Blogging has unfortunately been pushed towards the back of my work load lately, but I have been bouncing around a lot of things that I would like to write about … one of those things was this topic …
From the beginning of the farm (and to be honest even before the farm was owned) I have been going and going and going and trying to attain my perfect farm. Often that has meant that I just head out and get what I … only to fully realize that I am not quite ready yet for that particular animal or venture yet. Actually, now that I think about it … it’s not that I don’t realize I’m not ready, but rather that I don’t care that I’m not ready and that I think I can just push on through it anyways.
It was that kind of thinking that had me start out with a cow and a calf over an hour away at my dad’s and then eventually end up with over a dozen cows and calves at my dad’s and then eventually bring that whole bustling herd to the farm before I even had a perimeter fence up yet. It was that kind of thinking that saw me bring up a load of sows that actually had one farrow in the trailer … and … well … you get the idea. Sometimes I get ahead of myself and sometimes I just think I can do more than I really can.
This spring I have actually been doing a good job though. I don’t have things set up nearly like I would like them to be and I’m not close to as far along as I thought I would be. But, I’m not doing things half way. I’m not running the pigs out into the woods in a paddock that will only keep me from doing it right … I’m not just turning the cows out all willy nilly with out a plan … I’m not raising meat chickens yet (which is something I very much wanted to do).
No, this spring I’m doing things the right way. It is taking more time, but hopefully in the long run I will see a difference for the better … that is the idea at least … I’ll let you know how it works out.
It sounds to me like you’ve been doing things right from the very beginning. I wish I’d taken your approach early on. If I had, I am confident I wouldn’t be where I am now.
Being able to continue means that you’re doing things “right enough!”
I suffer from perfectionism. I tend to try and solve all future needs and address all future functions from the beginning. This is just as bad as not doing things well enough!
I am fortunate to be balanced by my wife who sees things as being much simpler.
There’s a fine line between over-doing and under-doing. If you under-do the thing won’t really work and it’ll be hampering your ability to deal with other stuff (that “looking over your shoulder” feeling). If you over-do you also end up not having the time for other things; plus, you’ll still likely find that you’ll have to re-do this thing after a while because you will have more experience than the theoretical (I pick up a lot from the Internet, but the real learning is in the doing).
“Good enough” is good enough! (yeah, if I repeat this often enough I’m hoping that it’ll wear down my sharp edges of perfectionism!)
Figure that it’s all a juggling exercise (yeah, that time management thing again). Will the thing that you’re tending to stay aloft long enough so that it can fit into a cycle of other things being tended to in the arc of the juggle?
EVERYTHING is temporary, I don’t care what it is that we’re talking about. It’s a curse and a blessing I suppose. Having to re-attend to something allows our knowledge of it to be less stale; and, it allows us the opportunity to improve on it (but NEVER attempt to “improve” without being sure that you’re not going to break it!).
Challenges… Got me to thinking about the poem “I’m Only a Farmer” (http://www.onthefarmradio.com/Only_a_farmer.htm), that I find that I have to know about so many different things, suits my ADD perfectly! 🙂
Scatteredeggs
Sounds like you are doing things right. As long as you keep heading in the direction you desire and have no major set backs, I would consider that a major accomplishment. Congrats on how far you’ve made it already!