Our Great Pyrenees, Elsa, enjoying some alone time with me as the sun sets over our pond.

I’ve seen a trend on social media where the person writes about the “most unhinged” or crazy things they have done on their farm. I thought I would write about our top five farm “mistakes” instead!!

5. We recently let our bantam chicks sit on eggs “just to see what happened”. Guess what? Nature happened. We had about FORTY chicks hatch under just two broody hens and we currently have a huge over-population of bantam roosters that I still can’t figure out what to do with. (Obviously, I’m not quite to the “cull them out” stage of farming yet!)

4. We raised puppies for extra money for farm expenses and about fell over from exhaustion and stress with the amount of effort it took to raise healthy puppies for extra income. For about two years, we raised Aussiedoodles and Pyredoodles and had great success. In fact, several of our former puppies have recently become therapy dogs!! (Way to go, Tex and Corporal!!) They are that sweet and special, but the amount of time, tears, patience, and effort that went in to raising the dogs just about did me in physically. I woke up every morning worrying about them and spent a lot of time each day trying to make sure they were all healthy, happy, and socialized properly. The good news is that it did financially enable us to get through several years of drought and the puppies provided the tens of thousands of dollars we needed for hay and feed for our animals during those difficult years on our farm. We were able to keep our animals fed and healthy without any debt incurring.

3. We accidentally electrocuted a couple of our chickens the first time we used electric fencing. Yep. We felt terrible. I had specifically asked The Outdoorsman if he was SURE the electric current wasn’t too strong for our chickens and he assured me it was totally fine. What he didn’t know is that the fence had a strong, constant electrical current and not the normal, pulsating current that allows the animal to just be warned and escape safely. He felt absolutely terrible when we found two of our chickens electrocuted and stuck to the fence the next morning. We quickly resolved the problem and learned from that sad catastrophe.

2. We bought WAAAY too many animals for our farm when we first arrived on our property. The Outdoorsman and I both love animals. We also both dreamed of living on a farm our entire lives. When it became a reality for us in 2015, we started collecting animals like they were extinct species needing to be saved. By the end of 2017, we had collected the maximum number of animals a person should have on thirty acres. Guess what happened next? Nature….again….our animals doubled in number almost every year. By around 2020, we had well over 150 animals on our thirty acres when we really should have only had about 50-75. The overpopulation of animals has cost us greatly in terms of our much valued time, the enormous amount of money needed for feed and vet expenses, and the physicality of the work involved in caring for them. I would highly encourage you to do the research and the math before you move to a farm. Do not let yourself gather too many furry friends. Trust me on that.

1. We have always named every single farm animal that came onto the farm. We currently have donkeys named Fiona and Nellie. KuneKune pigs named Chewbacon, Elvis Pigsley, Priscilla Pigsley, and Pua. Goats named Jasmine, Rapunzel, Ariel, Moana, Goldilocks, Cinderella, Mulan, and Snow White. Dogs named Anna, Elsa, Ruby, Opal, Pearl, Thor, Hank, and Sadie. Cows named Sophia, Sage, Sunshine, Suncatcher, Venus, and Luna. Miniature cows named Freddie, Minnie, Gussie, Winnie, and Bessie. Micro-miniature cows named Teddie, Rosie, Pixie, Trixie, Tiny Tim, Ginnie, and Rocky. Cats named Tesla, Duchess, Kiwi, Cher, Stormy and her kittens, Sunny, Flower, Misty, and Autumn. This is just a sampling of our animals and their names. As you can see, I sometimes go with a theme for each breed of animal! The mistake I made in naming them all is that, when you name an animal, it makes it ALMOST impossible to want to sell it or take it to an auction or, even worse, send it to be processed for meat. Do not name your animals that are only supposed to be on your farm temporarily! Trust me on this one, too, because when little Bessie has a little calf named Barney, you have a hard time selling either one of them because they feel like your cow since you named them! Also, it’s been absolutely impossible for me to process Elvis Pigsley because, I’m totally invested in our relationship after saying “Hello, Elvis!” to him every day for the past seven years now!!! I would definitely cry in my plate if I had to eat him, but if he had only been a plain ole, unnamed pig, maybe it would be easier to enjoy the fruit of our labors.

Hopefully, you all learned a little and laughed a little from the mistakes that The Outdoorsman and I have made on our farm.

Enjoy your own journey and feel free to share some of your mistakes with me in your comments!!

The Head Hen