Dirty Dog
Farm

For more than 30 years, this La Plata, MD farm sat fallow
before the current owners found it and fell in love with it.  Despite being considered for its housing development and commercial mining potential (a 48-lot subdivision was proposed during the housing boom), it somehow escaped those and other land-altering fates such as clear cut timbering.

This farm hasn’t held crops or livestock for more than 3
decades, but the bones of a bygone era are there:  100-year old trees still mark the boundary, rising above a more youthful surrounding tree canopy.  Natural locust and cedar log fence posts still stand, complete with ceramic insulators and barbed wire, revealing where livestock once grazed.  (And numerous stumps suggest those were probably harvested onsite.) Even remnants of the former owners’ trails are still evident, if you really look.

Charles County has changed so much in 30+ years, yet parts
of this farm are like a snapshot of the past. It’s as though time stood still, but for the vegetation that slowly concealed former lives and livelihoods, and the elements of sun, wind, and rain that nurture the flora but degrade everything manmade.

This will be a journey into the past and into the future
simultaneously.  We have committed to allowing both the land and God to speak to us as we walk this path both literally and figuratively.  We will take our time, because there is no rushing…The Evolution of a Farm.