Spring is getting close, and we’ve been ramping up our efforts to prepare for the busy sowing and farrowing season, while taking care of our animals, and all of the other million things that need to be attended to on a new farm.
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” – Malcolm X
Malcolm X was right. Over my 40 odd years the lessons that have stuck with me the most are those that were learned through adversity, often self-inflicted adversity.
Our one-season old farm still lacks severely in infrastructure. After completing our first land clearing project we were in a race against the coming winter to prepare everything. Without some serious effort and the help of friends, farmer friends, and family, we would have had some serious problems.
It’s not really a lack of planning that got us. It was a lack of experience trying to do the things we needed to do in a Labrador winter. I had ideas about how we would weather the winter that were well thought out but as we all know things don’t always go as planned.
In the end (or more accurately as we get close to the end of this winter) we made it through with no winter related tragedy. Out of our breeding stock we only lost one young sow pig to complications of twisted gut. Our first unexpected death of anything bigger than a chicken. It was a tough one to see that beautiful animal gone to soon and without fulfilling her purpose. Death is a part of life and as farmers we don’t get to shield oursleves from that reality. Everyone else are in good health and itching to get out of the temporary shelters that brought them through the winter.
Now you better believe that this winter was much harder work than it needed to be. With no running water, animals spread across three locations, and the massive snow and cold of the labrador winter, we now know exactly what the critical things are to have in place before next winter sets in. Our new fabric covered barn should be in place, and we will have electricity on the main farm by next fall so it will be markedly difference situation.
As we continue to build our farmstead, farm business, and address some of the issues we had this first winter, we will be documenting everything here in this blog and on our new YouTube channel. We will also be sharing as much as we can on our Growerhood.com and Facebook communities. So look us upo and follow us there too!
We are very thankful and grateful to God, the people he has surrounded us with, and every one of You…and we are very excited to be on this journey.
Keep growing my friends! Talk soon.
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