We have had a change in plans around here. Originally, when we started up on our land in 2008, we had hoped for it to have the capability of providing somewhat part time for our farm after 5 years, if we would chose to have it do so. After the first year, we realized that at the risk level we wanted to jump in, 5 years might be a bit early.If you have followed along, this year has brought some unexpected changes for us. One of which, Ethan's full time job of 6+ years at the church became a 20 hour a week job. In order to fill in the financial gap, he took on an additional 40 hours at the NAPA department at the farm store. This gave him 60 hours of town work plus the work on the farm. This has been his schedule for the last 2 months.
It recently became evident that there would have to be some changes on the farm. Either we would step out for awhile or just jump in. If you have been following Ethan's blog, you will probably guess that the decision was made to jump in - and that is what we are doing.
We hadn't really ever planned on jumping in at the risk level that we are now taking, but we are. The next year will be our judge as to if the farm is able to provide a decent enough portion of our income to lighten the in town work load that Ethan has, providing for a balance in our family, ministry, and farm.
So here is our request to you - if you enjoy our meat and would like to see us continue to provide healthy, local food to the communities around us, spread the word. www.crookedgapfarm.com :) Although we have a nice balance of products and customers right now, we are planning on having a significant amount more meat next year compared to this year.
Stay tuned as we continue to discover where we are heading . . . here we go!
2 comments:
This post makes me happy! I don't know you well yet, but it still makes me so happy to see people "jump in" when God asks them to. I will be praying for you guys, that you will continue to trust in Him because He can do far more than we even dare to ask or imagine.
This post makes me envious.
I've been trying to jump in full time forever, but we just haven't managed to ever get there.
I do have to say that one thing Ethan has, and no doubt is grateful for, is a supportive family. I love my wife a great deal, but she grew up in an ag family where her father was doing just what I'd like to (that is, building the operation) which made for a lot of lean times. As a result, she doesn't really share my goals and feels that town jobs are okay, no matter how stressful, boring or grim they may be. I can't blame her, but Ethan should count his blessings here.
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