I think we need to start a game/competition on when the next time will be that she 1) Uses the word scrappy, darling, folks, or fall down the stairs 2) Describes hauling water 3) Talks about keeping wood stove going 4) Thanks everyone for keeping her there
Wait, too late, I am sure she has already done it (again!)
I like how on her "haycations" post, a woman suggested that she open her farm to WWOOFers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). It IS a great program, but what people don't get is that Jenna doesn't want free labor from people who genuinely love and know farming. She wants money. She can't house or feed people if she's charging them money to stay at her farm--and she can't NOT charge them money because, well, MONEY. If she did host WWOOFers or simply people wishing to experience farm work, I'd imagine they'd get pretty frustrated. "Hey Jenna! How about we make a real repair to this fence?" "Oh, I can't afford a roll of wire and some posts. Let's just tie it together with this baling wire and go watch Braveheart again."
Plus, I have seen absolutely no indication that her farm is organic. Do her pigs, geese and chickens eat only 100 percent organic feed? Is she even growing a decent enough crop of veggies to be able to utilize extra hands the program would bring? I don't think, at this point, there is enough real farming going on to bring in people wanting to actually learn to FARM. If they want to take horse cart rides or pet a hawk, they're in the perfect place.
I just had a great mental image of a future post: "Great news, guys! My words are now certified organic, so I'm going to use that as a license to charge you four times as much for workshops!"
This latest post of hers--about "haycations"--is just beyond the pale. I too enjoyed the exchange about WWOOFers in the comments--those commenters are beating their heads against a brick wall trying to be helpful, but if nothing else it got her to come out and say in plain language that she's just grubbing for money with this new idea. Yes! Please sign me up to pay no doubt HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS to do your chores, Jenna, while you prance around in a kilt with a hawk on your arm imparting little to no truly practical knowledge of farming!
Oops, and I forgot that I'll be responsible for MY OWN FOOD AND LODGING. Good god.
I have a feeling she stole this idea from that young couple up the road--the ones with the Going Slowly blog (which is quite a compelling account of REAL homesteaders). They had a very experienced timber farmer come in to teach a class/erect a structure on their land, and it was a week-long affair where students paid, helped with the construction and did hands-on learning, etc. So now I'm eagerly awaiting the day she steals Jon Katz' Kickstarter idea.
OMG! Your comment just made me think of that Prancercise lady, and then I got a mental image of Jenna in a kilt with one of her funky, scrappy hats and the hawk, running around doing Prancercise. Warning, graphic content.
Lots of "sounds great", "aren't they cute", "good luck" comments on JWs posts, but no takers.
She can drum up as many workshops as she likes, the tough part is filling them. And it doesn't like people are jumping in.
If your blog is nothing more than a bulletin board for selling with no actual interesting or educational posts there will be diminishing scale of return. Seems like she's on that trend, guaging from the limited comments. And the amen charlies have slowed to a trickle.
Or, maybe she thinks this tactic will compell people to join the clan just to find out what's going on. That thought would be just as foolish as most others she has.
I posted this on Meredith's other thread, but I'm going to re-post it here:
This is something of an industry trend. Many REAL, operating family farms and ranchers offer "haycations," where visitors do cattle drives, or work the farm during harvest to offer them a taste of rural life. Most have comfortable bunkhouses or luxury tents provided for accommodations and offer first-rate BBQ and chuck wagon chow, cooked up in the farmhouse or under the stars! At a real farm or ranch, this would probably be a fun change of pace for more urban types. Bottom line, there are other places doing it a lot better, with more learning (and probably fun and adventure) going on. I could probably do this on my property too, but there's a lot more to doing it than just having some acreage and a few farm animals around.
