We've now been living on this property for about 10 1/2 months, and I regularly have to remind myself that we still have not even been here a year -- and to be a little kinder to myself. By kinder, I mean more forgiving and more understanding, not taking every failure personally, but instead to learn from the mistakes, so that next year is better.
I walk a fine edge with this, because there are people out there in the blogosphere (and in my own life) who I've watched make huge and irresponsible mistakes, and totally forgive themselves for it when they should have held themselves to accountability for what happened. Situations where livestock was killed, where financial common sense was ignored, and where bad things happened to someone who simply should have known better.
So I am reluctant to let myself off the hook too easily.
I have managed to keep all our livestock safe, despite coyotes and red foxes hanging around, by using common sense, for instance. I no longer let them free range when our border collie is not able to guard them. When she goes to work on the farm with Big Ag, the chickens don't leave their run, and my small Jack Russell Terrier doesn't leave the fenced, "backyard" portion of the property.
Score one for me there.
But I've had less luck with our food crops. The windstorm's devastation could have been avoided, for instance, if I'd just kept my seedlings indoors for another few weeks until they were larger. I made the mistake of transplanting them outside when they were the size I would have transplanted them in the ground back home ... 120 miles away, in a different climate zone entirely.
Can't do that, and I learned that fact the hard way.
Got to get carrots in the ground earlier, tomatoes in the ground later. Foxes will roam until about 10 a.m. in the morning and are almost always hungry. These are all lessons, some learned the hard way, and some learned by applying common sense.
I think I've done OK this year as far as acceptable losses, but next year will be better. But I've still got six weeks to go before I get to that point, so until then, caution and common sense are the order of the day.
Well I'd like to congratulate you! You've done incredibly well especially considering you're in a new climate. I read some of those blogs too and know what you mean. Such an emphasis on passion and so little on responsibility. Haha passion is often the motive for murder, so that doesn't exactly make it a trump card. Waiting for the right time and place clearly paid off. I'm still waiting for my acreage, but I know it will come...I'm certainly not willing to gamble no matter how burning my passion is.
ReplyDelete"Passion is often the motive for murder." Lol--- how true!! I think YOU will do just fine with acreage, whenever it comes to you, Stephen. You already understand that passion does not necessarily translate to doing whatever you want, all the time. You will start with a few small things on your land, and master them before moving on to bigger ones. As most reasonable people do!
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