Mud
Alright. I'm trudging through some more thoughts. Often I feel compelled or inspired to write. Now I just know it's good for me.
My assigned-therapist (as opposed to the chosen therapist) talks about the hero's journey. I'm just tired. I've busted through so many barriers to get here and I want to enjoy "here" for awhile before going off elsewhere. Also the hero's journey talks about going out from a home, and returning to that home or community to enrich it. I'm still trying to make that home in the first place, or maybe I've found it but there's too much external stuff buzzing around my head.
I've written about relationships.
I'm taking the farm down to a more manageable size: a boar and two sows, I think, maybe some extra sows while I'm undecided, chicken reduction (was gonna happen anyhow with this crop of roosters), goose reduction (also needs to happen yearly). I think I'm going to depopulate (read: eat) the quail, unless I can sell them, and put the muscovies in that quail house.
What does the to-do list look like for this?:
-Decide on which boar I'm keeping (Baby is beautiful but related, Oak may be harder to get pedigreed), I'll keep Penny and Apricot I think. The boar thing is hard.
-Post boar + Nox + Rapunzel as a trio, maybe Friendly or Chunk can go depending on that the person wants
-Handle the current set of piglets, mostly as roasters but also take a couple down in spring for meat sales
-Decide which geese I'm keeping (maybe Chinese, embden, and saddleback?)
-Post Pilgrim geese
-Abattoir for the mixed geese before Christmas
-One day of chicken kill, pluck, gut and the following day for canning them
-I might as well post quail and see if anyone bites, it's a bad time of year for it
The sales part of farming has never been my favourite. If I had enough freezer/cooler room I'd just send everything down to folks in the city when Tucker goes down in December. I guess it will likely be cold enough by then for everything to be outside instead of in a freezer. Hm.
Anyhow, the abbatoir that does geese and roasting pigs is a 3 1/2 hour drive. They do pigs on Mondays and poultry on Thurs/Fri, but they'd be ok feeding the pigs over the weekend if I dropped everyone off on Thurs/Fri and picked up on Tues. This would be a great time for me to have a housesitter and take the weekend off in Smithers instead of driving back and forth, then back and forth. I think I can get everyone into the 4runner at least, so I don't need to haul the trailer all the way there.
I do wish the pigs didn't keep breaking my animal carriers. I may need a couple extra for this.
Okay. That's the farm, and no matter what happens taking it down like that will make it better to deal with.
My assigned-therapist (as opposed to the chosen therapist) talks about the hero's journey. I'm just tired. I've busted through so many barriers to get here and I want to enjoy "here" for awhile before going off elsewhere. Also the hero's journey talks about going out from a home, and returning to that home or community to enrich it. I'm still trying to make that home in the first place, or maybe I've found it but there's too much external stuff buzzing around my head.
I've written about relationships.
I'm taking the farm down to a more manageable size: a boar and two sows, I think, maybe some extra sows while I'm undecided, chicken reduction (was gonna happen anyhow with this crop of roosters), goose reduction (also needs to happen yearly). I think I'm going to depopulate (read: eat) the quail, unless I can sell them, and put the muscovies in that quail house.
What does the to-do list look like for this?:
-Decide on which boar I'm keeping (Baby is beautiful but related, Oak may be harder to get pedigreed), I'll keep Penny and Apricot I think. The boar thing is hard.
-Post boar + Nox + Rapunzel as a trio, maybe Friendly or Chunk can go depending on that the person wants
-Handle the current set of piglets, mostly as roasters but also take a couple down in spring for meat sales
-Decide which geese I'm keeping (maybe Chinese, embden, and saddleback?)
-Post Pilgrim geese
-Abattoir for the mixed geese before Christmas
-One day of chicken kill, pluck, gut and the following day for canning them
-I might as well post quail and see if anyone bites, it's a bad time of year for it
The sales part of farming has never been my favourite. If I had enough freezer/cooler room I'd just send everything down to folks in the city when Tucker goes down in December. I guess it will likely be cold enough by then for everything to be outside instead of in a freezer. Hm.
Anyhow, the abbatoir that does geese and roasting pigs is a 3 1/2 hour drive. They do pigs on Mondays and poultry on Thurs/Fri, but they'd be ok feeding the pigs over the weekend if I dropped everyone off on Thurs/Fri and picked up on Tues. This would be a great time for me to have a housesitter and take the weekend off in Smithers instead of driving back and forth, then back and forth. I think I can get everyone into the 4runner at least, so I don't need to haul the trailer all the way there.
I do wish the pigs didn't keep breaking my animal carriers. I may need a couple extra for this.
Okay. That's the farm, and no matter what happens taking it down like that will make it better to deal with.