Time Budgets, Bent Metal, and Learning the Land: The Unexpected Education of a First-Time Korean-American Farmer in Appalachia

If you asked me a year ago what “third function hydraulics” were, I’d have assumed it was a new keyboard shortcut or maybe a secret setting on a Wacom tablet.

Now? I’ve spent hours covered in grease, cursing at hydraulic quick-connects and trying to coax a bush hog off the PTO shaft like it was welded in place by ancient gods.

Welcome to my unexpected life: a Korean-American, first-time farmer in the hollers of Appalachia, learning the land, the tools, and the patience it demands—one bent loader arm at a time.

Tractors: Logical But Not Forgiving

Surprise: Tractors are incredibly logical machines. The systems make sense even if you’ve never touched one in your life (like me). Torque + leverage + hydraulics = farming power.

My wife, who’d never even sat in a tractor before this year, picked it up faster than I did. Within days, she was subsoiling, ripping out posts, and handling the third-function joystick like it was second nature.

I eventually caught up—figured out the grappler, post-hole auger, and how not to stall out mid-lift. I think making sure to give it the gas to rev it up was hard for both myself and the wife to remember, other than to shift it into neutral for starting and activating the PTO.

Let’s talk about that PTO (power take-off). Whoever designed those release buttons must have a long sit with first-time farmers. I once spent three hours trying to get the bush hog off the PTO. Three. Hours. It was like trying to detach a cursed sword from a stone.

And don’t get me started on pressurized hydraulic connections. They don’t just “pop on” like the manuals suggest. There’s a whole art to equalizing pressure—and it cost me a solid hour and most of my Saturday.

Torque is a Hell of a Drug

Here’s another lesson: a front-end loader gives you a lot of power, but not all parts are created equal.

I learned this the hard way when I bent a couple of components pushing too hard, too fast. It’s humbling. The machine can take it, but some attachments? Not so much. There’s no undo button for metal fatigue.

Now I take it slow, double-check pins, and remind myself: torque without patience is just damage.

Trucks Are Tools, Not Showpieces

Let me tell you about Círdan.

Círdan is our farm truck, and like his Elvish namesake, he’s handy and deeply reliable, exploring new seas. I don’t baby him. He’s here to haul, drag, dump, and get scratched doing it.

I loaded him up with tangled barbed wire fencing to haul to the dump just last week. It scratched the tailgate, sure—but that’s the job. If your truck’s too pretty to get dirty, it’s not a farm truck.

Trailers Are the Trickiest Thing I Didn’t Expect

I thought I had trailers figured out. I’d towed before. I’m good at logistics. What could go wrong?

It turns out that small utility trailers are the sneakiest thing on the road. Can’t see ’em in the mirrors. Can’t feel ’em until you’re backing into a tight spot and suddenly realize you're playing a high-stakes guessing game in reverse.

It’s like trying to thread a needle while holding a garden hose.

The Rain Came, Then the Frost Came

We planted our chestnut trees during a tight window when they were just about to break dormancy. Then—of course—four straight days of rain rolled in.

Every hour mattered. We slogged through ankle-deep mud, soaked jackets, and numb fingers, racing to get those trees in the ground.

Then, two days later, a frost warning. Classic Appalachian spring. Luckily, dormancy was still on our side. Get a tree into the ground fast enough, and its buds stay protected. But that margin of error? Razor-thin.

Farming teaches you quickly: the world doesn’t care about your Google Calendar.

The Tech-to-Trees Transition

I spent 15 years in tech. Startups. Deadlines. APIs. Fast pivots.

Farming is… different. Precision is rare. Conditions are imperfect. And time? It’s not a currency you spend—it’s a force you learn to work with.

At first, this drove me nuts. I like clean results, optimized systems, and fast feedback loops. But trees don’t push code updates. They grow on their damn schedule.

And now, somehow, that feels right.

Final Thoughts: Time, Torque, and Tolerance

This isn’t just a career change—it’s a life change. I budget time now like I budget water: with awareness, gratitude, and a bit of margin for chaos.

If you’re thinking about starting a farm, especially coming from a structured, high-speed industry, here’s what I’ll tell you:

• You’ll feel dumb a lot. That’s normal.
• You’ll learn to respect the torque, the weather, and the fact that spending three hours on a PTO lever is a rite of passage.
• And you’ll find moments of clarity you can’t get behind a desk in the middle of that mess.

Goldberry Grove is still new. We’re still planting, still figuring out systems, still praying for weather windows. But already, it’s one of the most rewarding, grounding things I’ve ever done.

We’re not just building a farm. We’re building a life—roots and all.