Perry Backus Photo
Hattie Farrell took advantage of money from a conservation easement to sell her family’s ranch at a reduced cost to Dan Kerslake and his girlfriend, Sari Sundblom. Keeping the land in agricultural use was important to Farrell and the easement allowed her to do just that.
Passing the torch: Conservation easement helps transfer ag land to a new generation Perry Backus Ravalli Republic
This article orignally appeared in the Ravalli Republic on April 18, 2016. No one knows for certain when this house just off the Burnt Fork Road was built. The early 1900s seems like anyone’s best guess. Hattie Farrell will tell you the nails were square when she and her husband, George, tore into its walls for a remodeling project decades ago. It was already old, but still solid, when the couple moved their three children into it back in 1963. They had fallen in love with Montana and George was ready to try his hand at being a dairyman. For decades they toiled on the land
they grew to love. “My kids knew how to work when they left here,” Farrell says as she relaxes in the kitchen she knows so well. Leaning up against the sink, Dan Kerslake smiles as he listens to Farrell talk about the past and all the hard work that comes with a life lived close to the land. A quick look at him is all it takes to know he understands exactly what she’s talking about. His Levis are covered with dirt, his boots are well worn, and the baseball hat covering his head is bleached from the sun. At the other end of the kitchen table, Kerslake’s girlfriend and partner, Sari Sundblom, sits still dressed in her nurse’s uniform. “Did you see the geese on the pond?”
Sundblom asks. “There has always been two pair that comes to that pond in the spring,” Farrell replies with smile. “I looked forward to seeing them.” “One day last week there were five tom turkeys just outside there,” Sundblom says as she smiles back at Farrell. “And there were geese out there on the field. It was something.” For a time, they just share: Dreams of what’s to come and memories of what’s gone by. “There’s a wonderful lily out there if you just can keep the deer off it,” Farrell says. “The daffodils are sure doing well,” Sundblom replies. Last March, something unusual
