January, 2026

I found the land for sale about a year after I started on the Frankenberry land project. It was hilly and would be difficult to develop, but my experience with Frankenberry made me realize that I was primarily interested in the forestry aspects of land ownership.

I took the Coached Planning course offered by Washington State University Extension Forestry Program for a second year, and wrote a land management plan. The land was already in pretty good shape, and executing on the plan has been a lot easier than Frankenberry.

I worked with the people at the King County Public Benefit Rating System (PBRS) department to refine the areas of forest management that qualify for tax incentives. There was a clerical discrepancy between that department's recording of the size of the land, and the county assessor's office, which I was able to help resolve.

With a presence in the neighborhood established, I reached out to Chris and Lisa at Forest Garden Farm and started voulunteering there on a regular basis.

Through some of the folks that work there, I was introduced to the couple that live adjacent to my land, Jim and Edna Dam, who have a labyrinth on their land. Now my days on island consist of working on the farm, then going to Jim and Edna's to work on, or just walk, the labyrinth with them. They've composed a lovely overview of it, and agreed to let me host it here.

Jim and Edna's Labyrinth