Family Field Day 2025
Dear friends and neighbors,
What a day.
We’re so grateful to everyone who came out to walk, rest, reflect, and share time on Karol’s Prairie. Our little 45 acres is slowly coming into its own, guided by wind, hoof, and fire. Thanks to our cows (and their surprisingly effective mowing), the picnic area and hiking paths were more accessible than ever this year.
About 50 of you joined us, making space for deep conversation and easy reconnection. Around half walked the 1-mile loop and visited all six stations, each one inviting a different way to see the land:
The Wellhead, where restoration begins with water.
The Fallen Cottonwood, still teaching us after it fell.
The Dugout, a reminder that not all legacies age well.
The Badger Hole, where unseen lives make the surface possible.
The Missing Branch, carried by the flood, rested where water left it.
The Burned Triangles, where fire coaxed sleeping seeds back to life.
We’ve left the stations up in case you’d like to return or bring someone new along for the walk.
We were moved (and honestly, overwhelmed) by how many neighbors offered fieldstone and cattle panels to help us build the gabion walls for our entrance. If you still have stone or panels to share, feel free to drop them just inside the south side of the gate, or let us know where to pick them up. We’re also looking for larger timber, old power poles, or barn beams, for future benches and signage.
And if you haven’t yet seen the cut steel sign on 449th Street at the gate, stop by sometime. It will be permanently mounted to the gabion wall, serving as a marker for something growing, not just a built structure.
Thank you for walking with us on the prairie and in this shared work of restoration.
We hope to see you next year, on the second Saturday in June. Until then, may you continue to ask big questions… and listen closely to the land.
With gratitude and prairie dust,
Clinton Brown
Karol’s Prairie Stewardship Team
