A Restoration Acres Farm Memoir (Part III)
posted on
March 8, 2026
Read part I here
Read part II here
2017: We were officially moved onto the new rental property in Forest and living in the basement of the main home while we worked on cleaning up and painting this old log cabin behind the farmhouse. It had been updated several decades before, so there was a kitchen and a bathroom with running water, thank God. But it was in desperate need of a good cleaning out and fresh paint. It was one of those cabins where when you spilled water on the floor, it went a thousand different ways. It was so wonky, you sometimes felt like a drunkard while trying to walk to the bathroom. We worked on it as we could while we got our animals and farm equipment settled and became acquainted with the lay of the land.
We also had to build a new and bigger brooder, a processing shed, and a new structure for our laying hens as we were going to be running two separate flocks. We capitalized on the excitement of a fresh new start to get us through the initial push of settling. Spring came soon after the move, which always brings with it the energy to accomplish much.
We were cruising at the Lynchburg Community Market and our customer base was growing significantly along with our farm production. While we were at this location, we hosted, with the help of the Lynchburg Community Market staff, a screening of the new documentary “Farmers for America.” That was a fun event and brought lots of folks out to enjoy farm tours, the film projected on a huge blow up screen, and a session with the filmmaker and a panel of local farmers. Some of you reading this may remember that fun day!
As we moved along through our time at this farm, great and fun things happened but alongside that began to grow what would become our darkest time in our farm story yet. It was hard to recognize the depth of the darkness while we were in it, even though we knew at the time that life was becoming increasingly difficult. Financially, we struggled big time. Matt took on a landscaping job to help supplement our farm income. That meant that two-year-old Jackson and myself took on the bulk of daily farm chores, with Matt joining in when he got home from work and on his days off. Depression started to lurk its way into Matt’s life, and various struggles in our day-to-day life came together to form a situation that made getting up in the morning and facing the day seem impossible. In many ways we felt stuck and wondered if this whole farming life that we had idealized was worth the struggles we were facing. What we had pictured our life as farmers would look like wasn’t exactly taking shape in the way he had hoped it would. We had many serious conversations of quitting during this season, either for a set time or for good. Yet the “why” behind our farming dream ran so deep and so strong through the both of us, that we decided to simply take each day as it came. To push through our exceedingly difficult situations. Daily, we relied on God’s strength. And time and time again, we made the conscious decision to push through, to keep going. This went on for about a year and a half. Eventually, Matt came to a point during his struggle with depression where he decided he would just have to be content in our circumstances, despite the ugliness of them. As we look back, this was the beginning of the big turning point in our story, although much hard work and growth were still to come.
Late 2018: As thankful as we were to the couple who had offered us to farm on this land, we knew it was time to move on. We knew that in order to climb out of the valley we were in, we needed a fresh start again. Winter is the best time to move a farm (we were experienced farm-movers by now, of course…) so it was now or never to make the bold move. We needed to take a huge step of faith. We informed the landowners in December of 2018 that we were moving and would be off the farm by March 1st, as we would need to get our broiler chicks in March and therefore needed to be settled at the new place. The problem, however, was that we didn’t know where the “new place” was. We had a 3 ½ year old son, and I was now pregnant with our second child, Virginia. We had about 400 laying hens, 30 pigs, 14 sheep, 2 dogs, and all the new infrastructure we had built. But, we knew it needed to be done and we knew God would provide. We created a “We need land!” campaign online to get the word out. We posted all over social media, sent it out in an email to our customers, and informed everyone we knew.
Within two days of the announcement, we received an email from Ben and Carly Coleman of Mountain Run Farm, saying they wanted to talk. Let me interject something here: we had driven out to Mountain Run Farm in Sedalia many times to attend Land and Table gatherings. Every time we approached their farm, an incredible peace came over us and we would just sigh and say “man, if only we could farm out here,” and then we would kind of chuckle to ourselves as we realized the unlikelihood of that ever happening. Well, here we were now, with an opportunity to talk with this incredible farming family about renting land from them. We contained our excitement as much as possible, as we knew there was much to be discussed and figured out and we didn’t want to set our hearts on the idea prematurely. After our first meeting with Ben and Carly, the excitement was bursting at the seams. It was now January, and we had two months to figure things out and move an entire farm. To deny the timing, provision, and coordination of God in this part of our story would be foolish.
The way details came together and plans fell into place was like an intricate puzzle, and by March 1st we were completely moved onto Mountain Run Farm, complete with a rental home for our growing family! It took us 24 trips between farms to move everything. Many trips were done in the middle of the night on curvy country roads, with a sleeping Jackson in the backseat completely unaware of what was going on. We once again borrowed trucks and trailers from generous friends, and plenty of friends and family gave of their time and energy to get us moved. That winter was particularly wet, and I’ll never forget the amount of mud we had to deal with as we drifted through fields attempting to get some of our equipment loaded and then unloaded. The coordination it took to plan out the movement of the animals, their feed, and ourselves so we could be where we needed to care for them was…fun. But we did it, with the support and help of our community.
