Wednesday, September 28, 2011... Life As We Know It Has Changed...

With our statement of yesterday, we have decided to restructure our lives by slowing down a little and taking one day at a time...as they come to us. We will continue to fence in the property...build a farm store... care for the animals and continue the farm, but it will be taking a new turn for Vick and I. We want more time to enjoy life...family and relaxation, so downsizing the farm as far as egg production and flock size is the first step. It is the only step we will even consider right now as we work through issues as they come to us. All too often people come to a conclusion, learn of something or decide on one thing and then take off on a wild and crazy tangent of changes....all too important and intricate to make harsh, spur of the moment decisions about. We’ve done this in the past, only to wish we had thought more intelligently about our course of action and not simply jumped the gun with a reaction.
First of all, we want to spend more time with family. That is an important thing in life that we all take for granted by becoming so busy with everyday life that we fail to spend the time we should with family members. Most of Vick’s family are within a four hour drive, and we as a couple, each have a few that are within a five hour drive....close enough to make at least once or twice a year, enjoying the road trip and subsequent visit with family. Vick’s immediate family is within an hour and that leaves little reason to not visit at least weekly, so we are structuring our everyday lives to take this into consideration and spend more time with family.
Secondly, there are fairs, festivals, shows, concerts, antique malls and restaurants which we can and will visit more often, rather than staying here, building a farm kingdom which drags us down and benefits those who come to enjoy it. Little do you enjoy something which causes you sunrise to sunset labor without enjoyment...so we will revise the amount of animals we have by reducing the rooster population... not replacing hens as we lose them to predation and old age...getting no more ducks or guinea fowl and reducing the feed costs. We will keep the angoras, alpacas, sheep and Llama (we will soon get) and utilize the NEAFP to do 95% of our fiber processing yearly, leaving 5% for Vick’s enjoyment in processing and spinning. Her produced yarns and items, along with returned items from the fiber pool, will be displayed and for sale in the farm store and hospice gift shop.
We will offer raw and finished fiber and fiber items, a few spinning wheels, spinning tools and spinning accessories, honey, maple syrup & maple candy, several kinds of cheeses and frozen chicken and turkeys in the store, along with old fashioned items which were often found in old general stores...if we can.
As I mentioned above...we are going to spend more of our days doing things we like to do. We love to fish and have not done so in two years...even though we have a large lake beside the barn, just jammed full of natural bass and other fish. We could take an hour any time and fish in it, releasing the fish to catch another day, but we haven’t even taken the time to do that.
We like to visit antique malls to just meander throughout the building, seeing items and reminiscing about these things from our childhood....recognizing many daily items used by our parents and grandparents. We love musical performances from individuals, bands and concerts... and just the other day, at the Garlic festival....saw an amazing prodigy of the musical world. His name is Myles Mancuso; he is fourteen and has been fronting his own band since he was nine years old. His band, called The Mojoe Myles band performed at the garlic festival and he stopped hundreds of people in their tracks and many began rocking, clapping and dancing to his performance....He was Remarkable and so talented! He plays guitar, piano and sax, performing flawlessly and effortlessly, as if he had performed publically for fifty years. Click on the link above and listen to him!
We love to go to Vermont and Northern New York, so we will continue to do that and enjoy the road trips, but not as a farmer’s market product pickup like before....in fact, we will not support the local town market any longer due to their lack of support form us during our grand opening of the hospice gift shop. We usually lost our butts there anyway, so locals can come to the farm for their delights and we might....I repeat MIGHT seek another place to sell our items next year...if at all.
Well, there you have it....sketchy plans to say the least, but we are going to access the market, the farm and our lives in the coming months, before making any real earth shattering decisions anyway, so stand by folks.
043013Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC