The Fat Ewe Farm and Bed and Breakfast
The Fat Ewe Farm and Moose Hills Inn
Organic Permaculture Farmin' for
the Lazy Ewes
  • The Fat Ewe Farm
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • The Fat Ewe Farm Store
  • Livestock Breeds (click here to see all the breeds)
    • Angora goats
    • Icelandic Sheep
    • Jacob sheep
    • Old English Southdown Babydoll Sheep >
      • Babydoll Sheep on the Fat Ewe Farm
  • Contact Us
    • Photo Gallery (click here for some awesome photos or watch the slideshow) >
      • Video Slide Show
    • Phone Number
    • Map
  • Sale Barn
  • Recipes From the Fat Ewe
    • Old Stuff
  • How Much Meat Do You Get?
  • Ukrainian Easter Eggs
  • Moose Hills Inn

Retirement

4/13/2017

0 Comments

 
I already retired once. Although I have had many really fine careers, from private investigating to interior design, the one that was the fall back was teaching. I started teaching in 1977 and ended in 2010, however; I did not end up with a full pension because every career meant a leave of absence or working very part time, like a day a week or not at all. But when the opportunity arose at age 55, I was ready to embark on yet another trek. That was the farming. 

Originally, I bought a farm in the County of Thorhild, west and a bit north of here. My plan was to build a monolithic dome home and live completely off grid. But Waste Management, that huge garbage company, bought 18 quarters around my farm to put in a class 1 landfill. How could I have an organic permaculture farm next to a dump. So, I flew home to White Rock and hung out thinking about the next move, when the house suddenly sold giving me only 28 days to move. Where? 

I went online and found where I live currently, flew out in February 2011 to see it and moved here in March, a month later. Unfortunately, the people who owned the place were much less than truthful and the arduous task of rebuilding, repairing and replacing everything, and I mean everything, was begun. A year later the bed and breakfast opened and it was such great fun. The work on the houses continued and there was maintenance on top of redoing basics, like wiring and plumbing. Then the pipe burst in the bed and breakfast house in January 2015 and a year later, it was finally renovated and back up and ready to go, reopening January 1, 2017. 

Things went anything but smoothly. There seemed to be one catastrophe or disaster after another. I had no luck raising the sheep for their fleece, either and felt as though my whole venture had failed, except I did accomplish most of my goals. That was 1. to divorce myself from the dictates of society 2. to stop consumerism 3, to learn how to be self sufficient and 4. to want what I have. I allowed myself ten years in which to achieve success. Finally, this year, 2017, I feel I can say I have arrived. 

The fleece from the sheep will never be perfect, but I did find a crowd that accepts that, which makes me very happy. I am downsizing the farm critters.Last year I sold most of the Babydolls and this year it will be the majority of the sheep and goats, just keeping my Cotswold sheep plus a few favourites,  and moving to mini Nubian goats. I have way too many birds, too. Every day, I am now getting 3 or more dozen eggs. I had a sign made saying Eggs $5 per dozen for chicken and $10 dollars a dozen for duck. I guess it is time to put it out. My last order for hatching eggs is for 100 eggs and now I can sell the eggs for eating. But people here do not want to pay $5 per dozen eggs, so I am not sure they will sell at all. They never have thus far. At the end of summer, I plan to only overwinter no more than a dozen ducks, 5 geese and a dozen chickens. 

I also need to find someone to live with. I do not do well living with others. I am too messy and too preoccupied with my hobbies to interact with them. So, I made a plan to install two sinks and a hot plate in my basement and move into the bedroom in the middle of the house with the trap door to the basement. I will try to contain my mess to the lower floor then and not have to interact with the person living in my house. I am hoping to find someone who loves the farm and would do my chores in the winter for a few weeks at a time to allow me to visit my daughter or to take a holiday once a year. Hoping and wishing..

​But, retirement? I really cannot see actual retirement in my cards just yet. Not for the next few years anyhow, because I love what I have created here and enjoy my life way too much. I do love what I have and want what I have already. How many of us out there can say that? Retirement will come soon enough. Just in two years I will be 65. Maybe that is a good place to begin. You think?
Picture
I am thinking of painting my kitchen this raspberry colour. It is sage green now, but this is such a pretty colour. What do you think?
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Airstream Land Yacht 1964
    Alpacas
    Alpine Goats
    Ameraucana Chickens
    American Buff Geese
    Ancona Ducks
    Angora Goats
    Angora Goats
    Angora Rabbits.
    Babydoll Southdown Sheep
    Babydoll Southdown Sheep
    Bed And Breakfast
    Berkshire Pigs
    Blue Faced Leicester Sheep
    Blue Swedish Ducks
    Boer Goats
    Border Collie
    Border Collie
    Bronze Turkey Standard
    Bronze Turkey (Standard)
    Canadian Horses
    Canadian Horses
    Cats
    Chickens
    Cotswold Sheep
    Crafts And Hobbies
    Cream Legbar Chickens
    Dorset Sheep
    Ducks
    Embden Geese
    E'st A Laine Merino Sheep
    Farm Life
    Farm Life
    Farm Store
    Finnsheep
    Flemish Giant Rabbit
    Flowers
    French Lop Rabbit
    Galloway Cattles
    Gardening
    Gotland Sheep
    Guinea Fowl
    Herbs
    Holstein Steer
    Icelandic Sheep
    Jacob Sheep
    Japanese Bantam Chickens
    Jersey Cow
    Kahaki Campbell Ducks
    Karakul Sheep
    Kiko Goats
    Kilo Highland Cows
    Light Sussex Chicken
    Livestock Guardian Dogs
    Livestock Guardian Dogs
    Maremma Sheepdogs
    Maremma Sheepdogs
    Meishan Pigs
    Miniature Nigerian Dwarf Goats
    Moose Hills Inn
    Muscovy Ducks
    Norwegian Red Dairy Cow
    Nubian Goats
    Nygora Goat
    Ossabaw Hogs
    Partidge Chantecler Chickens
    Pekin Ducks
    Permaculture
    Pied Guinea Fowl
    Polish/Ameraucana Bantam Cross Chickens
    Polled Dorset Sheep
    Potbelly Pigs
    Pygmy Goats
    Recipes
    Rigit Galloway Cows.
    Romanov Sheep
    Romney Sheep
    Rouen Ducks
    Saddleback Pomeranican Geese
    Saxony Ducks
    Sebastopol Geese
    Sheep And Goats
    Shetland Sheep
    Silver Spangled Hamburg Chicken
    Soap And Hand Made Cosmetics
    Standard Jack Donkey
    Sustainability
    Swiss Blackneck Goats
    The Llamas
    The Llamas
    Toulouse Geese
    Tunis Sheep
    White Chantecler Chickens
    White Danish Geese
    Wool

    Author

    Fluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    view old blog site

    RSS Feed

Contact Us
Home

The Fat Ewe Farm 

All text and photos are the sole property of The Fat Ewe Farm  and may not be used without written permission.