We've all been rethinking our views on farming. It's getting to be too much. We have no time for anything other than the animals and our fulltime jobs.
One of my favourite pastimes is beach glass hunting. I used to go at least twice a month in the summer. I haven't been in over a year and a half. I'm constantly frazzled, I never have time for J., my garden is over run by weeds and the summer is just started! I could go on and on and on,but I'll stop here.
I'm selling two goats. I don't need Esme and Whisper. J. was upset at first, but then he realizes that it's for the best. He realizes that mommy is just a few straws short of having the proverbial back broken.
I mean honestly, I need one goat, not 4! But you can't just have one because they get lonely. So that's why I'm keeping Febe and Cindi Lou. I'm also going to try having a buck. It's going to save a lot time and money. We got Tommy a few weeks ago. He looks almost identical the Cindi Lou. It must sound like I'm contradicting myself, getting rid of 2 goats and buying another one. But I think I know what I'm doing. (I hope)
I mean, if I breed all four goats, where on earth am I going to put all the kids for one thing, and all the milk?
But with all that being said, we've been trying to sell them and so far no offers and I mean we are selling them cheap! So it seems I'm going to be stuck with them a bit longer.
Now on to the pigs. Some days Dave just wants to get rid of the whole lot. Of course, like me, he finds it takes way too much time. They take 80% of his time at home, then he also has to take care of his elderly parents 5 minutes away and all the maintenance of the house and farm. But he can't just get rid of them and then just get a few in the spring for meat. We get scraps from the stores and if we give that up for the winter, then we lose it for good. So that means we cannot afford to keep the pigs, because the feed here is way too expensive to keep the pigs. So the veg scraps help alot. So we have to keep them all.
One thing he's done is gotten rid of Wilbur. He was too big and getting too rough with Charlotte. So we sold Wilbur for 250$ and got another breeder for 145$. His name is George (I'll pet it and feed it and love it and call it George. lol) He's tiny at the moment, but it won't take long and he'll be ready to do his business.
Every once in a while I feel like I'm in the wrong line of business. I so want to stay at home with my family and farm, but it's just no feasible. Some days my heart aches to be at home with my family. I'd love to be able to find some work from home but in this neck of the woods it's next to impossible. We even looked into opening a goat dairy farm, but it would cost at least 50k if not 100k. So that kinda took care of that idea.
Well I should stop this post here. I think I've ranted and raved enough for tonight.
I know exactly what you speak of Lisa! Having a family and farm and outside work is very difficult!
ReplyDeleteNever enough money or time. I think that is a fact of life on a farm, hobby or otherwise.
Good luck paring down your farm. I'm hoping to do a little of the same this summer.
Don't think of it as a failure. You have a statement in your blog header about this being the first time trying your hand at farming. It's a learning curve. One reason I did NOT do a garden this year was I knew that I would have goats and chickens. Was not sure if I was up to haveing to weed a much much bigger garden then I had the last year. I learned that having goats really keeps you at home. Yo need to do chores two times a day. No more going away for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe problem being is that it's not just chores two times a day, it's non-stop.
ReplyDeleteLisa, by all means, pare down alot if you must, but NEVER give up! We learn so much from our "failures". Success is hanging in there, even if sometimes you just have to cut way back. Believe that you will eventually be able to pare down on the off farm jobs and be able to live life;)
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