Farmlife
Some days I’m working outside and I lift my head, look around me and think…how did I end up here? On other days I’m working outside, I lift my head and think…how did I end up here?? Do you hear the difference?! One minute I’m marvelling at the beauty around me and how lucky I am to be on this farm. The next minute I’m despairing at how bloody awful it all is!! Good days/bad days can all start off by looking the same. Sometimes you just never know how things will be in ten minutes time. That’s farming life!
In modern day farming it can be a struggle to make a farm pay too. Costs are high and the value of livestock can plummet just as market day is approaching. Factors such as poor cash flow, the weather and Brexit are huge. All bring great uncertainty and lead to a lot of stress. I can hear the yawwwwwns!!! A Brits favourite subjects!
We are well aware that wanting to farm will never make us millionaires. We wanted the quality of life that living on a farm can bring. The connection with the land, nature, satisfaction of physical work and a job well done. Above all, family. The hope of this lifestyle creating happy memories and teaching life’s lessons to our children. We also get to spend much of our day together, My Farmer and I. That’s been tricky at times! But it is a bonus that we never expected. Who knew?! We rub along pretty well this way. We recognise that team work is the core of a farm. It would be a pretty soulless, lonely existence without it. I have learnt a lot about the farm, but we each have our own roles. It would be hard to function well in a life like this without being equal members of a team. We are very much partners.
When I was confined to my bed with back pain, we set up a little bed for me in the kitchen. It was wonderful. I was pretty miserable that’s for sure, but I was never alone for long. My Farmer came to check on me every few hours, he and our farm help were in for cups of tea, lunch, vets’ meetings. Farm feed reps etc dropped by. Wonderful, wonderful, kind friends came to chat, bring meals and keep me company. My dogs lay by my side as the Aga warmed us all. A farm is such a busy, thriving place to be. Many people don’t understand how farming families can want to be ‘stuck out in the middle of nowhere’. But a farm is a whole world on its own. It’s so full of life, in every sense.
Having grown up on a family farm in Northumberland, My Farmer knew he would always return to farming. Family and farming are the most important things to him, the local pub being third!
I also grew up in the country, but NEVER imagined myself on a remote hill farm! I moved to the city to follow my passion for fashion. But once the children came along a life spent in London, and away in Paris and New York became less interesting, or possible. Now my life revolves around family and farm. As the seasons change my farm role changes too. Being a mum is my static state. That is always at the core of what I do. Everything else turns on that. If I can fit a job around my family needs, then it will be done. If it can’t, it won’t! Simple!
It is a changing tide of work. We both enjoy that element of farm work. Looking forward to calving and lambing, relieved when it’s over and we can move on to better sleep patterns, a clean house and paying more attention to the rest of our lives! Having picked ourselves up, thoughts turn towards field work. Fertiliser needs to go on to prepare the grass for our silage crop. Fences are fixed, machinery given the ‘once over’ ready for harvest. Then the wait for that day…the ‘all systems go’…a window in the rain fall, and the race to harvest our grass crops begins. Soon enough the cattle will be back in the barns and the winter feeding and bedding up begins.
Farm life. Each day brings something fresh. But comfort in the fact it’s all been done before.