Paper Work

I've come to the conclusion that in order to succeed we need to have a written plan. So far we've just been moseying along taking projects as we will and as our whims dictate. That works well for small ideas in a small area for personal use. A hundred square feet of garden doesn't translate well into ten acres of working farm.

We've been talking through the ideas we have for the farm, how we want to proceed, what we'd like to ultimately have and how we're going to get there. For seven people on one tight budget there's no way we'll be able to fund this thing 100% on our own like we wanted. Not if we're striving for creating an actual business out of the deal.

But more on that in a later post.

I realize that having a written goal and dream is going to be beneficial. As those whimmy projects come our way we can sit back and decide if they work for our overall goals or just passing fancies which can help us determine the amount of time and money we want to invest.

We need to discover what it is we want and write it down on paper. Create tangiblilty in ink before flesh. Something we haven't done before. I like planning, I don't mind making lists and crunching numbers but I like far better the actual doing of things. Like before I even got pregnant with my first child I had an Excel spreadsheet of items needed, quantities needed, estimated prices, actual paid price, actual quantities on hand and totals of the lot. I had what would be the nursery closet stuffed full of diapers, clothes to two years, tubs, wipes, shoes, sheets, diaper bags and various other gender-non-specific items before I had even got two pink lines on the stick. Yeah, I'm that kind of Virgo.

A few people have mentioned stepping back and slowing down which actually physically hurts. It's been nearly three years since we decided to have a farm, two years since we decided the location and bought the land, a year since having rabbits, six months since the chickens. I'm not sure how much slower we can go, at this rate now we'll be nearing retirement before we're anywhere near the picture we have in our heads.

I think writing it out, spending at least a few weeks tumbling ideas and figures and possibilities will help take this rugged rock that is our hopes and dreams and polish it up to a shining, smooth gem. At least, that's the plan.