12/02/2025
I think when you spend years side-by-side with someone, you end up meeting multiple of versions of them. The shining ones, the rough-edged ones, and all the in-between chapters. And if we’re lucky, each version becomes the stepping stone to something bigger and braver.
I had to share a few photos of David from this past year, because it was one of the hardest years we’ve weathered (maybe ever) and it changes a person to keep standing up anyway. To do it with stubborn grit. To keep showing up even when the wind is knocked out of you. Again. And again. I’m amazed every day by how far we’ve come, especially this year, though I can’t say I’m surprised. This ambitious, passionate, slightly unhinged human has a way of digging in when most people would fold. Working hard is one thing; waking up the next morning and working even harder is another.
He can be as scratchy and tough as old barn wood on the outside, but somehow every curveball life throws at us sands him down softer instead of harder. And I think that says something about the core of a person.
So here’s to this handsome, fearsome leader of ours who, despite all the hardships of farming and of simply existing as a human, is still enchanted by the natural world and everything it gives back. To him. To us. To you.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVID!!
