A 1/2 Percenter

The USDA says 2% of the nation are "farmers", but if you subtract truck drivers, waitresses, cooks and the like, there is actually 1/2 a percent feeding the other 99-1/2. Today I joined the ranks of many of you.

 

Its scary, so many farmers have tried and failed, and I will be honest, I had a well paying job as a welder at a shipyard building US Navy Destroyers so to give that up with 4 daughters and a stay-at-home-wife is scary.

 

For the last 6 months an at-work injury laid me up pretty bad and as I used my free time for our church, a christian camp for kids, and a reconsider for being a foster parent again; I realized maybe God had more in store for us. I am not advocating throwing everything to the wind, but while the shipyard paid well, I paid well for it in time. It was a 1-1/2 hour commute one way! 3 Hours a day in a van and 15 hours a week just traveling. As a Christian I reached out to those that were going through divorce, chemical dependency and family issues, but I loved the idea of really helping kids at a Christian Camp close by too.

 

We can swing it. We live on cash, stay out of debt and live VERY conservatively. Why not farm full time? I always wanted too.

 

As I said a lot; here 90% of the land base is forest and 10% is fields, but just 120 years ago it was the opposite. My plan is to cut the wood off these former fields and make them tillable again and raise our flock of sheep to sustainable levels. In 3 years time we should be able to make the transition slowly from making income on logging, to farming. My forester calculates about 6 years worth of wood, so if NOTHING else, at the end of 6 years I will have to enter the work force again.

 

Five years ago I had the chance to get a big grant because the person running the program wanted the credit for having the oldest farm in the county (1746-today), but I wanted God to get the credit. We have been fledgling along, but if we can make it as full time sheep farmers, God will get the credit not some politician or us.

 

Today was the day...as of 7 AM I am a full time farmer.

A 1/2 Percenter