Northern Farmer

I remember up until a few short years ago I had a rough time sleeping at night worrying about how the farm would keep going in the future. It seemed like no matter what a person did to keep up with the current trends in farming we were loosing ground. Not fast but slowly and steadily. Like a reoccurring bad dream we would do everything right and keep loosing ground. I haven’t thought about it for a long time until just a while ago. How things are more at ease in the mind nowadays in comparison to how they were when this farm was following the industrial ag way.

Now when I take a walk around the farm yard the changes are sure something to see for the trained eye. Two out of three grain bins are empty. One of them is half full of our own oats and that’s it. No more big acres in row crops for grain. Cattle are a half a mile out back next to the woods fertilizing a field for us. No more daily runs hauling out manure no matter what the weather. Hens cackling in the old henhouse laying eggs till they’re coming out of our ears. Outdoor woodstove providing all the heat in three buildings on the main farmstead.

Inputs for the farm are just a fraction of what they were a few short years ago and income steadily climbing. Now as I look over all the buildings and the three different sites that do some job for the farm a sense of satisfaction is coming over me. We’re not loosing ground anymore. Instead of a bleak no win future it’s so exciting thinking of all the things in the works here. I can envision future generations working here making more than a decent living, a hub of activity. Different family members doing different tasks on a very diverse farm, and doing what they like. I don’t know if I’ll be around to see it but the satisfaction of being one of the builders is overwhelming. I have every reason to believe it’ll keep going when I’m with the Lord.

In today’s society we are taught that we should have everything now. This farm has one way or another taken up the majority of my life so far and it’s just in it’s infancy. I’ll never be rich by worldly standards but it’s hard to believe one could get more satisfaction out of life than to be a builder for future generations of his or her own family. Unlike the world’s standards there were very few things that we got just because we wanted them. But now as the years pass I’m so glad it was done the way it was. If we would have continued on the path that industrial ag is taking there would be little, if any, hope for the generations to come.

I get many emails asking how to start farming, basically wanting to know our “secret”. There is no secret recipe I’m sorry to say. Just hard work and frugal living. But at a certain point we look around and see that it was worth it. And with a multi generational view, it gets down right exciting. I wonder how many career people can say that when thinking about their families. I wonder if they have a rough time sleeping at night when their careers are coming to a close and the children are chasing careers of their own, too busy for the parents. Guess I’ll sleep on it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.