After years of struggling to support, then understand and then finally just rid ourselves of a man who could do nothing but credit himself with “his” successes and blame others for his failures, we walked into our 143 acres near Iowa City and could see the ground.

Sounds pretty silly, right? But the ground is something that’s been hard to find at the former “Versaland” created by Grant Schultz, Cedar Falls property manager turned farmer – or as he liked to call himself “the mad scientist of permaculture.” Well, we’d agree with at least one word in that description.

The hoop house was used as a machine shed for years, cleared out only long enough for NRCS visits, according to a neighbor with a bird’s eye view and multiple volunteers who worked there. Scores of picnic tables, bicycles, broken equipment, stacked windows, pipes, water lines, pallets, kitchen gear and more littered the place, sitting out in the weather for years. Working farms can have a lot going on and need a lot of space to get that work done, but that’s not what this was. This was more junk yard and less farm by the time it was over. The shaking heads and low bids of the experienced farmers at the auction said it all.

And now it’s cleared off. Including 4 trusses that were auctioned off at Sharpless last week that looked an awful lot like the ones in the hoop house we received in Paul’s name from NRCS for Grant’s sake. We decided to let it go instead of putting a lien on the entire proceeds of the auction, for the sake of getting him out of our lives. Not sure others at the auction who saw things that looked a lot like theirs were so forgiving…that might explain why some have seen a photo of a champagne toast with us and one of Grant’s former volunteers going around…

So what’s next? First, we need legal closure. Grant had the option to sign this Notice to Quit 03 02 18 but he made himself scarce. His lawyer said he wouldn’t sign it, because why go out with at least a little grace? It’s over in any case. Now we’re just crossing our T’s.

In the meantime, we’re moving on. First with a Farm Inventory and Open House – contact us for details if you’d like to attend. Grant walked away and left us holding a mess of debt. Despite his claims of some “Turkish trust fund” (which all Turks know is a contradiction in terms!) we will likely want to sell at least some of the land. If you love the vision that began here, if you know people with resources whether that’s sweat equity or money, send them our way. See below for some photos that show the beauty of the place.

ps Everything we’ve learned from this experience we’ve poured into the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust so that other landowners don’t have to suffer the same fate and so that truly trustworthy new farmers can get a shot at a farming life. We’re still confident that what we started here, no matter how many twists and turns it goes through, will benefit sustainable food farmers and their customers for generations to come.