I have been drawn to the emergency services my whole life. I have never changed my mind or altered my direction. My career is part of me, part of my personality and part of my soul. I have been working in the industry as a firefighter and paramedic for ten years, my husband for over 15 years, and his father over 20 years. We have seen things that most people will never, and should never see in their lifetime. The worst day of your life, is our everyday. It’s hard to find balance in this industry and that’s why my husband and I started farming over six years ago. Our everyday couldn’t be just filled with your worst days. We needed to make time and space for good days. Growing food and raising animals is a job where you can create life, nourish it, and watch it grow into incredible things. Farming has been a way our family heals and balances out the negative in our life.
When Covid-19 hit, our lives changed like many others. Suddenly farming became just as important to us as saving lives. Two very different jobs, but both equally important. We are no longer farming as a pastime for our own healing but treating it like we do our emergency service careers. Farming is an essential service, and those who farm, who grow, who give back to their community’s are every bit as much of a hero as the medical and emergency workers on the frontline. My emergency service career is how I will protect my community; farming is how I will help us not only survive but flourish.
I am a paramedic. I am a firefighter. I am a farmer, and we will get through this together.
