Life on a Hobby Farm (Part 1)

We have a nice plot of land that seems to be fertile, thankfully, 5 cows, 6 dogs (down from the 14 we had at one time), and a bunch of chickens. We will have another piglet or two as well this year.

Each year we try to find the right balance between the animals we have and the land that we've cleared over the years. (Its incredible how quickly 5 cows can mow your lawn for you. :D LOL.) Some years we seemed to have found that perfect balance and others it just seemed we couldn't quite manage to get it right.

I must say that I'm quite pleased with the amount of progress we've managed to make in the 10 years we've lived here, especially considering none of the land was really cleared when we bought it, then we built a house on it, then a garage, a small chicken coop, a big chicken coop, a pig hut, and a barn. My husband, my children (whether they wanted to or not some days) have been steadily clearing the land, putting down the seeds needed for good forage for cows and pigs and of course planting the occasional crop for our personal use.

Some days my hubby gets a bit discouraged and I remind him of how far we've come. I know we've made mistakes over the years, trying to work with goats was one of them. Goats are so cute as babies, unfortunately they grow up to be really nasty smelling (the males like to urinate all over themselves and think its an awesome scent to lure in the ladies, its really not though, lol), they also like to bash you in the back of the knees to try to knock you down so they can headbutt you and of course there is the joy to hearing them jump all over any vehicles in your yard. We learned the hard way that they are not the animals for us. Now the cows, pigs, chickens and dogs are more us for sure. :D

Well I think I've said enough for now. If you like this article and would like to hear more about life on the hobby farm please up vote and I will post more each week.