Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter

[farmerjan]

She's probably up to her eyeballs with milking, daily feeding and chores, making cheese and all the other products, selling at the farmers' markets, and maybe if she is lucky, they might be getting the new barn up......

 

[misfitmorgan]

Miss @babsbag,

Are you OK? It's going on 2 months and we haven't heard from you. I hope you are all right.

Senile Texas Aggie

Hopefully she is just busy getting that new barn up!

 

[babsbag]

Thanks everyone for asking. The new barn goes up on 10/19...a few more weeks. My friend is coming on Saturday to place some 1600 lb blocks for us to build against so the walls cannot lean out this time, no matter the amount of snow. Then we build the pony wall, and then the barn...again. Boy does this sound familiar.

I have been busy, the three "M"s...milking, making, marketing. Pretty much my life. But I am not making much money, expenses are ridiculous so DH is going to take a job...4 hours from here. So once again I am going to be single but I am not sure how to make this work this time as he isn't going to even come home on weekends on a regular basis. I keep telling him that I am going to spend the new income on hiring help. Life will be in limbo for a while. It is time to dry up the girls so I can focus on the barn and some other chores before winter. Most of the does are bred already so kidding will be in February next year...very early for me and I lost my kid raiser too so I am going alone. I need to find some help or I may just say "enough". There is just no way I can do all the goat stuff and the markets too and it has to pay its own way. Getting rich is not required but operating in the black is. And I stink at marketing, my DH is good at it and he is going back to work. Hmmm.

 

[Bruce]

That is hard Babs Too bad DH couldn't find a job commuting distance from home like in Redding.

 

[Baymule]

I hate to hear that you are struggling with this. You work so hard, I hope you can find some help.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Thanks for updating us Babs. I hope everything works out for you really sorry to hear about your DH having to work so far away.

If running the dairy on the scale you are currently is not feasible at this time for money, or your sanity there is no shame in dialing things back for awhile. If you have the info structure there is no reason you can't scale back up at a later date.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @babsbag,

Thank you for letting us all know how you are doing. I agree with Miss @misfitmorgan -- your sanity is more important than anything else. I remember how hard you worked in getting the dairy built, so once the barn gets built, maybe you can scale back some if hiring someone to help doesn't work out. I wish there were some way we could help. Here we all are so far away, and can only feel your pain but not help relieve it except that you can share it with us. Please know that we are all rooting for you!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @babsbag,

Are you being impacted by the power outages happening in Northern California? Any wildfires threatening your area?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

There are no fires near @babsbag

 

[babsbag]

@Senile_Texas_Aggie There are no fires by me, but yes to the power outage. We went almost 48 hours without power and if I typed on here what I think about all of this I would be banned. We have a generator so all was good here. I was unable to milk as our generator is not big enough to run the vacuum pump but I am ready to dry them off so no big deal. But I feel so bad for small businesses that had to be closed. A brand new little restaurant near us lost a lot of food as they have a walk in cooler and no generator. Just crazy and I understand that businesses lost over $2 million during this outage. It needs to stop and the public utility commission that oversees our utility company needs to step in and make sure that the right stuff gets done. The higher ups are getting bonuses while the customer goes without. WRONG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They say that there may be more coming next week. Thank God for the generator. I am on a well and would be sunk with no water.