Blog News

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello Friends!
It’s that time of year where I need to start considering what I want to bring into the new year, my goals and plans, and how to make things work better going into 2024. Since some of those plans involve the blog, I figure I might as well share some of what I am thinking with you guys.

So, to start, I have decided to take December off. I ended up taking January off last holiday season after getting supremely overwhelmed trying to keep all the plates spinning, so this year I have decided to be somewhat proactive and just understand that the holidays are crazy and I won’t be able to pull off keeping updates rolling. I’m honestly struggling already to keep things going here on the blog without the added holiday stuff, so instead of making it worse, I am just going to make it easy.

Speaking of things being just left of out of control, we are going to go into 2024 a little differently here. I’ll be slowing way down on posting here for a while. I’ve really debated on how to handle this, because I love this blog, but I’ve not been happy with the quality of posts or my ability to devote time to it for a while. Frankly, I’m a little burnt out on it, which I hate more than I can express. I have such plans for it, but this year was just ridiculous. So much has changed in the recent months, most of which I haven’t even been able to share with you, that the blog just needs to take a less prominent role right now. 

At first I really thought about taking a year off completely, because quite frankly, the farm and I need a bit of a rebuild and regroup season, and I don’t know truly how I feel about trying to capture that online, but that didn’t feel quite right. Maybe it’s sunk cost fallacy, maybe it’s pure stubbornness, but I don’t think this project is done yet. So, I needed to find a compromise.
So, currently, the plan is to post a fun farm round up every two weeks ish, and a video diary type thing every two months. That’s the base standard, the goal for now. We may adjust as things change and we sit with it for a while, but that felt like a fast enough cadence that I won’t forget the blog, or lose track of things, but long enough that it won’t be taking up a bunch of time each week.
Now, there’s a huge part of my heart that still wants to post more often, so I am sorta assuming that as the seasons roll on I will probably be using the “photo”, “quote”, and “status” type posts a lot more for “in between-ies” but I don’t want to overpromise and under-deliver. So, for now, I am just going to plan for every two weeks, and the occasional video diary.

But I can hear you saying “Amanda, what are you going to do to solve the actual problem of too many spinning plates?”. Glad you asked! I’ve already done one big thing. I started leaving work at work a lot more, and being unapologetically unavailable during my off hours (not completely, when something pressing is going on I don’t leave everyone hanging, obviously, I’m just more selectively available), and while it’s only been about a month, it’s been really nice. I also took the opportunity to change my hours a little, it’s harder because I work a little later in the afternoons now, but I get a couple extra hours of sleep, which has been life changing. I’m not eighteen and I cannot function on four hours of sleep anymore, and I am way more useful and pleasant with the extra sleep. I’ve also put a lot of personal projects for other people in “maintenance mode”, they are either not active or chugging along passively, where I don’t have to spend so much time on them. Learning to say “no”, and “not right now”. So don’t worry, I am fixing it.

But, that’s where we are at, I know it’s not the post you were hoping for, but I know you all are amazing and will understand that the blog has to enter “low power” mode for a little while. And if 2024 goes the way I hope, when we reevaluate for 2025, we will be able to add back in the fun things, have a way more stable grasp on the farm, and on our to-do list!

Until we chat again my friends!

Busy, Busy

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello Friends!
It’s definitely not been very chill around here, but there’s not a whole ton of farm news.
We’ve been trying to rig up some hay covering, some of which you will see in an upcoming video, but it continues to be a thing, I think I am just going to have to bit the bullet and go spend a little money on the lumber I need, instead of just shimming together a bunch of pieces. I was hoping this would be a no spend project, but I’ve already had to buy a new tarp so that’s a long gone dream. Hoping in the next catch up I can tell you how we solved it. Eventually I am going to build a more permanent storage for hay but there’s a lot more planning and steps that need to go into that.
We also blew up a fuel line in the flatbed working on this, which was just such a fun little side quest. I’m pretty sure that truck really needed that new hose anyway, but the timing was comically wonderful and practically quite annoying. Again, that will be in the November video, since it happened after I had to post October’s.
We’ve had lots of house guests and visitors as of late, lots of family friends we haven’t seen in a long while, and it’s always lovely to have friends stay. It’s always a little awkward for me, because working from home means I sorta say “good morning!” and then turn into a hermit for ten hours, but everyone is pretty chill about it. I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again, the pandemic was awful, no good, very bad, BUT the change in understanding toward remote work was huge and very helpful. So… silver lining.

We had (or maybe still have? technically all of this is unconfirmed) a mountain lion hanging nearby for a bit. Luckily I did not see it, I only heard about it from neighbors, but I was super on edge for a while. Then, one day, I was sitting on the porch after a morning of chores, and I heard a rifle shot. That in itself is not unusual, although not common, you usually hear the occasional shotgun or small handgun, but not rifles. Anyways, that already sounded odd so I stood up to walk over to the pasture, when suddenly I heard the sound of panicking yelling and screaming and THREE more rapid rifle shots! This is insanely unusual because, for one, a neighbor would have to be exceedingly loud for us to actually hear them, and rifles are not usually panic-fired around here, because this isn’t a hunting spot and … and you shouldn’t panic-fire any weapon. It unsettled me so I shouted for Dad and rushed the dogs in the house, and the horses took off for the barn, but in the panic the bicyclists that had been randomly going by our house had fallen/dove off their bikes at the noise and so I was concerned they were hurt (they were fine). Dad came flying out and we sorta checked everything the best we could, and I explained what I had heard, and Dad said it sounded very much like someone probably had to put down the mountain lion, which would explain the rifle, the shouting, and the weirdness of how it all went down. We don’t get a lot of more aggressive wildlife beyond coyotes and wolves (thank goodness) so it would make sense that someone was a little caught off guard. Again, it’s unconfirmed, but honestly, I like that better than what I was initially imagining (not that I love a mountain lion getting potentially murdered, but ya know, I watch a lot of true crime).
Finally, we’ve just had so much fun family stuff happening. My cousin blew up his transmission and was using our shed to fix it. That in and of itself is not fun, but the fact that I got to see a lot of my cousins after work each day for a couple weeks was fun. Another of my cousins got engaged! They’re a lovely couple so we are so unbelievably happy for them. They are such a cute little family already, I’m excited they get their ceremony soon. Another family member got a promotion and one got a new job so we got to celebrate those things, and the big one: we had a bit of a surprise wedding (and it wasn’t the cousin who got engaged)! Got a call to meet them at the courthouse, they think they might have a celebration later on when life calms down, but they wanted to be Mr and Mrs now. It was a fun little weekday celebration.
So, ya know, now it’s probably more evident why I haven’t gotten a lot done since we last chatted. Just so much family stuff! I love it, but when I tell you I am so far behind it’s unreal. I hope this blog doesn’t disappear unexpectedly because I haven’t done a back up in a hot minute, I really need to clean the tack room, and, ya know, fix the fuel line, and the hay storage. Lots to do, lots to do, and work just needs more and more attention. This adulting thing is hard!
Until we chat again my friends!