Small Business Sacrifice

        We have entered a period of pure insanity for our family. With our beloved milkhand sick for almost 2 months, our family has been managing almost every single aspect of two farms.
          Farming is a tough business, maybe one of the hardest kinds of businesses. With animals it can be like parenting at times. One can't just leave critters to their own devices. They manage to get into all kinds of perilous adventures. Which is kind of a double whammy in the business world. On one hand there is the business and marketing aspect. On the other side there are the logistics of not just manufacturing, maintanence, and repair, but actually keeping animals comfortable and well cared for. Any farmer will tell you that that is a job all by itself. Maybe it is why many farmers prefer to stay specialized on the farm and leave the marketing and manufacturing aspect to others.

Making sure baby gets that colostrum. From then on, mama cow handles the feeding!

 


        It takes a special kind of crazy to farm two farms an hour and a half apart. Milking twice a day, we might drive 6 hours a day to get everything accomplished. We are burning out our entire family and our vehicles. I keep thinking this chapter will come to an end soon and it will just be a harrowing part of our family's story......how we persevered, how we worked hard/together. But I am beginning to think that this is just the way it is going to be. The days just flip on by without much sleep or days off.
      Our biggest struggle is keeping everything going AND trying to get this facility built. Daniel, especially, has sacrificed sleep, food, and time with the family. The children help along side us and it is tough to work so hard with so little returns or rewards in this season. Lawn maintenance and all other non-essentials fall by the wayside. Vacations are a mere memory and we constantly miss milestones such as weddings and gatherings. We see some new friends at the farmer's market now and miss out on seeing most of our beloved local community of friends. All of this is sad and difficult at times.....unbearable sometimes as I feel the guilt of how missed events, too many sandwiches, and traveling all over, affects the family.
 

The meadow maid is milking!

  I enjoyed a little miserable company when I read this article. I felt a little less crazy and a little more adventurous- more like riding a bucking bronco and less like a hamster endlessly running the wheel. The youngest children are managing well enough and the oldest are learning some real lessons in life and business. It is not all bad....we just need more balance and a milkhand!!!!
      Small farming is dying out. I dreamed of this season my whole life and now I see how desperately hard it is to make it. I just can't let this life die without a fight. My prayer is that we somehow make a way to open up opportunity for farmers again....grow this little company to help other families save their farms.
      The consolation prize at the end of the road is that, somehow, our sacrifices will keep hope a

light for others. Maybe even bring hope to dairy goat farmers and sheep farmers with no place to even market milk! Maybe our facility could be an incubator for other farmers to start their businesses, like the facility we rent has done for us.
       We are tired, but we are not done trying. Pray for us in this stretch, if you feel so lead. We would be ever so grateful!