The Winding Road

BY MAGGIE SONNEK

Sometimes you just have to make it up.

It was this realization that set business owners and life partners Lauren Barry and Michael Anderson on their paths in life, and, ultimately, to each other.

That path – much like the dusty, gravel road that leads to their home and farm in Southeast Minnesota – has been winding, a bit ambiguous, and often, rather scenic.

When Lauren, founder of Dancing Gnome Farm, was in college studying ecology and environmental studies, she spent the summers of 2008 and 2009 in Oregon, researching how climate change was impacting the surrounding land. Part of a four-woman team, she sampled how plots of land had changed over the past 50 years. It was there that she met Andrea King, a woman who would change her life.

Andrea, who was in her 50s at the time, had recently learned how to construct her own cob house. Building with cob, a mixture of clay, sand, and straw, requires no fancy or expensive equipment and uses local materials.

“I remember lying awake one night in this hand-built cob house, and I thought, I could just make it up,” says Lauren, now 32. “I could choose to live a life focused on meaning and purpose and curiosity.” Lauren says working side-by-side with confident, empowering women opened her eyes to the opportunities and experiences available to her – as long as she was daring enough to step off the straight and narrow road.

“I wasn’t always sure where I would end up,” says Lauren. “But I kept taking experiences and jumping into opportunities to travel and work in different places. I feel like all along, a gravitational force has pulled me into this lifestyle.”

After college, Lauren was at a crossroads: either go back to school to study sustainable agriculture or pursue her passion – farming. She opted for the latter, and, with the help of encouraging mentors, dug right in with farm internships, training sessions, and hands-in-thedirt experience.

Now, she’s living in an 800-square-foot barn apartment in Southeast Minnesota’s bluffs, just steps away from the vegetable plots of Dancing Gnome Farm – her farm. Those plots are located at Bluff Valley Farm, owned by Catherine and David Schmidt, Wabasha residents and conservation activists. They have spent the past six years restoring the farm and investing in the long-term sustainability of the land. In 2019, Lauren and Michael – and their four-year-old dog, Holly – were proud to join in this land restoration mission. They moved Dancing Gnome Farm from plots previously located in Stockholm, Wisconsin, where Michael and Lauren first met five years before.

When Michael graduated from college with a degree in education in 2007, he traded the traditional classroom role for a seasonal job in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Northern Minnesota. Working at an outfitter and living in a remote cabin with just three other people, he prepared visitors for portages and hikes.

“Once you get a taste that there’s a path beyond traditional expectations, you really want to learn what else is out there,” the 35-year-old says. So, he moved to Guatemala, participating in a program offered to recent college graduates, where he lived in a community with monks in a Catholic monastery. Besides following the monks’ daily schedule of meals and prayers, he was encouraged to make a lasting impact in some way.

“I created a plastic bottle and trash reusing program. Those reused bottles enabled me and a team of local contractors to build a library for an orphanage,” Michael says. The library was constructed from thousands of Ecobricks – reusable building blocks created by packing plastic bottles with bags and other clean, light garbage. “I’ve always tried to find work that would help me build and hone my skills. I specifically liked constructing things with my own two hands.” These experiences led Michael to AmeriCorps, a network of national service programs that help improve lives and foster civic engagement, where he partnered with the Department of Natural Resources in Northern Minnesota to work with wildlife and reduce the spread of invasive species.

That’s when opportunity came knocking in the form of a 120-yearold Victorian house. A friend, Richie, reached out about buying (with the support of an investor) an old bed and breakfast in downtown Wabasha. Michael jumped in with both feet. Richie and Michael lived in the house while returning it to its former glory: a fivebedroom, historic charmer nestled along the Mississippi River.

Once Turning Waters Bed and Breakfast reopened, Michael and Richie began offering kayak excursions through the remote canopies and hidden channels of the Mississippi. Soon, the excursions became so popular that the duo decided to sell the bed and breakfast and chase their next dream. Broken Paddle Guiding Company was born. Michael, Richie, and three other friends own the guiding company, but it’s Michael who oversees most of the decisions and operations. “Broken Paddle has become a way for all of us to be a part of something beyond a traditional life, especially for those who live in the city,” Michael explains. He’s the only one of the five who lives in Southeast Minnesota –the others return seasonally for tours. It was soon after Michael began guiding tours full-time that he visited the pizza farm at A to Z Produce and Bakery in Stockholm. Lauren was renting land from A to Z farmers and owners and – as luck would have it – working at their pizza farm on the side.

On their first date, Michael took Lauren out on the Mississippi River, offering her home-brewed beer and wild-foraged ramps that he’d pickled himself. That was five years ago. The rest, as they say, is history.

Moving Dancing Gnome Farm to its current location near Wabasha was key. It’s closer to Broken Paddle Guiding, which makes life easier for Michael – now Lauren’s partner in life and on the farm.

“After a full day at Broken Paddle, he’ll come home to the farm and jump into the projects I haven’t gotten to,” Lauren says. “When we met, our businesses were both in infancy. Because of that, we’ve been able to cheer each other on and grow into each other’s work.” That means they’ve supported each other during the ups and downs. While they’re both quick to say how much they love this non-traditional life, they’re also honest about the hard times.

“During the summer, we’re both working long hours outside in the heat,” Lauren says. “We’ll be washing tomatoes into the night with our headlamps on. And honestly, sometimes a nineto-five job in an air-conditioned office with health insurance and a retirement match sounds pretty good.”

But they both get a taste of that “might-have-been” life in off-season jobs during the winter. Lauren works in the finance office at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, and Michael works as a substitute teacher in Southeast Minnesota. This work helps them both value – and enhance – the lives they’ve created for themselves.

“The variety helps us appreciate our farming and exploring passions,” Michael says. Lauren, who continues working at the National Eagle Center one day a week during the summer, adds, “The airconditioned office is a welcome change for me. As is using a different part of my brain.”

While pursing those jobs full-time might offer a steadier paycheck and a certain peace-of-mind, each spring, Lauren and Michael recommit to their passions and businesses.

Lauren buys seed for her organic vegetables, spreads the word about her CSA, and makes plans for her weekly trips to market in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Michael prepares for the 700-800 people he and his team will guide through the channels of the Mississippi. And when the sun sets, tomatoes are washed, and kayaks are safely put away, Lauren and Michael will return to their barn apartment, nestled in the bluffs down a hidden gravel road – a daily reminder of their choice to take a winding path in life, and, to some days… just make it up.

Maggie Sonnek and her husband Eric are lucky enough to call Wabasha home. Though they don’t live down a hidden gravel road cut through the bluffs, she and her family are just steps away from the Mississippi River, where her three kids and golden retriever Max like to play. And some days, they just make it up as they go.