24/7

Farming is the only job that I can think of that is close to parenting. It is every day, No Holidays or Sick Days. Just like children our animals lives depend on us to take care of them. We've been criticized by some, because of how much time our "job" requires and events we've missed. Our animals need feeding at the same time every day, we can't change that fact. Not to mention how much depends on the weather. If the sap runs we have to gather & boil. If it's summer & we have 3 sunny days in a row, were going to be making hay. We have to, it's how we make money.

We were told it was our choice, and it is. Thankfully many people "choose" this job or we would all be hungry. Everyone knows No Farms No Food. The food in the grocery store comes from a farm somewhere. Most are more like factories than farms, but thankfully not ours. Our animals live a great life, not in a filthy feed lot or tiny cage. I know EXACTLY what is in my meat. Mark once said "you don't farm if you don't like animals, of course we care about them."

Here's a few examples of how much we care. I once saw Mark give mouth to mouth to a newborn lamb. This poor ewe had two enormous rams. We tried unsuccessfully to deliver them. K1 had just ran up to call the vet when one was finally born. It was alive, but stopped breathing. We cleared his nose, and hung him upside down which usually works, but he still wasn't breathing. Out of desperation Mark blew in his nose. It didn't work. I said " I can't believe you did that" he said "me either." We often joke about SheepPR. Anyone that knows me, knows that during lambing season it is nothing for me to set my alarm a few times a night to do a lamb check. A few weeks ago we were giving pre lambing shots to the ewes. Mark said "are you going to sleep in the barn during lambing?" I replied " I'm not ruling that out", again he laughed and said "me either!"

Is it worth it? We think so. We're happy. Most days, we Love what we do.

 Now, I'm going to go do my nightly chores, check on sheep (were going to have lambs any day!), then I'm going to gather sap (in the rain!) and hopefully boil late into the night! With any luck by the end of the weekend we'll have gallons of sweet maple syrup & a few adorable lambs.

P.S. We have meat & poultry CSA shares available, also healthy & delicious eggs.