Why can be such a loaded question and I think that’s also what I love about it. You can twist it so many ways and at the end of the day it is as unique as the individual writing it. 

Rancho Conmara came to life based off a big dream, stories of our childhoods, the amazing Cowboys & farmers we are lucky enough to know and this desire to raise our kids connected to the land and a little old-school.

Picture this: A summer morning with low fog and the crisp morning air sets the tone for morning chores-animals to be fed, fields to be watered and flowers to be harvested. As the fog starts to break the kids start arriving for what is sure to be another fun day of camp. Today they are having their archery competition and will help arrange bouquets to take to the local comprehensive care center. 

I see this ranch being so much more than just a home for us. It will be a home to many, so many over the years that hopefully their great-grandkids will be able to enjoy the same simple life pleasures they once did. I see this as a retreat away from the continuingly evolving, stressful, too fast, too consuming life most people live every day. A place were generations can come to connect and be reminded of the simple joys of life. 

I see the kids, Jesse and I spending our Saturday mornings with a trip to town delivering that week’s flower harvest to our subscription customers who greet us each week with glowing smiles and share their newest stories with us. 

I see early mornings and long days filled with hard, dirty, sweaty manual labor turning dirt into beautiful flower beds. 

I see brides coming out the week of their wedding to gather their favorite flowers with their closest loved ones so giddy with joy and excitement for this next chapter of life they are about to enter.

I see a flower stand within our local grocery store, a cooler at the local produce stand and an arrangement from our farm every time I go into the local bank, coffee shop or doctor’s office.

I see us spreading joy one single stem or arrangement at a time.

I also see us being able to give back in ways we might have not been able to before. I see a section of the field dedicated to just this. I see high school floriculture students learning hands on tending to their special prized crops. I see us taking truckloads of pumpkins into town for the local schools, women’s shelter or churches.  I see us hosting an annual fall gathering where we share the beauty of the farm with those that might not have experiences it just yet, but where we raise awareness and funds for the needs of our local community. I see us being able to sponsor kids through the local 4H or our ranch school. I see us providing hope.

Our story will tell one of hard work. One that you don’t have to be born into this life to create it. You don’t have to be a seventh-generation farmer or rancher with farming built into your DNA and passed down from generation to generation. Ours will prove to anyone willing to listen and eager to make a difference that with a whole lot of hard work, heart and persistence you can make a difference in your local community while providing for your family off the land you own.

We are doing this to create a life where day in day out we are able to work aside each other as a family to support our family by living off our land but also (and most importantly) are able to create a business, initiative and culture where we teach our children to take a step back, simplify, work hard, and always give more than you take. 

We are doing this for generations to come. My friend Keith Saarloos has a tagline he uses for his wine company that says it perfect. To Honor those that have come before us and to Prepare for those that have yet to come. I want to create a space for generations to come to experience, fall in love with and grow their sense of self through the western way of life.

Plainly said-I want to raise more cowboys and cowgirls.

They are the kindest, hardest working and overall best types of people I have ever met in my life as a whole. There is something about the western way of life that humbles and challenges you while also building you up for anything life throws your way. It can knock you down and build you up all in the same moment.

The legacy we will leave behind is one of not just working for ourselves to be able to provide for our family but to provide for our community while making it a better place. We will be known for all we have done to encourage, support, build up and improve our town. When we are gone, stories will be shared of how we helped that kid get back on after he fell off and encouraged him to never stop- giving him the confidence to go out into the world; of how we met at the farmers market to share a story of our love for sweet peas, offered you an extra bouquet & you went home to start your own tiny garden; of how you remember picking out a pumpkin every year at school on the Friday before Halloween. 

The stories that stand the test of time are never the ones of making x amount of money or winning x award, but the ones of the people that made a difference for someone else. That is what we will be remembered for. 

At the end of the day we go to bed proud that we are slowly working day by day to create a little piece of land where all are welcome, beauty is grown and stories are shared. We will go to bed proud that we did this on our own with no professional farming or ranching training and solely by our desire to create this life for our family. We will get up each day eager to do it again because day by day it will grow into something more beautiful and that will continue to inspire us.