2019: That new-beginnings-springtime-excitement and freshness was back again, and this time we had more support than ever before. I will add though that as that winter finished out, just before spring arrived, we learned the hard way about the intense winter winds that Sedalia often brings. Two of the structures we had brought over from the last farm fell prey to the relentless wind within a couple weeks of being here. We salvaged what we could and counted the rest lost. In fact, we ended up making the decision to do a completely new chicken pen style after our first season here because of the wind. Those hoop structures we had before were not conducive to regular 60mph wind gusts! In fact, I remember one night when our laying hens were safely roosted inside their big mobile structure. The wind was whipping terribly that night, and to our despair we heard a mighty crash outside. Matt ran out in his skivvies to find that the wind had completely lifted the structure off the ground and flipped it down the hill, leaving the chickens exposed on their roosts. Thankfully, we lost zero chickens that night, but their structure was never the same. We began to build true community out here in Sedalia, helping and supporting one another in so many ways. Finally, we were at a point in our farming career where we could leave the farm to go on vacation for a week without worry!
As 2019 continued on, the dark clouds of depression and despair finally lifted. Matt had quit his landscaping job before we moved, and he was back on the farm full time which was perfect because Virginia was born on May 13, 2019 so now we had two kids! As our family grew, I began taking steps away from the day-to-day chores on the farm. I was still heavily involved in chicken processing, marketing, bookkeeping, and more. But Matt had to adjust to working mostly alone on the farm daily. That was a big adjustment for him, and it was a huge blessing to be on a property with another farmer (Ben) where they could help each other when needed.
2020-2021: During the early stages of the covid era, we were rocking and rolling at the farmers markets. At that time, we were selling at two different Saturday markets. A large majority of our market sales were from pre-orders. So when everything shutdown we were very fortunate to not take a hit with sales. We, along with a few other vendors at the Lynchburg Community Market, were able to continue selling because we already had a system set up for preordering and we would just run orders out to customers’ cars. This was a huge blessing as many small businesses struggled and any hit to our weekly sales at that point would have done some damage. A few months into covid, when scares of food shortages were abuzz, our sales went up 500% in one week! It was insane and not sustainable, even though we were thankful for the extra income. Thankfully, orders leveled back out after a few weeks. We continued to adjust to all the “fun” that those covid years brought.
2021: I want to fast forward a bit to summer of 2021. I was pregnant with our third child, Mae, and we were in full production on the farm. That season, we were finishing almost 5000 broiler chickens, 300 turkeys, 170 hogs, and had about 25 ewes. We were pretty maxed out with no full-time employees, just help here and there from wonderful friends and family. This was a big moment in our story, which is why I’m bringing it up. At 35 weeks pregnant, in the early morning of August 31st while preparing for a chicken processing day, I began having symptoms of a heart attack. To skip many details, a few hours later I was on a helicopter headed to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. I ended up staying in the hospital for 4 days, going through every possible test you can imagine, to finally be diagnosed with Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) but with no information as to what caused it. I had all the doctors stumped, coming into the ER as a very healthy pregnant woman who had a heart attack from Myocarditis with no apparent cause. We thank God that my story didn't end differently.
One week later I headed back to Roanoke to be induced in the cardiac ICU so they could monitor my heart through labor, and Mae was born healthy and strong at 37 weeks. The reason this is an integral part of our farming story is that because we had moved to Mountain Run Farm, because we had been building community here with friends and neighbors, our farm continued to run without a hiccup. We didn’t have employees, but we had friends and family who stepped up to the plate and went above and beyond. They processed chickens without us even there, they processed turkeys, they moved and fed animals, they helped care for our kids, they packed orders and ran our market booth. All during our craziest and biggest production year on the farm! And when we came home they brought us meals, continued to help Matt on the farm, cleaned our home, and played with our kids. As we look back, it’s all too easy to see that God’s timing and provision in our lives was perfect.
2022-Now: Since then, we have continued to be shaped by the changes and events that each new season brings. In April 2022, we ended our 8 year tenure of selling at farmers markets. That decision has served us well and our customers were incredibly supportive through that much needed change. We have balanced out our production numbers to a more comfortable level for us. We’ve grown our sheep flock significantly, and Matt has enjoyed working more with the herbivores. Working with several other farmers to bring more variety to our customers without having to “do it all” ourselves has been wonderful. We now offer beef, eggs, and dairy products from other local farms to complement our pastured meats.
Our family has also grown as we welcomed our 4th child, Zane, into our family last year! I wish I could share more of the stories that have shaped us and our farm, but perhaps they will end up in a book one day, as many of you have requested after these memoirs (thank you!) Though it won't be anytime soon as we still have much to learn, experience, and grow into. The factors that have kept us going year after year are 1) God’s grace, 2) Each other and the bond and vision we share, 3) The constant support of our family and friends, and 4) Our incredibly loyal customers who give us the very reason to continue on. After all, if we didn’t have people who enjoyed and wanted to eat what we grow, we would have stopped growing food a long time ago!
Here is what we have been able to accomplish, thanks to our supporters and customers, since we started Restoration Acres Farm in 2013:
If I could close these memoirs with some encouragement for anyone reading, it would be these two quotes:
“When we add up a life of faithfulness in serving God, grace, wisdom, failure, forgiveness, and compassion, it is thousands of moments of choosing to persevere.” – Sally Clarkson
“The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all—doing nothing.” - Benjamin Franklin
Here’s to many more years, many more struggles, many more successes, and many more of the stories that shape us!
