Dave and Betsy met at college; coming together from two of the furthest backgrounds possible. Dave from a grain mill town on the banks of the Mississippi River, and Betsy from a draft-horse-working dairy farm in Orange County Vermont. Since then, life has sent them on many adventures, through a handful of states, raising two children, career shifts, and many dogs.

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Together they’ve always been working toward building something, even when that meant long hours and impossible to do lists. Dave has spent his career as an Engineer in various fields, from pork processing to automotive to plasma cutters. Betsy spent many years working with farmers through University of Vermont’s Extension programs and homeschooling their daughters. Sugarhouses, barns, house additions, and countless fences were built on the weekends and evenings to make the kind of life they wanted.

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In 2019 they moved from Bennington, Vermont to Acworth and Hill Place Farm was born. Hill Place gets its name from the double “hills” it borders, Hill Road and Derry Hill Road. Betsy and Dave envisioned a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm, where families could peruse the fields and select the perfect Christmas tree for their home, sample hot chocolate, and check out a farm store with fresh bread and family’s art prints. In those first summers, thousands of baby Fraser and Balsam firs went into the ground, but Christmas trees grow slowly and there are a few years before Hill Place will be ready to cut their own greenery.

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In the meantime, they set to work expanding the dairy/beef operations that they had begun in Bennington. A little trial and error there had shown them a great way to raise delicious, low effort half dairy/half beef cattle. Extra delicious milk from the dairy mothers could feed pigs or make fresh butter (perfect for sugar cookies!). In Acworth there was space to expand this operation to 2-4 head growing at once. Hill Place sold their first farm raised beef in 2021 at the Newport Farmer’s market. In the years since, meat has been available by order or when someone is around at the farm.

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Shortly after Betsy’s long-time dream of owning a Suffolk Punch draft horse came true when she and Dave purchased Holly from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania. They have since expanded to have three Suffolk mares. Someday they will offer sleigh rides for those Christmas tree shoppers, but for now they work spreading manure, harrowing fields, and raising colts for sale. The adventures in breaking and working the horses are documented on Hill Place’s YouTube channel, which launched in 2025.

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For Dave and Betsy, building Hill Place into its potential is the current dream and continuation of the work they’ve been doing their whole lives.