Reflections From the Field

Looking back on 2024 at the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm

Things did not go the way I’d wanted this year. 2024 has been a year of transition at Runamuk. A year of changes—of releasing that which no longer works, distilling my mission and embracing this new direction with an open heart. Join me at the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm as we reflect on the past year…

Welcome to the latest Updates From the Farm! If you are new here, I invite you to check out my About page to learn what this is, who I am and why I am doing this. Or just dive right in! At “Runamuk Acres” you’ll find the recantings of one lady-farmer and tree-hugging activist from the western mountains of Maine. #foodieswanted

In This Post:

Local Food VS. Wildlife Conservation
Farm Finances
2024 Successes
Farms Should Evolve With Their Farmer
Reflections From the Farm

Local Food VS. Wildlife Conservation

It’s been a couple years since I came to the realization that Runamuk was never going to be a key player in feeding its’ local community.

Time and energy, in conjunction with poor soil conditions, limits the productivity of our gardens. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that there’s only so much one woman can do on her own, and—honestly? It’s been difficult to accept.

Torn between 2 causes I feel very strongly about: local food vs wildlife conservation, I had to decide where my time and energy was going to go. Where would I be most effective? How could I make the most impact?

By chance and happenstance, I came across this post by Dan Blank who writes The Creative Shift, about Finding Creative Clarity. I used Dan’s “clarity cards” strategy to distill my core values and goals, discovering the motive for everything I do—everything I am. And it all came down to conservation.

Since then, I’ve downsized the farm-side of my operation to more of a homestead level. Having started this journey as a mom of 2 young sons who sought to feed her family healthy and nutritious food while increasing her own self-reliance, I feel like I’ve come full-circle.

Farm Finances

It’s a harsh reality, but the truth of the matter is that I just can’t afford to farm.

If I had the funds to pay employees, I could scale up enough to generate an income. However, on my own, I can’t grow enough to scale up to the point where I could afford to hire employees.

It’s a catch 22.

According to the USDA, a whopping 80% of small farms have at least 1 person working off-farm to support their operation.

I’d hoped that by keeping expenses down I could manage as a single woman, but circumstances have snowballed over the last few years and this fall I made the difficult decision to take off-farm employment.

2024 Highlights

Though finances were an omnipresent theme, I did manage a few gains on and about the farm. Here’s a quick run down of some of Runamuk’s 2024 successes:

LIVESTOCK

Lambs! We saw our highest survival rate yet, during the 2024 lambing season. This is largely due to all I have learned in the last 5 years, in addition to the new gate I built onto the housing of our Nursery.

One of our thriving 2024 lambs.

Beebe’s Big Day: A staunch believer in the spaying and neutering of pets, Beebe’s procedure had been on my to-do list for a couple years. As the fear of an unplanned litter of giant puppies grew, I made her surgery a financial priority and in March I took my livestock guardian dog to see our local veterinarian.

Free Bees! In June we were blessed with a honeybee swarm that moved itself into some abandoned equipment in the barn. This allowed me to establish a new colony to the farm during a year when I was avoiding making such financial investments.

Crowd-funded: Thanks to our successful crowdfunding campaign, Hay Mission 2024 went off without a hitch. At the end of July, we were able to bring 400 bales of hay from our favorite hay-farmers to Runamuk and stored them in the barn loft.

GARDEN

Season Extension: One of the only investments I made this season was in lumber. This allowed me to construct several raised beds and cold-frames with the intention of extending my growing season.

We took a very nice harvest of broccoli this year!

A “Meh” Season: The growing season it self was a little lackluster, neither exceptionally good nor bad. We got some nice heads of broccoli and cabbage. I had the first real tomato harvest I’ve had in several years, but save for a few pounds, not really much in the way of carrots or root crops. The potatoes tanked, and after several consecutive years of poor potato harvests, I’m giving serious consideration to taking a break from them in 2025.

FARM

More Campers: While our income from airbnb guests to the farmstay waned during 2024, we saw an exciting uptick in the number of campers to the conservation acreage out back—even some repeat visitors. This has inspired me to expand upon that growth and in 2025 I’ll be investing in 2 new campsites, as well as making improvements to our online listings to promote this side of the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm.

Sacrificing the Farmstay: We’ve decided to suspend the Farmstay indefinitely. With me working part-time off-farm, it’s difficult to maintain hotel-level cleanliness, much as BraeTek tried. I went back and forth on it at first, but eventually I decided that one of the perks of having to work off-farm was going to be having the house to myself.

