"Like anything in homesteading, you need to always understand that doing the uncomfortable in the present has rich rewards in the future. It isn't fun for me to work the hive, weed gardens, trim hooves, muck stalls... "
Working hives isn't uncomfortable weeding gardens isn't uncomfortable, trimming hooves isn't uncomfortable, mucking stalls isn't uncomfortable.
Working hives is magic, weeding a garden is therapeutic, trimming hooves is rewarding, and "picking stalls"* is insta accomplishment.
What is uncomfortable for you is a pleasure for me and many others.
If you want a future of mead, vegetables, goats (milk?), and piglets (pork), leave it to the people who find it a JOY to provide it.
As for livestock, you can't truly raise healthy happy animals in a resentful "self sacrificing" environment. You can recognize a mile away who doesn't enjoy working with or amongst the livestock. They wear ear buds or headphones to drown out the animals. They don't pay attention to their surroundings, they aren't focused on animal behavior, they don't do a good job....they are trying to distract or otherwise entertain themselves. They joke about having to latch the livestock out of the house rather than lock them safely in a securely fenced field. Fencing is work. Latching a screen house door is not.
If you feel like working with animals is a sacrifice or burden you will overlook their needs, too busy fussing with self interests. Animals aren't stupid and pigs especially can't be fooled. I guarantee you the demeanor of pigs greatly depends on the demeanor of the person who handles them.
I honestly can't relate to this post at all.
Today i drove roughly 30 minutes one way to work on and weed the garden at my boss's moms house. I had two elder care clients tonight and it was torture pulling myself away. Gardening fills my soul. Interestingly enough, harvesting and eating comes secondary to planting and weeding. Tending a garden Is a natural high.
Two of my greatest joys in life are gardening and pigs.
Jenna, you want to consume mead, vegetables, milk, and pork. Let us, those who LOVE the work it takes provide if for you.
This word you toss around...luck. it's offensive to every hard worker that earned a reason to be proud. Luck occurs in the game of chance, in the way a card hand is dealt or how the dice rolls. Farming, homesteading, or just raising a few animals or planting a few plants of whatever species or variety doesn't take luck, it takes effort.
You call yourself lucky because you feel lucky. You never know who will send you money, is it a yes is it a no?
I stood in the garden today and didn't feel lucky, I felt involved. I felt fortunate. I felt the carrots needed more water, the beets should have been more appropriately spaced and thinned, I felt the sunflowers had obviously been overlooked...apparent by the morning glory climbing up their stalks, and I felt amazed. Its amazing that when soil, seed, and water combine a plant grows. Its not luck. Its an equation that works.
Raising animals isn't different. You do what works. Its not luck, it's animal husbandry.
You write about leaving your job for a life you love, but you bitch and moan more now than ever. With every work, weed, trim, and muck you complain.
Don't you understand, I (and countless others) love to work, weed, trim, and muck. We look forward to it.
I'm a natural with pigs and it makes me happy.
What are you naturally good at? What makes you happy?
Produce what makes you happy and consume the products of others happiness.
My heart yearns for agricultural work and truly it mourns when apart from those "uncomfortable" tasks.
Why are you filling your life with uncomfortable tasks you don't find fun? It sounds like outside agricultural type work is no more appealing to you than cubicle desk work.
*Mucking stalls is not in the vocabulary of people who regularly (daily) clean stalls. To muck? Who wants their animals to live in or be exposed to muck?
Have you considered working with horses instead? Maybe as a stable manager in one of the many Kentucky farms or on a dude ranch out West? Since you have an equestrian background, I think you'd be a natural.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thought but that ship has sailed interest level wise. My heart is still set on pastured pigs...I'm tinkering with the flower farm idea.
DeleteI follow Women Who Farm on FB and read this bit today that Kelsey Welborn wrote-
ReplyDelete"This work lies at the intersection of so many of my values: love, hard work, connection, environmental regeneration, cooking, health, social justice, etc.. However, I've been thinking about something more nuanced and have come to this: working on a farm has made me feel incredibly empowered as a woman, because my body is valued by myself and by my crew for its physical strength and endurance, and not for how it looks. On the farm, I am a body with utility, not a body that's objectified. It's refreshing and clarifying to feel like I can be strong and feminine at the same time, which I haven't always felt, and feel validated and supported by my badass and beautiful female coworkers. It's inspiring to see so many women working on, and starting farms around the country, considering farming was, until recently, male-dominated and culturally hyper-masculine. I'm thrilled to be a part of a largely female crew at a farm whose terrific owners genuinely value our hearts, bodies and minds, and to be a part of a larger movement of women in farming. Here's to unapologetically loving our strong selves and our fellow farming sisters!" -Kelsey Welborn
#womenwhofarm #rolemodel
Thank you for sharing. Yes Yes Yes! I never feel as beautiful as I do when I'm working.
