Look, I think we need to get real.

You have probably noticed a distinct lack of blogging as of late.  In fact, this past year has been beyond crazy, and I will be the first to say it has been kind of a lot to deal with.  When talking with Ric about everything we do and want to do, and my disappointment in getting behind with blogging, and all our business activities, I brought up the fact that I may have been behind because it has been a hard year (or maybe a little more than a year...) and I haven't wanted to bring people down.

But then Ric hit me with some truth. It's hard.  

It's not easy, but we are still extremely lucky and we won't give up on our goals.

And that is when I realized that it is important to put our real voice out into the world.  (AKA - It's time to get real.) Life can be hard and farming and making the life we want is hard.  It is scary from time to time, disappointing, and sometimes the fact that I am not where I want to be in being totally invested in the farm can be utterly depressing. And why not tell it like it is?  Because sometimes it sucks, and the lemons make shitty lemonade. BUT, I know what I am working towards and how extremely rewarding working on the slow food movement (hey Wikipedia, what's that?) and the slow fashion movement (and Wikipedia, explain that one, too) and becoming more self sustainable in every way truly is.

So here is my new vow to you. 

I PROMISE to tell it like it is.  No rose colored glasses (even Ric's literal rose colored glasses) when things are actually kinda crappy. This is tough for me, but I also think it is very important to because of 3 simple reasons:

1) You should know who we are.  I mean, this is me, and why not put it out there?  I cuss (but I will try and refrain from too bad of language, and our podcast and YouTube channels will remain family friendly, even if that means a bleep from time to time...) I am fascinated by the macabre.   I am happiest when I am creating something or playing with my animals. And I want, with every part of me, to make my farm a success so I can do it full time.

2) You should know the rewarding and romantic side of farming, as well as the shitty sides.  For example, my little lambs are growing up and doing great right now.  However, this year we had to have the vet out more times than ever.  Over $1k later, I have sheep that are still snot nosed, as you can see in the pic at the top. (Did you know sheep get allergies, too?  But it is also how they present for all kinds of other diseases, so that thermometer has seen the insides of rectums more than daylight this year...) and we lost Adrian, our breeding ewe, due to her accidentally eating something she then choked on. It sucked, and I almost threw in the towel.  Luckily Ric knows how much this whole crazy endeavor means to me, and he gave me that little figurative slap-on-the-face to snap me out of it. (I mean, we did take them across the country and back...who does that except for someone who has gone all-in...like crazy-person-all-in.)

3) And finally, sometimes I need to vent. And I bet you do, too.  So I want this to be that place where you can see what might be happening, as well as feel safe to ask questions or vent about life (whether farm related or not), cuz look. We are all in this crazy world together.  Life is nuts.  If we share our lives with each other, I think there would be much more understanding in this world. At least I'd like to hope so. Or maybe not, but we will feel a little better. So no harm, no fowl, right?

TLDR version: Hey, I am a crazy person who wants more than anything to share my REAL life on the farm and REAL goals and dreams, and I want you to, too. 

So...watch out...we are going to keep it real peeps.

Ash