Seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve written here. I just did an update on Anyone Can Farm because that’s been a lot of our busyness lately.
A good share of what we’ve been doing lately, too, is reconnecting our family. With being so busy and travelling a share this fall right up to Thanksgiving, we’ve had to work to get into the school and having fun groove. Doing what we do, making our living as a team by growing food, is a great thing and has a lot of bonuses. We spend lots of time together, we get to really know each other, and we, as parents, have a fantastic tool to help our kids become the best they can be. The down side is we spend LOTS of time together, we get to know each other REALLY well, and our kids don’t always 
appreciate right now being the best they can be. We wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s an issue in many families like ours, though, to manage the balance between work and play. We work as a group harder than many families in our culture, perhaps, but no harder than farm families in our history have. I realized this past weekend as I was helping the kids process a batch of chickens that we play as we work. We tease, spray water, throw things, play practical jokes, 
etc.–all in a day’s work. The other thing we do to balance things is try to protect our down times. We use team work to do things so that everyone gets their free time at night. Plus, one day a week, usually Sunday, is a guaranteed rest day. The animals have to be cared for, but otherwise everyone’s free to pursue their own projects. Last Sunday I sat and read most of the rest of my book. We played a game. It was great.
Part of working with the seasons on a farm is that there is a time for everything. We decided this year not to raise chickens through the winter. We have processed hogs this fall, which is a much more seasonally in tune activity. Chickens are meant to be grown and processed in the summer, hogs, sheep, cows, and goats in the late fall. In the winter we rest, learn, and plan for next season. We aren’t perfect in our seasonal living, but we’re trying.