An Update

My reminder of my 2016 One Little Word

So when last we left off with this story, our cattle shed had collapsed and the future was uncertain. I can’t say as much has changed. The insurance did not come through. (Bye bye, Farm Bureau!) We won’t have any beef to sell at market this summer. We haven’t decided on chickens yet but if we do raise any, we will probably only raise what we have orders for and no extra’s. And we’ll have just a limited number of beef quarters to sell next fall.

My intention was to spend the first few months of the year Doing Analysis! Making a Plan! Instead, I just sort of let. it. be. Let myself sit with the idea of letting this chapter of our lives go and starting a new one… or not. I still love our little farm, but sometimes you have to let one thing go in order to make room for another. I feel like I even foretold the answer to myself in this blog post, almost exactly 11 years ago, which concluded with “I don’t know if our little Sugar Creek Farm business is the destination on my journey into agriculture. I have a feeling it’s only a stop along the way.”

I admit I’ve become somewhat jaded about agriculture since I wrote that post. And I have always felt it – that the farm, the blog, were not the destination but rather an important part of the journey to something else. I just wish I knew what that something else is.

So bear with me if I use this space to figure that out. This blog is one of my most cherished possessions, simply for the record it’s been of our lives. I love reading through the archives and seeing what we were up to on this day in the past. It makes sense to me to continue on here, even if we don’t continue on with the farm.

I watched a video by Mike Dooley yesterday, and one thing he said stuck with me:

“You teach best what you need most to learn.”.

So my writing in this space may take a turn towards that… the things I need most to learn right now. Things like,

how to change directions;
how to get over the fear of putting yourself out there and being subject to criticism;
how to “art” (yes, that is actually a search I typed into Google);
how to make time for writing;
how to revive a rusty cast iron skillet

Not even kidding on that last one. I read something about a potato and salt, and I’m totally going to try it.

As humans, no matter what our age, I believe we should always be learning something or we might as well just dig ourselves a grave. Tell me, friends, what do you most need to learn right now?

11 years ago:
Welcome, Rudy!

10 years ago:
Disneyland

9 years ago:
I spent my evening…
Garden, March 28

8 years ago:
Good for what ails you

6 years ago:
Things making me happy this week

5 years ago:
Unfolding