Quitting would probably be easier...
…but then what would we do with our free time?
This weekend we took arrival of 3 pigs. One from our neighbour's farm, ready for the freezer and two weaners from another farm to raise ourselves for the table next year.
As I emptied a large chunk of my bank balance on pork for the next two years, I had a fleeting moment of wondering if it was worth it.
I think about this a lot. It would be easier, require less of ourselves, our time and our money if we just didn't. "We could just stop" Kevin and I say to each other in moments of rage and overwhelm or when someone comes for us on social media for being murders or "stealing" the calf's milk. We could hide it - shop sharing our lives and just do it or only show the glamorous bits.
When the two new meat pigs arrived at the weekend, we needed to move them across to their new pen and train them to respect the electric fence. The first pig went in without a hitch, but number two decided to run straight through the electric and out into the paddock. We spent 20 minutes chasing that piglet around the field, me with my skirt hitched up, Theo covered in mud and Kevin with glasses askew as we ducked and dived...much to the entertainment of the 3 groups of glampers who had lined up to watch at the fence line. As I tackled the small pig (it must be the Iowan in me) with the small crowd watching, I was pretty sure we'd made a grave mistake, we should just sell the animals, let the lawn take over the garden and have so much time and energy for other things.
But then came the inevitable next question, "what other things would we do?" Raising our own food is one of the greatest joys of my life. Sitting down to dinner with a plate full of meat and vegetables that we tended from before they were even planted or born is something that used to happen once or twice a year, but now happens most days.
Sharing that journey makes it even more amazing, even if at times it can be tricky. The sticky moments are made up for when someone milks goat for the first time, makes their first wonky loaf of sourdough or dispatches their first chicken for the table with our help. After our pig wrestling session, Kevin stood at the gate talking to the glamping guests for 20 minutes answering questions about pasture raised meat, agro-ecological smallholding and being (in his words) a poo farmer.
So we won't quit. At least not today.
We have a few copies of Issue 01 Life in the Making left. We don't have plans to reprint, so grab it now!
