2015 – The Year of the Carrot??

2014 has been a year of mixed blessings for us. It was the year we lost my dad, who I still think of every day, but it was also our first full year on the farm. As I look out over the pasture I love all the progress I see….the expanded coop, the garden site, the pig pasture. All of these projects that took so much blood, sweat, money and tears (the tears were mostly about the money, and not the blood or the sweat). We put a piece of ourselves into each project, literally! I know for a fact I lost quite a few pieces of hair and a fingernail or two on the chicken coop and the pig pasture fence has more than its fair share of our blood. But despite all that, or maybe because of it, I love to look out and see how far we’ve come.

Seeing what we’ve accomplished gives me hope for the projects on the horizon. Both the big ones, like fixing the front pasture fence, building a roofed compost structure and re-siding the barn, as well as the smaller ones like expanding the garden and building a farrowing hut. These are all good things right? So what’s the problem?? The problem is that as much as I love my lifestyle I need more. I’m a plan type of person. I like to have a goal. I need that carrot hanging in front of me to give me some motivation and direction. As much as I love our farm I really don’t know what we’re trying to do with it. We just kind of struggle to fix what’s broken and build what we need but we don’t have an end goal plan. I have friends that have dairies and some that have distilleries and some raise beef or lamb and some that….well, you get the idea. They have all found their farming niche. They may have a lot of other interests but they have a main focus that is their passion and this is what drives them. I envy them for that focus.

For 2015 I’m hoping to find my carrot, errr, I mean my niche. I am determined to find our place and our little corner in the farming world. I know we’ll have to try a lot of other….vegetables… before I find my carrot but I have high hopes that 2015 will be the year of the carrot for us!