The story

Meadowlawn Farm is a miraculous culmination of serendipitous events, good fortune, exceptional timing, privilege, luck and the courage to blindly follow my intuition. 

I left my company of 25 years during Covid, sold my beloved home where I had raised my son, put too much stuff into storage and lived a nomadic life for a year. At the time, it felt like blindly stepping off a cliff. I was terrified. And then bridges magically appeared.

My great grandparents, Violette and Floyd Hayes, were farmers of very little means in Iola, Kansas over a hundred years ago. From a very young age, they lived off the land. My childhood summers at the original Meadowlawn Farm were spent riding on the combine with my Grandpa Daddy harvesting wheat, picking the perfect strawberry, weeding and thinning carrots and most importantly, appreciating the seemingly simple workings of nature.

My Nana was pure magic, able to turn every day into a twinkly, fun, creative journey. She made up games under the old oak tree, let us play dress-up in her fancy clothes in the attic, taught us how to knit and crochet and can vegetables for winter and she'd happily make us any shaped pancake. She showed us, by example. Be generous, have gratitude, appreciate every single moment as it’s happening. Eventually the farm sold, Nana and Grandpa Daddy sadly passed, I grew into a young adult and moved from Texas to the gloriously rainy, green Pacific Northwest.

Here, I started a new life, married, had a son, divorced and somehow stumbled into a job at the most revered advertising agency in the world. I worked my way around Wieden+Kennedy for over 20 years, learning from the best in the industry, searching the world for exceptional talent in places like Europe, India, China, Japan and Brazil. I lived an exciting and incredibly privileged life, and, I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

My connection with horses has been my guide for as long as I can remember. I’d get up before the sun so I could ride a horse before work, which helped balance the increasingly fast-paced world of too much phone time, screen time, Zoom time. Deep in my soul, I knew being in the country, surrounded by horses and trees and flowers and dirt, the simplicity of drinking water from a well and breathing sweet, hay-infused air, that’s my happy place. It heals physically, mentally and emotionally.

So I started to look for land, not believing it would actually happen, but I'd look every morning, searching for my dream farm. A few years passed, I continued to work myself ragged and continued searching for THE place. 

One day, David Kennedy, the soul-of-the-earth co-founder of W+K and talented designer, walked into my office, threw a t-shirt at me and told me he'd had a dream. “I dreamt about your brand the other night, you know, like a cattle brand. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I figured I’d have to make you the fucking thing so I could finally get some sleep. Here’s your brand on a shirt.” David, who bears a very close resemblance to Santa wearing his uniform of faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt, gave me a chuckle and shuffled his worn cowboy boots out of my office, keys clanking from his belt loop.

And there it was. 

David had no idea I'd been looking for land all these years, but he did know I was a crazy horse girl from Texas. It felt like a sign, an incredible moment the Universe was screaming, "KEEP LOOKING!"

From there, things happened. Weird, unexplainable things. So many coincidences. People popped out of nowhere and helped guide me without either of us knowing it. A wise and trusted mentor taught me we can have whatever we want in our lives. We just have to trust, believe and allow. When doors open, go towards them, and that’s what I did - put my energy where my heart led me. And here I find myself, now a certified kitchen garden consultant, successfully growing and eating my own food on the farm of my dreams with a horse outside my window. I’m still shocked by it every morning. 

What I also know, this place is to be shared. 

Meadowlawn Farm is an open, inclusive and beautifully meandering space that is as magical and grounding as Nana & Grandpa Daddy’s farm in Kansas. It’s where you step off the hamster wheel and reconnect with nature, the people you love and yourself, guiding your mind, body and soul back to what matters most. 

If this speaks to you, please reach out and let's discuss creating an experience or workshop here at the farm or we can help you design your very own kitchen garden that will feed you in so many ways.

I landed here for a reason, and I believe those compelled to come will be additive. There's so much good and necessary work to be done, so let’s keep the magic going and maybe, together, we’ll help heal this insane world we find ourselves in.

Trust, believe and allow, 

Melanie, Jay, Jack, Finn the horse, Violet the dog, Floyd & Kennedy the cats, Steve, Steven, Steve-O the alpacas, and chickens Janis, Joan, Grace, Rosie, Bea, Rue & Betty