Looking after animals is more than a full time job. When the times are tough, as they are this year and last, it is even more time consuming.
Living in the city one can order and have delivered whatever is desired from pizza to a new sofa, or turf for the lawn or manure for the garden. Everything is at one's fingertips. Here in the north, people have quit helping people, that is unless it is a major disaster like the recent evacuations of Ft. McMurray. Generally though, it is fend for yourself around here and that makes it tough. I would do so much better if I was able to order things and have them delivered.
I tried recently to order some organic grain. The farm said they could deliver it, but they only deliver bagged grain, which is pretty futile on a busy farm like this one. I eventually got 300 pounds of grain, but ordered 1500 and a friend had to pick it up. Today, I finally found some hay and the neighbour of the farmer who had the hay kindly delivered it for only $100. There were just 6 large round bales. The bales and the delivery were just short of a thousand dollars. Why? In 2014, hay at this time of year was $25 dollars a bale as farmers were making room for the new crop. I have found a farmer that has some grain, but it is conventionally grown which means Roundup grown, but it is all I can find. I do not want to feed grain at all, but cannot find decent hay with enough nutritional value in it to keep weight on the sheep. The new hay is much better than that bought in the fall, though I still need to buy some grain to get the weight back on the sheep. And I need to sell lots of the sheep and goats so I am not scrambling for feed at this time the following year.
Cleaning pens, feeding, watering, caring for newborns, watching for problems, which always occur and so much more is the daily part of farm husbandry, plus finding and getting the products to the farm that are needed and here, you simply cannot order them and have them delivered. So, once they are found, finding anyone to deliver if that is even possible, is another chore. Fortunately, today I was able to get some grain, some hay , have the hay delivered and pick up the grain and found another source for grain that could possibly be delivered. That takes time and work and is frustrating. But it is done!
Then when I go out and I can cuddle the little lambs, it suddenly all seems like the distant past because that present moment is one of the sweetest ever. Not all years will have hard times. The crash in the economy cannot last forever and neither can the drought. Things will improve. It is just....can I hold out?
Living in the city one can order and have delivered whatever is desired from pizza to a new sofa, or turf for the lawn or manure for the garden. Everything is at one's fingertips. Here in the north, people have quit helping people, that is unless it is a major disaster like the recent evacuations of Ft. McMurray. Generally though, it is fend for yourself around here and that makes it tough. I would do so much better if I was able to order things and have them delivered.
I tried recently to order some organic grain. The farm said they could deliver it, but they only deliver bagged grain, which is pretty futile on a busy farm like this one. I eventually got 300 pounds of grain, but ordered 1500 and a friend had to pick it up. Today, I finally found some hay and the neighbour of the farmer who had the hay kindly delivered it for only $100. There were just 6 large round bales. The bales and the delivery were just short of a thousand dollars. Why? In 2014, hay at this time of year was $25 dollars a bale as farmers were making room for the new crop. I have found a farmer that has some grain, but it is conventionally grown which means Roundup grown, but it is all I can find. I do not want to feed grain at all, but cannot find decent hay with enough nutritional value in it to keep weight on the sheep. The new hay is much better than that bought in the fall, though I still need to buy some grain to get the weight back on the sheep. And I need to sell lots of the sheep and goats so I am not scrambling for feed at this time the following year.
Cleaning pens, feeding, watering, caring for newborns, watching for problems, which always occur and so much more is the daily part of farm husbandry, plus finding and getting the products to the farm that are needed and here, you simply cannot order them and have them delivered. So, once they are found, finding anyone to deliver if that is even possible, is another chore. Fortunately, today I was able to get some grain, some hay , have the hay delivered and pick up the grain and found another source for grain that could possibly be delivered. That takes time and work and is frustrating. But it is done!
Then when I go out and I can cuddle the little lambs, it suddenly all seems like the distant past because that present moment is one of the sweetest ever. Not all years will have hard times. The crash in the economy cannot last forever and neither can the drought. Things will improve. It is just....can I hold out?
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