An egg and a sell out - can we call ourselves farmers?
This week the ranch hit 2 milestones: 1) our very first egg and 2) our meat bird pre-orders sold out in 4 days (and I’ve just ordered another 100 chicks).
So I guess this is it....here we go. Can I officially call myself a farmer? Let’s see…
I've traded in my business suits, designer heels and purses for Carhartt overalls, rainboots and 5 gallon pails.
I am responsible for over 150 birds that depend on me to turn them into productive layers and juicy meat birds that will bring delicious, high quality food to your tables. No more alarm clocks, rush hour traffic, morning Outlook catchup and meetings - every morning at 5am a symphony of birds (mine and the local geese, ducks and sandhill cranes) wakes me up and I pop up out of bed and walk out my front door where I am greeted by a herd of turkeys excited to see me. After a stroll to the hen house to see how many eggs await me, I make sure everyone has a good start to the day with fresh water and food, and then it’s off to the garden.
My new nail color is dirt black and my office is outside. I spend a good part of every day in the garden, hands in the dirt, tending to our plants. After having taken over the entryway of our home and surviving the greenhouse ordeal, my seedlings were safely transferred into the ground, giving us an early start to our market garden operation. Seeds that I planted a few weeks ago are germinating and popping up in high yields. Rob has set up a shed and water solution right next to the garden (efficiency!!) and I’m already putting out fires (not literally) in the garden and learning how to mount an organic, chemical free attack against canola beetles to save my radishes and edamame.
My sporty hatchback is doubling as a truck - I use it to haul feed, animals, tools and building materials. Despite no clearance and low profile tires, it is doing the trick and we’ve had many off road adventures driving down bush paths.
I get more excited about building structures for our animals than doing home design projects. Rob is about to tackle the last animal home project planned for this year (for now at least): the Gobbledygo. I have no doubt that the turkeys will love it.
Same mobile concept.
But despite all of our careful planning, forecasting, success with our animals and positive sales, we still find ourselves working through moments of uncertainty.....and I still get a little voice in my head saying "Megan, what are you doing - you are not a farmer". But then this bigger voice coming from my heart AND my head keeps telling me that we are exactly where we should be, that this is our purpose, and that it's all going to be ok.
So for the first time in my life, I’m rolling with my heart. I will keep believing that a clear vision fueled by desire, faith and hard work will back us up as we continue growing the ranch to what we envision it to be. I think it’s safe to say we are now farmers. Check out these videos of some of our team!!