The Dawn of a new day!
If you build it, they will come
Welcome to my journey. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Lacey, but feel free to call me Bean (like the legume!). I am a 35-year-old who, in light of the changes that 2020 has brought us, decided that it was time to stop dreaming and start doing.
The dream that will become Nova Dawn Educational Farm started as a passing thought as I pulled away from the MV Fundy Rose's truck deck one sunny September afternoon. With my trusty four-legged sidekick, Penelope-Lynn (The world's best goat!) in the back seat of my well-loved hatchback, I travelled to my childhood home, heavy-hearted and at a loss with what to do with my life.
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, I lost my job and wasn't sure what my future would hold. Penelope would stay with my parents on their small hoppy** farm in Port Royal, Nova Scotia, until I could write the next chapter of my life. The summer had been busy. As the Director of Programming and Outreach Education for Nashwaak Valley Farm, I created and directed two awesome day camp programs and had just finished a thirteen week of summer camp insanity. Sadly as well-received as our camp programs were, we still unable to continue our outreach program. Loss of income due to restrictions brought on by Covid-19, Caused Nashwaak Valley Farm to have to close the barn doors for the last time.
I had been working the animal outreach education scene for close to twenty years and was staring down the reality of having to get a real, "grown-up" job. I had, just days before, excepted a job in aquaculture. Even though it wasn't a dream come true, it would pay well, and with the instability brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, a position in large scall production farming would give me the security that so many people in Canada and around the world didn't have.
Shortly after returning to my home base in Fredericton, I enrolled in my first ever university course at the Dalhousie Agriculture Campus with the unwavering encouragement and support from my advisory committee**. After that first step, the rest just started to unfold. Standing on the deck of the strangest tractor I have ever seen, in a very wet and salty pasture, tending to thousands of head of livestock that oddly resembled salmon, my dream found its name.
The moment Nova Dawn Educational Farm rolled off of my tongue, goosebumps covered my arms, and my stomach landed somewhere handy to my boots. Without question, I knew my fleeting ideas had gained tangibility, evolving into a dream and quickly realized that I had a lot of hard work ahead of me.
Nova Dawn may just sound like a fresh start, a new beginning, but it is so much more than that. While Nova stems from my Scotian roots, Dawn represents so much more than a sunrise.
Dawn was the middle name of my soul sister Tanya, so dubbed by the wonderful nurses at the QE2 Health Science Center that cared for her during her final weeks.
Tanya was one of the bravest people I have ever met, and even if she never knew it, she taught me so much. I carry Tanya with me every day, both metaphorically and physically, in the necklace, I have worn for the last five years. It may not happen tomorrow or next year, but I will have her picture hanging over the door of my barn.
So, I ask you all to join me on this crazy adventure as I tend my field of dreams; fore if I plant it, they will come.
Stay tuned for awesome educational content, progress reports and miscellaneous animal-related shenanigans!
Love you all,
Bean
**Yes, I said hoppy farm, instead of hobby farm. They raise meat rabbits (as well as many other animals), and I can't just let a good pun go to waste.
**a committee consisting of a small group of loving friends who often tell me to stop worrying and "just do it!".
Even on the darkest days, tomorrow is a Nova Dawn.
Wow, Lacey! Wow! For as well and long as I've known you, I just realized I have never heard you write with your own true voice. This is beautiful, and moving, and engaging and of course funny. So all those old teacher voices in your head telling you mean and nasty stuff, like that you can't write, well, they are dismissed now, and need to leave. That was as beautiful and as perfect as we know you to be. Write on!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. All of this that Jenny said. Those naysayers don't deserve any more free rent in your brain. You've totally got this, and I am excited to be along for the ride. Proud to call you friend.
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