At first, it was out of financial necessity. Then, as the reality of managing livestock year-round and establishing an ever-growing market garden began to shape my new way of life, the physical need for a gym membership evaporated with the morning dew.
No stranger to sweating with my neighbor, I have run thousands of miles on gym treadmills. Yet I have logged even more on the footpaths and side roads around town as I trained for 5Ks and a half marathon. My lungs always ached for the cool crisp morning air. Without earbuds or a phone to distract me, I loved losing myself to my thoughts. I never dreamed there would be a day that I would retire my running shoes and replace them with steal-toed work boots. Then, one day, it happened….and it became my new life.
No stranger to sweating with my neighbor, I have run thousands of miles on gym treadmills. Yet I have logged even more on the footpaths and side roads around town as I trained for 5Ks and a half marathon. My lungs always ached for the cool crisp morning air. Without earbuds or a phone to distract me, I loved losing myself to my thoughts. I never dreamed there would be a day that I would retire my running shoes and replace them with steal-toed work boots. Then, one day, it happened….and it became my new life.
 While my half-marathon running shoes have entered retirement, my work boots get pushed to the max each day! |  There's nothing like my first cup of coffee in the morning, especially when it's in my chicken mug! Farm-nerd extraordinaire here! |
Each morning, as my first cup of coffee sufficiently diffuses across my digestive barriers and into my bloodstream, I pull on my farm clothes, don my headlamp, hoist two five gallon buckets filled with hot water into leather gloved hands, and call for my accompanying sheppie to head out for morning chores. Lightly frosted grass crunches under foot as dawn casts the first pink light of day. As I enter our polebarn, the goats ‘baaaah’ a morning greeting and the chickens flutter down from their nighttime roosts. Our Great Pyrenees takes to her morning rounds, announcing herself to the world.
 Our English Shepherd (Cimarron Little Rosie De) on watch in the early morning. |  Tula, our Great Pyrenees cruising past the goats heading out onto pasture. |
My muscles strain as I refill water buckets (each 5-gallon bucket of water weighs about 40 pounds). My pectoral muscles and triceps work in tandem as I toss down a couple of hay bales (each of which weighs about 45-60 pounds) and hoist them over the gate and into the hay feeders. For a cool down, I casually dump a bucket of grain to the chickens and saunter back to the house for breakfast and to help get Farmgirl off to school.
Though chores last but an hour in each of the morning and evening, there are still no shortage of ‘farm jobs’ to fit in between our other irregularly scheduled activities. Before I package up the snacks and load Farmboy into the car to head into town for Storytime, we walk out to the greenhouse to vent it for air circulation and water the potted seedlings. Trays of kale, beets, lettuce and onion starts await a life-saving drink before pushing their energies into growing upward toward the brilliant sun. Before returning to the house we stop and pull weeds from a few of the flats, OCD-style. It’s like eating a chip out of a bag. You can’t stop with just one. Before long, we have hand-weeded a 4 ft section of spinach! Farmboy, ever willing to ‘help’, learns the difference between a weedy wild mustard and the spicy, intentionally planted counterpart.
There is no shortage of wonderful things growing in our small greenhouse. We started with onions and leeks in huge flats and then eventually planted lettuce and other greens into the ground. After relocating this greenhouse, we have planted tomatoes, eggplant and sweet peppers into the ground as well as used the warmth to help start lots of seedlings!
Nighttime chores closely mirror those of the morning but also include a milking routine. Sometimes my cardio gets rockin’ as I chase a goat that has blasted through the gate before I was ready at the milk stand. Thankfully my vigilant sheppie will happily assist with strong-willed goats.
Rosie, our English Shepherd, or sheppie, is fine-tuning her skills helping with the goats. This herding dog understands farm rules and makes sure they are enforced! She makes a great companion for the family, especially Farm-mom!
As spring yields to summer, we enter ultra-super-duper marathon phase on the farm. Our goats continue to kid and their pasture fences must be rotated regularly. Newly arrived chicks need to be fed and watered and we must get plants in the ground!
 Our new Heritage breed chicks arrived this spring. We are excited about this new addition to the farm! |  Baby goats (kids) were first born in April. We've had more born in early May and are expecting a few more. They are cute in every way! |
 Goats enjoy fresh pasture in the spring. We rotate grazing areas often in the spring. |  Goats really enjoy fresh pasture! And the Garlic is growing!! |
Each year is exceptional. It is a marvel that we achieve so much, especially when in the midst of it all, it seems nearly impossible. This year, we planted over a 1000 trees and shrubs around the property to provide a natural buffer against pesticide drift and to help manage erosion and provide wildlife habitat. In an unplanned move, we relocated our small greenhouse to the other side of the garden so that we could construct our newly arrived, larger high tunnel greenhouse. We planted thousands of seeds and transplanted nearly as many seedlings into the garden. Just last week, we began constructing of our new greenhouse. When finished, this Cadillac of greenhouses, a 30’x95’ Zimmerman high tunnel with drop down sides, will allow us to extend our growing season and raise exceptional peppers, tomatoes and eggplant.
 We planted over 1000 trees and shrubs including Cedar, white pine, spruce, oak, high bush cranberry, hazelnut, serviceberry and others.  Our Zimmerman High Tunnel greenhouse arrived from Missouri on a flat bed semi trailer on a rainy evening. We are so thankful to have a great friend, Dale, who lent us his tractor to assist with unloading all the pieces. |  A young dogwood planted this spring as part of our 1000+ trees and shrubs.  After a 15+ hr day, we managed to get the skeleton of our new high tunnel greenhouse constructed. There is still much to be done but we are well on our way! This will take our market garden to a whole new level! |
I used to miss my jogging routine and socializing at the gym. However, as farming set ever deeper roots into our lifestyle it began to fuel my soul. Exercise, embracing the lives of our farm animals, making new friends within the community (through our workers, CSA members and market customers), and eating exceptional fresh produce daily has enriched my life, and that of my family, in ways I could never have imagined.
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