My wife Carol and I are realizing a life long dream of going back to a better life in the country. We are committed to maintaining the family farm, a balanced farming approached and to re-establishing accountability in the food chain.
We recently bought a 100 acres of working fields with a bush lot and creeks on a NE-SW gently slopping ridge in the Grey Highlands of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. It is overlooking the beautiful Georgian Bay. Although the farm is over a 170 years old, the land has been left to its own device for the past 15 years of so except for about 31 acres of grain and hay. We have a lot to do to bring back the glory of former farming days (if there were ever such a time) but we are up to the challenge - I have never been one to have an easy start in any thing.
The plan is first to restore the current working acreage and increase its yield while we fix the barn and acquire equipment. Then, we'll re-open some of the grown-over land, re-tile it and put it back to good use. There is space for a managed forest plan, which will contribute to long term revenue generation, as well as green power generation. In the last stage, more acreage will be acquired as it becomes available as well as a self-sustaining green house will be built. We are partnering with the surrounding farming community to learn and bounce ideas back and forth.
We are looking forward to learning more about the experience of others who are ahead of us on this path.
Carol & Stef
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