The Aspiring Farmer Blog

When Dusty first asked me to write for Farm Dreams he asked that I write about the emotional side of moving away from the city and starting a farm. It's a huge transition and one that comes with a lot of responsibility. Previously, we literally had no responsibility. Paying the bills was about it. No car, no home, no kids, no pets, just us and our day jobs. Sounds nice to some, but that lifestyle drove me crazy. Now we have 50 or 60 lives that depend on us everyday. Watering and feeding the animals, milking twice a day, managing the home garden, taking care of fencing, chasing down pigs. It’s a huge shift from a month ago.

So it’s easy to believe that the rest of our life got put on the backburner a little bit. Last week I wrote about the issue of us eating well and making the time to go to farmer's markets. The main issue has been fixing stuff around the house. No time left in the days. By the time it’s dark we’re ready to eat and go to bed, not fix stuff. It’s been particularly daunting since we’ve never owned a house before and a lot  of this is new to me. This past week it all finally started to come together and we got a few things done that would’ve been a lot of people’s top priority. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we’re living in a tent or anything. Electricity, running water, plenty of space. But lots of things need fixing.

The biggest nuisance has been not having A/C. I understand running an A/C is not great for the environment, and a lot of people live without it, but working from home (in an upstairs office), in 100 degree heat with windows lacking blinds gets rough! I’d rather be outside with the breeze doing work than trapped in a small room upstairs boiling away in an office chair. It also makes for miserable sleep. Nobody wants to sleep with ice packs in their bed. So as of this afternoon the A/C should be fixed. Phew.

Next on the list was blinds. Our neighbors probably thought we were drug dealers or something. Ever since it started getting really hot during the days we thumb-tacked bed sheets and towels over the windows to keep the sun out. Temps inside the house were approaching 90. We needed blinds. How we went for almost four months without blinds is beyond me. On Friday Sweetbreads installed them all, what a wife! Now that they’re installed I can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner.

Those were the major items from this past week, but there’s still a lot more to do. Next on the list:

Replace all leaky faucets
Get window screens without holes in them
Organize files and filing cabinet
Move tools from tupperware containers to a real toolbox

At least the animals are livin’ well!

What are you behind on this summer?

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