now, we have been soul searching for what our dream is together as a family. We are not into farming or creating CBD products, or doing anything we do, only for profit. We have been digging around for what our core values are and seeing how we can live them out through our life purpose.

With Evan’s background in agriculture and wrangling, he has always wanted a farm of his own. We both see the importance of meeting people where they are, whether that’s rock bottom or a high mountaintop. Connection, real connection, is also at the core of our values.

With that said, this farm will not be just a farm. Our dream is for this farm to be a place of connection (what we believe our world is needing); a place for people to reconnect with nature, with others, themselves, and even God. Ideas we have include:

• sustainable farming courses
• hosting retreats
• basic skills classes (like plumbing and mechanics)
• life coaching
• gardening classes
• finance classes
• nutrition
• holistic health

At the center of all this is our Maker, as we believe everything we do needs to come from a foundation based in Christ. Our hope is that all of our dreams for what this farm could be will become reality, and the farm will share Christ’s love with everyone who comes into contact with it and us.

What are your dreams?

You’ve let us have the platform for a while, and we appreciate you reading about our future steps. Now it’s your turn. Please share (if you want): what sorts of dreams do you have for yourself, your family, and how are you living out your life purpose? What challenges have you faced in the process? These are HUGE questions to dive into, but every minute we spent working out our dream has been worth it.