Soul searching and realistic plans

I was so lucky to have some kids come visit when one of my beef customers came to pick up her Beef Butcher Box!!

September was a busy month for us here at the ranch! I sorted through a lot of quilting fabric and gave a lot away. I had so many totes full of fabric, that I’ll never live long enough to use it all… The friends who got a tote or two are active quilters who will put their gifts to good use. My husband was gobsmacked that I was letting go of some of my crafty supplies. “Patty the Packrat” no more!!!

I also put my industrial sewing machine up for sale, along with a Cricut Maker 3 bundle. So far, no one has made a reasonable offer- The day I posted to Facebook and Craigslist, I had 2 scammers try me on for size… they wanted to use Zelle. I called the bank, and we agreed it was a scam. Too bad it didn’t result in a sale- the Juki takes up 3’ x 2’ of space and is too heavy to jockey around! Ha Ha!

We got almost 14 inches of rain here for September!! The weeds have overtaken the gardens, but you should see the cutting flower beds… I’ve never had so many bouquets throughout the house and market in my life. Zinnias are so happy with the “free manure tea” that gravity fed from Pretty Cow’s paddock! The perennial wildflower border is filling in as well. My perennial herb border is also quite plentiful from the rainfall. I have native sunflowers and Chinese poppies coming up and blooming all over the place. I’m not complaining.

I won’t lie, I got pretty overwhelmed over the summer with all I was trying to do… Raising a milk cow and her steer calf, working vegetable and herb gardens, a new cutting flower garden, keeping up with emails to folks who have signed up for a weekly update, and staying on top of this website; it was a lot. I started out offering “farm shares” of vegetables and fruit, only to have crops decimated by insects. That led to cancelling the offering and sending refunds to those who paid for the service I couldn’t fulfill.

So, I sat down with my husband to make a realistic plan for what we can keep up with (without putting us into an early grave) and still be happy.

I had been working to make our little farm profitable to help us financially now that we rely on Social Security exclusively. I got in over my head, and likely pushed some folks away as I dove into email marketing and my website sales.

I was planning to attend local Farmer’s Markets at least once a month, but after the first one, realized that loading the truck, setting up, not selling much, packing up to go home, and unpacking once I got there was too much for this old woman. I let all y’all know I was not going to participate in the market after all but would keep my Ranch Market, here on the farm, open the first and third Saturday of every month from 10-2. Thank you to everyone who has come out!

Fast forward to now, my husband helps me with barn chores and lets folks he meets know we have beef for sale, giving them a business card. We pre-sold enough beef butcher boxes to pay for the USDA processing, thank goodness! The milk cow is dry because we both got sick for most of September and I couldn’t milk her. She is bred to a Montbeliarde bull for a March calving. The calf is already sold. Once weaned, I will have more than enough milk to make cheese, butter, yogurt, and kefir- things I love doing.

So rather than farming for profit, we decided to resume homesteading to meet our needs, share with family and friends, and reduce our stress levels to the minimum. We may breed to another Angus bull in the future or continue breeding dairy cows. Time will tell.

Thanks so much for being here.