Here’s Your Sign: I spent some time working on new signage, including a Farmstand Hours sign that was added to our roadside signage. After 6 years, I finally erected a much needed boundary sign for the backside of our property, and signage for the Tamarack Grove to point campers in the direction of the campsite.

One of the signs I made for the conservation acreage.

CONSERVATION

Growing a Reputation for Conservation: While I didn’t get around to building the new birdhouses I want, nor the kiosk or trail-side benches, I think I’ve managed to grow Runamuk’s reputation for conservation—both locally and online.

Locally: Our presence and activity within the surrounding community continues to grow our relationships and reputation within the western Maine region.

Online: Substack has allowed me to reach a broader audience while simultaneously honing my craft to better promote Runamuk’s message. Slowly but surely, Runamuk is becoming synonymous with real food and wildlife conservation.

HOMESTEAD

Furnace Maintenance: On the home-front, I had the furnace cleaned this year. It’s a big house—13 rooms—and it takes a lot of fuel to heat it, so I wanted to make sure the thing is running efficiently. I’m pleased to say she got a glowing report from the technician.

Almost Grown: In his senior year, BraeTek has grown exponentially this past year—both in height and maturity. He’s shouldered the responsibility of the critter-chores since I took off-farm work, voluntarily cooks dinner every other night or bakes our weekly bread, cleans the house and even leads his own study program as he works toward his high school diploma. He will be 18 in February.

Hooray for Sourdough! Determined to continue cooking real food and making healthy meals even while I’m working off the farm, 2024 was the year I finally got into sourdough! Having made my own yeasted breads for the last 20 years, sourdough is a new challenge and I am having fun playing around with it. Not to mention it’s fkg delicious.

A loaf of bacon-cheddar and caramelized onion sourdough!

Home Alone: In addition to the farmstay, we’ve traditionally kept a housemate as well. This provided a reliable chunk of money every month, which helped sustain the farm when finances were dicey.

After a string of less savory experiences, I’d all but given up on housemates until Reece came to stay with us more than 2 years ago. A very quiet and reserved 20-something young man, he came from Texas to work with relatives here and just wanted a space of his own.

Sadly, the time has come for Reece to move onto the next chapter of his life, and at the end of November he left us. Now, it’s just BraeTek and I here and we’re savoring the feeling of having the house to ourselves for the first time since buying the property in 2018.

AUTHORY

This has been a big year for my authory-self. Bringing my writing off the back burner last December and coming to Substack has been life-changing. While it may not pay the bills, my income from writing has increased from $127 in 2023, to $1,890 at the time of publication. I’ve expanded my audience in a big way, valiadated my local and global reputation as a conservationist, published my first book and started my second.

All of this has only fueled the fire burning within me. I’ve learned from and been inspired by the many fantabulous writers here and I can’t wait to see how this side of my life evolves in 2025.

PERSONAL

Another failed relationship has convinced me to give up on the notion of ever finding a life-partner. Thankfully, Dan and I only saw each other for 2 months, but it’s convinced me to give up on men altogether.

It just doesn’t work for me.

I’m too consumed with Runamuk and it’s mission. Too feral to be complacent enough for the likes of most men. My journey has made me too independent, but in the best possible way.

*****BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT OF 2024*****

This was probably our successful crowdfunding campaign. Thanks to the generous support of our community and online following, we were able to raise the funds needed to pay for our winter hay and invest in a new fence-energizer, too. I’m still humbled and awed by the outpouring of support to this small Maine farm and I thank everyone who helped in any way—even if all you did was send mental prayers and well-wishes—it truly makes a difference.

Farms Should Evolve With Their Farmer

I can’t help but wonder sometimes if I’m not delusional…

Why am I so bound and determined to be a farmer? To pursue this insane mission for the conservation of soil microbial-life and insects of all things?

Furthermore, what makes me think I could help anyone else along their own journey into homesteading or farming? When I haven’t been able to make it as a farmer myself? Why should anyone follow me?

That was the question put to me recently on Notes:

It’s fair, I know. And yes, it was petty of me to dump on Miss Fasulo, but I am only human and I’ve never claimed to be perfect.

Through the Runamuk-blog, I’m sharing raw and authentic stories from the experiences of one lady-farmer. I may portray my life romantically because I love it so, but it’s far from pretty—or easy.

I’m not going to apologize for having feelings about the fact that this girl had a picture-perfect barn built and has capitalized on the aesthetics of that and her pretty face to grow an audience of 25K on Substack and 197K on YouTube.

From the outside looking in, it doesn’t appear as though she’s actually doing much farming (yet?), and her content largely seems to be regurgitated information about potential resources for land-access. Helpful on the surface, but without the experience to back it up, it’s really only skin-deep.

Furthermore, her Substack content is all paywalled, so how can I help but draw the conclusion that all those people subscribed for her pretty face? When you can’t read the content to determine if it’s worth making such a monetary investment? And she has no presence on Notes and does not respond to inquiries—it just blows my mind that she and I came to Substack around the same time last year and she’s gained 25-thousand subscribers.

Meanwhile, I’m over here literally knee-deep in sheep-shit, pulling long hours and putting in a ton of effort and energy trying to gain ground—and still a long ways from that blessed orange checkmark.

Maybe I need to make some videos, lol.

It’s the same with homesteads and small farms thriving under the care of a partnered couple. There’s just no way I can compete with that and I’m a little salty about it. I’m only human, yknow?

I never wanted to be a solo-farmer. I just wanted a partner who didn’t treat me like a second-class citizen. Even still…I can’t bring myself to give up on my dream—my life’s mission…

One of the wonderful things about farming is that there are limitless ways to do it. Every farm is as unique as the farmer who creates it. Each of us comes into farming with different goals and skillsets. Each of us faces challenges specific to our own existence.

Who’s to say that just because I’m not feeding more than my own family I’m not a farmer? For that matter, if I’m feeding soil microbial-life, insects and wildlife rather than people, does that make me any less the farmer?

You don’t have to tell me that this isn’t sustainable. I’m living it. That’s why I’ve chosen to pivot. To redefine my core values and adjust my operation accordingly.

It’s okay for farms to evolve.

I think they should. As the farmer grows as a person, their interests ebb and flow. Priorities shift. Sometimes it comes down to a matter of physical capacity or health issues shaping the farm.

A farm doesn’t have to be one thing throughout the entirety of it’s lifespan.

Reflections From the Farm

For this wayward farmer, walking away is an unbearable thought.

I feel called to this mission the way a nun feels called to dedicate her life to God—though I am definitely not a nun.

Nature speaks to my soul and I am powerless to resist it. Farming draws me closer to nature and it’s natural rhythms. Deep in my soul I must continue to farm on some level in order to feel whole and at peace.

While I’m enjoying the kids at school immensely, I hope not to have to be there more than a couple of years. If I can continue to grow my income from other streams, while setting myself up to refinance the mortgage and auto-loan together in a single, reduced payment, with any luck I’ll be back on the farm full-time before we know it.

Maybe my life is messy.

I know it sounds overwhelming—too much work for one person to handle. Yet, as I told this critic in my response, “what’s too much for one person, might be a light load for another. It’s subjective.”

You build stamina in this lifestyle.

You’ll think you’ve reached your limit, unable to go a step further, and then—you’ll find a new reserve of strength you didn’t know was there. Over time you’ll get stronger, able to take on more than you ever thought possible.

That’s what’s happened for me, anyway…

I’d like to think my story brings hope to those who might be stuck in the 9-5 grind, living somewhere in suburbia where the HOA prohibits them from most homestead activities—that there’s still something they can do right now. Even if it’s just to cook dinner from scratch at the end of a long day.

A bi-product of my own personal journey into farming and conservation, Runamuk’s farm-blog isn’t going to resonate with everyone—and that’s okay. There are countless others who’ve outright told me how my work inspires them. If sharing my story helps even one person along their own journey, then it’s worth a little constructive feedback now and then.

To those who’ve come to stay, I thank you. I’m looking forward to sharing more farm-stories in 2025. Hopefully these forthcoming chapters of the Homesteaders’ Handbook will be useful to you.

Sending love and good juju to you and yours this holiday season.

Your friendly neighborhood farmer,

Sam

Thank you for following along with the story of this lady-farmer! It is truly a privilege to live this life serving my family and community, and protecting wildlife through agricultural conservation. Check back soon for more updates from the farm, and be sure to follow @RunamukAcres on Instagram or Facebook!