A little over two weeks ago, on March 14, we had our first wedding of the year at the farm. It was a sweet little celebration of two very lovely people. We were not only thrilled to celebrate with them, but excited for the start of a new year at the farm. In the weeks before that wedding, we were pretty busy: we hosted a lunch and meeting for Nutrient Ag Solutions, visited Fennimore for their tasting with our ice cream, and made some food for the fireman's banquet. 

But then....things got pretty quiet. 

Between Friday, March 13 and Monday, March 16, the world shut down and so did our barn. We are closed indefinitely, and we're not sure when things will get back to normal. 

Right now, we imagine our state of mind is very similar to many of yours. It's a pretty stressful mixture of fear and uncertainty. We are worried - for the world, for the people who love, and for our own business.

​As a small business, we're used to operating with a level of uncertainty - there's really no guarantee and every month can bring something new, good or bad. But barring a major snowstorm or other unexpected problems, there was always previous history to rely on; always a new idea to funnel our energy into; and always the knowledge that people are drawn to the outdoors, to spend time with their families, to live their lives. There was some certainty despite the unpredictability. 

But now, things seem completely uncertain. Things have gone very quickly from okay to worse and then to worse still, and as the news continued to show this downward curve of activity and upward curve of disease, we became more and more stressed. Stressed not just for us, but for the countless other businesses that were going to be affected by this nation-wide shutdown. 

At some point, we reached a level of acceptance. We took action to make sure that our farm guests who have planned events here are taken care of as best as possible, but we mostly - like the rest of the world - hunkered down. Like many others, we've begun working on that project list, cleaning the shop and reworking our bar/checkout area. Like many others, our daily stops have dwindled to just a few, Kwik Trip and our homes and our work. Like many others, we are concerned for the people in our lives, for their continued health and happiness and prosperity. Like many others, we are taking things day by day. 

We're optimistic that things will get better. There are parts of our lives that will never be the same, and this will affect people deeply. It has and will continue to change family dynamics, friendships, and working relationships. It has affected our level of security in crowds and gatherings, not only with strangers but even with the people we love. It has affected the businesses at the hearts of small towns like ours, and we hope the people who run those businesses will come through this. We hope that everyone will come through this. 
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Today as we write this, we are looking at another month of social distancing, but we are heartened by the passing of a few government stimulus packages. We have been having good conversations with people in our corner and we'll tell you that these conversation are probably the first bit of optimism we've had in the last ten days. Because now, even though we don't like a bailout as much as the next person, we are going to be able to keep our employees paid, we're going to be able to keep current on our bills, and we're going to keep some revenue coming in. We're going to get through this. 

We can't go back to early March, but we need to keep money moving through our businesses and we need to keep supporting our businesses and keep our country going. We are excited that these new programs will help keep us afloat, that they'll help keep our awesome employees coming through our doors, and that they'll allow us to keep moving on some of our ideas.

​There are things to look forward to: warmer weather and planting, ice cream (we can't WAIT for you to see our new truck), outside projects, happy wedding days, strawberries, and soon, fall season. Our troubles - like so many of your troubles - have not gone away. We don't feel the same excitement we normally feel during this time. We'll have to wait for things to pick up and for that excitement to come back. But we're hopeful. And we're heartened. And we're going to be here when things are brought back to normal. 

Take care, everyone. Be well, be safe, be happy. 

Many of our early guests remember the old red barn that stood next to where the goat pasture currently is. 

Then the year 2012 rolled around. If you're a farmer, you remember that year. That was the year of the region's last major drought. There was not much - if any - rain. The ground was dry. After we planted the maze, there was a tiny storm, but then not much else fell. The corn was pretty short. The pumpkins were thirsty.

At the end of June, Kyle bought 20,000 feet of drip tape to irrigate the pumpkins, planning for more hot and dry conditions. Then the first storm in about 2 months came through...and it was pretty darn violent. 

Around 10 p.m., the winds whipped and the rain fell. There was no real proof of a tornado in the county, but there were incredibly powerful straight-line winds, hail, lightening, and RAIN. A lot of rain, coming in sideways and coming in hard. 

The broadside of the old red barn faced the West. Kyle and Bruce, who were standing out on the porch stoop watching the lightening and commenting on the rain, could see the barn from their post. The light on the barn was one of the only bright spots on the farm, except for all the lightening. 

While they were out on the porch, Judy yelled from inside the house. Kyle and Bruce raced into the living room to find a branch had broken off a tree in the backyard and tipped in one of their windows, bringing all that rain inside. The window wasn't broken, just displaced, so the three of them wrestled the window back into place, and then Kyle returned to the porch to continue to watch the storm. He saw that the light on the red barn had gone out. 

Not very curious initially as the barn light was light-sensitive, Kyle didn't pay much attention during the next couple of lightening flashes. But after a few minutes, he felt there was something, not quite sure, but SOMETHING wrong about his view. The next couple flashes revealed a gaping hole where the massive barn once stood. In the struggle to fix the window and in the cacophony of the storm, the Vespermans hadn't heard a thing, but the barn had come down. All that was left - revealed in the lightening - were a couple of lonely broken beams and a pile of wood and stone. 