I guess that's what drives me so crazy about this new hare-brained scheme. If you can give folks a great farm experience for their money, put them up in proper accommodations, and feed them with at least some of the products the farm produces, then I think it's a GREAT way to generate revenue. I really believe that agritourism is a significant piece of the puzzle for the continued survival of small family farms. But then you've got this "word farmer" over here who's trading solely on the value of her name rather than all of the things that go into making a good farm stay--food, lodging, structure, education, etc. She's just throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks, she's not committed to offering an excellent experience. That's what sticks in my craw more than anything--that she can make a post essentially glorifying her lack of expertise ("I'm not a great farmer, it's a scrappy place," etc.) and then turn around and ask to be paid for the opportunity to hang around her and her "farm." I write 3,000+ word handouts for my three-hour classes I teach on our farm, charge $35, and bust my ass making sure folks are learning and having a good experience. She gives farm education a bad name.
Exactly, Anon. You're in it to better people and pass the baton of knowledge and experience on to beginners, but sadly, not everyone has that knowledge and experience to pass on. My dad used to say, "If you don't know what you're talking about, the least you can do it shut up," lol.
I looked into some working farm vacations last year, and they all offered rooms and meals. No way would I ever pay someone to do their work, and then have to find my own room and board. Absurd!
Okay, I still am puzzling on this - I just don't get why she doesn't have de-icers. Maybe I'm slow, but why isn't that a priority? It's not like they are very expensive, and it is just so weird that she hasn't gotten them for her stock. I concur that she is giving agritourism a really bad name but not have a de-icer during the polar vortex just seems like straight up animal abuse.
I don't know either. I have electric buckets from fleet farm that work just fine for everyone on four legs, I think they set me back a whopping $25..... heated dog bowls work just fine for the chickens, and they cost even less.
She doesn't have them because then her chore time would be slashed and she would lose one of her "reasons" for not getting a damn job. She also would be minus something to pat herself on the back for/bitch over, and then what would she write about??
I don't have deicers. I don't want to run an extension cord the length needed, plus they have been known to short out and shock animals, and also they can trip breakers. Instead, I bust ice and/or haul fresh water several times per day.
Jenna must be in a bad way (it is the beginning if the month afterall, new mortgage due). I'm her friend on Facebook, and so far today she posted the ever so cryptic "do I ever need a lucky break" and then in another post announced that she's trying to start a kickstarter to self publish that crappy novel she never finished. Didnt take her too long to try and ride the kickstarter gravy chain, since Katz just announced his kickstarter. Here's an original idea jenna (since you have none of your own), why don't you get a part time job? That can be your lucky break!
Hahahaha, we were all so right about her stealing the Kickstarter idea from Jon Katz, I just didn't think it would happen so soon...From watching the projects I've backed in the past, you have to be either 1) so popular people will fall all over themselves to give you money to be awesome (and she definitely does not fall into that category, especially since she's already whined, begged, and wheedled money out of her "fans") or 2) offer such a great product/service/etc. with such compelling backer rewards that people feel like they're getting huge value for their support or like they're really making a difference. I fail to see how she could accomplish any of the above. She could be making so many *things* to sell for money/use as backer rewards--prints of farm photos, postcards or notecards with her art, buttons, heck even temporary tattoos of her little Clan Cold Antler design--and she doesn't seem inclined to lift a finger to actually *make* anything. I do hope she tries a Kickstarter, because it is not a free ride and she needs to learn that but quick.
Isn't there something about Kickstarter where you have to raise all the money in your goal or finish the project, or something before they release the money?
They don't just give it to you as it comes in like Paypal.
Your project has to be fully funded to get any of the money (meaning you have to reach the goal of what you were asking for). Then it takes months (6? I think) for kickstarter to send the check to you. It's not a get rich quick thing at all. If you don't give the backers what you promise, there is no consequences, since the idea is your finding a start up business that wants to make a product, and not all products with a start up business work out. I have a friend who successfully complete a kickstarter campaign for $15,000. I'm not going to give away his name, but let me tell you he had an excellent product. Then he worked his butt off to give his backers the reward he promised. Kickstarter is a lot of work to sign up (business plans, video, etc.). I don't think she has what it takes to get approved. She lacks the attention to detail that a kickstarter application requires, they are pretty stringent and not everyone gets approved.
