What images come up for you when you hear the word "hobby farm"? Singing hens? Docile cows slowly munching on their cud while leisurely meandering through beautiful green pastures? Tidy rows of perfect vegetables? What about smells? Do you imagine the lovely scents of beautifully maintained flower gardens wafting about in the gentle breeze?
Snap out of it! Though you will see (and smell) the like of these examples, that's not ALL there is. When one rolls up their sleeves and gets in the thick of the work involved on a small farm, there are a lot of discoveries about the realities of farming - there are some "not so pretty" parts and some "that really smells!" parts, too.
First of all, all animals poop. And, eventually, one will come to the realization that they do it a LOT. Cows and chickens tend to be the messiest. It needs to be moved unless you enjoy that type of aromatic stroll. Goats and rabbits are a bit more considerate and provide their elimination in nice , little convenient pellets. There is a pro to the mass production of all this - free fertilizer! It's not all nice and neat, packaged up in specially marked bags, but it works great when carefully applied to compost piles and gardens. And think of the benefits of falling into bed exhausted, just feeling so satisfied that you've worked your muscles and accomplished the task of shoveling a half ton of manure. Good, old-fashioned, hard work. And you get to do it again next month!
Another "not so pretty" picture? This one's harder to take, especially for children. Baby animals don't always make it. And, there are occasional instances of disease or predator attacks. Farmville is a great game for teaching kids about the tasks that are possible on a farm, but it leaves out the "not so pretty." This was brought home for me when I began raising rabbits. I am currently developing a "How to be a Mama Rabbit for Dummies" manual, but it's awaiting translation. Most of the time, new mother rabbits ignore their first litter or two of babies - they just don't seem to know what to do. The babies don't survive in this type of situation. It was a shock to my children at first. Now that they've been around them for a couple of years, their understanding that this sometimes happens has developed.
What about vegetable gardening? All of those vegetables are just beautiful to behold! Except when they've been gnawed on by cutworms, cabbage worms, aphids, stink bugs, snails, slugs, cucumber beetles, squash beetles. This is the truncated list of insects. Extreme heat and little rain take their toll, too. So does too much rain. There are plant diseases. And, those bunnies and ground hogs that are so cute when they are NOT in your garden become the enemy when they serve themselves from your garden buffet. And, to them, it is "all you can eat."
What makes a person want to continue farming or gardening, then? With all of the possible failure, why keep doing it?
Because, just like with life, even though there are setbacks and failures, we still push on. The successes are worth the failures. It's built in, ingrained. As humans, we are nurturers, inventors, artists, writers, builders - we are co-creators. We are visionaries and we dream of what can be. When something doesn't quite turn out as we hoped, we optimistically try a different approach and we try until we get the results we envisioned.
So don't worry when things are "not so pretty." It may very well be an open invitation, just waiting for your touch.
Snap out of it! Though you will see (and smell) the like of these examples, that's not ALL there is. When one rolls up their sleeves and gets in the thick of the work involved on a small farm, there are a lot of discoveries about the realities of farming - there are some "not so pretty" parts and some "that really smells!" parts, too.
First of all, all animals poop. And, eventually, one will come to the realization that they do it a LOT. Cows and chickens tend to be the messiest. It needs to be moved unless you enjoy that type of aromatic stroll. Goats and rabbits are a bit more considerate and provide their elimination in nice , little convenient pellets. There is a pro to the mass production of all this - free fertilizer! It's not all nice and neat, packaged up in specially marked bags, but it works great when carefully applied to compost piles and gardens. And think of the benefits of falling into bed exhausted, just feeling so satisfied that you've worked your muscles and accomplished the task of shoveling a half ton of manure. Good, old-fashioned, hard work. And you get to do it again next month!
Another "not so pretty" picture? This one's harder to take, especially for children. Baby animals don't always make it. And, there are occasional instances of disease or predator attacks. Farmville is a great game for teaching kids about the tasks that are possible on a farm, but it leaves out the "not so pretty." This was brought home for me when I began raising rabbits. I am currently developing a "How to be a Mama Rabbit for Dummies" manual, but it's awaiting translation. Most of the time, new mother rabbits ignore their first litter or two of babies - they just don't seem to know what to do. The babies don't survive in this type of situation. It was a shock to my children at first. Now that they've been around them for a couple of years, their understanding that this sometimes happens has developed.
What about vegetable gardening? All of those vegetables are just beautiful to behold! Except when they've been gnawed on by cutworms, cabbage worms, aphids, stink bugs, snails, slugs, cucumber beetles, squash beetles. This is the truncated list of insects. Extreme heat and little rain take their toll, too. So does too much rain. There are plant diseases. And, those bunnies and ground hogs that are so cute when they are NOT in your garden become the enemy when they serve themselves from your garden buffet. And, to them, it is "all you can eat."
What makes a person want to continue farming or gardening, then? With all of the possible failure, why keep doing it?
Because, just like with life, even though there are setbacks and failures, we still push on. The successes are worth the failures. It's built in, ingrained. As humans, we are nurturers, inventors, artists, writers, builders - we are co-creators. We are visionaries and we dream of what can be. When something doesn't quite turn out as we hoped, we optimistically try a different approach and we try until we get the results we envisioned.
So don't worry when things are "not so pretty." It may very well be an open invitation, just waiting for your touch.