The storm blew through quickly, and not long after the barn had collapsed, Kyle called his cousin Eric to bring out a spotlight. There were a few sheep, the horses, and some other animals that used the backside of the barn for shelter, and with the power lines down and the electricity out, they needed a hand-held torch to check on the animals. 

In the dark, they could see that some of the sheep had been trapped in the collapse, but most of the animals were alive...but frightened. The Vespermans scrambled around in the dark, rearranging fences and creating temporary barriers to keep the surviving animals safe for the night. 

In the morning light, the storm's power and destruction revealed itself. Not only was the barn down, but the catapult was flipped, the roof on the white barn had been filleted, and the maze bridge was toppled. On top of a bad summer, this was pretty devastating to an already frustrated Kyle. 

But he really didn't have a lot of time to wallow. There was an incredible amount of work to be done. 

Some time in the night, Kyle had called his neighbor, Darrell Crapp (he was awake...everyone was at that point), and at 6 a.m., Darrell and a group of guys brought out a bulldozer, some chainsaws, and a positive attitude and began freeing some of the trapped animals (removing them from the property as the heat returned in full force that morning) and moving some of the rubble. 

Over the next few weeks, the Vespermans and a group of people slowly dismantled the barn and righted all the damage they could. In a brilliant stroke of foresight - or just because of the family's "save it all" attitude - Kyle salvaged as much as he could from the wreckage, sorting through to keep as many of the planks, beams, posts, and rock he could. Heavy equipment was brought in later to fill in the hole where the barn once stood, dig a new one to bury the concrete foundation, and get rid of all the remaining pieces that couldn't be saved.  ​​​​

Years later, as Kyle was building the new red barn, he was glad he had listened to his inner hoarder. Inside the new red barn, you'll see many pieces of the old: a good part of the siding and paneling, the beams and posts, and all the stonework is from that old building. The arbor we use for weddings came from that old barn's framework. And many of the signs you see around the farm in fall season is from the old barn wood that survived the wreckage. 

Although it was a shame that the barn in its originality couldn't be saved, it's great that it can still live on in the new red barn, no longer bearing witness not to livestock and haywork, but to the memories that families and friends make when they visit our farm. 

For our very first newsletter, we thought we'd answer the obvious question:

What connects a Ukrainian graphic designer to a small rural Wisconsin farm?

Kelsey has been around the farm for so long, even she's not exactly sure when she transitioned from being a guest to an employee. She thinks maybe it was seven or eight years ago that she started working strawberry season, picking berries for orders; driving people around in golf carts; and weighing buckets of berries, trying to operate the iPad cash register with dirt-covered fingers. 

It's funny that she started working strawberry season, because strawberry season is when Kelsey first came to the farm as a guest to pick strawberries with her mom. She still lives three miles down the road in the home she grew up in, and since that inexact hiring date, she hasn't left the farm. But since then, she has done ALL the jobs, short of driving the tractors and supervising the zip line. 

For Kelsey, this farm family has a special place in her heart.

"I LOVE THE VESPERMANS. Kyle, Bruce, and Judy are the BEST. They are the definition of hospitable – literally opening up their home to thousands of people throughout the year to make their own memories."

Kelsey has also been Kyle's partner in some of his more creative endeavors, including wrestling Christmas trees into some custom-built tree stands, selling kettle corn at Country on the River for a whole weekend of prime people watching, and helping to coordinate a surprise proposal at the farm! 

​Her newest title is the secret weapon behind Kyle's Instagram and Facebook posts. She not only "pesters" (in Kyle's words) him to remember to post things to keep our guests updated on farm goings-on, but she is also the secret editor behind the posts. If there's a typo, Kelsey is on it!

Kyle calls Kelsey his "Wikipedia" employee - if it needs fixing, she'll fix it.    

Ah, these two. We really love them. There is still a truism in this world about good people, and this couple and their family and friends are the reason this truth still exists. 

​To see the beauty of this group of people, we needed to look no further than their dessert table. The absolutely scrumptious cap on a gorgeous and fun day was an absolute haul of homemade pies, baked and brought in by close family members. 

After the dinner, the family descended to help us cut and serve all these delicious pies and even though there were enough pies to feed twice the guest list and the variety of flavors was endless (chocolate, lemon, apple...), we could not serve those pies fast enough! And we were so, so happy that we were offered a few slices as well. As Ashley, our venue coordinator, put it: "I'm still thinking about those pies."

Like a homemade pie, there is just something about good people, and we were so happy to be blessed with a slice of this couple's wonderful life. Thank you so much, Brooke and John, for your love, your laughter, and your happiness. 

​VENDOR LOVE
Photos: Kristin Adams Photography
Cake: Poppy Cakes