Some (many) people don't have them, some worry about barn fires, some for same reasons katiegirl lists. I have them. would not live without them.. That said, those who do not have them, thankfully do not WHINE interminably about breaking ice... it is like WHINING about having to brush your teeth. Yeah, she needs a lucky break all right- she needs an intervention.
I honestly wonder if by "lucky break" she's implying that she might try to get herself a broken arm or leg to drum up funds/sympathy. It sounds extreme...but I can imagine it happening, and so can you, I'm sure.
I wondered the same thing, especially since she has had 3 winters at her farm and is still whinning about icy slopes and buckets of water and hasn't done anything to change it.
She has delusions of grandeur. Either she completely has no fiscal or common sense or is playing everyone for a fool. I enjoyed her first book and gave small sporadic donations, but when she bought that damn horse she could ill afford, all donations ceased.
I guess that's the thing. If I made a conscious choice not to have de icers for whatever reason I wouldn't be whining about it. Some of my friends with chickens use heated dog bowls, some friends don't because they are worried about short outs, so they have ingenious systems for swapping out water bowls three times a day with heated ones etc. They make super-insulated water boxes to put the heated water in to keep it ice free a little longer. If she wrote about her "de-icer" free ingenious systems that she tested and invented, it would help a lot of people. But the thing is when your water freezes over you have to replace it more than once a day, or you have sad horses at the fence with no water.
Oh man, this is a great one...she let a dissenting comment through so she could fight back like the scrappy wolf she is and to open up she chides them and says, "My whole life is public, I expect the same openess from people asking such personal questions of me."
No, darling, your whole life is public because that is what you CHOOSE. You CHOOSE to be a public figure because that is what makes you money. Someone who has not chosen that path owes you NO personal information. Zip. Zero. Nada. And people ask such "personal" questions because you CHOSE to live a public life. Live with the consequences.
I don't understand why she can't work part time on top if all those random things she listed. There are so many people who do way more than she does and work full time. I think she doesn't know what hard work is. her workshops are on the weekends...what's her excuse for not working through the week? Maybe if she skipped a few game nights and worked in town those nights instead she'd be better off. She just sounds like she can't handle life like the rest of us. She needs to get over it.
The problem is her living alone! One wrong slip in icy goose dooky and she would loose everything. We'd have to have telethon to keep the farm running but who would want to go there, it would be like liberating a concentration camp, poor animals
Personally, I don't think she will ever change. If anyone questions what she's doing, much less criticize her actions, she just gets nasty, defensive and digs her heels even more. Case in point, her response to D's comment on the Haycation post. D's comment was polite and made a lot of good, common sense but it hit a nerve and she got her hackles up just like she always does. Also, it is absolutely irrelevant who the commenter is or any of their personal information. Besides, she doesn't have the same requirements for people who leave positive comments, only the one's she doesn't like. It's really sad, her blog use to be so great. It was full of inspiration and information. It was fun to learn along with her and I always looked forward to finding out what was up next. But something happened, it's like she hit her head or something, or maybe just a little success went to her head but she has completely lost touch with anything remotely real. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. If she wants to live this way it's her choice, but if she wants to be a word farmer now I really wish she would get rid of all the animals so there wouldn't be anymore suffering and loss.
So here's a puzzlement...I thought she had to get her finances under control and her debt paid to qualify for the farms loan. That's what I remember her posting.
But now she has student loans and credit card debt. How did she get the farm loan with that school debt and if she paid off the credit card debt then why does she have credit card debt now? Unless she's racked up more debt since buying the farm.
I thought the exact same thing when I read that. She is always contradicting herself, I guess she thinks we don't remember what she's posted in the past.
How can she call her truck payment "past debt"? I can see her calling her student loans "past", but wouldn't the truck payment be current? She is still driving it.
I agree on the truck debt. And what about the next major purchase? It's not unreasonable to have debt, especially on a farm. That truck, which doesn't sound too well maintained, is going to need to be replaced someday. Will that also be past debt?
