New Hire

Time to update on my new hire, Heather.
It was a big, big decision to finally decide to hire someone on a regular basis. I've been thinking about it for over a year, but never felt like I could afford it. Then, after I burned myself out this past year, I decided I couldn't afford NOT to. I will just find a way to make it work! She is now working for me every Saturday, and will possibly also work Wednesdays as well in the summer when I go to the farmers' market. After I had hired her, and before she had even worked a day for me, I felt a huge weight come off my shoulders. I instantly started to get more energy, and start to get some things done around the farm.

Then, her second day working for me was the day I went to the mainland for a flyball tournament. Now, usually when I go to a function, I sit there all day and check my phone for scary messages... did anything go wrong at the farm? Are the dogs ok? Did anyone escape, or choke? Worryworryworry! That Saturday, I just sat back and enjoyed myself. I barely even checked my phone! I didn't worry, even once. It was a wonderful, wonderful feeling to know that I had someone intelligent and reliable and responsible watching the dogs. Heather has worked at a doggie daycare before, and is quite good at reading dog body language, plus the dogs all respond to her really well. My dogs adore her!

Since that day, I haven't really 'taken a day off' again, but I HAVE been able to work around the farm, getting projects done, knowing that Heather was looking after the dogs, they were safe and happy and getting lots of exercise. Soon, if the weather is nice, I will start going for hikes again. Get myself and my dogs back into shape, and just learn how to enjoy myself again.

Whether I take a day off, or get projects done around the farm, I am pretty certain I will be wayyy more productive around the farm, so will hopefully get more crops planted, which equals more moulah!

So far this fall, the weather has been really, really mild. We've had some cold, frosty nights, but mostly it's been drier and warmer than any fall since I've been on the farm. I've gotten craploads of stuff done (even before Heather!)
I've collected leaves from anyone who would give me some, and put a big layer on most of the garden beds, I've been working on collecting cardboard and expanding the gardens (this is a SLOOWWWW process) and have built a few more garden beds. I bought a used portable car shelter, which will be soon converted into a greenhouse, almost finished building a new turkey shelter (I just need help getting the roof on), starting building a new kidding house for the goats (they might be preggers, so could have babies Feb/Mar), built two new compost boxes, planted 3 new fruit trees (orchard is ALMOST done!!), plus a zillion more things I can't remember right now. All in all, I think this has been my most productive fall to date. It feels so good getting all this stuff done! My next big project (besides the greenhouse) is working on getting some deer extensions up on the fence. I went to harvest some kale the other day, and found that the deer had munched every single, solitary leaf on the property. And there are several hundred kale plants. Bastards. I really need to get that worked on before I start planting more crops. Spring is just around the corner!!!