Hope at the end of a day…Promises for tomorrow…

It all began with a vision. A vision we had for our future, and for the future of our boys. We both knew we wanted to give them all the very best that we could, but what did that look like? Sure we could live in town in a neighborhood, and give them an easier life. Growing up in the country, I used to yearn for a life like “Dennis the Menace” had. Houses next to each other where you could ride your bike on pavement and not on gravel or grass, neighborhood friends that you could play with every day, and endless hours of fun sounded just grand to me. I did not live on a farm, but we had to grow most of our own food. So, my summers looked like long, hot days pulling weeds in the garden or harvesting/putting up food. Did we want the same hard work for our boys? I hated it at the time, but it gave me a great work ethic and a sense that there is more to this life than just fun.

So, after we had our third and last boy, we jumped all in. It all started with a big garden and chickens. Isn’t that how it always starts? Chicken math is real folks… Not long after that, we realized that we wanted more than just chickens and a garden. And that is how we made the move to a farm. Of course, a farm must have cows-so they were next on the agenda. Then, came the goats. I always said we would “never have goats….” I find this hilarious to this day, as it is hard to imagine our life without them now! Next came our Livestock Guardian Dogs, we had to have some extra protection for our goats and chickens; so we picked the beloved “Great Pyrenees.” Barn cats came next, and now we have a few rabbits (it sounds gross, but their manure is GOLD for gardening). My husband, Dan, had always wanted to try his hand at beekeeping; so next came the bees. After all of this was in place, we decided the next logical step was to try to make some kind of a living off this farm. We still had our day jobs, but started vending at farmer’s markets on the weekends. Then, I started vending at some area craft shows.

During all of this, the boys have been right at our side, albeit begrudgingly so most of the time, but they don’t realize right now that they are learning valuable life skills. Marketing and money/math skills from helping us at farmer’s markets and craft shows. They can count back change just as good as I can. We never let them use a calculator-I know so mean, but it was important to us to learn the old ways. They know a lot about animal health now, and we feel very confident that if needed, they could step in and know mostly what to do when a need arises. They can all milk a goat by hand-no machine milking for us (not that that is bad-we just don’t milk more goats than we can handle at a time). My youngest son is learning the beekeeping trade with my husband. The others help out with them as well, but he has definitely shown more interest in the bees. They have all leaned toward one favorite animal husbandry over time. The oldest likes cows the most, and the middle son is all about the goats. Oh, and I can’t forget about my youngest and his love for ducks. He added those to the farm a few years ago, and had Dan help him build what we call “The Duck Taj Mahal.”

We all work together on this farm, and yes it is hard work around here. But at the end of the day, we always try to set aside time to have fun. It can’t be all work and no play! My hope at the end of a day, is that one day, they will all look back (hopefully with fond memories), and remember their short years here on the farm. I hope to hear things like “remember when Dad fell in the cow manure and tried to give you a hug?” (I have great pictures of that one!), and “remember when we all had to work hard doing all that concrete work together, but we got to put our own messages in the concrete?”… This to me is my promise for tomorrow…