I find it laughable that she thinks all of those things she claims to be doing for income make her self-sufficient. I think to be self-sufficient takes an enormous amount of sacrifice, serious skills and unfailing dedication to the task.
The truck was relatively recent; I remember her paid-for Subaru breaking down and she said she would buy a truck instead of fixing it. So then she GAVE the Subaru to her mechanic (who I am sure had it running again in no time) and took on a car loan w/interest. Because she said she was a farmer now and just had to have a truck. Moral of the story: Have a plan. Save for, and buy the truck before you take on the animals that go with it, not the other way around.
Whoever "D" is (and I'm sure she's here somewhere) that was a very good comment, you asked very pertinent questions and spelled out why her "business" plan is not sustainable.
One of the things she pointed out in her reply is that she never got beyond an entry level job, $400 a week isn't enough money to pay for all the debt she has accumulated. She needs to step up her game, not only have a job, but work hard and get a promotion, pay off the debts and work on a future that doesn't include sleepless nights, repossessions and foreclosures. She can't afford to play the lady of the manor on a pony, with a hawk on her fist right now, and there's no way in hell she can make a living by playing her games. I do think that's what she has in mind, that SHE is so awesome in her awesomeness that someday people will pay just to see her display herself, and her pony and her hawk and her dog.
I kind of wonder why a part-time job wouldn't fill a gap. Waitressing, although beneath many people's dignity, can bring in great money if you work in a nice place where tips are good. Substitute teaching (which she could do -- she does have a degree) pays about $100 a day. Both can be done part-time, with little or no impact on your farming. Surely, making an additional $600 - $800 a month would ease the strain a bit.
I was thinking the same thing about waitressing. A friend of mine who is a nurse moonlit as a cocktail waitress when times were bad. She didn't do it for long - maybe a year, but the tips were good and she was able to pay off a lot of bills.
I just don't buy that she's tethered to the farm 24/7. When she WANTS to leave, she does--for Tae Kwon Do, dinners with friends, movies, hayrides, and such. She keeps falling back on the claim that she HAS to be near her farm at all times in order to keep everyone alive (which is total B.S., unless her farm really is just that much of a death trap) because she DOESN'T WANT TO WORK--she doesn't want to give up the fantasy life of doing thirty minutes of chores and then kicking back with coffee to do some blogging, begging, and fantasizing about her next acquisition. I'm pretty sure she could hire herself out to do things like barn mucking, hay bucking, etc. From my experience, actual, working farms always need help--particularly with large tasks that take a lot of time to complete. Itinerant farm work was how I got through grad school without starving. They were always thrilled to have someone knocking on their door asking for a job! Even an extra $100 here or there a couple times a month makes a huge difference, for me, at least. But the rub of it is...it's work. And work isn't near as much fun as riding ponies or buying overpriced firewood.
She has to stay close to the farm because she's got something escaping every five minutes. Build some proper fences! And why do animals escape? Three reasons: they are hungry, something bigger than they are is trying to eat them, or they are, how shall we say it, romantically inclined.
Also, although she's claimed she only made $400 a week at her job, I find it a little hard to believe that a web designer would be making so little, since the national starting salary for that job is close to $50,000 a year.
Love it!
ReplyDeleteHeh!
ReplyDeleteI think Jenna is in a bad head space right now. I didn't mind the begging before, but "I really would like to stay here." is too much.
Now THAT was funny!!!!
DeleteI think we need to start a game/competition on when the next time will be that she
ReplyDelete1) Uses the word scrappy, darling, folks, or fall down the stairs
2) Describes hauling water
3) Talks about keeping wood stove going
4) Thanks everyone for keeping her there
Wait, too late, I am sure she has already done it (again!)
Cold Antler Drinking Game. YES. We'll all have cirrhosis within a month.
