Britt Gross: I grew up right across the creek from where we live now at Wallenpaupack Creek Farm, and I had two younger brothers and an older sister, and the four of us were just constantly outside. I think we didn't know how well we had it growing up, just because we were constantly in nature. We had lots of farm animals. My parents never said no to getting animals, so it was just we had a really awesome childhood.

Kelly Cumiskey: So I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Olympia, Washington. So just like an hour south of Seattle. My aunt and uncle lived in Oregon City, Oregon, and they had a small farm that I spent a lot of time helping them and always absolutely loved being on the farm, being outside.

Britt Gross: So growing up across the creek, we always knew of this farm. It was owned by the Baker family. They immigrated from Germany and they settled in this property and this was their homestead. And so, you know, they had passed this property down from generation to generation. And we grew up, you know, coming over to this farm and playing in the creek and playing in the barn. And the property had kind of, you know, they were no longer practicing farming. And so when it came up for sale, we just kind of decided that we needed to farm this land again and bring it back to what it was meant to be. So when I was a kid, I was just really passionate about animals. And I would always try to, you know, catch animals and, and always try to heal them if they had an injury or something like that. I was never one hundred percent sure what I wanted to do when I grew up. I studied biology just because I really liked the sciences. And then after college in Vermont, I decided that I wanted to travel a bit. So I took a job as an English teacher in Thailand. And so I spent a year teaching English in Thailand and traveling all around Southeast Asia. And, you know, coming from a small town, it was just a really neat experience to be able to see the world and meet people from other countries. And there was, you know, a lot of farmers and a lot of people living off the land. And it just kind of brought me back home a little bit. You know, it made me appreciate where I grew up when I was in Thailand is when I kind of had this realization that I wanted to go to veterinary school, and I would tell people, you know, that I made that decision, that I wanted to be a veterinarian. And, you know, people would say, of course, you know, you've loved animals your whole life. Why did it take this long for you to realize that? So I went to veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania, and then I took my first job in Oregon at an emergency and ICU clinic there. And that was a year that I worked there, and that was where I met Kelly.

Kelly Cumiskey: Mutual friends introduced Brittany in Portland, Oregon, and had a lot of mutual interests like mountain biking, skiing, camping, all the fun, big mountain outdoor activities. And then I just saw like, we're on the same page with kids and life and family and. It's like the hardest worker you'll ever meet.

Britt Gross: The first conversation that we had, I remember him actually bringing up that he had this idea to, you know, buy a sawmill in Portland, Oregon. And, you know, now he's like, that was a completely crazy idea. But, you know, who would know that years later, we, you know, bought this farm property and he milled, I think it was five triaxial loads of lumber himself. But I think it just, you know, speaks to the fact that he's just, you know, he's a busy beaver. He's just like a hard working guy. And, um, you know, even though he had a business job, he was just kind of looking for that next side gig.

Kelly Cumiskey: I work for an electric utility company in Portland, Oregon, and I was working on the energy side of the company where we're running the generation plants. It's a twelve hour shift, you know, twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year job. And I think I learned a lot. It was a great experience right out of college, but it was a little bit like soul sucking for me. It just like, I don't think I could go back to Working eight hours inside. I just felt a bit caged and I always looked forward to lunchtime, getting out, going for a run, playing basketball, whatever it was. So yeah.

Britt Gross: After that year working, I decided to move back home and I took a job at an emergency clinic locally. So we dated long distance for a year. And, you know, he's on the West Coast. I'm on the east coast. We're kind of deciding what our next move would be. And then during that time, the property where we currently live came up for sale.

Kelly Cumiskey: You know, at one point I was like, I'll never move to the East Coast. Like, you know, there's, there's no big mountains out there. I don't know anybody in the East Coast. And we hadn't dated that long. So it was a lot to kind of commit to the idea of buying a farm together and moving across the country and so forth. When I first visited Pennsylvania, almost the first thing is she took me here to the farm. It wasn't even for sale, but like, maybe it was in the talks if it was going to be for sale. And I think she kind of like wanted to, you know, show me. She didn't say anything specifically, but I think she kind of knew the potential here and knew that I would see the potential.

Britt Gross: The property has always been really special to me because I grew up here, and it's just an amazing space, and it was really in rough shape. You know, it hadn't been farmed for I think, fifty years. And so to see the potential, you know, I think that's something that Kelly, he likes things in order and he's an organized guy. And so he took the bait, I guess. We decided, you know, to stay together. One of us would have to quit their job. So instead what we did, we both quit our jobs and we actually ended up traveling and going to South America. And we backpacked and hiked in South America for six months. And we're hiking in the woods in the middle of nowhere, just chatting about all of our dreams with this property and all the things we were going to do, and kind of really talk about what's important to us and where we, you know, see life heading.

Kelly Cumiskey: So moved out to the East Coast here, northeast Pennsylvania. And then, you know, I found my way, obviously fell in love with Brit and the Poconos and just the rural living here. And the farm came for sale at the same time that I was moving out here.

Britt Gross: We moved back then to Pennsylvania. The sale went through, we bought the property. We kind of started our plans. We were kind of chomping at the bit to towards the end of our trip to get back and just kind of get going, because I think it's both of our personalities, you know, to be productive. So the property has a stone house that was built in eighteen fifty four, before houses had electricity or running water. The house was built and not many upgrades were made. And so we had this stone house on the property. We had this old barn that was ready to fall down. And the barn, you know, it's been standing for one hundred and seventy five years, but it was just really starting to fail. And so rather than fixing up the house to have a place to live, we put all of our time and energy into renovating the barn.

Kelly Cumiskey: I worked with four Amish guys the winter of twenty seventeen, and we tore the barn down to bare bones. We put the barn back together and it came out so nice. They were like, wow, we should we should do our own wedding. And then we should maybe start thinking about doing weddings. So that was kind of the start of the farm. And then it's just been constant projects and more animals and more crops and more kids. And we never planned to leave here. And we're thinking about setting this up for future generations.

Britt Gross: We were actually the first wedding here at our farm, which was really fun because, you know, we have so many friends and family from the West Coast. And, you know, we talk about our farm all the time. So it was just almost like an awesome open house. And what we asked for when we got married as gifts was just fruit trees. So we have an orchard that we planted after we got married, and we have a mobile chicken tractor, which allows the chickens to eat the grass, get the nutrients from the grass, and then they fertilize the the orchard. We're so thankful for our farm and the land, and we get so much from the land. And one of the most important things for us is that we're not just, you know, stripping the land of all of its resources. So any chance we can, we give back. Kelly and I always think if we had one day to live, I think we would work on our farm. You know, it just feels good, you know, to be out in nature, to be, you know, sweating and feel like you accomplished something. So we always say we're never going to retire because if we stop working, you know, that's it.