Posted in Homestead 101
I know that we dreamed of having a farm for a couple of years before it finally happened. And I know lots of other folks share similar dreams of getting a place out in the country so that they can just have room to spread out. But what starts out as just a simple desire for space, somehow snowballs. So my apologies to Laura Joffe Numeroff, author of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, but I couldn't resist. 
If you give a family a farm, they’ll want some animals for it.
So you’ll go help them pick out some chickens so that they’ll have fresh eggs.
Then they will want some goats because goat milk is better than dairy and sheep so they can spin their own wool.
Once they get those, they’ll want a guardian dog to protect them.
And when they find just the right dog, then they might as well get some cows so they can sell pasture fed beef.
But they’ll need to fix up the barn so it will be nice for the animals and they’ll need to repair some fences.
Once all of that is done, they’ll be ready to go buy the cows so you’ll take them to a farm auction.
While they are there, they’ll not only buy cows, but a few horses and a trailer to bring them all home.
Once they get them home, they’ll realize that they need a tractor to bush hog their pastures and to move big bales of hay.
They’ll decide that they want to grow their own organic wheat, grass and hay to feed their animals so they’ll need to buy lots of bags of seed.
Since they’re going to buy all those bags of seed, they’ll want a nice full size pick up truck.
Now that they’ve got that nice pick up truck, they’ll decide that it would be just perfect to sell produce from the back at a roadside stand.
So they’ll decide to plant an organic garden. They’ll read lots of books, build compost bins and bring beneficial insects and earthworms into the soil.
They’ll get hoes and rakes and a tiller and an irrigation system, but the deer and rabbits will start eating their plants. So then they’ll ask you to help them surround their garden with fencing, human hair and ummm other things to keep the wildlife away.
Once they get all of that done, they won’t have any produce to sell this year, so they’ll want to go to the farmer’s market.
And once they’re at the farmer’s market, they’ll see how expensive the organics are, but how beautiful and rewarding it looks to grow their own produce and they’ll want to get back to their farm!
Copyright 2006
Nancy Carter
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