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ReplyDeleteI like how on her "haycations" post, a woman suggested that she open her farm to WWOOFers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). It IS a great program, but what people don't get is that Jenna doesn't want free labor from people who genuinely love and know farming. She wants money. She can't house or feed people if she's charging them money to stay at her farm--and she can't NOT charge them money because, well, MONEY. If she did host WWOOFers or simply people wishing to experience farm work, I'd imagine they'd get pretty frustrated. "Hey Jenna! How about we make a real repair to this fence?" "Oh, I can't afford a roll of wire and some posts. Let's just tie it together with this baling wire and go watch Braveheart again."
ReplyDeletePlus, I have seen absolutely no indication that her farm is organic. Do her pigs, geese and chickens eat only 100 percent organic feed? Is she even growing a decent enough crop of veggies to be able to utilize extra hands the program would bring? I don't think, at this point, there is enough real farming going on to bring in people wanting to actually learn to FARM. If they want to take horse cart rides or pet a hawk, they're in the perfect place.
DeleteWhat she needs is WWfWF, willing workers for word farmers. Are word farms organic?
DeleteI just had a great mental image of a future post: "Great news, guys! My words are now certified organic, so I'm going to use that as a license to charge you four times as much for workshops!"
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DeleteThis latest post of hers--about "haycations"--is just beyond the pale. I too enjoyed the exchange about WWOOFers in the comments--those commenters are beating their heads against a brick wall trying to be helpful, but if nothing else it got her to come out and say in plain language that she's just grubbing for money with this new idea. Yes! Please sign me up to pay no doubt HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS to do your chores, Jenna, while you prance around in a kilt with a hawk on your arm imparting little to no truly practical knowledge of farming!
ReplyDeleteOops, and I forgot that I'll be responsible for MY OWN FOOD AND LODGING. Good god.
DeleteI have a feeling she stole this idea from that young couple up the road--the ones with the Going Slowly blog (which is quite a compelling account of REAL homesteaders). They had a very experienced timber farmer come in to teach a class/erect a structure on their land, and it was a week-long affair where students paid, helped with the construction and did hands-on learning, etc. So now I'm eagerly awaiting the day she steals Jon Katz' Kickstarter idea.
Ugh, timber framer, not farmer.
DeleteOMG! Your comment just made me think of that Prancercise lady, and then I got a mental image of Jenna in a kilt with one of her funky, scrappy hats and the hawk, running around doing Prancercise. Warning, graphic content.
DeleteOh god, I know exactly what you're talking about. I need brain bleach now. (As soon as I stop dying of laughter...)
DeleteLots of "sounds great", "aren't they cute", "good luck" comments on JWs posts, but no takers.
ReplyDeleteShe can drum up as many workshops as she likes, the tough part is filling them. And it doesn't like people are jumping in.
If your blog is nothing more than a bulletin board for selling with no actual interesting or educational posts there will be diminishing scale of return. Seems like she's on that trend, guaging from the limited comments. And the amen charlies have slowed to a trickle.
Or, maybe she thinks this tactic will compell people to join the clan just to find out what's going on. That thought would be just as foolish as most others she has.
The private blog paying members apparently can't get access to? posting a plea for help in CAF comment section, I'm guessing due to unreturned emails.
DeleteI posted this on Meredith's other thread, but I'm going to re-post it here:
ReplyDeleteThis is something of an industry trend. Many REAL, operating family farms and ranchers offer "haycations," where visitors do cattle drives, or work the farm during harvest to offer them a taste of rural life. Most have comfortable bunkhouses or luxury tents provided for accommodations and offer first-rate BBQ and chuck wagon chow, cooked up in the farmhouse or under the stars! At a real farm or ranch, this would probably be a fun change of pace for more urban types. Bottom line, there are other places doing it a lot better, with more learning (and probably fun and adventure) going on. I could probably do this on my property too, but there's a lot more to doing it than just having some acreage and a few farm animals around.
