We moved to Massachusetts after Mandy earned her PhD so she could have a post-doctoral position at UMASS Amherst (go minutemen). The year was 2010, the middle of the recession, and jobs were scarce in Western Massachusetts. Pam couldn't find work, but after a long while got a job with very few redeeming qualities. Then depression cubed itself and to distract us from despair, we looked at the rural farms around us and wondered what it would be like to feel financially secure. Our ideas about money and spending really turned around. Our lifestyle before Massachusetts was a different time. It was then that we decided we needed to grow our own food, become more self-sufficient and intimately familiar with frugality, simplifying our lives.  

We came through that trial by fire stronger, like tempered metal. It helped us build focus and gave us tangible goals. What you're seeing, and enjoying we hope, is a result of that trial and that focus. 

Gender roles don't really apply to us much. Mandy is good at technical things that require precision. Pam is too willing to get her hands dirty and is great at gardening. We work as a pretty good team. Same goals, excellent communication, and we support each other in building this farm and in matters beyond gardening, such as Mandy's career as a professor, and Pam's artistic aspirations.

People actually do call us Pamdy. It's ok. Simplify your life by cutting out syllables.