My Word of the Year– 1/5/23

I’ll get the suspense out of the way- it’s SIMPLIFY

If you’ve been following our journey from the beginning, you already know what a whirlwind the last three years have been. From quitting my formal job in January of 2020, to the date of this writing, we’ve done so much! Here’s our recap of 2021 if you’re interested.

I won’t detail all of our progress to date, but just in 2022….

We added the last cow to our herd making the total eight! We also birthed five calves. More laying hens were added too, and a few turkeys this fall- just for fun.

In March, were visited by a USDA Dairy Inspector who ended all deliveries from our farm and caused a whole lot of heartburn for Andy and I, and our members. After losing about 20% of our membership, we adjusted, and thankfully, most members were willing to make the trip here to pick-up. We added another layer of protection by transitioning our business model to a PMA, and were able to more than recover from the member losses.

With that crisis somewhat averted, we looked forward to the rest of our goals for the year. A bison herd was added to the farm and a huge solar power project was completed, in some sort of Christmas miracle, just before the new year. There are a couple projects that had to be rescheduled to this year because we just plain-old ran out of time with everything else.

Thanks to our super-milkmaids, Amberly and Kierra, we took a wonderful twelve day trip to Tennessee and Kentucky for Emily’s graduation- oh yeah, that happened too.

All of that to say, I’m so blessed, but sooooo tired.

The emotional roller-coaster I’ve been on over the last few years (good and bad) was compounded by the constant bombardment of information from social media and other influencers telling me that our farm should be this, or that. I was totally sucked in and started to feel like we needed to be doing ‘all of the things’ to be a real, successful, farm (and farmers). If I wasn’t setting an unrealistic goal, I was also feeling like a failure. And while I did celebrate all of the wonderful things we were doing, I was never at peace with our progress.

I found myself comparing my farm and personal life to the highlight reels of other farms and homestead moms. Even though I definitely knew that their lives and farms are not perfect either, and that I had much to be proud of– social media was poison to my soul. I would deactivate my profiles only to sign in again the next day. I would put timer limits on the social media apps on my phone, and then extend the limit. I would delete the apps, but then would put them back on the next day. Even though I know in my mind how addictive they are designed to be, how we are manipulated on them, how people are sensored, and how truly evil people are to each other on them, I just could not quit. Part of my justification was that we ‘needed the exposure for our business.’

I had a suspicion that the truly valuable leads for our membership came from the Weston A. Price website and word of mouth, but to be sure I ran an experiment at the end of 2022. I ran one, last, Facebook ad. And the result was as predicted. A bunch of emails and private messages asking one question about our product- How much? Not quality, not about the cows, not about visiting the farm or our processes… just, ‘how much.’

Another negative of social media is that only about 1/3 of our audience ever saw any of our carefully curated posts in their newsfeed. All of the work of taking pictures, editing them, adding hashtags and comments, mostly, was not seen. Not to mention the fact that you can only really go into so much detail in those posts, I feel my time is better spent on my blog.

I also, thoroughly enjoyed this post from the Elliott Homestead regarding making our ‘world a little smaller,’ and it really resonated with my soul. It was the catalyst I needed to finally cut ties with social media.

So back to my word– SIMPLIFY

I have set two personal focus items on my agenda for this year- my faith and my health. Both have suffered over the last year or so, and that has ended. I won’t go into detail on this because it’s not really related here, but it does affect how the farm moves forward in 2023 and beyond. I may be able to tie it in with a Weston A Price health perspective later, but I’ll leave it for another time.

In order to focus on my faith and health, 2023 will NOT be a year of BIG announcements here on the farm! Here is the list of things to watch for in 2023:

• Our social media accounts will forever disappear the first week of February. I’m already logged off, but META keeps them open for 30 days ‘in case you change your mind.’ (Because they know how addicted we are. Well I’ll show them!)
• Potential members will have to actually visit the farm if they are interested in joining us- this will be a requirement. I will no longer stick my neck out by emailing contracts and providing membership details unless the potential member is willing to make a trip to meet us and see the farm first.
• We will complete three projects leftover from 2022- a new corral behind the milk barn, free-stalls for the dairy cows, and expansion of the dairy pasture to improve grazing.
• Regular installments of our blog- I’ll have so much more creative time without all that mindless scrolling on Social Media! It won’t be spammy, but it will be at least monthly, or when something comes up.

That’s it, and that’s all.

I’m looking forward so much, to enjoying my new ‘smaller world.’ My 1995, non-FOMO world. My world without unhealthy competition and comparison. A world where my cell phone might just sit on the counter most of the day.

I will remember that we’ve built here on the farm so far is ENOUGH!

I will focus on my faith, my health, my family, our farm (as it is), our members, and blog subscribers only. And I’ll be PRESENT for it all, not on my phone, but living my real life, not watching others live theirs. I’m going to read the Bible this year cover to cover, I’ve started working on my health (food and exercise), the kids and I have committed to spending 1000 Hours Outside in 2023 too- not always working, but having fun. I won’t always be taking pictures to share, but to remember.

Who’s with me?