About Lantern Farm
My dream, since childhood, has been to have a horse farm. The exact details of said dream have changed significantly over the years, but in 2013 I convinced Nate to take the leap and start what I had hoped would be a five-year plan that would end with us living on and operating a small hobby farm. It is 2024 and we are finally starting to get this farm going! I learned early on to view it as a rolling 5 year plan and progress is being made. In 2017 we found 18 acres in Dayton MN that was 100% soybeans but in the perfect spot. In 2018 we started building our house on said spot. In 2019 we moved in and adjusted to living on 18 acres that was still 80% soybeans but now 20% so many weeds – I mean yard – there is a yard in there somewhere. At the start of 2020 we got serious about building the barn so we could bring our horse, Leeloo, home. Then COVID came and interrupted everything. But that rolling 5-year plan keeps on rolling.
The goal of this website was and in many ways is still to document the many journeys we are on.
- Building a barn and getting our property set up for horses – this plan has been adjusted greatly – thanks COVID
- We have a barn now! And horses on our property and chickens!! But there is still much to do.
- Getting Leeloo sound – more about Leeloo’s various health sagas here
- Maintaining my own health through this whole process – more about my health challenges here
- Changing a conventionally farmed 18 acres soy/corn field into a regenerative farm that can just maybe *fingers crossed* earn enough revenue that I can scale back my day job as much as possible – more of a rolling 10 year plan..
If you are wondering what happened between 2013 and 2017 – that was the Lino Lakes disaster learning experience.
About Leeloo
As mentioned above Leeloo died unexpectedly of cancer in the spring of 2023. But she was the such a huge part of my life for so long and the reality is if she hadn’t had as many health issues as she did I probably would have given up on the horse farm dream long ago. So even though she’s no longer here in person, she is here is spirit and will remain here as well. Please note the paragraph below was written before she died and I’m not up to changing things to past-tense yet.
Leeloo is a 2009 appendix mare out of Larks Hidden Fortune and Shadow This Jet, and a granddaughter of Rugged Lark. Leeloo’s dam, Annie (Shadow This Jet) joined us while she was in foal with Leeloo in 2008 and we have had the privilege of being Leeloo’s humans her entire life. She was meant to be my dream horse and I had hoped to show her in whatever discipline she enjoyed – and hopefully excelled at – but things have not worked out as planned. In addition to being chronically accident prone – our worse incident to date was when she nearly cut her left-front hoof off – Leeloo has also had number of more serious medical issues. The most serious include an OCD lesion on her left hock which required surgery to remove when she was a yearling and contracting Lyme’s Disease which was diagnosed and treated when she was 5. She has been on-and-off again lame (mostly lame) her entire life and we have worked with any number of vets, ferries, chiropractors, and other specialists in an effort to get her sound. The reason Leeloo is still here and we are still fighting hard to find a way to get her sound – or at least sound enough to ride – is because she is one of the most personable horses I’ve ever known. She is curious, intelligent, playful, loving, trusting, and sweet-natured. Follow along on our quest for soundness.
LanternFarmMN@gmail.com