Celebrating 1 year back in Wisco!
Whew! That was the fastest year of my life!
One year ago today, we left Missouri and settled upon our quiet little ridge in the beautiful driftless area back in Wisconsin.
Home.
I truly feel it in my bones that this is where we were meant to be and it has made all the hard decision and stepping into the unknown so worth it.
This year we left a lot of space to get the kids settled again after living in 4 different houses in less than a year.
Space to adjust to welcoming baby Nellie Jo to our family.
Space to just exhale after a period of inhale.
Space to figure out what comes next for us.
Our new farm was still under lease from the neighbors this year so that gave us some time to really dig and think about what we want to do or maybe just as important what we don’t want to do next. Space to observe, plan and ponder.
The lease on our farm is expiring soon and plans are well underway and our vision for the future is starting to take shape. What an exciting time for us!
We are looking into our hearts and plan on picking back up on some things we have really been missing.
For Justin, that is managing our own farm again, putting crops in and tending to the animals that bring it all full circle.
For me, it’s cows. Oh, how I miss my cows. We aren’t sure what this looks like yet. Possibly a family milk cow? Possibly show heifers for the children?
Another thing, I really miss is growing/raising food to feed my community. Every chance I get, I am cooking in my tiny farmhouse kitchen and sending the goods with our children for their teachers and staff at school. Egg bakes, homemade elderberry syrup, freezer meals, garden produce, etc all made with goods from our farm. It just makes my heart burst and I want to do more of that. A lot more of that.
I pack a lunch for our children almost everyday for school. I feel so happy and fufiled when I hit the sweet spot of packing a nourishing meal that I great about them eating and when they are equally as excited to eat it.
Chicken dumpling soup, scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, homemade gummies made with beef gelatin and hidden liver meatballs have been some of those perfect sweet spot offerings lately.
My love language is most definitely food. Growing/raising it with the utmost care, perfectly preparing it to light up your senses and gathering family/friends to share.
I also have such a soft spot for moms/families who are struggling with feeding healthy food to their children. The ones who don’t feel confident in the kitchen or don’t have the time and mealtimes just feel overwhelming and like you are failing.
My question for you is, how do I make a living having cows, growing a huge garden, cooking up a storm to help families eat better that is convenient for them but also not forgetting about my own children to raise?
I think my vision on how to do this is starting to take shape too, but I do welcome your feedback on how I’d best serve you in this area.
If you could wave your magically wand, what do you wish your farmer could provide for you? What would make your life easier when it comes to healthy farm fresh food/meals?
You may also be thinking, isn’t that kinda what you were doing before? Are you opening an on-farm store again?
That answer to an on-farm store is no for three main reasons.
I want my weekends to spend with my children as half of them are in school now during the week. They are all growing up so fast and they will probably be more involved in things on Saturdays soon that I don’t want to miss.
We love living in the country for so many reasons but the peace, quiet and stillness is something we want to do a better job protecting. It’s not that we will never invite you out to our farm again, but we just need a little more down seasons to recharge our batteries than opening up our doors every weekend. I picture maybe one or two events each year or being open for a shorter growing season.
And probably most importantly, it was hard for you to get the food you wanted and needed from us from an on-farm store. You always told me how you were meaning to come out to see us but life is busy. I get it. I want you to have easy access to our amazing products that works for both of us!
Are you starting to see the picture in our minds of how this will work?
We still plan to grow food for you but are just going to get it to you in another way besides you always coming to the farm to get it. Hopefully in a way that is much more convenient and serves you better.
A lot can change and will take some time, but just writing this out to you is connecting some dots for me.
One thing we have decided on is a new name for us.
Garden Ridge Ranch.
We are bringing “Garden” with from our old name “Garden Valley Farmstead”. We truly loved our community in the township of Garden Valley and we learned so much from our time there. That community, love and learning is something that shaped who we are today and we want to honor that.
We also view our farm more as a garden of food growing than typical crops as we will either be growing food for you and me to eat or food to feed directly to our animals that will also feed you and me.
We had to replace “Valley” with “Ridge” because we are most definitely on the ridgetop now! We can see for miles and miles in each direction and the wind can really get to huffin’ and puffin’ up here too.
Why “Ranch” instead of “Farm”? A ranch focuses mostly on raising livestock on pasture and a rancher spends most of his time out managing pastures and the livestock grazing it instead of in barns or on a tractor. That’s what we plan to do.
Plus it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Garden Ridge Ranch.
Starting something new is exciting and terrifying at the same time.
When you stand at the peak of our ranch and look out to the southeast corner, it overlooks a majestic hallow that leads to the south fork of the Bad Axe River that flows out of Sidie Hollow.
I don’t know for certain what the elevation change is from the top of our ridge to the bottom of the river valley but I am guessing it is well over 400 feet. It’s not steep like the side of a cliff but more gradually rolls down over the hillside for miles.
Sometimes when we stand at the peak, we will see birds that are flying above the river valley but are below our eye level! It’s breath taking beautiful.
The children and I will pretend we are eagles or hawks that are about to takeoff for flight over this valley.
This picture doesn’t do it justice but you get the idea.
That’s what life kinda feels like right now. Like we are about to take off over the hallow.
Will we soar like the eagles or crash land into the trees and water?
Either way, we are about to jump, and it promises to be an exciting ride and we will continue learning no matter what.
Thank you for still being here with us and we can’t wait to serve you again very soon as Garden Ridge Ranch.
You’ll be hearing from me again more often now as I seem to have found my breath again after holding it for a while.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Love,
Darci and the whole Daniels Family
