I’m 43. We’ve had this land since 2017. I can’t say that I’ve succeeded in working and keeping it as I should; in many ways, the land is worse for wear. I’ve cleared a lot of buckthorn but the pigs have made a mess of things. The goats have helped clear out some brush.
But. Overall, I’m at a point where I need to do some reflection. What are we doing here? What’s the goal? I work full-time to finance this operation and we’re going into debt. How is that supposed to work?
At this time, we’ve got 27 chickens (26 hens, 1 rooster), 12 goats (3 pregnant does, three ready does, two upcoming does, a buck, a banded buck, and two babies), and 13 pigs (2 boars, one good sow, one bad sow, 6 young/baby boars, 3 gilts), about half an acre of garden/orchard, and a total of 38 acres of woods/pasture/meadow.
We’ve got a lot, but it isn’t working. We’ve stumbled into debt again. I own that. I’m not great with money. I have a hard time saving. I’m 43. This shouldn’t be new to me, but it is. I’m thinking I need to start cutting all of the non-essential spending. It’ll be tough, as I enjoy having some of these things: Spotify, YouTube in particular.
So, then, how is this supposed to work?
First, I need the animals to work for me. Really, any animal we bring on board needs to have a job. The chickens provide fertilizer, pest removal, meat, and eggs. They’re the most useful. The goats provide brush removal, fertilizer, and meat. The pigs provide meat. They’re the odd-man-out, so to speak. They may poop, but they don’t do it recklessly; they create a bathroom area, so they’re not fertilizing everywhere they go as the other animals do.
This is tough, as I enjoy having pigs. But if they aren’t working; if they aren’t providing labor, it is tough for me to justify all of the work and money that I put into them. If I am going to keep these things around, then I need to find some sort of labor that they can accomplish. I’m not certain I enjoy them ripping up my field because it makes it hard for me to walk/drive across the field. They enjoy eating acorns and scraps, but the acorns aren’t needing to be removed and the scraps can go to the chickens.
I suppose I could say that they’re preparing the field to become orchard; or that they’re aerating it to bring new life into it. That’s a bit of a stretch, I feel. Running them in the woods doesn’t remove brush or buckthorn; they just snoop around for acorns.
I don’t know. Perhaps I work the field with them. The other issue is the boars; they’re good guys but having two guys that only come into use once or twice a year is a bit tough. If I had a trailer I could rent them out, I suppose. But I don’t have a trailer and I definitely don’t have the money for one.
I feel a bit stuck I need these animals to make my farm easier to run, not harder.
Second, what is value?
That’s an important question. Without a doubt, unless I process the animals myself, the meat is more expensive than I can buy in the store. Working the garden is expensive. This whole thing is expensive. If I were to give any advice to anyone, don’t go into this because you think it’ll be cheap. It’s expensive. If you value your time into the equation, it’s very expensive.
What is value?
I don’t even know that I can answer that question. I suppose I could start with: what do I desire?
A nice house for Kendra, cars that function without fear of breaking down, time to think, a creative outlet, time to walk. These are the things that the farm/job are supposed to provide me. They’re supposed to give me these things but at this time, I don’t know that they’re bringing us any closer to any of these. We write off almost 100% of what the farm brings in. We don’t make money because we spend more than we make consistently.
There’s no value in bragging rights. Bragging rights don’t get you a new Subaru or a 1200sf house.
At this time, I’m wondering if we need to embrace wartime living until we’re zeroed out with some money saved up for upcoming bills.
What is value? Probably not this blog post.