I can't really call it the beginning because it's been going on for a really long time now. Like, since before I was born and all through my childhood. It's just that now I am finally in a position to help my father move forward in ways that he hasn't been able to before. So perhaps we'll just call it a new beginning.

You see, my father has had this hyper-fixation on gardening and greenhouses for as long as I can remember. I have a memory of when we purchased my childhood home and it had a plot of land in the back that was filled with weeds and my father was talking about clearing it out to make room and I was all, 'yay! can we have a horse?!?' No. No horses. We got a greenhouse instead.

Which, hind-sight being 20/20, I am glad that this is the case. Having a greenhouse and a father who's particular bent is towards Self-reliance and sustainability taught me a broad scope of life skills that I'm not sure I would have learned had I gotten my way and we'd have gotten a horse. I'm sure I would have learned an entirely different set of skills and been a completely different person than I am today had that been the case.

Instead, I and my three other sisters were taught how to tend to the earth and more specifically, how to tend to tomatoes.