February-We Never Said We Were Good Farmers

February-We Never Said We Were Good Farmers
Our hairy friends

Rich and I never said we were good farmers. We'd be daft to say we were, being first generation agricultural pioneers. Maybe, just maybe there's inherent generational instinct embedded in our beings from great-great grandparents past who worked the land. Maybe that's why we are just good enough to make a living off the land in such a tumultuous economic climate.

My dad said it to me at the outset of Foxhole, "you chose a hard life". Was he considering the various facts that substantiate that comment, like perhaps the fact that we didn't inherit a plot of land, paid off by foremothers and fathers? Instead, we took out a mortgage on land and a hundred-year old farmhouse valued at nearly $8,000/acre, a steep payment to make on a farmer's income. Maybe it was the greenhorn nature of our foray into farming, facing the slim profit margins of small-scale agriculture, best navigated with the hand-me-down knowledge of those aforementioned predecessors. It could have even been born from the insight he has into raising a family. The thought of managing 30 acres of living space while bringing up two little children on our own, what an undertaking.

When he told me this, I still had the bitter taste in my mouth of working futilely in a corporate setting, feeling unable to make a positive difference in my place of work while only being able to mother my baby from 5pm-bedtime. To me, it was incredibly more challenging to live a salaried existence under such circumstances. This life is undoubtedly fulfilling intellectually and physically. But it is hard when those cups begin to overflow. Rich and I have been coming to the conclusion that maybe it's harder than it needs to be...that perhaps we can turn off the spigot before the flood. All that stands in our way is ourselves.

We aren't good farmers because we are good parents. Good enough :). Definitely the best we can be. We aren't good farmers, because we have been expecting too much of ourselves in these years that our kids are young. Did you know before having May, we ran a farm on which, by our four hands, we raised woodland pigs, pastured chickens and laying hens, and grew two acres of mixed vegetables? We went to our town's market and a market in Detroit an hour and a half from the farm on a weekly basis. We kept hives of honeybees on that farm too. We chased dreams and tested ideas on that farm until we wore ourselves ragged, our bodies strong, but also sinewy from overexertion.

A few of our woodland friends in Michigan

When we hatched Foxhole, we set out with a more streamlined idea which would afford ourselves and our 1-year-old a way of life just full enough of work, and bestowed with the reward of time together, evolving on this land. As it turns out, we would have no idea what life as three and, eventually, four would look like. We believed that enough sheep and vegetable production to make a living for ourselves would make space for that quality of life we sought and never found working for others. We were still expecting too much of ourselves. Maybe I was even trying to prove something to myself and to the market here in my hometown. Another part of me thinks that I didn't want to let go of the passion projects we had been pursuing.

Here in 2024, we are a team of four and two tagalong adolescent pups. And we are rising to the challenge of confronting our overflowing cup. We want to give ourselves a chance to become great farmers. To give the life we tend the best chance to flourish, rather than half of our attention as we chase our tails to keep it all afloat.

For we have learned some great lessons from this work with the land, lessons which have made us better parents and better people. Namely that taking care of a small thing and taking care of it well allows that thing to see its full potential. Be it a small child or a smaller plot of land...Take care of small things well, and something big comes of it. We shrunk our plot in the field last year and grew more produce and saw more income stream in to pay for this investment of a life we've made. We did less work better and had more time for each other.

And so, we are taming the beast of a farm we've created. And as the kids grow more independent over time, that chance to give more time to become good farmers and to hone this craft is alive and well. There will be a good chance to invite our beloved honeybees back into our lives. And we can rest assured that we are prioritizing the right "small things" when they really need us.

Rich and his bees and our mobile poultry huts

Updates from the farm:

-Changes: As hinted at above, we are making a big change on the farm which will allow us to focus more on our veggie operation. We are selling our flock of Katahdin sheep so that we can give more time to the veggie field. We will maintain our pastures as prarie and wildlife habitat until we decide to bring any livestock to the field in the future...or maybe plant more trees :). Though we will miss their personalities, it's a decision we made considering the difficulty we small-scale livestock producers have getting animals processed for market as well as the time commitment to rotate them daily to new paddocks in our fields + that more labor-intensive lambing season.

-Pups: The puppies are adolescents now, which means they have minds of their own :P. They are learning and will be for some time, but they have a happy home at our heels on the farm. They are weighing in at just under 30 pounds. And it's a great mystery what lies in their genetics and how big they will get.

-Seeding begins: We will seed our alliums in trays this month and some flowers too. The end of February marks the start of our growing year in that way :). We have great plans to do what we did last year, with more consistent successions of lettuce and other veggies in the hopes that we won't have gaps of those things on our market menu.

-Another Year with DLM: We just committed to another year participating in Dorothy Lane Market's CSA program. Ourselves along with a handful of other local farms contribute items weekly to be sent home in boxes with DLM csa customers. It's a great way to partner with other growers and our local grocer who took us in from the start, Dorothy Lane Market.

-Organization: The name of our game this month is getting organized. We have a barn, shop, and toolshed to get in order so that we may have as seamless a start to the season as possible. Wish us mild weather for that endeavor :).


Thank you for reading :).

If you would like to support my writing or what we do you can "buy me a coffee" below: