The Aspiring Farmer Blog

Like everyone else that works a M-F job, I always look forward to the weekends. Back in the city it was a time to hangout with friends, go out to eat, get some beers and genuinely relax. I volunteered for a few charities and by most standards led a productive life. For some reason that drove me crazy. I felt extremely unproductive. The weekends were fun, in a way, but they weren't a good way to make up for a week's worth of work where I also felt like I hadn't accomplished much.

Since moving to Tennessee not a whole lot has changed during the week. Sure, I can get some chores done early in the morning and help out for an hour or two at night, but for the most part I can't tackle any big projects. One day farming will be a full-time gig for us (we hope), but until then my week's are at the desk...

But the weekends are a different story. Saturday and Sunday have changed. We get to work together to build our future. As I mentioned in a previous post, learning how to do things is empowering. Yes, we are in "the honeymoon period" with the farm. All I can say is that it's awesome, we're loving it, and I hope it doesn't go away.

So what was in store this weekend? I'll give a quick recap of Saturday, which was one of my favorite days thus far.

I woke up at 4:45am and jumped in the car for a ride to central Kentucky to pick up some new LGD's. Specifically, Izzy and Sheba, a 3yr old and a 4yr old Great Pyrenees that we hope will protect our animals and train our puppy, Sophie. I picked them up from a fantastic little farm where they were raised with meat goats, pigs and turkeys, among other farm animals. The farmer was down-sizing his meat goat herd and didn't have a need for five dogs, so he sold us two. I got a little farm visit in, saw his pastured pigs, his bourbon red turkeys and his meat goat operation. That was almost worth the trip in itself. 

Then we got ready for the journey back. I had driven our car to get the dogs. Before I left, the owner and I sat in the back with the dogs and gave them lots of pets and he officially passed them on. LGD's are typically shy and these girls were no different, they were not just gonna let me in to the circle of trust after a few pets. Having those two huge dogs in the back made for a fun ride home! Slobber everywhere. But it was worth it. The reason I didn't take the truck was because I wanted the dogs to get to know me quick. Here I was taking them from their family and I didn't want to just load them in the back of an unfamiliar truck and drive away like a sad movie or something.  Along the ride each one would hoist itself up and come say hi every so often. That really made my day. Nothing like driving along and having a 100+ lb dog put its head on your shoulder. I'll never forget reaching back to scratch their huge white ears.

Once I got back to the farm we spent time with them in the fields and introduced them to the animals. Watching them with the goats in the pastures reminded me so much of our real honeymoon last year and the beautiful LGD's we saw along our trip. They patrolled the perimeter of their new home, marking along the fence boundaries. They barked when they heard gunshots from hunters in the background and flushed out a turkey from a nearby clover patch. They played together around the ponds. Our puppy Sophie tagged along, trying to play with the big girls, and frequently getting rejected. It will take time for her to be accepted, just like us. 

Leaving them in the fields that night made me a little nervous. Would they climb or dig out? Would the neighbor's dogs survive if they did? Would our dogs survive if they did? Would they be happy in their new home? So far so good, but we'll see as time goes on.

What were you up to last weekend?

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