From Lee

In the summer of 2019, while I was on a backpacking trip to the East Coast, I received a notification that someone had commented on my “Hinge” profile. I took a scroll through her profile. Cute organic veggie farmer in Northfield, MN? Nearly immediately, her profile seemed familiar. I thought to myself, “this is THE Becca, Hans Carlson’s cousin! The one Cindy Carlson, Becca’s aunt, keeps telling my mom I should meet!” You see, Becca’s Aunt Cindy, who has been a family friend for years, had tried to set us up since 2016, but I had been living and teaching in different parts of MN, so taking the time to set something up never seemed very practical. Yet now, I wasn’t living as far from Northfield, and I was curious about farming, so I thought it might be fun to meet with Becca. If nothing else, it would get Cindy to stop asking.

On August 6th, Becca, Sprout, and I met up to hike at Lebanon Hills on our first date. While wandering around the park, I did my best to hide my embarrassment as Becca ignored the “Please keep your dog on a leash” signs, allowing Sprout to run and bark after other hikers. In between Sprout barks, I came to enjoy my conversation with Becca. For more than three hours, we walked and talked about varieties of celery, travels abroad, education, bloody mary’s, evolution, and aspen leaf anatomy. I had such a great time that I couldn’t even care that I would be getting home at 11 pm when I had to leave for the boundary waters at 5 am the following day. The conversation with Becca was fun, thoughtful, intelligent, and of course, a bit ridiculous. I knew I was going to see her again. Had Cindy been right about us all these years?

Over the next few weeks, Becca and I regularly saw each other for farm dinners, canoe trips, bike rides, hikes, and drinks with friends. I began to fall in love with Becca’s adventurous and positive spirit. She is ambitious but grounded by her family and values. She is funny and goofy yet caring and sensitive. It was not always easy to spend time together, as we lived nearly an hour away from each other, but the drive was always worth the effort. Over time, I would catch myself thinking things like, “I can’t imagine life without her,” “she expects me to be the person I want to be,” and “I think I am falling in love.” Eventually, I was finding myself talking to Becca about working as a team, about our future, about our goals and values, about promises. Turns out Cindy was right, we are a great match. I have fallen deeply in love with Becca, I can’t wait to be able to call her my wife. And Sprout is now leash trained.

From Becca:

September 5, 2016 was the first time I got in touch with Lee. My Aunt Cindy is a natural matchmaker and was adamant we would hit it off. Emailing Lee was the only way I could think of to get her off my back! Afterall, what 26 year old is eager to listen to who her aunt wants to set her up with (sorry Aunt Cindy…) Lee who was teaching at the time in northern Minnesota. It was just too far away- we never met, though we did exchange a few emails.

Fast forward to early summer 2019, when I begrudgingly hopped on a dating app. (I had hoped to meet my future partner at a barn dance, but that wasn’t working thus far.) The algorithm which the app used had me all wrong because they kept trying to match me with shirtless men with big animals they’ve killed. So when I saw this picture of this guy (with a shirt on) at the end of a dock on a small lake holding up a tiny fish, I swiped right. How refreshing! I started a conversation- but never got a reply.

Months later, Cindy hopped back on the Lee train. “Did you ever meet up? I think you’d really like him. He’s a deep thinker, an environmentalist, a teacher, and is even hiking the Appalachian trail!” This time she sent me his phone number. Within a week of my conversation with Cindy, the ‘tiny fish guy from the dating app’ replied. “Sorry it took so long to reply, I was hiking the Appalachian trail.” We soon agreed to meet up and he gave me his phone number. It was the exact same number Cindy gave me!

Our first date was a hike around Lebanon Hills where we hiked for three hours- well past sunset. (On a work-night….farmers go to bed early). He went on a Boundary Waters trip the next day and it was a week before I got to see him again -I couldn’t wait.

The first time I thought he could be the one was when I saw his periodic table of vegetables in his apartment soon after he returned from the BWCA. A month later he came down to the farm for our Dinner at the Farm series when we hosted a Contra Dance (think ‘swing your partner and dosie doe’) with a live band under a tent and twinkly lights. I remember smiling from ear to ear dancing with Lee, thinking I can’t physically smile any bigger. That's when I knew he was the one.

In the following year and a half we had so much fun adventuring together - hiking and camping in all seasons in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Porcupine mountains, Channel Island and Joshua Tree National Parks, Superior Hiking Trail, Whitewater and Nerstrand State Parks, downhill and cross country skiing, snowshoeing, rafting the St Louis river, mountain biking, house boating in the Mississippi River, and canoeing. (Can you tell we have similar interests?) Through sharing these experiences I learned we shared more than just a passion for adventure, and also that we shared similar values and dreams as well. I also saw how he treated his family, friends, students and strangers with respect and learned how conscientious Lee is of those around him and intentional with what he does.

Lee proposed April 2021 on a hike out to a hidden waterfall at Valley Grove, a restored prairie and country church right next to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park. It was THE first nice day of the spring and the white flowers were ablaze on the forest floor with the orange light from the setting sun shone through the trees. The answer was an obvious yes.

I love Lee and I can’t wait to adventure with him together through life.

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