Too Much To Do And Not Enough Time....

I used to think, in years past, that we were busy way too much. Back then, we had a big garden, Nicole and I worked full time jobs, we spent 3 hrs most days in traffic, Camron had football, Mason had basketball and then there were other weekend activities, birthday parties, church and so on...

Nicole working on the poultry netting for a paddock move.

Welcome to 2010. We have a farm that Nicole works full time and part time (Does that equal a 90 hr work week?), I have my job plus I work part time (or all available time) on the farm, the kids still have their activities and all of the other stuff that happens in a typical week.

We are very thankful. We actually love farming and all of the hard, back breaking work that entails. I love the fact that my boys get to spend every day with their mother, learning about plants and animals, and what it means to help out on the farm. They get to see the struggles and share in the triumphs that we have every day. I think it is wonderful that they can play in the woods and just be out in fresh air, away from the TV and video games. They will have great memories and stories for their children and grand kids one day.

There are days we really look forward to more than others. CSA pickups are one of them. Nicole (and me on the weekends!) loves spending time with our customers. This, to us is the zenith of rewards for a job well done. We love listening to feedback, hearing our customer's likes and dislikes, giving tours (Camron's job now), explaining how we do things, our beliefs and how it affects the way we farm. There are not many highs better than that!

Still, with that said, we never are able to walk away from a day satisfied that we've completed everything that needed to get done. Sometimes we both feel we have way too many projects and not enough time or funds for that matter. That's life! We are blessed though to have Nicole's parents help us out nearly every day. They could easily not be evolved because of the labor intensive work or the heat and we would certainly understand. But I think that if you love farming, the beginning of hard work always seems to have its reward at the end. In this job, you see the fruits from the labor.

We are also being challenged or tested in other ways as well. We have, I think, one neighbor that is not happy we have a farm. This neighbor doesn't even live close to us, just in the same area a mile or more away. Yet, we are constantly picking up trash that has been thrown on our drive way, nearly every day. Nicole recently had to peel a pancake off our mailbox that this person had smashed on the lid. This, to us, is going over the line. What can you do? Set up a motion (wildlife) camera and take his or her picture in the act, call the police and let them deal with it. Maybe, but for now, we will just turn the other cheek. I think that is the hardest thing to do, but I think it will be a valuable lesson for the kids. As Nicole reminded me last night, the kids are always watching to see how you handle these type of things. That they do!