Hi! sorry I haven't blogged in so long. It's been a really rough summer and a real struggle. Losing two beloved dogs in less than a month just crushed my heart, and it was a hard summer on the farm. so much death and bad luck. It's really been discouraging.
We raised meat/broiler chickens for the first time ever this summer. It turned out to be a very bad decision. The meat birds were stinky and disgusting, all they do is eat and poop. They took a lot of work cleaning them out all the darn time, and they really made us struggle financially. When it was all said and done, we could of gotten more chicken from sobey's for less money (and a hell of a lot less work!). We lost money raising them, and wasted hours of our time caring for them. Unfortunately we stupidly ordered two groups of them, so have another group of 30 here right now. Can't wait till they are out of here, I really hate them. Never again!
The whole summer was such hard work. Trying so hard to make a farm profit and take care of all the birds, put us so far behind on writing, art and our etsy stores. It was so stupid! We lost money on our online work taking care of the farm.
Due to all the birds (we normally have around 50-60 birds, but with the nasty meat birds and all the babies we had over 100 for most of the summer) we didn't have time to go out and do anything. no bike trips to the beach, almost no wildcrafting, nothing. We were stuck at home all the time caring for all the critters.
I also had a bad health summer. Lots of breathing problems, sarcoidosis pain and depression. I didn't have a lot of energy and the bit I had went to caring for the critters.
We had a lot of predator problems this summer. I believe all the extra birds and the smell from the meat birds attracted more than normal. Lost several birds to foxes and birds of prey. And we had our first ever chicken disease hit the birds this summer; we lost a bunch of Polish chicken chicks to it. Very upsetting.
The whole summer was one problem after another!
The summer sucked. We never had a bonfire. We never had a BBQ. nothing. By the time night hit every night, I was too tired and in too much pain to do anything.
Obviously we need to make much better decisions next year! Definitely will not be raising meat birds and will be downsizing the flock a bit. Gotta go back to putting the online work and businesses first! They are what pays the bills.
Everything is a learning experience
The whole summer was made worse by the hole in my heart from losing Taco and Skully. I miss them so much. I still cry every single day over them. I'm super thankful that we got Bosco, without him I think I would of ended up with such bad depression I would of needed some medical help. The loss was too much for me. Bosco was the only bright light of the summer. He was the reason I got out of bed each day. He was the light in the dark.
Unfortunately life is hard sometimes and we struggle through the best we can. Things always get better if we just keep trying. 2019 was a really bad year for me, I'm already excited for 2020. I'm sure it will be much much better!
Hugs and love!