DeleteBeautifully written..Jenna definitely does not subscribe to this way of thinking, not even in the slightest bit. Work to her is drudgery, accomplishment is luck, donations that are given to her from other hard workers is just her good luck and fortune and her body is for her and others to validate and objectify. Farming has not empowered her, it's defeated her because she refuses to work and take advice about farming and learn from her mistakes. Her way of thinking has caused her "dream" to fail miserably and the collateral damage each year continues to add up (chickens, sheep).
DeleteI like your line: "...and her body is for her and others to validate and objectify." Exactly. Jenna is what I'd call a faux feminist. She's also like an impending car crash. You wanna look away from the disaster, but it's impossible not to watch.
DeleteNicely put, Meredith. The way she writes about her livestock, you can feel that they're a burden to her not a joy. To farm, especially in this day and age, is a privilege. She treats it like a yoke around her neck. I have never understood why she does so little with her land. If she truly wanted to farm, she would be chomping at the bit to turn every inch of her place into a productive part of the puzzle towards financial stability. Where's the goat's milk soap? Why not grow specialty/medicinal herbs? Berries? Why does she give away the wool rather than turn it into a valuable end product? Instead, the whole thing has the air of abandonment. She's moved on, if she was ever really there in the first place.
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ReplyDeleteMy comment needed editing, so I decided to delete it. Meredith, I appreciate your efforts in making the public aware of Jenna Woginrich and her propensity for scamming.
DeleteMeredith, if you are interested in flower farming, check out the excellent site at debraprinzing.com She produces a weekly podcasts of conversations with flower farmers and designers all over the country while promoting American grown flowers. Very inspiring!
ReplyDelete"Why are you filling your life with uncomfortable tasks you don't find fun? It sounds like outside agricultural type work is no more appealing to you than cubicle desk work."
ReplyDeleteYES! You nailed Meredith. I just saw on Jenna's twitter page that she was "liked" by Becky Raymond, a director at MicroGiving.com, another fundraising site. It never ends.
Because live like fiction superheros don't weed gardens and muck stalls.
ReplyDelete"Doing the uncomfortable in the present has rich rewards in the future".
ReplyDeleteYes! Doesn't she understand what she wrote? If she would buckle down and get a job, work her butt off and save, she could retire early and do whatever the heck she wants without having to constantly beg.
It can be done because I did it. I retired early and have a lifetime of passive income with healthcare. I live simply and my time is my own to do whatever I want with it.
Bravo Meredith a perfect open letter that speaks truth to someone who needs it. Free therapy, you should bill her, but I hope you can find a way to raise pigs for meat somehow.
ReplyDeleteHaha, reading that I think to,myself I hope I can find a way to raise pigs not for meat.
DeleteI'm with you Meredith. I had a pet pig that got to be over 700lbs. She was such a sweetie. She'd kiss the side of your face when you asked for a kiss. What a gentle girl. She died at only three years old after ingesting something she dug up out of the dirt. Since then, I haven't eaten pork and later became a vegetarian.
DeleteIs it so hard for some to comprehend that people have different opinions? JFC, Meredith, don't fall from that high horse you're on...you'd surely break something.
ReplyDeleteI love my animals, and I love fresh produce, but there are times I can't stand pulling weeds or mucking out bedding. So what? It doesn't mean I neglect my animals, it doesn't mean I shouldn't have them. It means that sometimes it's hot out, or the bugs are awful, or I'd rather be doing something else. Big freaking whoop.
Life is not black and white, though you keep trying to make it that way. Sorry you can't wrap your mind around the fact that some people dislike some of the things you like. You probably dislike some of the things I like.
I realize you're writing this to Jenna, but when you write things like, "You can recognize a mile away who doesn't enjoy working with or amongst the livestock. They wear ear buds or headphones to drown out the animals. They don't pay attention to their surroundings, they aren't focused on animal behavior, they don't do a good job....they are trying to distract or otherwise entertain themselves." you are also talking about a LOT of livestock owners who sometimes find the routine chores mundane. It doesn't make us less than stellar livestock owners.
-K
Take it or leave it. I would never drown animal husbandry with ear buds and would not allow anyone I hired working with animals to use them either.
DeleteBeing vigilant to your surroundings is impotent when working around animals. For example, 2 weeks ago the unusual bark of a LGD alerted me to the birth of a new cria. I've seen staff on farms oblivious to issues because they deafened themselves to the environment and animals with music etc.