I guess that's what drives me so crazy about this new hare-brained scheme. If you can give folks a great farm experience for their money, put them up in proper accommodations, and feed them with at least some of the products the farm produces, then I think it's a GREAT way to generate revenue. I really believe that agritourism is a significant piece of the puzzle for the continued survival of small family farms. But then you've got this "word farmer" over here who's trading solely on the value of her name rather than all of the things that go into making a good farm stay--food, lodging, structure, education, etc. She's just throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks, she's not committed to offering an excellent experience. That's what sticks in my craw more than anything--that she can make a post essentially glorifying her lack of expertise ("I'm not a great farmer, it's a scrappy place," etc.) and then turn around and ask to be paid for the opportunity to hang around her and her "farm." I write 3,000+ word handouts for my three-hour classes I teach on our farm, charge $35, and bust my ass making sure folks are learning and having a good experience. She gives farm education a bad name.
DeleteExactly, Anon. You're in it to better people and pass the baton of knowledge and experience on to beginners, but sadly, not everyone has that knowledge and experience to pass on. My dad used to say, "If you don't know what you're talking about, the least you can do it shut up," lol.
DeleteLOL, those are words to live by. :)
DeleteMy uncle used to say: if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bs.
DeleteI looked into some working farm vacations last year, and they all offered rooms and meals. No way would I ever pay someone to do their work, and then have to find my own room and board. Absurd!
ReplyDeleteThis. So much.
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ReplyDeleteI get a big kick out of "word farmer". She has about as good a handle on her words as she does her animals.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what her Ins. Co. thinks about all of these workshops, indie days, and fakecations.
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ReplyDeleteOkay, I still am puzzling on this - I just don't get why she doesn't have de-icers. Maybe I'm slow, but why isn't that a priority? It's not like they are very expensive, and it is just so weird that she hasn't gotten them for her stock. I concur that she is giving agritourism a really bad name but not have a de-icer during the polar vortex just seems like straight up animal abuse.
ReplyDeleteI don't know either. I have electric buckets from fleet farm that work just fine for everyone on four legs, I think they set me back a whopping $25..... heated dog bowls work just fine for the chickens, and they cost even less.
DeleteShe doesn't have them because then her chore time would be slashed and she would lose one of her "reasons" for not getting a damn job. She also would be minus something to pat herself on the back for/bitch over, and then what would she write about??
DeleteI don't have deicers. I don't want to run an extension cord the length needed, plus they have been known to short out and shock animals, and also they can trip breakers. Instead, I bust ice and/or haul fresh water several times per day.
DeleteJenna must be in a bad way (it is the beginning if the month afterall, new mortgage due). I'm her friend on Facebook, and so far today she posted the ever so cryptic "do I ever need a lucky break" and then in another post announced that she's trying to start a kickstarter to self publish that crappy novel she never finished. Didnt take her too long to try and ride the kickstarter gravy chain, since Katz just announced his kickstarter. Here's an original idea jenna (since you have none of your own), why don't you get a part time job? That can be your lucky break!
ReplyDelete-J.
Hahahaha, we were all so right about her stealing the Kickstarter idea from Jon Katz, I just didn't think it would happen so soon...From watching the projects I've backed in the past, you have to be either 1) so popular people will fall all over themselves to give you money to be awesome (and she definitely does not fall into that category, especially since she's already whined, begged, and wheedled money out of her "fans") or 2) offer such a great product/service/etc. with such compelling backer rewards that people feel like they're getting huge value for their support or like they're really making a difference. I fail to see how she could accomplish any of the above. She could be making so many *things* to sell for money/use as backer rewards--prints of farm photos, postcards or notecards with her art, buttons, heck even temporary tattoos of her little Clan Cold Antler design--and she doesn't seem inclined to lift a finger to actually *make* anything. I do hope she tries a Kickstarter, because it is not a free ride and she needs to learn that but quick.
DeleteIsn't there something about Kickstarter where you have to raise all the money in your goal or finish the project, or something before they release the money?
DeleteThey don't just give it to you as it comes in like Paypal.
