I am a control freak in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to the farm activities. I'd rather do most things myself, rather than feel like I need to re-do it after someone else has done it first. This feeling spilled over quite a bit while I was researching which species/breeds of livestock to keep - I of course had to try them out first, rather than rely on someone else's experiences or opinions. Though this probably wasted a significant amount of money and time, I was able to decide on or rule out which animals are a good fit here, through my own direct experiences with these animals.
One of my biggest hurdles has been accepting that it's not realistic for our family to raise and grown everything that we need here on our own farm. We can and will raise and grow the absolute basic and essential foods, however, I've had to learn to let go of the livestock and garden items that our farm just can't support: pigs, cattle, ducks, large nut trees, some fruit trees, etc.
At first, this lesson was really hard on me; I saw it as a kind of challenge to work around. As I did more research, however, it became clear that if I continued trying to make these things work on our farm (trying to force a square peg into a round hole kind of scenario), all I was doing was causing myself and my family stress, costing us more money, and the projects would still fail regardless of my best efforts. I have finally accepted that I can't, and more importantly shouldn't, try to do it all.
We're fortunate to have friends that also farm, have significantly larger farms and are able to raise the kinds of animals and grow the kinds of crops that we simply can't - and there is a distinct beauty and simplicity in being able to barter with them for things that we need or want, and they are able to provide :)
SUCCESS! :) Chickens Turkeys Rabbits | fail :( Quail Llama Pigs Ducks Large nut trees | To be determined...Aquaponics Raised bed garden Greenhouse Fruit & small nut orchard Vermicomposting Black Soldier fly larvae |