You find routine chores mundane. I have tasks I enjoy less than others but do them completely aware of what's going on around me.
So you think it's too hot, too buggy, too boring. Fine. Bitch about it publically and exaggerate the "sacrifice" and I'll ask you as well...why bother?
In my opinion and experience steller livestock owners are in tune with their livestock, not drowning them out.
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DeleteI always listen to the animals while doing chores. I have free range chickens and I need to know if they are in trouble. I want to hear the rooster if he is warning the girls about something. What if one of my goats needs help and I don't hear them calling. It's so important to be aware of your surroundings in any circumstance.
Deleteto Anon 9:34,
ReplyDeleteI must take umbrage at your "suburban" remarks. I am not a small farmer and if anyone was listening to something with earbuds or headphones it would not be tolerated. One must be able to hear noises; when working around loud machinery or any animal, an aberrant noise may be the difference between a big repair bill, an injury or a mortality. All the senses are in use at our farm. When one has 2 cows, or 3 hogs, or 3 chickens one can GET AWAY WITH BEHAVIOUR such as this, but even then it is not good husbandry. I rarely comment here, but I must speak up about this. And, it has little to do with "enjoying" one's outside livestock or fieldwork (that is a whole 'nother subject which I could expound upon too...why work at something you dread or dislike? We haul LOTS of manure to the fields and it is extremely "cleansing"...a form of instant gratification, like pulling weeds.)
Anyway, I'll partake of my presence here with a parting thought of how I can tell if a cow has calved BEFORE I turn the light on in the barn or physically look at her: I can HEAR her mooing her "mother moo". I can also tell you if she is in any kind of distress by that moo.
Agree. "All senses are in use at our farm".
DeleteGood point. Its for the safety of the individual and the animals.
If you have head phones on constantly, first off you aren't becoming familiar with the normal sounds and vocalizations of the livestock. Knowing what is normal vs abnormal is part of the job and extremely important. If you can't distinguish between the two...let alone hear a noise that's a problem.
Why be oblivious when you can be informed?
Listening to your livestock is underrated.
You cherry picked the part about ear buds and I never once mentioned them in my response to you at all. Even if I did wear them, which I don't because I prefer a radio if I'm going to listen to music, it is still possible to listen to them AND still hear what's going on around you.
DeleteGo ahead and pretend you are the best estate animal caretaker in planet Earth, but we know that isn't true. If it was, you would have done something about those poor pigs at Ayrshire long before you did. Big time fail there. I'd never hire someone to work on my farm who would stand by and do nothing, all the while knowing it wasn't right.
You obviously aren't well versed in the timeline of events at Ayrshire. I don't anticipate you are capable of following along.
DeleteTurn up the radio and keep up the ignorance.
Good luck with your pathetic life, Meredith. I know I would never have kept working at a farm if it took such horrible care of the animals and I had done my best to change the circumstances. You seem to have trouble following you wherever you go. Coincidence?
DeleteMaybe one day you'll be able to have your very own place and then you can show us all your mad animal husbandry skills with your not-for-food-purposes pigs.
Uhh, she did try to get help for the pigs while still working there.
DeleteI don't know why you're taking Meredith's opinions re: livestock care so PERSONALLY. Don't agree? Say so, make your argument. Don't carry on like she took a dump on your lunch and spit in your eye. JFC!
She claimed on her indigogo that the $3500 would provide a "cushion of livability".....but logo sales are now being tweaked with mortgage payment reminders....so much for the cushion.
ReplyDeleteJenna Woginrich: Hey guys, still running this sale. I have no idea when the Beekman cash comes in and still gotta make the bills so offering this sale in hopes to make a mortgage payment soon as possible. Get a sketch, finished 2 today!
Yes, and the Indiegogo money has already been handed over to her.
DeleteApparently it also provided some recreational cash. Notice the new album in her Twitter living room photo? The same album she said on July 5 that it is a crime she doesn't own it on vinyl, but recreational spending is on hold? Yeah that one. Nothing will ever change.
DeleteSince Julie has taken down the original coldantlersham blog, can someone provide a link to the new coldantlershamtoo site? For some reason, I don't seem to be able to find it (and forgot to bookmark it).
ReplyDeleteThanks!
https://coldantlershamtoo.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly...there are days when I just don't want to fix a fence or check on the bees. Then I get my rear end out there and think how silly I was sitting on the sofa.
ReplyDeleteFor sure. Maybe it's just the lack of balance in her writing. There's joy in nothing and apparent dread in everything.
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