All Dollars Go To the Goats
I can’t believe it.
Seriously.
Our Kickstarter funded in just three days.
You guys are amazing!
So now what?
We keep funding! First, Kickstarter doesn’t let you end your projects early but, second, there are so many more expenses surrounding the Creamery we are grateful for any help we can get. Additionally, a large percentage goes to Kickstarter for hosting the funding and to the fulfillment of the sweet and awesome prizes we hope you’re as excited about as we are.
Someone drew a diagram recently that really resonated with me. It was, in a sense, a physical depiction of what it took Nick and I all Summer to figure out.
Here’s what our Summer looked like:
Here's what our Fall looks like:
Look how much farther we get when we focus!
When you do too much you don't get very far. In fact, you barely make it out of the circle. But, when you focus, your energy is multiplied and suddenly, PROGRESS.
Which is why we got serious.
I already mentioned this, but we sold our bulldozer, turned over logging to the professionals and stopped trying to do it ourselves. I am {this} close to having pasture seed on the ground.
The Bed & Breakfast is on hold, we sold the Airstream to an amazing couple who loves Airstreams and will give it the makeover it deserves.
We're selling all our Tamworths. It's not that we don't love those little red pigs. WE DO. And we absolutely, wholeheartedly believe in everything those pigs have brought us. But, we're re-focusing. The way that we were expanding our Tamworth genetics was through Artifical Insemination. This was an additional time burden, and, while it was one we enjoyed, monitoring the tank and the girls was just ONE MORE THING on the list. The breeding stock is getting sold and we're eating the rest.
We're not getting out of pigs permanently though, that would be sacrilege! As luck would have it, we've managed to assemble enough of a diverse genetic pool of Old Spots that we can breed on sight, without AI, and still contribute to the furthering of a Heritage Breed. But we're scaling way back. Instead of running the herd of 30+ pigs we were running we'll keep just one boar and about 4 breeding girls. Just enough to make use of all the whey and milk by-products from the creamery. The Farmstead will still produce delicious milk-fed pork but just not in as large of scale as we were.
We're pushing pause on our Egg CSA program and our Laying Hen program. We have been breeding laying hens for 5 years at the farm now and I think it's time for a little bit of a break. I have just 20 or so more girls left to find homes for and then my big coop will be cleaned and closed for Winter. This gives me some time to do some research and figure out what kind of breed I want to re-start back up with :) We will still keep our personal flock of about 20, but for at least the next 6 months no more hatching at the farm.
As for our Market Garden. Ha! I laugh just typing that. The goats ate the majority of everything I had planted this year, including all my raspberries and all my blueberries. I am starting to really come to terms with what it means to be an animal farmer or a vegetable farmer...for now, we are animal farmers. No more kidding ourselves.
And finally the sheep. Oh the sheep. We actually got rid of our breeding flock of Katahdin Hair Sheep this Summer and now just have YeahYeah the bottle baby who slept in our house for the first two weeks of her life and who will die of old age on our farm, and one little Ram Lamb. Other than these two, no more sheep--they are just SO different than goats in terms of management and maintenance. I sold the sheep chair this weekend so it's official.
I hope you're noticing a common thread, one that took me awhile to figure out.
If it doesn't support the creamery, it's got to go. And, if it can be sold, SELL IT! We are at the point right now where ALL DOLLARS GO TO THE GOATS.
So, in a nutshell, THANK YOU to all of you who have contributed your dollars for the goats. I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, we are absolutely, totally, without a doubt, committed to this dream. We will not let you down.