La Belle's Hobby Farm: The Ups and Downs

‎A farm is a manipulative creature. There is no such thing as finished. Work comes in a stream and has no end. There are only the things that must be done now and things that can be done later.
The threat the farm has got on you, the one that keeps you running from can until can't, is this:
do it now, or some living thing will wilt or suffer or die.
It’s blackmail, really.
~  Kristin Kimball

T

he upside to having a hobby farm? You have a steady full time job with a steady paycheck that allows you to buy organic seeds, plants, and compost.

The downside?  You have a steady full time job that takes up most of the daylight hours in which you could be planting said seeds and plants.

This has been one of my biggest challenges in my dream of setting up an organic farm on the family property: not having enough time.  So far, my small organic garden has thrived under my haphazard show of affection; heck, the tomatoes seem to do their best when I’m out-right neglecting them!  But I know that in the long run, this dream of mine will never be realized if I can’t find some way to spend more time in the garden and less time earning money to build it.

Yeah.

The immediate answer is sustainability.  You work with nature and not against her.  You plant crops that help each other and don’t need to be molly-coddled to grow strong and abundant.  You plant with the seasons and eat with the seasons.  You leave the hot house flowers and produce to others with more time and more staff.  You get to work earlier so you can make it home before dark.

You let go of what you can’t do, and revel in what you can.  And somehow, that’s enough for now. 

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Tommy Toes Update: they’re still producing like crazy and the wee ones are the sweetest I’ve ever tasted.  Maybe late transplants were a good idea after all!