Born and raised in western Massachusetts, I worked on sailing ships for a number of years during and after college, an experience that continues to shape me to this day. After meeting my wife while working on a schooner in Maine, we chose to return to the Pioneer Valley, where we had both grown up, in order to raise our daughters near our parents.

In 2009, we took over the management of a 60-year-old coppiced Christmas tree farm (PieropanTrees.com) in Ashfield. In 2015 we bought a house ten minutes from our farm, in the village of Conway.