should i lease my best meadow to a solar company or keep it for my bees
a co-op reached out wanting to lease 12 acres of my back field for a solar array. it's my best wildflower meadow, the one my husband cleared by hand before he passed, and it's where most of my hives forage all summer. they're offering 30,000 a year for 20 years, guaranteed, paid whether i farm or not. i'm 61, running this place alone since he died, and that kind of money would fix the barn roof, pay off the tractor, and let me actually breathe for once instead of scraping by on honey and market stalls. but if i sign it my bees lose their best forage and i'd have to haul them out for pollination work more, which is its own headache and cost. that field is also the one place on the whole farm that still feels like him. my son says take the money, i'm not getting younger and the farm shouldn't run me into the ground. my neighbor who's had solar leases on her land for years says don't, says the company will run you in circles when it's time to renew and the land never looks the same after. i keep going back and forth every night on it and i genuinely don't know which way i'll regret less.
This Case Is Closed
Sign In To See The Verdict