The Christmas Card Synopsis of the Last Two Years...

 I've been quiet for a long time and a lot has happened. I never did write Part 2 about 2020 -- maybe someday I will. To suffice the Christmas Letter of 2021 should do. The last two years have taken away my voice with all the weird and unexpected changes in the world. But besides the bad things, really good things have happened -- and some of the bad things have turned out really well.

For better or worse, I am committed to raising my voice about life again.

Christmas 2021

I won’t be able on this page to tell you all the things that have happened in the last two years. God has arranged big changes and provided for us in so many ways that it would take more pages than you would want to read for me to tell the story in full detail.

The short version is that we have retired from berry farming – after 34 harvests and 35 years. Until a year ago, we were thinking that retirement was a ways out. But then, weird and surreal 2020 came and with it a nearly complete crop failure for us. Randy made an error when he sprayed a weed killer and the rate was a bit too high. Making the consequences of his mistake even worse was that it rained heavily the day after he sprayed, moving the weed killer down into the root zone. This caused the fruiting plants to weaken and eventually succumb as the roots were damaged and unable to support the plant. Pretty humbling, after 34 years that one is not immune to catastrophic mistakes.

And yet, looking back, we know that God was using this to prompt us to make changes. Fortunately, the new cane growth for 2021 was sufficient for us to harvest some fields. (The new growth came on after the influence of the weed killer had passed.) We salvaged 30 acres and took out the rest.

But what to do going forward? We would need to replant the entire acreage for the farm to be sufficiently productive. We couldn’t afford to do all the acres at once and a 5-year replant plan wouldn’t be feasible. Why make that kind of investment in dollars and time only to retire soon after? And frankly, every year the work seems harder and it takes us longer. We still want to work, but not as hard as we have for so many years. Getting older! And maybe wiser…

We knew that when we retired, a large farm would take over the acreage, and would configure the replant to their program specifics. It seemed that it made more sense for this to happen now. We decided we were ready to let it go. We have no regrets. It has been a great ride! Randy got to have his dream and farm his own way. We got to raise our kids here. It’s been a great blessing. But we are excited and ready to have some new adventures.

By God’s grace many things have fallen into place. We had a decent last harvest with an amazing per pound price! That was nice! We are dividing off 2 acres on which our buildings are situated and will continue to live here. WSU would like Randy to continue to manage their research plots here. A neighbor has taken over the remaining land and if you drive by right now you will see acres and acres of winter wheat and not a single post or berry plant on the farm. It’s a drastic change!

For a year I have been working at a local furniture store two days per week and enjoying it in many ways. Randy plans to try some new things and right now is having fun delivering packages as a Personal Vehicle Delivery driver for UPS. Who would have thought it? He also delivers for our son-in-law’s hardware store and hopes to pick up other jobs helping at other farms. Or who knows what he’ll try?!

As if 2021 was not interesting enough, I struggled most of the year with torn cartilage and arthritis in my hip until replacement surgery at the end of August. Oh my! It is a great blessing to be able to move around again without pain! I am so thankful.

And especially because we have gained another granddaughter, Olivia Jane who was born Oct. 26, 2020. Once again I am able to play with all 5 of these delightful girls! Of course, we are excited to have more time for our family – and even go camping in the summer! What a concept! Our kids are doing well in spite of the hurdles the last two years have thrown at them and we are proud of them. The world continues in weird and sometimes disturbing ways but what we have seen in our lives has grown our confidence that God is faithful.

We hope you are seeing that too, and more so in the New Year!

May truth prevail in 2022!  -- Leslie & Randy