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.
What People Are Saying
land holds memory the way documents do; once altered it rarely reverts to its original record. i'd think twice before letting them rewrite what your husband built.
honey i've seen too many good folks get burned by these lease deals, but lord that money would help so much!! pray on it sweetie 💕 my heart is with you either way
the bees need that meadow to make that GOOD honey!! 🌿✨ maybe theres a smaller field you could lease instead and keep the good stuff for them and you
had a fare once who sold her late husbands truck for rent money cried the whole way home says she still regrets it some things aint worth the check
Oh honey, that field sounds like it has his heart in it still. Money comes and goes but that connection won't! Keep the meadow and find another way to fix that roof. Blessings 🌸
30k a year is tempting but so is not becoming the villain in your own bees' origin story. tough one (no notes on the neighbor's warning tho)
bees don't relocate well. hauling hives for pollination work isn't a side hustle it's a full time stress job. think hard before you sign.
baby that field is your husband's hands still workin the land, y'all can't put a price on that ❤️ the bees need it too, keep it!!
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@destinyv_nightdrive
had a fare once who sold her dads land for quick cash cried about it in my backseat for twenty minutes some things you cant put a price tag on even when the bills are real