March- Coexistence

In the middle of February I planted the first seeds on my list for the year. It always starts with chives. My quiet work was accompanied by the beeps and booms from a few properties over where General Motors is building their second facility. This time last year, Rich and I noticed that large machinery, like a plague of destructive pests, were clearing trees in the protected wetlands on the property. We spent the next month advocating for that protection and attempting to stop the destruction of this space and the buffer between industry and we residents (two endangered bat species included). We sidetracked our typical farm work and called environmental agencies and our town, attempting to get answers on how this was allowable and if we could stop it. We fretted about the waterway that the General Motors property feeds into and we scoured the Dayton area for farm properties late into the night which we could escape to. Would we even be able to get out of this property? Was the protected farmland surrounding us truly protected, or were there also loopholes written into regulations which would allow the highest bidder to swallow up the dedicated land and build their factories on it, endangered species and habitat be damned?
Have you seen the Pixar movie Up? An old man resists selling his home as urban sprawl swallows up the neighborhood around him. The brightly animated imagery is hyperbolic. High-rises, like great tall oppressors, crowd around Carl's postage stamp green lawn and whimsical, old house. We wondered if the farm was to be encircled in a similar way by industry, shining brighter for its liveliness in comparison with infertile industrial space. The thing is, in the film, Carl is on his way back down the mountain, deep into retirement. Rich and I, and certainly the kids, aren't on our last legs, but instead have years of our story left to live out. Unless we managed to fill enough helium balloons to lift this 30 acres to a safer place, like Carl did with his house, we felt the need to consider all of our options as this threat encroached from the east.
All the phone calling and town hall visits began to yield information, access to GM's plans and even reassurance that the longstanding farm operation which owns the fields surrounding us were here to stay. As fortune would have it, the culmination of understanding the changing landscape around us came just as the promise of spring sprung. The farm was waking up, birds were returning and color flooded our world. Color and light are so powerful in their abilities to heal and to inspire and to embolden dreams.
Over the course of the next month, we reflected on this property. It is very special in what it offers us in a home, a chance to make a living, a place for the kids to grow up and ride their bikes down a metropark trail straight off the farm, and get an education, and feel safe. As long as Rich and I felt safe. The safety is to be found in what we have, not what we don't. What we can control, not what we can't. What we do have is 30 acres that we can grow wilder and greener every year. We have our bodies and our health to carry us and to put our ideas into play. We have two little beans that remind us that life can be light, and to reject the notion that it is heavy. We have a whole community of people, so many of whom jumped right in, wrote their concerns to the EPA, helped connect us to allies in the cause, or just gave us hugs.
So, we jumped into the 2023 season with more energy than other seasons before. We started the spring by planting hundreds of trees in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service along the edge of the property closest to the lost wetlands. The kids helped and we spent two long days before a glorious spring rain tucking multiple species of saplings into the soil. Simultaneously, our neighbors to the east chipped the old growth native trees which they had clear cut. Here we were, the two of our parties, hard at work, working toward our different causes. And then rain fell on the cut forest and the newly planted grove alike.

It wasn't long before the farm totally distracted us. We got swept up in the fieldwork of our busy season. And in the meantime we hardly noticed the neighborhood around us fall quiet...no construction setting in on the cleared space. We would soon find out that the United Auto Workers were stewing and eventually went on strike in September, causing the construction delay. We got another season under our belts, undisturbed by the encroaching neighbors.
Then...amidst the holidays, ground was broken and we started to see fleets of construction equipment getting to work on the property next door. The kids and I rubbed shoulders with the men working on the site when we ventured down the bike path, breaking the puppies into leash training this winter. Familiar feelings from last year stirred as I felt protective of the space being trodden on. But then that day came, the official start to the 2024 season, tucking chives into their trays. And I really felt to my core the true meaning of "Coexist", the slogan slapped on bumper stickers since 9/11. It is representative of the capability of humans to live together in peace. Those men that I can hear tinkering away on the General Motors property are there to do a job to support themselves and to live their lives. The men doing the work don't have ill intentions. I am not so different at my seeding bench in the quiet of our little corner of the world.
The best thing we can do is learn to exist alongside industry in the world that favors it. We are part of an advancing civilization. And although I have reservations about the progression of our already fast-moving society, we are given the chance to be here on our farm, playing our part in it all. Rich and I try to stay off of the ladder being climbed and out of the fray of the rat race. We reinforce our standards for a good, well-paced lifestyle by staying in our lane, focusing on our simple work, and by leaning into our community of awesome people who happen to be the type that stop to smell the flowers. More than five years into this adventure at Foxhole we've found that we've become ingrained in the community. We provide goods that satisfy the needs of the people here. In a way, our neighbors at GM are doing the same, producing a product for the consumer and contributing to the U.S. economy. It just so happens that a few slimey, powerful decision makers in the company are making short-sighted decisions to gobble up the little bit of remaining habitat and wild space, instead of inhabiting the vacant industrial spaces that litter the landscape.
That nerve that you see was just tapped, illuminates the unacceptance I'm working to reverse. In the spirit of true coexistence, I am studying acceptance. Whether it be interpersonal relationships or the one I have with the modern world, there is so much to learn from seeing what I have in them, and not what's lacking or what 'could be'. If I fail in my efforts, I fear I will go down the road of many entrepreneurs and small farmers and cynics before me, a road that the light does not shine on. And ultimately, the hopeless, misanthropic route is lonely and dismissive of the great capability we all have to add our bits of goodness to the collective, to love, and to remember the nature of life on earth: there is always a chance for renewal, always another spring coming with new life endeavoring to thrive and grow in this community of living things all coexisting under the sun.
Updates from the farm:
-Sheep: The sheep are lambing and we intend to sell the flock when the grass is green and the lambs are weaned in April/May. We will be sending out a mass email, but if you or anyone you know would be interested in Katahdin hair sheep, pasture-raised, never medicated and lovely as can be for breeding stock or friends, get in touch :).
-New Layer Ladies: With the goal of concentrating our labors on the veggies this year, we cancelled our chick order this spring and instead invited a band of layer gals to our existing flock. A farmer down the road raised these beautiful buff orpingtons from chicks (from Mt.Healthy Hatchery...our choice Ohio hatchery) and they are due to start laying this month :).

-Online Ordering Continues: We'll continue weekly online ordering on our website this month with pick up on Saturday mornings in Oakwood :). We are baking more than usual as we have more time to do so :)).
-Seeding begins in earnest: Salad mix and carrots are up in the hoop house and we expect to harvesting them starting in April...maybe sooner depending on the forecast. We are starting to sprout ginger and seed our first field transplants. We are ready to rumble.
Thank you for reading :).
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