5 years ago, I truly thought by now we'd have our land, be doing educational programs with my alma maters and building the dream I had planned over a decade ago. Now, next year, my 60th birthday is not remotely going to look like I had conjured up in my head over all these years. I envisioned a fantastical outdoor event with all the new people we had forged relationships with as we came together over a common cause; creating a place dedicated to educating the next generations about how to promote and maintain resilient and sustainable communities in the climate change era. I saw the strings of fairy lights strung between the back of the house and the multiple big trees towering across the grassy area beyond the deck. I planned how the rustic tables would be set out so everyone could still converse while seated and enjoying delicious food grown the way nature intended, organic, whole, grassfed, humanely and regeneratively cultivated. In recent years, I had grown to love the look of the foraged decorated dinner tables seen on the chateau TV series and fancied myself, an artist at heart, to likely be pretty good at gathering natures bounty and making spectacular table settings to the delight of my guests. I see Dave, hovering over the oversized farm BBQ, turning the sumptuous meats, marinaded to perfection, allowing the aromas to waft across the lawn full of hungry guests. Next, he checks the corn, still wrapped in their husks, rotating them for optimum cooking, knowing the butter & spices I had slathered on them prior to re-husking, would seal in the yummy goodness.