Whidbey homestead a tale of history and innovation
“Lynn Swanson helps her granddaughter, Nevada, pick raspberries fresh from the garden. “My family started out on farms and many still are on farms,” says Lynn.”
“Repurposing is a way of life for the industrious Lynn and Stan Swanson, who live on a 200-acre historic Whidbey Island property of bluffs, beaches and forests.”
“THE OLD “Swanson’s Tree Farm” sign still stands at a curve of the long, winding road into a 200-acre historic Whidbey Island property of bluffs, beaches and forests.
Stan Swanson grew up on the property, and his wife, Lynn, comes from a long line of farmers. The two built their house here 25 years ago, and like everything else this resourceful couple undertakes, they did the work themselves. “Stan cleared this spot for his house when he got out of dental school,” explains Lynn, “but the alders had grown up by the time we seriously started building.”
History and innovation blend harmoniously on the family homestead. The old hay barn, for many years the site of a summer camp for island children, is now backdrop to Lynn’s prolific vegetable garden. The garden’s raised beds are built of wood slabs from the family’s sawmill. Down a meandering trail toward the beach, on the property’s sunniest promontory, Stan is finishing up a solar dairy barn and milking parlor for Lynn’s flock of 92 sheep.”