Friday, August 7, 2015

Realizations and Relocations

There has been a lot that has happened recently.  Some good, some bad.  Others, well, it depends on how you look at it.  This road widening and the stress of not knowing how we will do it all and knowing that we wont get enough to have someone else do it.  We are not physically capable at this time to do everything that needs to be done.  See, I recently (almost 5 months ago) had a baby.  During delivery the front of my pelvis was injured.  I was left unable to walk and move without great pain for weeks.  It took three months before I could walk around the farm without a lot of pain.  But, if I choose to do that I was still left very sore and knew I wouldn't be of much use the rest of the day.  It has only been the last month that I have felt almost no pain even after walking around as much as I want.  Sitting on hard surfaces still hurts though, as does lifting anything more then 30-40 pounds.  However, I am on the mend and very grateful.  But, that has meant that most of what we had planned this year has went undone.  He cant do everything himself!  Between the farm chores, the feeding and watering of the livestock, cooking of meals, everything for three months.  Now still doing most of it, but I am at least able to do the household chores again and the smaller animals.  Just don't ask me to lift a bale of hay.  That sadly means that we are left with the options of waiting til the spring to move, try to do as much as we can this fall and moving even if everything isn't done, or having things split between the two places.  Now the geese are flying so we know that we will have a very very early winter, which is what we didn't need!  Crops will be a total failure this year too if that happens.  We have struggled with a drought for three years now.  Oh yes, and we haven't settled with the road yet.  So why even bother pushing to move this fall?   Well, besides the issues of mental health (long story), it is for the livestock.

See, I look at this road widening and the force of the move as a huge chance.  A chance for some realizations to happen.  First thing we realized over this past year with my health issues was that one person can not do this place alone.  It isn't like we have a lot to do either!  It is the set up!!!  Or lack there of.  We know now, after having the livestock, that our current set up just doesn't work.  We need things changed.  It is a change that would have happened, but this is giving us the chance to do it faster.  At least after we settle.  We have also prioritized our lives and what has to be done and it helped us realize that there are some things that we can live without.  We have already been without TV for almost two years.  This relocation of the farmyard and our home is allowing us to set everything up in a way so that one person could do the chores if something happened.  Right now you have to go to three different places just to feed the rabbits.  You have to go to the hay storage that is no where near any of the livestock to get their hay.  You have to go to the grain bins to get the oats for them as there is no place to store even small amounts near the rabbits.  Then you have to drag the hoses over to water them or haul it in buckets.  Oh and when you have to give them straw for the nest boxes you have to go to yet a different place to get it.  Takes three times as long to do anything.  Same for the goats and Jerseys and poultry.  So, one of the first things we needed to do was have a place to store the feed near each of the livestock.  As in the winter, the tractor is not always reliable.

So, even with all the stress of trying to do the move with no funds, trying to set everything back up properly, trying to recover my health, trying to make ends meet, and realizing that no matter what else we do, crops will fail again this year due to weather, so we will have no more income, this is all a blessing in disguise.  As it will help us realize what is truly important and how to improve things when we move.