How do two journalists blow up their lives to become farmers? 

This story begins during the pandemic. Remember how the walls of your home felt like they were closing in. The television seemed more mindless than usual. You had run out of things to discuss.

That was us. 

Alex — who loves animals and suffers people — decided we would take our medicine at a farm. He booked a weekend stay in an RV at a goat farm. 

During our first evening, Alex nuzzled a cow. Mandy rocked a baby goat to sleep. A turkey walked into the camper (he may have been invited.)

The next morning went something like this:

“Mandy, let’s do it. Let’s sell our house, move to the middle of nowhere and become farmers,” Alex said. 

I smiled and patted him on the head. As journalists, our lives were anchored in Raleigh. We lived where news happened. The governor was our neighbor. North Carolina legislators and the state’s highest courts toiled not five blocks from our downtown home. When protestors took to the streets in 2020, we could hear their chants from our yard. 

Mandy had spent her journalism career at The News & Observer, untangling the complex systems that harmed vulnerable people. Alex was one of the state’s most knowledgeable education reporters as a journalist for EducationNC.

Still, Alex made his case again the second morning. 

By then, Mandy had softened to the idea. Maybe it was the goat that climbed on her back the day before and bonked her on the head. 

She could actually see it. Baby goats to cuddle. A pond for Alex to fish and Mandy to swim. Unobscured sunrises. A wraparound porch from which to witness it all. 

Reinvention looked promising. (And scary, but mostly refreshing)

Within a month, Mandy and Alex were hunting for land. By Thanksgiving 2020, they had fallen in love with 15 acres in the southern Alamance County enclave of Snow Camp. A pond, a fishing cabin, a pasture for the goats and donkeys. Just as they pictured it. 

They moved into their own RV in May 2021. Mandy had sketched renderings of a dream farmhouse. Alex had begun looking for animals in need of a home. 

Their reinvention meant learning new skills and not being afraid to fall flat at times. 

And here they are. Journalists turned farmers. Lives exploded. A second act emerged.  

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