Making the move to full-time farmer

Nice brisk afternoon visiting our does out on pasture.

This is a big week for our family and the farm. I’m now down to one job – managing our growing farm full time. Mother Nature also welcomed me to the job with a nice cold snap. But, I don’t mind.

We made the decision after Scott started his new job and is traveling more regularly. It just made sense to make the change, though it was a little unexpected. I was planning to move in this direction in the next 3-5 years, but the opportunity came earlier than we anticipated.

I’m excited to focus my time on building our herd and being more intentional in planning and making decisions for animal health and management, more time on planning pasture use and quality, more time building out our direct-marketing and, even more importantly, more flexibility with our family time. Up to this point I’ve been doing my best to be intentional in my decision making, but it was always done randomly every few days or weeks when my son was in bed for the night, there was a block of time or something was pressing.

Yes, there’s a common theme – more time. It’s funny, but I’m already finding there’s still not enough time. But, that’s the story of life. Now, I just feel more settled knowing that I’m making more noticeable strides in moving the farm forward.

Also gives Scott more time to focus on specific projects (that I assign) rather than trying to jam in daily chores along with traveling for work and just being a parent.  But, I’ve found that he’s already started a farm project list for me. I can already see, or know for that fact, that I’ll be expanding my so-called skills, in particular in the area of machinery. Bring it on!

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