Your project has to be fully funded to get any of the money (meaning you have to reach the goal of what you were asking for). Then it takes months (6? I think) for kickstarter to send the check to you. It's not a get rich quick thing at all. If you don't give the backers what you promise, there is no consequences, since the idea is your finding a start up business that wants to make a product, and not all products with a start up business work out. I have a friend who successfully complete a kickstarter campaign for $15,000. I'm not going to give away his name, but let me tell you he had an excellent product. Then he worked his butt off to give his backers the reward he promised. Kickstarter is a lot of work to sign up (business plans, video, etc.). I don't think she has what it takes to get approved. She lacks the attention to detail that a kickstarter application requires, they are pretty stringent and not everyone gets approved.
DeleteSome (many) people don't have them, some worry about barn fires, some for same reasons katiegirl lists. I have them. would not live without them.. That said, those who do not have them, thankfully do not WHINE interminably about breaking ice... it is like WHINING about having to brush your teeth. Yeah, she needs a lucky break all right- she needs an intervention.
ReplyDeleteI honestly wonder if by "lucky break" she's implying that she might try to get herself a broken arm or leg to drum up funds/sympathy. It sounds extreme...but I can imagine it happening, and so can you, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same thing, especially since she has had 3 winters at her farm and is still whinning about icy slopes and buckets of water and hasn't done anything to change it.
DeleteShe has delusions of grandeur. Either she completely has no fiscal or common sense or is playing everyone for a fool. I enjoyed her first book and gave small sporadic donations, but when she bought that damn horse she could ill afford, all donations ceased.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's the thing. If I made a conscious choice not to have de icers for whatever reason I wouldn't be whining about it. Some of my friends with chickens use heated dog bowls, some friends don't because they are worried about short outs, so they have ingenious systems for swapping out water bowls three times a day with heated ones etc. They make super-insulated water boxes to put the heated water in to keep it ice free a little longer. If she wrote about her "de-icer" free ingenious systems that she tested and invented, it would help a lot of people. But the thing is when your water freezes over you have to replace it more than once a day, or you have sad horses at the fence with no water.
ReplyDeleteOh man, this is a great one...she let a dissenting comment through so she could fight back like the scrappy wolf she is and to open up she chides them and says, "My whole life is public, I expect the same openess from people asking such personal questions of me."
ReplyDeleteNo, darling, your whole life is public because that is what you CHOOSE. You CHOOSE to be a public figure because that is what makes you money. Someone who has not chosen that path owes you NO personal information. Zip. Zero. Nada. And people ask such "personal" questions because you CHOSE to live a public life. Live with the consequences.
She'd put the world on mute if she could.turn up the volume and listen to herself on an ipod.
DeleteSo basically we can't post some constructive criticism on her blog without giving her our biographies? Okey-dokey. I am the Queen of Canada!
DeleteI don't understand why she can't work part time on top if all those random things she listed. There are so many people who do way more than she does and work full time. I think she doesn't know what hard work is. her workshops are on the weekends...what's her excuse for not working through the week? Maybe if she skipped a few game nights and worked in town those nights instead she'd be better off. She just sounds like she can't handle life like the rest of us. She needs to get over it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is her living alone! One wrong slip in icy goose dooky and she would loose everything. We'd have to have telethon to keep the farm running but who would want to go there, it would be like liberating a concentration camp, poor animals
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think she will ever change. If anyone questions what she's doing, much less criticize her actions, she just gets nasty, defensive and digs her heels even more. Case in point, her response to D's comment on the Haycation post. D's comment was polite and made a lot of good, common sense but it hit a nerve and she got her hackles up just like she always does. Also, it is absolutely irrelevant who the commenter is or any of their personal information. Besides, she doesn't have the same requirements for people who leave positive comments, only the one's she doesn't like.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad, her blog use to be so great. It was full of inspiration and information. It was fun to learn along with her and I always looked forward to finding out what was up next. But something happened, it's like she hit her head or something, or maybe just a little success went to her head but she has completely lost touch with anything remotely real. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. If she wants to live this way it's her choice, but if she wants to be a word farmer now I really wish she would get rid of all the animals so there wouldn't be anymore suffering and loss.
So here's a puzzlement...I thought she had to get her finances under control and her debt paid to qualify for the farms loan. That's what I remember her posting.
ReplyDeleteBut now she has student loans and credit card debt. How did she get the farm loan with that school debt and if she paid off the credit card debt then why does she have credit card debt now? Unless she's racked up more debt since buying the farm.
Confusing.
I thought the exact same thing when I read that. She is always contradicting herself, I guess she thinks we don't remember what she's posted in the past.
DeleteHow can she call her truck payment "past debt"? I can see her calling her student loans "past", but wouldn't the truck payment be current? She is still driving it.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the truck debt. And what about the next major purchase? It's not unreasonable to have debt, especially on a farm. That truck, which doesn't sound too well maintained, is going to need to be replaced someday. Will that also be past debt?
ReplyDeleteI find it laughable that she thinks all of those things she claims to be doing for income make her self-sufficient. I think to be self-sufficient takes an enormous amount of sacrifice, serious skills and unfailing dedication to the task.
The truck was relatively recent; I remember her paid-for Subaru breaking down and she said she would buy a truck instead of fixing it. So then she GAVE the Subaru to her mechanic (who I am sure had it running again in no time) and took on a car loan w/interest. Because she said she was a farmer now and just had to have a truck. Moral of the story: Have a plan. Save for, and buy the truck before you take on the animals that go with it, not the other way around.
DeleteWhoever "D" is (and I'm sure she's here somewhere) that was a very good comment, you asked very pertinent questions and spelled out why her "business" plan is not sustainable.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things she pointed out in her reply is that she never got beyond an entry level job, $400 a week isn't enough money to pay for all the debt she has accumulated. She needs to step up her game, not only have a job, but work hard and get a promotion, pay off the debts and work on a future that doesn't include sleepless nights, repossessions and foreclosures. She can't afford to play the lady of the manor on a pony, with a hawk on her fist right now, and there's no way in hell she can make a living by playing her games. I do think that's what she has in mind, that SHE is so awesome in her awesomeness that someday people will pay just to see her display herself, and her pony and her hawk and her dog.
I kind of wonder why a part-time job wouldn't fill a gap. Waitressing, although beneath many people's dignity, can bring in great money if you work in a nice place where tips are good. Substitute teaching (which she could do -- she does have a degree) pays about $100 a day. Both can be done part-time, with little or no impact on your farming. Surely, making an additional $600 - $800 a month would ease the strain a bit.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing about waitressing. A friend of mine who is a nurse moonlit as a cocktail waitress when times were bad. She didn't do it for long - maybe a year, but the tips were good and she was able to pay off a lot of bills.
DeleteI just don't buy that she's tethered to the farm 24/7. When she WANTS to leave, she does--for Tae Kwon Do, dinners with friends, movies, hayrides, and such. She keeps falling back on the claim that she HAS to be near her farm at all times in order to keep everyone alive (which is total B.S., unless her farm really is just that much of a death trap) because she DOESN'T WANT TO WORK--she doesn't want to give up the fantasy life of doing thirty minutes of chores and then kicking back with coffee to do some blogging, begging, and fantasizing about her next acquisition. I'm pretty sure she could hire herself out to do things like barn mucking, hay bucking, etc. From my experience, actual, working farms always need help--particularly with large tasks that take a lot of time to complete. Itinerant farm work was how I got through grad school without starving. They were always thrilled to have someone knocking on their door asking for a job! Even an extra $100 here or there a couple times a month makes a huge difference, for me, at least. But the rub of it is...it's work. And work isn't near as much fun as riding ponies or buying overpriced firewood.
ReplyDeleteShe has to stay close to the farm because she's got something escaping every five minutes. Build some proper fences! And why do animals escape? Three reasons: they are hungry, something bigger than they are is trying to eat them, or they are, how shall we say it, romantically inclined.
ReplyDeleteAlso, although she's claimed she only made $400 a week at her job, I find it a little hard to believe that a web designer would be making so little, since the national starting salary for that job is close to $50,000 a year.
ReplyDelete