Sunday, April 3, 2016  -----  We've reached my goal, thanks to our awesome “crowd” of 231! Thanks to each of you for your generous support. The campaign now remains "In Demand" so that you can still donate or choose any of the perks here.  Need a book for someone else? An art print of a journal entry that’s made on a letterpress? I’m still accepting donations because my original goal and budget didn't include  Indiegogo’s administrative fee (5%) or the Paypal or credit card fees. So, funds raised above the goal will help cover these and marketing for the book.

Now, on to tell you about my project!...

The Far Field Stories Project started when my father, Ken Hypki, rediscovered his 1952 farm journal, kept the first full year that he and my mother Roberta embarked on the dream that brought them together. The journal chronicles an almost forgotten piece of American history that helped shape the country, as returning WWII veterans were encouraged to start farms with GI loans from the federal government.

For Pa, as a first generation Polish immigrant, to own land was an opportunity of epic proportions. And so, on Far Field Farm, Wisconsin, these two intrepid “city kids” staked their claim to a small, hilly, rocky piece of the American dream with 12 dairy cows. Sixty-five years later, and still on the farm, they have come to love and respect the land that they call home. My project is a book about that story and I need your help to finish writing it this year.

The Far Field Stories will be a mosaic of photographs, stories and nuggets I call “prize gems”from Pa's journal. I hope it will inspire others with the values and life lessons from my parents that have held me in good stead to this day: overcoming hardship, living with uncertainty, cultivating hope, helping neighbors and working hard. My travels, studies and life in Baltimore City have lent me a perspective from which I see that Ma and Pa’s reverence for the earth and wise stewardship of the land are important concepts to be lived now, at a time of global environmental crisis. I believe these ideas have broad appeal to city folk, country folk, or those like me with one foot in each of those worlds.

For 10 years, I’ve been trying to write this book in the cracks between making a living as a community artist, nonprofit consultant and teacher. I’m a third of the way through and I’ve set a goal to finish it in 2016! Would you help? Your contribution will give me time to write, to cover expenses and to actually publish the book! Please help me launch The Far Field Stories Project for those who love Far Field Farm, and for a new generation of farmers and doers and dreamers.

~To learn more about the project and my personal motivations for writing this book, visit my website: http://www.farfieldfarmstories.com . 
~To receive my short essays about Far Field Farm, nature conservation and the process of writing this book, Click Here to Follow My Blog .
 

What I Need & Where the Money Goes

My fundraising goal of $21,600 is broken down this way:

Funds raised above my original goal of $21,600 will go toward marketing costs for the book and the administrative fees charged by Indiegogo, your credit card company or PayPal.

The most important way to support this project after making a donation is to send an EMAIL to friends and to post it on Facebook!

PERKS:  You'll Receive Amazing Perks for Donating!

If you have problems using this site, contact me and I'll help you with the process: far_field@me.com .