My First Farm in St. Maries, Idaho
Gary’s first farm: St. Maries, Idaho, in 1992. The ground hadn’t been plowed in nearly 50 years, so it actually broke the John Deere 8-bottom plow six times! Good thing Gary knows how to weld.
In 1992 I bought this little ranch, 160 acres, in St. Maries, Idaho. I plowed the first ground that had not been plowed in 42 years. That is a 250-horsepower, 8-wheeled John Deere tractor with an 8-bottom plow. Normally, 40 acres could be plowed in one day; it took me ten days because I broke that plow into pieces six different times and had to weld it back together because the ground was so hard. Big chunks would come up the size of a car hood, and it was a lot of work.
Gary plowed this land himself and welded the plow multiple times.
Then I planted clary sage that I brought from France and planted the lavender I started in Spokane. I also planted melissa seed that I brought from France. France has given us so much. We have a lot to be grateful for.
I used a second tractor to inject microbes and enzymes into the soil to raise the pH, because the pH was 4.2. This was conifer land. Aromatic plants need a pH of 7 to 7.8 to grow and produce good oil, so I had to change the land. If I can transform 160 acres of land, can we transform ourselves? Yes.
